Apologies for the late publication this week, I’ve been out at the FPA SHIFT conference, a gathering of the top financial planners, thought leaders, and researchers in the world of financial planning. This conference more than anything reminds me of the same core truth: money is never just about money. It is about behavior, incentives, and personal meaning.

This week, I want to share insights applicable to anyone and others squarely aimed at financial professionals who live in the weeds of policy, planning, and fiduciary responsibility. I’ve broken them into two major categories accordingly. 

TAKEAWAYS FOR ANYONE

Money, Psychology, and Couples 

One of the most valuable sessions I attended was presented by Dr. Megan McCoy, Chair of the Personal Financial Planning program at Kansas State University. Her work sits at the intersection of financial planning and couples psychology and highlights how frequently money conflicts are misdiagnosed, particularly among couples.

Dr. McCoy shared research that couples require roughly a 5:1 ratio of positive to negative interactions to maintain relationship satisfaction. Money often undermines this ratio not because it is inherently conflict‑driven, but because many couples only talk about finances when something is wrong. When financial conversations occur exclusively during moments of stress, such as layoffs, surprise expenses, and market volatility, money becomes psychologically paired with danger and failure. This compounds over time as couples steadily discuss only financial negatives over time, creating a tacit subconscious association that money discussions create negative emotions and feelings, which then can make subsequent positive financial discussions difficult!

One practical antidote is intentional, low‑stakes financial imagination. Dr. McCoy suggested what she called a “lottery date.” Once per quarter, a couple buys a Powerball ticket, goes out to dinner, and spends the evening talking about what life would look like if money were not a constraint. Not budgets. Not spreadsheets. Just values, priorities, time, and tradeoffs. The exercise rarely changes anyone’s financial behavior directly (unless you end up winning the lottery with that powerball ticket!) but it reshapes how money is associated emotionally. 

Another issue Dr. McCoy raised is that traditional therapy models often treat financial stressors as uncontrollable external forces. When money is framed as something that simply “happens” to couples, therapy can orbit feelings while avoiding the financial behaviors that actually drive the stress. A humanistic psychology framework assumes something different: everyone is doing the best they can with the tools they have, and all behavior—good or bad—serves some purpose. But because traditional therapy treats money as an immutable property of a client couple’s lives, it can avoid addressing real financial problems that are better served through a financial planning lens.

Layered on top of this is the actor‑observer bias. We tend to give ourselves context (“I cut that driver off because I’ve got to make this turn coming up”) while assigning others’ behavior to character flaws (“that guy cut me off because he’s a horrible human being and a terrible driver”). In money conversations, this bias is corrosive. Recognizing it does not erase disagreement or conflicts, but it does create space for productive conversations instead of moralized stalemates. 

One Big Complicated Bill

Another great presentation was by Larry Pon, a CFP/CPA who specializes in deep-dive tax education. He specifically covered certain facets of the one big beautiful bill passed last year, bringing up subject areas that are actively and soon to be relevant in tax planning, but also highlighting areas that are ambiguous or unclear for consumers.

The newly created Section 530A accounts, sometimes informally referred to as “Trump Accounts,” are scheduled to become available July 4, 2026 (practically speaking this will be July 6^th, since the 4^th is a Saturday.) These accounts will be hosted by BNY Mellon with a Robinhood‑style interface and introduce a novel blend of benefits, and can be enrolled in by going to trumpaccounts.gov or filing Form 4547 (ha ha) with your taxes.

Notably, contributions into the accounts present some tax complexities that people should be aware of before they just jump right in. Contributions can come from four primary sources:

• Friends, family, etc. making up to $5,000 in contributions annually for one beneficiary, e.g. one child. These contributions are non-deductible and create a cost basis in the account.
• Employers can contribute up to $2,500 to an employee’s children’s 530A account. This means between two parents (or more in case of blended families) $2,500 can be placed in a single child’s account, or $1,250 can be split between two, and so on. These contributions are tax deductible for the employer and non-taxable to the employee, but do not create any cost basis in the account.
• Children born between 1/1/2025 and 12/31/2028 are eligible for a one-time $1,000 seed funding from the US Treasury. This does not create cost basis.
• Children meeting eligibility #3 who live in a zip code with an area median income of $150,000 or less will receive an additional $250 contribution from the Dell family. This contribution is not taxable income and does not create a cost basis in the account.

So why the emphasis on cost basis? Well, let’s talk about the distribution features of these accounts first.

The design of the 530A accounts is a lot like a traditional IRA. Distributions are prohibited before age 18, and after age 18 distributions can be made penalty-free on a limited case basis for things like a first time home purchase and paying for college. Otherwise, distributions are prohibited until age 59 ½, after which time they can be distributed like a traditional IRA account. However, the account is separate from treatment as an IRA for pro rata purposes (which I’ll discuss in a moment). With that in mind, 530A accounts will be eligible for rollover into a traditional IRA, and that’s important.

Because 530A accounts aren’t part of the IRA family for pro rata purposes, they don’t have the inherent potential to complicate back door Roth contributions and Roth conversions, which can permit retirement savers to make contributions to Roth IRAs even when their income exceeds the annual limit, or allow those with low income years to take advantage of their lower tax brackets. However, as noted above, these accounts can be rolled into a traditional IRA, but why would you do that? Simple, eligibility to then convert the 530A account into a traditional IRA and then to convert it into a Roth. While such a conversion would be subject to the pro rata rule because of the aforementioned cost basis issues, it creates a world in which kids could have as much as $136,250 funded into a Roth conversion-eligible account by the time they turn 18, which would give them a huge head start on retirement saving.

TAKEAWAYS FOR PROFESSIONALS

What AI Is Actually Telling Us About Clients 

Dr. Eric Ludwig and Liam Hanlon from Jump presented findings drawn from over 100,000 real financial planner‑client conversations. The results were instructive, and occasionally humbling. 

Despite frequent narratives about efficiency and time‑saving, advisors’ primary use of AI is not to reclaim their calendars for vacation time and happy hours, but to deliver more value to their existing clients. Advisors are using AI to listen better, explain more clearly, and surface patterns that would otherwise be buried in conversation noise, and then are taking other more planning-related tools to deepen the work they do for their clients.

Clients themselves are not walking into meetings as anxious wrecks. On a ten‑point sentiment scale, the average client arrives at a meeting at roughly 6.4 out of 10 in positivity and leaves closer to 7.5. That delta matters. It suggests that competent advice, delivered clearly, measurably and positively improves how people feel about their financial lives. 

The most common topics discussed between clients and planners were consolidation of assets, tax strategy, and income/investment alignment, particularly in the retirement category. The most common fears were timeless: running out of money, market losses, taxes, and healthcare costs. Technology may change, but human anxiety remains stubbornly consistent!

Firm Values Are Not Slogans 

Brooklyn Brock and Tiffany Lee of Ellevate, an advisory firm that advises advisory firms, shifted the conversation to values. Importantly, they distinguished between values that are internal (how we operate) and external (how we show up for clients). 

For example, at MY Wealth Planners our values are: Accountability, transparency, engagement, and selfless service. How those values show up for our team should be internally communicated in clear terms, but also shared with clients in terms that apply to them. Ultimately, the philosophy of firm values should not just be aspirational, but provide guardrails for conduct, policy, and decision-making.

These words are easy to print and hard to live. Firms that operationalize values build systems that reinforce them when conditions are stressful, not just when things are going well. 

ERISA Changes

ERISA sees movement as well: more scrutiny around ESG integration, expanded access to private equity, and unresolved questions about participant best interest. The emerging safe harbors appear more protective of employers than employees—a theme worth watching closely. In practice as the advisors for 401(k) plans, we can easily navigate this by being appropriately skeptical of ESG funds’ promises, but also do the same to PE. Whilet he proposed rules create safe harbors for plan sponsors to start offering private equity funds in 401(k) plans, the obligation to perform due diligence and create plans in participants’ best interest doesn’t go away.

Other Takeaways, Hard to Share

Like all high-quality conference experiences, many takeaways are hard to share or express. Rick Kahler, a veteran financial planner, shared the black swans and emotional challenges that came with creating and executing a succession plan. I can’t really describe the story and journey succinctly, but it was a standing ovation performance.

Financial planners from a variety of young firms shared their novel approaches to serving and working with clients, presenting the success of new ideas and models in practice. While the vast majority of practices offer a similar business model and style of service, they demonstrate well that innovation remains an important part of the growth of the profession.

And finally, the conversations. Like all gatherings of great people, the true magic doesn’t happen in the conference hall or hearing speakers on the main stage, but from the sharing of good ideas and the exploration of novel ideas. In that, FPA Shift is and remains a beacon in the profession, bar none. But maybe I’m biased, I did help organize it this year.