Three Days in September
This was our second annual conference and, considering the amount of work required to put together the event, all the last minute details that have to come together just right, and all the potential issues that have to be anticipated, I was anxious for it to begin.
What I could not have anticipated was waking up Monday morning to news that would significantly alter the financial services landscape, as well as the adviser community. In the hours that followed the announcement of the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, I would hear Merrill Lynch advisers introduce themselves as being from “Bank of America,” “Merrill of America,” or “I don’t know who I work for today.”
Of course, that was following a week that saw the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rescue and the weekend that included Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy. Over the next two days, while we were conferencing, Barclays purchased the majority of Lehman’s banking operations, insurer American International Group received some life support—$85 billion worth—from the government, and the Reserve Primary Fund (run by Reserve Management Corp., which invented money market funds) “broke the buck” as a result of holding so much Lehman debt. The shock waves that started then still are rippling through our industry today and, no doubt, there will be many advisers sporting business cards with different firm names on them this time next year.
In spite of those “distractions,” our show—the 2008 PLANADVISER National Conference—went on with about 400 attendees. In this special issue, we bring those of you who missed the conference—and those of you who were there, but couldn’t attend every session—a recap. On the pages that follow, you will find articles about the general sessions and the panel workshops. So that you can better utilize the information, we have organized the contents, not according to conference chronology, but by topic: business model considerations, client service strategies, investments, practice management, compliance and regulatory activity, research, and sales.
As I said last year, there are many ways to measure the success of a conference: how many advisers show up, who shows up, the number and quality of panels, the food, the information, the networking, the ratio of advisers to providers. This year, we might consider an additional benchmark: how many advisers were attending sessions when they just as easily could have skipped out to watch CNBC or call their clients to offer reassurance. While there was certainly plenty of the latter, most seemed to manage that around the conference—something that speaks to the quality of the advisers in attendance, as well as the quality of our agenda and speakers.
I hope you enjoy this special issue, and look forward to seeing you next year in Orlando for our third annual conference (September 23 to 25)—and, hopefully, fewer unanticipated “distractions.”
You can view pictures from the conference here.