Financial Planning Competency Handbook, 2nd Edition

PART Three Introduction

Charles R. Chaffin, EdD

CFP Board

Part Three is devoted to many of the interrelated areas of the discipline and profession of financial planning. Many of these areas involve subjects such as psychology, sociology, behavioral finance, marriage and family therapy, and others. The goal with this section is multifaceted. The hope is that practitioners will read these chapters and begin to visualize how theory from other disciplines can be applied to their work, questioning current assumptions and considering new strategies for serving clients based upon the work of practitioners and researchers from other academic disciplines. For faculty, the hope is that these chapters will fuel new ideas for lines of research that incorporate theory from other disciplines into financial planning, engaging bodies of knowledge and researchers from other areas into financial planning.

With the introduction of any new content or research, there will be curiosity, acceptance, and even dismissal. Our hope is not that the reader passively accepts all the concepts presented in this section, but rather that the content in this section fuels dialogue across all aspects of the profession of financial planning, leading to the questioning of old theories as well as the addition of new practices that help to grow the body of knowledge for this profession.