"Issues In Comprehensive Personal Financial Planning."

Black Jr., Kenneth, Conrad S. Ciccotello, and Harold D. Skipper Jr. "Issues In Comprehensive Personal Financial Planning." Financial Services Review 11.1 (2002): 1. Business Source Complete. Web. 11 July 2012.

This article presents reasonable Issues in Comprehensive Personal Financial Planning that I don’t believe most people who are actively incorporated with an individual or organization that is planning their financial future think about.

It explains that personal financial planning will most likely stay out of the mainstreams of academia, that most companies allow employees to make decisions in regards to retirement decision making and that these employees seek advice from specialists that may not understand personal financial planning as a whole. The specialists may only be able to give credible advice on their particular specialty, but the employee may take their advice as a whole. This creates a problem for the employee or “consumer”.

The article states that there are not respected professions without academic underpinnings and recognized academic standing and that personal financial planning would be more relevant for consumers, but that since there aren’t enough academic personal financial planning education programs consumers are led to unreliable advice from specialist.

This article led me to research qualifications for personal financial planners and my findings formulated a different opinion in regards to the article’s focus on personal financial planning not having academic underpinnings. A Certified Financial Planner must meet certain financial and conduct fitness standards, have three years of related full-time work experience, have a bachelor’s degree and be able to pass a 10-hour certification exam. This proves that consumers can receive credible advice from a financial planning generalist.