Find a Life Planner

Getting a Read on Finances: by Lore Croghan

Feature Article: The Hall of Fame – From A to Z

George Kinder was named as one of “26 entrepreneurs and investors whose achievements have shaped the business of financial advice” in this leading industry publication’s “Hall of Fame.” Other honorees included John Bogle, Alan Greenspan, Loren Dunton, Burton Malkiel, Charles Schwab, Suze Orman and Sheryl Garrett. This is quite an honor in that there were only 3 other financial advisors inducted into the 2005 Hall of Fame.

August 18, 2005 – MorningStar Advisor

Article: The Evolution of Life Planning by David Drucker

If life planning is all about discovering one’s passions and executing a plan to realize them, that’s exactly what George Kinder and Susan Galvan have done by creating the Kinder Institute and training other advisors. So says industry guru, David Drucker, in his feature length article on this respected industry Web site. “If we can train 100 advisors each working with 100 clients, Susan and I have much more leverage than if we just do life planning with our own clients,” says Kinder. “We want to see advisors living rich lives, taking the work they’ve done on themselves and helping clients do the same thing. When we hear about people completely shifting their lives around, that gives us meaning.”

July 16, 2005 – Financial Times (London)

Article: What Do You Really Want? by Rebecca Knight

Traditionally, we think of financial planning as involving tedious spreadsheets, stacks of tax returns and lots of mumbo jumbo about inflation and the Retail Price Index. But George Kinder is working to change that. Through his best-selling book, The Seven Stages of Money Maturity (Delacourt 1999), and the seminars he gives for planners and the public alike, Kinder has become the recogniz ed father of the life planning movement. His aim is to bring a human element to the curriculum of financial planning. “The central focus of life planning is the client — what they care about, and they’re passionate about,” says Kinder.

July 2005 – News story from www.moneymarketing.co.uk

By Robert Reid, Financial Planner in the UK

Recent events have reminded us that when all things are considered, money is not the most important thing it life, says financial planner Robert Reid in this article. He adds that the two-day workshop with George Kinder on the Seven Steps to Money Maturity has “without doubt been the best investment that I have made in recent years. The course focuses on determining what people want out of life from a variety of perspectives using three questions within a set of given scenarios. If we are to show the added value that we can provide, there is no doubt that it is our ‘soft skills’ which need to be honed the most. High levels of knowledge are essential for the professional adviser but they alone will not provide the connection with a client that makes them loyal for years to come.” To read the full story: http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/item/108416

June 2005 – Inside Information

by Bob Veres

A new kind of educational philosophy is emerging in the financial planning profession that presenters and meeting planners are realizing are not easily taught in the traditional lecture format. George Kinder of The Kinder Institute of Life Planning, who pioneered the approach with his Seven Stages Workshops, favors five-day intensive, hands-on training. The programs offer advisors tools to help them in their practices so they can offer new, expanded client services related to life planning – uncovering hidden money beliefs and changing unhelpful behaviors.

May 2005 – Investment Advisor magazine

Cover Story: The IA 25, George Kinder by William Glasgall

For the second consecutive time, George Kinder has been named one of the 25 most influential people in and around the financial planning profession. From the article: George Kinder laments the focus on money in the financial planning business. That’s not a contradiction to Kinder, 57, who co-founded the life planning movement and has seen it gain prominence among advisors looking for an alternative to the traditional quantitative approach. Despite his movement’s advance, too many advisors continue to “focus on more, rather than on what people want,” Kinder says. “You need to focus on the heart, make a plan that really works, and work with clients as coaches to make sure their plan is accomplished.” Read the entire article here: Article

April 2005 – Inside Information

Media Review: EVOKE™, A Life Planning Methodology, by Bob Veres

Industry sage, Bob Veres, reviews the EVOKE™ article written by George Kinder and Susan Galvan and published in the Journal of Financial Planning (April 2005). The article includes a brief description of Kinder’s personal journey in formulating the life planning concept and a mini-case study of EVOKE™ in action, “but the real meat is the procedural process that advisors can follow or adapt,” Veres says.  If you subscribe to Inside Information, you can read the entire media review at www.bobveres.com. If you are not an Inside Information subscriber, contact us to request a copy of the full media review.

April 2005 – Journal of Financial Planning

Feature: EVOKE™, A Life Planning Methodology, by George Kinder and Susan Galvan

Financial planners have always consulted with their clients concerning their goals, typically from the point of view of money goals rather than life goals. Quantifying future goals and doing a technical analysis of factors such as risk tolerance, age, and retirement income needs have been the norm. Moreover, a client’s internal messages about money can sabotage even the best of these financial plans. Today’s economic environment is, however, complex, and inspires an approach that is both more nimble and more penetrating. Views of retirement—what it is and how it may look—are rapidly changing. Opportunities to re-vision the future at any age exist for both client and planner, allowing a joint exploration of meaning and purpose in the client’s life. To allow this deeper and more realistic approach, the advisor and the client must build higher levels of rapport, a relationship based on trust and greater self-knowledge.
Read full article now

March 2005 – O Magazine

Article: How Much is Enough? by Lise Funderburg

O magazine asked psychologists, financial advisors, social activists and other big thinkers to weigh in on the question of why it never feels a though we have enough. Among them is George Kinder of The Kinder Institute of Life Planning. “The reason is that the emphasis has been on earning money rather than on happiness or freedom. Most of us are caught in the treadmill of materialism that we don’t recognize what we really want,” says Kinder. His world-renowned life-planning program focuses on what people find most meaningful – what’s really of value to them. He believes the answer is committing to family, spirit or integrity, creativity and space. Request a copy of the article.

March 28, 2005 – Christian Science Monitor, Work & Money

Article: When is enough…enough? by G. Jeffrey MacDonald

In an ironic twist, the very factors that allow for material success can and sometimes do undermine the ultimate goals: personal fulfillment, good health, strong relationships, and other things that make life worth living. Faced with that pattern, some planners are becoming part-counselor, part-philosopher, as they ask clients: What is the purpose of money? Do you acknowledge the limits of what it can achieve? How much money is enough, anyway? In Life Planning, the brainchild of Massachusetts financial planner George Kinder, the process for knowing what’s truly enough begins with an introspective inventory. “You can only come to that figure of how much is enough when you know what will truly fulfill your client,” says Susan Galvan, CEO and cofounder of the Kinder Institute. Read full article: Read article here

March 2005 – ABC News

Article: How Much Money Is Enough? by Lise Funderberg

Reader comment: This great article on ABCNews.com really hits home … not so much for me, as I’ve already made the journey … but for others, family, friends and neighbors, prisoners in their own personal financial purgatory, working like crazy, just making ends meet … for WHAT, exactly? A new breed of financial planners is taking a holistic approach to the issue, looking at the interaction between money, wealth, family, stress and life purpose. It’s called Life Planning. In Life Planning, the brainchild of Massachusetts financial planner George Kinder, the process for knowing what’s truly enough begins with an introspective inventory. It’s all about developing a deep understanding of what is important in your life and having the courage to act upon that knowledge. Easier said than done, to be sure. But I’m living proof it’s possible – I’ve been there, done that, and am living the dream today because of it. If I can do it … anyone can. Link to the article:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/CSM/story?id=618137&page=1

March 10, 2005 – Inside Information

Article: Improve Your Relationship Skill Set, by George Kinder and Susan Galvan | Review by Bob Veres

Industry Guru Bob Veres gives good marks to “Improve Your Relationship Skill Set,” an article written by George Kinder and Susan Galvan for Financial Planning magazine (March 2005). “This was written by two people to take seriously in the life planning world,” he says. “But half a page is simply not enough space to give meaningful advice on how to deal with clients in a high emotional state around a money issue. About all they can do is tell you not to rush in with a solution, because that will bottleneck the flow of emotions, leading to intensified emotional distress. Just listen at first, and then empathize with the feelings.” Read the entire article:http://www.financial-planning.com/pubs/fp/20050301005.html

March 8, 2005 – Wall Street Journal Online

Article: GETTING PERSONAL: Wall Street Looks At Emotions and Money, by Kathy Chu

Wall Street advisors are starting to show their sensitive sides. Addressing the emotions behind the money is a strategy that some independent advisors have been practicing for nearly a decade. But only in the past few years has this so-called “life planning” approach found its way into the halls of stodgy Wall Street firms . “We’re talking about culture change when we talk about the wire houses doing this,” said George Kinder, a Littleton, Mass., consultant who is credited with being the father of life planning. The article explains how these large firms are veering beyond the nuts-and-bolts of money by training advisors to talk to clients about their dreams, values and life goals.

Mar 1, 2005 Registered Rep magazine

Article: Shining a Light on Client Dreams by Anne Field

Richard Vodra, a financial advisor in McLean, Va., recently helped a client save for his life-long dream — a trip to Turkey to see the total eclipse of the sun in 2006. Nancy Langdon Jones, an advisor in Upland, Calif., found a way for an engineer to work part-time and still support himself while writing a book. Boston-based George Kinder helped an attorney cut back on his hours so he could spend more time with his family.

All these advisors practice a burgeoning new area of financial advice called life planning. Call it financial planning with a therapeutic edge — life planners help clients save for non-traditional and sometimes deeply personal goals. Pioneered about a decade ago by Kinder and Dick Wagner, former president of the Institute of Certified Financial Planners (now the Financial Planning Association), life planning could be the ultimate in value-added financial advisory service.

February 25, 2005 – Inside Information

Media Review: by Bob Veres regarding Feature Article in Investment Advisor Magazine

“This is an interview with George Kinder, who is asked to define life planning and explain its value and importance,” says industry guru Bob Veres. “Kinder starts by talking about the fact that people can articulate their goals, but they experience many obstacles, many of them self-created, often because it¹s hard to make significant changes in your life.” Kinder says that life planning helps people restructure their lives. The Kinder Institute trains and registers life planners. “Americans are experiencing a spiritual crisis,” says Kinder. They earn three times, on average, as much real income as their grandparents, yet they are no happier. Life planners work with their clients to change that sad equation to a happy one.”

February 2005 – Investment Advisor Magazine

Feature: The Next Stage for Financial Planning, A Chat with George Kinder by William Glasgall

George Kinder answers questions about where life planning is at today – how it’s evolved through the years. He provides insight to his workshops and what they impart to his students, shares how he helped found Nazrudin project and hints at what’s on the horizon. Kinder, who works to get the message out to planners and advisors of all types says, “Life planning takes clients through structuring their lives. We are not playing the role that a therapist or spiritual advisor may play, but we can make clients’ dreams happen. Life planning involves challenging ourselves to live what we are most passionate about.”

February 11, 2005 – San Jose Mercury News

Article: It’s Never Too Early to Save by Caille Millner

Financial advisers are unanimous on this point: People in their 20s are in the best position to save, because they have so many years ahead of them for interest to compound. It’s possible even with debt, advisers say, if young people make the right choices. Credit card debt is cited as one of the major crises our culture is facing. “And many don’t even realize that they’re digging themselves a hole”, said Susan Galvan, executive director of the Kinder Institute. “To save money,” Galvan says, “it’s necessary to shut out the noise of advertisements and peer pressure and ask: What do I really want from life?”

January 8, 2005 – The Boston Globe

Article: Crafting a Financial Plan for the Soul by Rich Barlow

George Kinder has been teaching Buddhism for about as long as he has been doing financial planning. For him, the two are not unrelated. You have to understand Kinder’s spirituality to understand how he pioneered the form of money advice known in the industry as ”life planning.” Life planning broadens the focus from specific financial goals, to a person’s deepest hopes and dreams. He cites a recent Wall Street Journal article suggesting that increasing wealth doesn’t necessarily produce happiness. “Most religious leaders,” Kinder said, ”would acknowledge that the problem is not money, but it’s our response to money.” Request a copy of the article.

January, 2005 – Financial Planning Magazine

Movers and Shakers 2005

Who is showing the way in the planning profession? Based on our annual poll of the most influential people, we profile nine leading lights, as determined by votes from readers, judges, and editors of Financial Planning.

George Kinder is the brains behind the growing life planning movement, or what he prefers to call the human side of financial planning, which attempts to help people achieve their personal life goals through financial means. A financial planner himself, Kinder kicked off the movement in 1998 when he published his bestselling book Seven Stages of Money Maturity. He also co-founded The Nazrudin Project, a financial planning think-tank that explores issues of spirituality and dysfunction related to money. Today he is founder of the Kinder Institute of Life Planning, where he has been training other planners in this art for the past two years. Kinder has numerous disciples; over 450 planners, almost 90% of whom are CFPs, have studied life planning at the Kinder Institute, and it has become a big topic of discussion and debate within the industry. “Life planning is already in the mainstream,” Kinder notes. “Ten years from now, if you aren’t doing life planning, your business won’t be growing.”