Meet your Keynotes 

Michael Kitces is a co-founder of the XY Planning Network, AdvicePay, New Planner Recruiting, fpPathfinder, and XY Bean Counters, the former Practitioner Editor of the Journal of Financial Planning, the host of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, and the publisher of the popular financial planning industry blog Nerd’s Eye View through his website Kitces.com, dedicated to advancing knowledge in financial planning. In 2010, Michael was recognized with one of the FPA’s “Heart of Financial Planning” awards for his dedication and work in advancing the profession.

Carl Richards is a Certified Financial Planner™ and creator of the (highly-acclaimed) "Sketch Guy" column that appeared weekly in The New York Times from 2010 to 2020. Along the way, he founded the Behavior Gap newsletter and podcast and is the author of two books.

Through his simple sketches, Carl makes complex financial concepts easy to understand. He believes in delivering financial advice differently to be more accessible, informed, and impactful for all. 

In Carl's keynote, he had a conversation with our attendees about what it means to be a real financial advisor. Everyone in the room embarked on a deeply introspective journey regarding their job as an advisor and what it meant to serve as a trusted guide in clients' lives. Together, they re:imagined the meaning of their role as financial advisors. 

In 2018, Simidele Adeagbo became the first Nigerian Winter Olympian and the first African and Black woman to compete in skeleton at the Olympics. All while navigating a predominantly Eurocentric, male-dominated sport on the world's biggest stage, where a woman of color had never been represented. Another barrier she didn't let get in her way? She had no prior experience in skeleton. 

Re:invention is a concept Simidele knows well, and she also knows it is essential for personal growth and evolution. It's not always easy to achieve, though, so to help advisors navigate the re:invention process, Simidele shared the transformational blueprint from her 100-day journey to Olympian status during her keynote at #XYPNLIVE 2022. 

In her interactive keynote designed to invite courage and resilience, attendees learned how to take control of their future while remaining true to themselves. They learned how to move toward new or improved goals, navigate change and explore what their next re:invention could look like. They learned about showing up and being bold. They explored how to stay focused, overcome challenges, and build agility and resilience. Simidele encouraged each member of the audience to imagine their limitless possibilities and find their power in a way that emphasizes their own unique strengths.

Sarah Newcomb, Ph.D. is a behavioral economist who serves as the Director of Financial Psychology at Morningstar and authors a new weekly column, Human Capital: Exploring the Intersection of Psychology and Finance. An interdisciplinary scholar, Sarah has expertise in consumer psychology, economic decision-making, personal money management, and cognitive and social psychology.

Sarah is driven by a desire to help others to tap into an empowering mindset, dream big, and then employ their resources in pursuit of a life they will love. She became a financial psychologist after discovering that her own issues with money had nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with the attitudes and beliefs she held about money itself. Now, her goal is to teach people how to use money well so they can live their best life—even well before they reach their long-term financial goals.

Sound familiar? At XYPN, we’re all about helping advisors, and their clients, live their great lives, and Sarah shared frameworks and strategies to help advisors do that in the uncertainties of the current environment.

SoulPancake Co-Founder, CEO, and Executive Producer, Shabnam Mogharabi, delivered her keynote presentation, “Powered by Purpose: Why Doing Good is Good Business” at #XYPNLIVE 2021.  Shabnam has nearly 20 years of experience in impact entertainment and is a thought leader when it comes to the importance of creating meaningful engagement and powering your business with purpose. Prior to SoulPancake, Shabnam was an award-winning journalist and editor and is the New York Times bestselling author of SoulPancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions. She frequently speaks on the importance of joy, positive psychology, and the power of storytelling.

Shabnam’s keynote helped advisors power their firms with purpose. In the session, Shabnam discussed SoulPancake’s mission and origin story and show why being powered by purpose not only creates impact but drives revenue. 

With contagious energy that radiates throughout every room she steps into, Cassandra Worthy is the world’s truly disruptive thought-leader on change that companies need to build resilience and adaptability. Only 10% of successful change adoption is about know-how… the other 90% is squarely centered on motivation and willingness to embrace change. Without addressing the emotions standing in the way of motivation, any transformation journey is stopped in its tracks. This is where Cassandra steps in. She has created and cultivated the unique strategy of Change Enthusiasm® which is arming individuals around the world with the means to harness the power of emotion, a resource in infinite supply, to embrace and accelerate change and transformation journeys. Cassandra’s message nurtures highly resilient and adaptable organizations beginning at the heart of the individual.

Through a mix of lecture and experiential exercises, George Kinder will describe how Life Planning delivers an exhilarating and meaningful experience for the client. He’ll discuss Life Planning’s five-phase EVOKE® process that utilizes deep listening and communication skills to uncover clients’ dreams of freedom and then delivers them. He will close on themes of his latest book, A Golden Civilization and the Map of Mindfulness, including new approaches to economics and democracy and the role financial planners will play.

Dr. Moira Somers is a consulting neuropsychologist, professor and executive coach based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Her expertise lies in helping people make lasting behavioral change, and in teaching others how to do the same.

She is a senior faculty member at the Sudden Money Institute, and the author of Advice that Sticks: How to Give Financial Advice that People Will Follow. Dr. Somers blends the science and art of advice-giving with practical wisdom and wit. Further information about her work is available through her website at MoneyMindandMeaning.com and through the Arlan Group.

Want to know something strange about the profession of financial advising? Although they're paid for their advice, most advisors have received no formal training on how to actually give it. Their extensive training in the technical and regulatory aspects of their work is not matched by evidence-based training in how to conceptualize, craft, deliver, and support implementation of the advice they give. The result is often the delivery of perfectly sound advice that fails to address clients' needs.

Dr. Moira Somers addressed the five factors that contribute to the successful delivery and implementation of advice. Special attention was paid to the reasons why clients most typically seek out advice, when they are most apt to do so, and what interferes with uptake. The particular problem of mental depletion in both clients and advisors was examined in depth.

We each have a unique story and an innate yearning for creating a narrative of our lives, as do our clients. Regardless of our technical capabilities, without the ability to see a client interaction as one in which we come beside them on their journey, joining our story with theirs, our ability to have a meaningful and lasting positive impact in their lives is limited. The ability to draw a story from our clients, helping them craft their own narrative, enables us to demonstrate how their lives and finances intersect. But without the ability to recognize and articulate our own story, we’re unable to effectively ignite those of others.

Financial planning is often limited to the study of our present and the creation of a design for our future. But we forget that recognition of our past helps explain our present and, without a better understanding, often dictates our future. Therefore, prior to writing the future of our story, we must explore its earlier chapters, both as planners and clients.

If money doesn’t make you happy, then you probably aren’t spending it right.

Many people think that the relationship between money and happiness is much stronger than it really is. The key to happiness is not necessarily more money—rather it’s learning how to spend your money right. How you choose to spend your money, regardless of how much or how little of it you have, can impact your happiness and overall well-being. This keynote explored key ways you can leverage spending decisions to maximize happiness. Advisors learned how to more effectively spend money to live a more satisfied—not necessarily a more wealthy—life. 

You want to grow your business. You want to expand your client base. You want to increase your opportunity to serve others. You want to make a difference in the world. What role does diversity and inclusion play in making these wants a reality?

Attendees learned how to retain clients by creating empathic and trusting relationships with people who initially seem different from them. They engaged in a process that enables one to see the impact of unconscious perspectives which left them equipped with insights and practical actions that can create the expansion of business opportunities. They also learned how they could make a lasting impact on the people around them, and move themselves, their business, and others, forward.