dsmWealth July 2, 2020

Meet Megan Rosenstiel, CFP and partner at West Des Moines-based financial advisory firm Gilbert & Cook. The CFP stands for certified financial planner, which is common in her field. But there’s more, as she also is a CDFA, an AWMA, an ADPA and a LTCP.

What’s going on with this run on the alphabet?

All these initials might seem confusing, or even meaningless, to an outsider. But if you want your adviser to be as skilled as is possible, look at each of these abbreviations as shorthand for a particular postgraduate expertise that they have acquired to serve you better. Each abbreviation stands for a subset of skills that has added on to the CFP designation that, as Rosenstiel says, "is the cornerstone" to competent financial planning.

What’s going on with this run on the alphabet?

Rosenstiel joined Gilbert & Cook nearly 15 years ago, and decided after earning the CFP, as well as securities sales licensing (series 7, 66, etc.), that other topics demanded her attention as well.

"How can I educate myself better?" she asked herself, responding with an ADPA—accredited domestic partnership adviser. That was before same-sex marriages were made legal, so she found herself at the forefront of working with domestic partners on topics such as apportioning out retirement plans.

Over time, Rosenstiel also chased down specialization as a certified divorce financial analyst (CDFA), a long-term care professional (LTCP) and as an accredited wealth management adviser (AWMA). They work with HNWs—high net worth individuals.

These designations can require a lot of preparation, expertise and effort. The National Association of Estate Planners & Council, for instance, mandates that anyone desiring its accredited estate planner (AEP) award first be a lawyer, CPA, trust officer or insurance or financial planner, with five years in their field and no disciplinary investigations. They’ll need two graduate-level courses, and must sit for an exam. As is the case with virtually every one of these designations, there are continuing education requirements.

Estates, divorces, long-term care, taxes, retirement plans—all these subsets of financial planning can carry specialization. One—certified kingdom adviser (CKA)—even needs your local pastor to weigh in. A CKA can integrate biblical principles with core financial planning, and there are at least 10 people in the Des Moines area who have that qualification.

We won’t go into all of the professional designations that a planner or adviser can earn—there are just too many. FINRA, the government-authorized overseer of brokers and dealers, can set your head spinning with its listing of more than 200 of them, at https://www.finra.org/investors/professional-designations.

Bicycle Shops See Surge of Interest

BY STEVE DINNEN

A possible silver lining to the cloud of the pandemic: We’re exercising.

Sidewalks and creekside trails in and around Des Moines are jampacked these days with walkers. Entire families, not just retirees, are turning out to pad around their neighborhoods, and maybe even wave to and speak with the folks across the street.

Bicycle shop inventories have been largely picked over as people have decided to exercise a bit. Shop workers tell me repairs are taking unusually long periods of time, as people are hauling out of their dusted-over bikes and finding they need a tune up or new tires.

As an avid biker, I have witnessed this firsthand, with countless clutches of moms, dads and kids now pedaling along the impressive trail system that is growing up in Central Iowa. Newbies are pretty easy to spot, as they don’t always observe the etiquette of biking (bike right, pass left), and all too often somebody is missing a helmet. Hey, they cost maybe $40.

I’ve spotted more kayakers and canoeists in the Raccoon River the past month than I’ve seen in 20 years. And golf courses are crowded even on weekdays.

If you haven’t joined this revolution, there’s plenty of summer left, and bicycle shops will restock. So let’s hope that the pandemic moves on, while the exercise kick stays.

What Another Round of Lockdowns Could Mean for Stocks

BY CHRIS TAYLOR FOR MONEY

So far the stock market has remained surprisingly sanguine in the face of the economic and human toll of COVID-19. Now as new virus hot spots emerge in the U.S., investors are having to reassess.

Even with stay-at-home orders, a total of 47 million jobless claims, and a national death toll of 124,000 and rising, the S&P 500 is actually down only 6% year-to-date. From the lows of March 23, it is up almost 40%.

Part of that positivity stems from expected curve-flattening, which much of the world has experienced. As societies and businesses gradually reopen, economic engines can rev up once again.

In the U.S., however, the virus is showing no signs of burning out. >> READ MORE

Would $75,000 a Year Make You Happy? Yes.

BY CORY STIEG FOR CNBC

Gary Vaynerchuk wishes young people would stop aspiring to make millions of dollars. The 44-year-old self-made multimillionaire entrepreneur and CEO of VaynerMedia says he’s seen that chasing millions makes people unhappy in life.

"If you’re under 25, you think you have to make a million dollars a year to even be in the game," Vaynerchuk tells CNBC.

But "I wish every 16-year-old on earth thought $70,000, not a million," he says. "You would have a whole different world. You’d have people not doing things they hate."

Science supports Vaynerchuk’s premise. First, studies have shown that people feel happier the more money they make, but only to a point of about $75,000 per person a year. That’s because money makes people happier to the point that it allows you to meet your basic needs, like food, a place to live and health care. After that, the correlation with happiness stops. >> READ MORE