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 What would the father of financial planning say?
ABOUT OUR ECONOMIC CRISIS? 
By Page Lambert

My father, Loren Dunton, was a risk-taking visionary with an edgy sense of humor, plus an unquenchable curiosity about humanity.  I suppose this is why he got such a kick out of inventing “Condoms for Credit Cards” back in 1993.  These “Condoms for Credit Cards” came in different colors and slipped like sheaths over your credit cards, thus requiring you to think more carefully before using your credit cards by spending your “unprotected,” and perhaps as yet unearned, financial resources.  Loren called this “safer spending” and loved to joke about how this was like “safe sex.”  As his daughter I was mortified!

I can’t help but wonder what my father Loren Dunton, nationally recognized as the “Father of Financial Planning,” would say today about the current financial crisis America’s citizens now face.  The profession Loren Dunton created  – financial planning – became a multi-trillion dollar industry.  Many thousands of insurance agents and financial advisors today honor my father as the man who created a great profession, but never practiced it.  He was a big believer in protecting your “seed” money.  Helping people to spend, save, invest, insure and plan for their future was the motto on which he founded the College for Financial Planning (where the CFP designation is earned), and the International Association of Financial Planning (which evolved into the Financial Planning Association).

Too bad for our nation that dad’s “Credit Card Condoms,” or the "Credit Card Warning Labels" he also invented in 1990, never caught on in Washington or Wall Street.  Look at the growing abuses and worsening exploitation credit card companies are now perpetrating!  And what about the shameless long-time solicitations that credit card companies send to our young people?  Maybe it is time to sheath the bailout before the $700,000 billion rescue package veers any further off course. 

Recently I re-read a foreword Loren wrote for the book Doesn’t Anyone Care about the Children, published in 1994, by the Harry Singer Foundation.  The foundation’s motto Think, Do, Enable, reminds me that, like Harry Singer, dad was a big believer in doing.  Harry immigrated from a small village in Russia to America in 1912.  He wasn’t a famous politician, or philanthropist, or visionary.  He came from common roots like my father.

Planners are Part of the Solution

Harry’s descendants believed what President Woodrow Wilson told the nation during his tenure:  “Every country is renewed out of the unknown ranks and not out of the ranks of those already famous and powerful and in control.”  To Insurance Pro Shop readers, I say, hats off to Harry Singer!  And hats off to the millions of people in the “unknown ranks” who lifted President Obama onto the sagging shoulders of our weary nation!  Also, hats off to those Americans who long ago sheathed their credit cards, and who teach their teenagers to spend more wisely.  And hats off to each and every responsible insurance agent and financial planner who truly places the best interest of the client or prospect first and foremost.  Such planners are part of the solution.

“Why weren’t we told that we’re living on borrowed money and borrowed time?” asked Paul Volcker back when he was Chairman of the Federal Reserve under President Reagan.  “But we were,” was my dad’s response in the foreword he wrote back in 1994.  “We were told.  At the end of this century, the disgraceful and precarious fiscal situation this country is in will be too obvious for any Congress or White House administration to ignore or cover-up.”  Loren Dunton probably rolled-over in his grave a decade ago and has been banging on the lid of his coffin ever since.

My sister and I learned about money management early.  As children, we earned money by doing extra chores, not by simply doing our share of the family workload.  In 1964, dad (always the adventurer) quit his successful job teaching salesmanship, leased our ranch-style home and cashed in our modest stock portfolio.  He took us on a twelve-month trip around the world.  We were immediately given partial responsibility for family finances.  In each of the 27-countries we visited, we took turns learning and teaching the rest of the family the local money system, and some words of the language.  For example, my sister had to learn how to convert Indian rupees to United States dollars.  Once it was my turn to teach the family ten words in Hindi.  “Please” and “thank you” were at the top of the list, with “Where is the bathroom?” running a close second. 

My children, now grown, learned about finances during the ten years they were active 4-H members on a small ranch in Wyoming.  They both saved nearly $12,000.00 toward future college expenses and rarely frittered away any of this money on video games or junk food.  Standard 4-H fare was keeping track of monthly expenses and doing a Profit and Loss statement at the end of each project.  Also, standard fare included the pork chops and sirloins that were raised for the family’s dinner table.  I like to think that now that my children are on-their-own, “please,” and “thank you” are also at the top of their list.

My father would probably urge all Insurance Pro Shop participants to develop more self discipline regarding spending.  (He wrote a book on this back in 1966.  The book is now being up-dated by his widow Marta Dunton and Forrest Wallace Cato.)  But he would also urge us to be curious and engage in solution-oriented dialogue, and perhaps to read again the books of Norman Vincent Peale. 

Loren Dunton would probably urge you to carry a 3”x5” index card in your pocket, the way he did for half a century.  It is believed that he originated the line, “If you are not part of the solution,” (he’d written on the card in bold red ink before this became a cliché) “then you’re part of the problem.”  He was reminding himself, of course, more than anyone.  But it’s a good reminder for us all... 

Agents and planners are a big part of the solution to the present economic mess our nation is now experiencing.

Author Page Lambert (www.pagelambert.com) has presented over a 150 seminars in the US and British Columbia, speaking on writing and rediscovering core passions.  For over ten years, Page has been mentoring people who want to reconnect with nature, leading custom retreats and conducting outdoor adventures.  She often works in partnership with such organizations as the Women’s Wilderness Institute, the Grand Canyon Field Institute and the Aspen Writer’s Foundation.  She lives in Colorado and is a Senior Associate for the Children and Nature Network.  Read Page Lambert’s latest postings on her blog at www.pagelambert.blogspot.com.
 

Message to Financial Advisors… from Jeremy and Lew Nason

“If you are not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.”

You have a great opportunity to really help your prospects to weather this last financial storm.  People need and want your help to achieve the financial security they’ve been dreaming about and deserve.  Aren’t life insurance and annuities a way for us to give these middle-income families the safety, guarantees and growth they are looking for?  When are you going to get back to the basics and start actually helping people, instead of just trying to make a sale?