Episode Summary

In this Heart of Advice Podcast episode, we explore the transformative impact that financial planning can have on clients’ lives, and how the future of financial planning is happening today.

Our guest, Erin Voisin, CFP^®, shares her experience getting into the financial planning profession, as well as all the different ways she’s elevating those around her. She delves into how she approaches connecting with and training the next generation of financial planners, including ways in which she’s advocating for women in this profession. This episode dives into the true value of financial planning, how it’s changing, and what others can do to promote a brighter future.

Here’s What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Examples of how a strong financial plan can impact a client’s life
• The role of technology in delivering an excellent financial plan
• How the next generation approaches financial planning
• How the industry can appeal to more female planners
• How Erin gets involved with financial literacy efforts

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

• EP Wealth Advisors
• The New Advisor Value Proposition: How Technology and Psychology Transform Client Outcomes
• Letsmakeaplan.org

Quotes:

• “As I’ve built out my team, I wanted everyone to be client-facing. Because I think being able to see your plan really come to life and see that reaction in clients just helps make you so much more invested in wanting to do the next one and see the next story and see the next plan that you’re going to help bring to life.”
• “That’s why we leverage eMoney across our firm and why our entire team uses it consistently. Because it’s great to make the client a part of the plan. I love getting to pull it up live and, clients just think it’s like pure wizardry or magic when you’re changing variables and running scenarios and they get to see the wishlist come out, as I always say, when you’ve seen a successful plan and now you get to say, well, what would you do?”
• “Whenever I tell people that I had that psychology education, they’re like, oh, you found the perfect industry. And I say, yeah, I really did because I never understood how numbers and people would really come together until you find financial services.”
• “Women are great at relationship management, but some of them are just terrified of sales goals and not wanting to go out and have to hunt and kill. So, I think it’s ensuring that you’re compensating them appropriately, allowing them to grow and build a practice that’s going to work for them. Being a mom of two, I also see the mom and the parent element come in where a lot of times you’re bearing a lot of that responsibility as well. So you need that flexibility. And that’s where I always like to profess why this industry is actually so fantastic for a working parent because there can be so much flexibility. But I think it’s creating a little bit of psychological safety sometimes for women to ensure that they feel like they can be at the kids’ winter performance or duck out early because there’s practice while still being able to manage a book and hit the right goals. And I think it’s just important that firms really embrace that, allow for it, cultivate it, and support it.

Full Transcript

Sasha: Welcome to the Heart of Advice podcast presented by eMoney. I’m Sasha Grabenstetter.

Connor: And I’m Connor Sung. We’re your eMoney experts. Today on the podcast, we have Erin Voisin. Erin is a CFP Board ambassador, managing director of wealth management services at EP Wealth Advisors, which is a fee-only RIA and financial planning firm that manages more than $23 billion in assets. She’s an FPA pro bono for cancer volunteer. She co-chairs EP Wealth’s financial literacy committee and runs its internship and externship programs. She holds a variety of designations, including certified divorce financial analyst and enrolled agent with the IRS. She earned her degree in business administration with a minor in psychology, and she is an Investment News 40 under 40 honoree in 2021. Erin, number one, thank you for joining us.

Erin: Thank you. Excited to be here.

Connor: Good. Can we just start with a little bit more about you? How did you first become involved in the industry and what has your professional path looked like?

Erin: Yeah. So I am the definition of a person that fell into this industry. So I always love to tell the story. I moved out to San Diego for college, and when I was a junior in college, my dad told me, you know, if you want to live in California once you graduate, it better be with a full-time job. And I said, okay, I don’t want to leave California. I’m from the Midwest and did not want to go back to the cold weather. So all I knew at that point was to go out and find internships. So I started applying to every internship on my college’s career board and found the case design unit at MetLife, which was essentially their financial planning. I still to this day remember my interview, who I interviewed with, you know, how it all went. But I just remember thinking, this is great. Like, it’s numbers, it’s working with people, like, this could be cool. And again, my mindset at the time was I just need a job to stay in California. And 18 years later, here I still am in the industry doing it and loving it even more.

How Financial Planning Impacts Clients’ Lives

Connor: Such a fun path. Congrats on still being in Southern California.

Sasha: No cold weather for you. So, Erin, you’ve said that you believe in the power of financial planning to improve people’s lives and ease their burdens. Can you offer us some stories on the impact that you’ve seen in clients’ lives?

Erin: Yeah. I mean, one that always comes to mind is back when I started at MetLife. And I think this is really what kept me in the industry and knowing this is what I wanted to do because, you know, one of the things that being at an insurance company, we issued the insurance checks. So I still remember a client meeting that we had with a widow who had just lost her husband, who was panicking, you know, how am I going to provide for college, pay my mortgage, just survive, you know, what am I going to do? And I remember being in that meeting with the advisor where he walked in with the insurance check and our financial plan that essentially told her, you did the right planning. Your husband did the right planning. You’re going to be okay. Here’s how we’re going to get the kids to college. You’re going to get to stay in the home. And here’s the life that you’re going to get to live. And I just remember the tears that just poured from her eyes because you could just see the weight of all of that just being lifted off her shoulders. And so that was really what showed me the power of planning and doing planning the right way and protecting yourself can just really ease a lot of just burdens that people can carry. And this is a very unique situation because there was obviously a death, but it’s one that stuck with me to really just ensure that people are doing the planning they need to set themselves up for the future.

I always like to tell people you see the good, the bad, and the ugly in this industry. You know, you’ve had the tough conversations where, you know, you’re telling the person who’s in their sixties that they have to work longer because they haven’t saved enough or they have to downsize their home because, you know, they can’t afford to live in it and they need the equity to, you know, continue to sustain their lifestyle. And then you have the great stories where you’re celebrating the person’s retirement early or they’re buying that vacation home or the boat or the dream car they’ve always wanted. So when you actually get to see the results of the plan, I think it just becomes really rewarding. And I think that’s why for me in particular, as I’ve built out my team, I wanted everyone to be client-facing. Because I think being able to see your plan really come to life and see that reaction in clients just helps make you so much more invested in wanting to, like, do the next one and see the next story and see like the next, you know, plan that you’re going to help bring to life.

Sasha: I think financial planning is so people-focused. So, it sounds like you landed in the right spot.

Erin: Definitely.

Connor: Some mental and moral currency.

Erin: Absolutely.

The Value of Technology in Financial Planning

Connor: Let’s pivot a little bit. You talked a bit about some of the actual delivery, the results. Obviously, eMoney is definitely focusing on how technology impacts client outcomes and being somewhat of a vehicle to do that. Can you, number one, talk about just the kind of intersection between advisor technology and this new implementation, or, you know, what I’ll call it, newer implementation of financial psychology, and then in your own engagements with clients? And then as you think about building standards and kind of pushing those things out across a larger team, could you just talk about the advocacy, the flexibility of being able to continue to be personal? I know there’s, like, three questions in one, but just, you can take it and run.

Erin: Alright. Sounds good. I mean, yes, the power of technology in planning, I think, is so critical. And this is where I love eMoney and how we leverage it in plans because seeing things in black and white and numbers helps drive decisions. So, we always talk about how people can do back of the napkin math and go tell someone to go do something or off the cuff, this is rough numbers. But when you can actually visualize it for a client and they can see that it’s their plan, this is my income. This is my budget. These are my assets. This is what it means. This is my tax bracket. Like when all that comes to life, you see people just more willing to do the next step, to listen to you because you have numbers backing up everything you’re saying. So I’m a very big believer that in any type of analysis that my team and I do, I want a tech solution behind it. I want numbers justifying our solutions. And I think that’s why for eMoney, why we leverage it across our firm and why our entire team uses it consistently. Because it’s also great to make the client a part of the plan. You know, I love getting to pull it up live and, you know, clients just think it’s like pure wizardry or magic when you’re changing variables and running scenarios and they get to see, you know, the wishlist come out, as I always say, when like you’ve seen a successful plan and now you get to say, well, what would you do? And their eyes kind of bug out a little bit and like they start to give those different scenarios they want to see. And then the planner can sit there and, you know, do all the inputs and then they see the results come to life. That makes the planning interactive. It makes it fun. Clients are engaged. They’re not reading a PDF that you’re putting in front of them. So I think being able to use the tech, make it live and personable, and then replicate it across the team has been really important and crucial for us.

Connor: How have you thought about actually disseminating the standards? Obviously, you’ve figured out a great balance of how to use the technology number one, which is, you know, somewhat of a feat in and of itself, but then the actual engagement, the conversation, you talked about the wishlist coming out, like, getting to that point, being able to ask the right questions and have that conversation, I think, is key, but everybody approaches it differently. So I guess number one, do you have any tips and tricks on actually using the technology and having a conversation with the client to get to that wishlist coming out? And then number two, as you think about instilling some standards and mentoring others and, you know, some aspect of team environment, how are you helping others think about their personalized way to do it? Because Erin’s ways, you know, might not be Connor’s way, which may not be Sasha’s way, but we all will end up getting to a similar spot. Well, ideally, we’ll get to a similar spot.

Erin: I mean, it’s really important for me, you know, we talk about the quality of advice. So as I started building out our process and our team at EP about eight and a half years ago, I wanted to ensure that no matter what office you walked into, you were getting the same deliverable. And that sort of has now transitioned into what we like to say, you know, we have a set process with local flavor. Because to your point, every advisor is going to add their twist and their personality to it, which is great. We want everyone to have that flexibility, but I still want a client to have a baseline set way of getting a meeting done. And whether that’s the net worth, the cash flow, a Monte Carlo, a set way we go through the recommendations, a set way that our team looks at a client’s plan. So that goes back to the quality of advice that I want to make sure all of my planners are approaching a plan the same way. And so that takes a lot of time, energy, training, and development because, yes, are you all being able to read a tax return and pull the same type of information off of it? Are you all going to spot the same mistakes that might exist in an estate plan, on a pay stub, wherever it is? So it takes a lot of dedicated effort to train the team, but that’s also why we decided to really make it a dedicated effort into having a planning team and not putting that on our advisors. That’s where I could see that the wheels sometimes come off the track because you’re getting people who aren’t in the software every day, all day. You know, eMoney is one click of a button and it could alter a plan and people can panic and not know what they did. So I decided to take that risk off the plate and say, I’m just gonna train a team that supports our advisors to do all that work. And I think that’s been really helpful in ensuring that we can have a consistent process, the same quality of advice. And I mean, to your point, not everyone can do that. Not everyone is at the size we are where they can build an entire planning team. But I think the more you look at dedicated roles and really making someone the subject matter expert of the software allows advisors to do what they do best, and that’s going to be the relationship part. And I think sometimes if you can pull those two apart, you’re gonna have a better planning experience.

Connor: Yeah. And you’re setting your business up for success by including somebody maybe younger in the process and on dedicated roles. It’s a soapbox that I will stand on forever.

Erin: You and I both. I’m very much about that.

Developing the Next Generation of Financial Planners

Sasha: Erin, I would really love, first off, that you said, you know, it’s like wizardry. It’s magic. eMoney is, you know, this piece. As a fellow Hufflepuff, I just think about the pieces of this that, you know, it is like magic putting pieces in Decision Center and watching it go. So, but as a leader in your firm’s internship and externship programs, I wanna hear a little bit more about the tech and the financial psychology skills that are evolving for that future financial planning, next gen. I wanna hear a little bit about that.

Erin: Yeah. So we just wrapped our summer program. Our interns actually all just kind of finished the last couple of weeks. And, you know, it’s a discussion we’re continuing to have about having them be there ongoing because, you know, again, that was my life. I was an ongoing intern and it was what got me here. But that is where, I mean, we train them in eMoney. I mean, we want them learning the planning. We want them to be a part of planning meetings. It’s important that they see everything we’re seeing from start to finish. Because I also think that’s gonna continue to motivate them into continuing with the CFP and the exam and, like, continuing in the industry, the more that they get to see really a true day in the life. So we do not hold back. I mean, we are not leveraging our interns to go clean up the CRM or cold call or make copies. They are in the weeds, touching documents, touching software, and working across our entire advisor and planning team, to be a part of that client relationship for the extent that they’re there.

Sasha: That’s awesome. And I would have loved that as a student, just being in the trenches, getting that relationship experience because definitely for a lot of students, we hear that they don’t get those pieces. So that’s awesome.

Erin: I mean, I still remember my internship, and I remember the first time I mean, at the time when I started, they used NaviPlan, the desktop version. So if anyone is familiar with that, it’s very archaic looking. And I remember the stack of documents they put on my desk and they said, here, go input it. And I had no idea what to do. I mean, I was 20 years old, barely knew what a 401(k) was. And here I am being given estate documents and tax returns and pay stubs sitting in front of me in a software that I was expected to input it into. But that’s what got me into it was, okay, how does this actually all work? What am I reading? What am I looking at? So I’m actually very grateful that they threw those projects at me. And I think that’s what we’ve tried to do in our internship because it has been the most impactful.

Connor: Honestly, that’s really great to hear. And as a previous intern at eMoney, I had a somewhat similar experience doing some data entry and that kind of cutting my teeth in the technology as well as understanding financial statements. And it definitely made a difference when it came time to actually understanding what some of the things that I was doing meant and some of the actual application of all of the stuff. I do want to just pivot a little bit towards the psychology. Obviously, the CFP board, having, within the last couple of years, made it part of the curriculum. So I think as the profession continues to move towards this more human-based relationship, or as I like to put it, humans helping humans, but you studied psychology in college. How do you think that that’s helped with your financial planning career? As you said, you’ve kind of stumbled your way through it, but it had to have had some meaningful impacts.

Erin: It really did. And I mean, whenever I tell people that I had that psychology component, they’re like, oh, you found the perfect industry. And I said, yeah, I really did because I never understood how numbers and people would really come together until you find financial services. And when I took the CFP, it was still the, like, you were tested on the six key areas and you were doing all the calculations. And all I kept thinking was like, software does this for me. Like, this is what software does. This doesn’t tell me that I can talk to a client and have a conversation when it comes to the hard stuff. So I love that the CFP board is migrating to that because I mean, if you think of where tech is headed, where AI is going to come in, it’s going to do a lot of the technical part, like, let me get the data in there. Let me solve and calculate that. But it’s not going to replace the human element of delivering the news and talking through it and educating a client. And that’s what I think is so necessary and needed is the people skills. So anytime I interview a potential planner, I will tell this to my director and my team. I’ll say, I can teach the technical skills. I can’t teach the people skills. I am probably more focused on finding someone who can have a conversation and is relatable than someone who can go, you know, tell me what a tax return says. That’s great. I can teach you that. So I think understanding or finding people that can have conversations, knowing you’re going to have great ones and you’re going to have really difficult ones, I think that’s a differentiator when you’re hiring someone for a role like this.

Connor: Especially, it sounds like the way that you guys are treating your internship and externship programs that it’s really helping students at that point figure out if it’s something they want to do. I think when you’re in school going through classes, building financial plans is, you know, less than half of the actual battle of becoming a financial advisor. So I commend you and the firm for how much time, effort, and capacity you guys are dedicating towards helping the next gen of financial professionals. You know, it’s, again, some aspect of mental gratification, I’m sure, but it’s definitely helping.

Erin: Yeah. I mean, I always, you know, whenever we interview interns and we always ask, what do you want to do in five years or where do you see yourself in the industry? The default is always an advisor. And it’s hard to hear that sometimes because, again, I’m not in a true, I mean, I’m in a planning role. I’ve always been in a client-facing role, but I never went the advisor route. And so I think this has been really great for what I tell people is to see like a ten thousand foot view of advisor life and just the industry itself to really make sure you’re in the right role. You know, do you like the client-facing aspect? Maybe you like being behind the scenes. Maybe the investment part of the conversation is what speaks to you. So I think being in a planning internship gives you a bird’s eye view of just all the different aspects of financial services. And I think helps you better identify where you actually see yourself in the industry once you graduate and move on.

Sasha: Again, I think that’s really powerful for students to really understand how and what they want to do. I think, like you said, they all want to be advisors. And I think that’s a, again, a really common thing. But that human element, I really want to go back to that human element, that relatable conversation. I want to know, like, what kind of questions are you asking them to get to know them a little bit more to understand that they are a good fit for the internship or the externship?

Erin: Yeah. I mean, a lot of it is, you know, one of the biggest things I look for and maybe there’s a little bit of bias here. I do always say that is I always like to understand if they’re willing to do this while going to school. Because I think that tells me a lot about their work ethic, their time management, their organization skills, and how they’re going to handle that. You know, if they can handle an entire workload of college classes and then come to an internship and give it their all, that tells me a lot. So if it’s someone who I think is just looking for the summer internship or sometimes what I like to say the resume booster, I try to get to the heart of that pretty quickly because I want to feel like you’re invested in learning and being a part of our firm or clients’ lives or seeing this ongoing. So I try to suss that out a little bit. And then I really try to make it conversational. I want to see how they can just talk to me. Sometimes they’re super nervous and they don’t want to, you know, they really want to focus on their technical skills, which I can totally appreciate. But let’s just have a conversation. Can you open up? Are you charismatic? You know, do I feel like there’s personality coming out in your answers? Are you expanding beyond the yes and no’s? Are you giving me color and examples behind what we ask? That tells me a lot about whether or not I think they’re going to be successful in our type of role.

Promoting Women in Financial Planning

Sasha: I do want to pivot just a little bit. And I know that you’re a really strong advocate for women in the financial services industry. And what advice do you have for leaders who want to see more women in advisory roles?

Erin: I think it comes down to compensation plans, you know, and this is something as I’ve worked a lot with the CFP Board’s women’s initiative council. You know, we talk about this a lot. Women are great at relationship management, but some of them are just terrified of sales goals and not wanting to go out and have to like, you know, hunt and kill. So I think it’s ensuring that you’re compensating them appropriately, allowing them to grow and build a practice that’s going to work for them. You know, being a mom of two, I also see, you know, the mom and the parent element come in a lot where, you know, a lot of times you’re bearing a lot of that responsibility as well. So you need that flexibility. And that’s where I always like to profess why this industry is actually so fantastic for a working parent because there can be so much flexibility. But I think it’s creating a little bit of psychological safety sometimes for women to ensure that they feel like they can, you know, be at the kids’ winter performance or duck out early because there’s practice while still being able to manage a book and hit the right goals. And I think it’s just important that firms really embrace that, allow for it, cultivate it, and support it.

Sasha: It’s like, as a woman, I find that very powerful, especially that hidden load that we talk about, that hidden load of women. Right? You know, not only being a mom and a spouse but also being a working individual. It’s a lot. So thank you.

Erin: And I never want to discredit the working dads. I always want to put it out there. It’s just when statistically women just bear it more. We just, we feel it more. It affects us differently. And I’ve seen it across the team that I’ve had. And I think it’s just it’s important to recognize. And, I mean, they always say the canned phrase, like, it starts at the top, but I make sure my team sees on my calendar if I’m going to be at any of my kids’ stuff. Cause I want them to know that I’m a mom too. And a lot of life happens between the hours of nine and five. And sometimes, you know, with the flexibility that this industry provides, I want my team to know that they can be at those things.

Sasha: But what a great role model you’re being for the next generation of women advisors to let them know, hey, it’s okay. I can go to my kids’ soccer game, baseball game, whatever it may be, and still have this wonderful, you know, work balance. It’s walking the talk, which I definitely commend you for. Uh, speaking of somewhat of building communities both inside your company and outside of your company, I know, you know, having worked with you for a while at this point that you’re part of the, well, the Southern California book club study group. I don’t do you guys have an official name?

Erin: We don’t, but we should come up with one because it’s about time. I mean, it’s been a couple of years now.

Connor: I think it would be that’d be a fun topic to cover. But I did just wanna, you know, a lot of advisers out there are looking for an additional community of, you know, advisers from all sizes, shapes of firms. But can you talk a little bit about how the group got together and some of the topics that you guys cover inside of your discussions?

Erin: I mean, the study group has been amazing. I mean, it really, I look forward to the sessions. I absolutely love it. So Hank, who’s our relationship manager, really is who helped coordinate it because Jennifer, who is at Mercer, was new in her role. And she reached out to Hank essentially saying like, Hey, can you connect me with people? You know, I’m new in this role. I’d love to talk with other directors of financial planning. So he reached out to myself, Susan, and Kelly to see if we would be interested in starting the study group. And we all jumped at it because to your point, we all want that community. We all want to talk. And it’s been honestly, I think it’s been a couple of years now. We meet about every six weeks. We’ve seen each other in person, which has been fun. And honestly, the topics range. I mean, some of them are very eMoney focused. Like we’ve had really great conversations with internal people at EP or I mean, at EP, at eMoney about the portal or enhancements or product suggestions that we would all like. But we’re also all females in the industry in leadership positions. So we’ve talked about that kind of, hey, prepping for a review, or I got this feedback from a team member. And others have been, we’re also in the world of M and A. So how are we supporting M and A? How are we bringing firms on? How are we finding talent? I mean, it’s, each session, I mean, people might throw out a topic, and the conversation just flows from there. They’ve been really, really rewarding, and I would definitely encourage others to reach out and start them because, yes, we’re all competitors. That’s what we all joke about. We’re all competitors. People might find it weird, like, are you just out there sharing secrets about what everyone does? And really, it’s not like that at all. I mean, we’re all playing with the same tools in the toolbox. It’s just how we deploy those tools that can be differentiators. It’s really a group that just supports one another. And that’s what I have found so great about it: the competition falls away, and it’s really a great opportunity for us to spend an hour just talking about life in this industry.

Connor: That’s wonderful. And more than anything, whether it’s eMoney facilitated or not, there are countless ways of finding communities of folks that, whether it’s geographic, gender, race, or whatever, try to find a place where you can have conversations with folks that are similar minded but also dissimilar, where you’re making each other better.

Sasha: I mean, I’m not in a leadership role, but I would love to join the study group. If you’ve got a membership open, please let me know.

Erin: It’s funny because so many people at my firm now know that I do this. So now I’m starting to reach out. Like, I have one of our members of our finance team reach out because she’s like, hey, Christopher, our CFO, mentioned you’re in the study group, and he thought this might be a good opportunity for me to start one. So, like, could you make an introduction? So, I mean, again, just start those conversations. Find someone who’s in like-minded roles as you. Find someone who might know someone at another firm because I bet someone in a finance team at another RIA would love to have a conversation about best practices and teams and all of that.

Advocating for Financial Literacy

Sasha: That’s awesome. In a similar vein, you’re a big advocate for financial literacy. And I want to know what projects you’re involved with at the moment that support this cause.

Erin: Yeah. So this really started for us about seven years ago when one of our interns coincidentally approached one of my colleagues saying her high school teacher was asking if we would come in and help present to her class. We brought it to our women’s initiative at the time. There was a group of about seven of us that raised our hands to say, yes, let’s go out there. We’ll build a presentation. We’ll build deliverables. Did it in about two weeks, and we went and delivered it to the class. And we left on such a high because of the questions that were being asked, how engaged the students were in really wanting to understand saving, budgeting, basics of investing, I mean, you name it. That propelled us to build this out to the point where I started cold emailing and cold calling schools just to offer this as a free service. I was like, let us come in. We just want to talk to your students about the importance of this. And we started getting responses. Schools really started saying, this would be great. Come in and talk at our career fair or come talk to our senior class that’s about to graduate. And that was just so fun. It’s been really rewarding to see the school impact of it. And then that’s where the externship came in because we were getting feedback that these one-and-done workshops, like, do we have anything else? Can something else happen to continue it? So that’s when we started the externship where we essentially allowed any students who participated in any of our financial literacy workshops to come into EP for a two-day, unpaid program. We usually do it in the summer. And we put them through from nine to five. They build a resume, they do a mock interview, they learn business communication and corporate etiquette skills, like proper things to say at work, dress code. We put them through a networking event. So I email the office and say, Hey, we’re having an ice cream social at three o’clock on Thursday. So they all rush the kitchen, and then the externs have to come in and actually network, and they can’t stay in their little bubble. They have to go talk to people at EP. So that’s been fun. And then they sit with our founders, and they learn about how they started the business and their entrepreneurial spirit. They meet with all the directors of the various departments. They do a stock market game. It’s a jam-packed two days. But what’s really great is that it’s a mixture of students interested in financial services and those that aren’t. I think of a student who joined who wanted to be a doctor, but he was like, I’m going to graduate with a ton of student loan debt. I need to know what to do with my finances. So I thought coming to a program like this for two days would be great. I’ve always appreciated that because of how forward-thinking he was, knowing the career that he was choosing. So we’re continuing to build on projects, like that is really where our focus is.

Sasha: This is such a great impact, especially for those students who are, you know, wanting to come into the industry and those who aren’t. So, I really commend you and especially those younger age groups, man, they really ask some of the really hard questions, I think so.

Erin: Yeah. I’ve never been asked more about how to monetize TikTok and YouTube before than starting to speak to high school students these days. I mean, when you think of, like, you know, like I mentioned, the guy who wants to be a doctor, the next guy wanted to be a rapper. So I was like, alright. I gotta walk the walk here of, you know, dreams versus reality, but it’s been pretty interesting to see just what kids these age, like, think about in terms of how they’re gonna make money and, like, live their life, you know, with influencing now being a thing and social media coming up more, you know, even like Bitcoin and things like that, that they hear about or they see, you know, on TikTok that they think is the reality of financial advice. So it’s like a little bit of myth-busting sometimes that has to happen.

Sasha: That’s good though. They need that myth-busting. I feel like there’s a lot of misinformation on TikTok. So but I’m just gonna be waiting for you to be a financial influencer on TikTok now.

Erin: Gotta talk to compliance. I would love to do that, but I don’t know. I mean, I feel like we got compliance entering the picture.

Connor: Well, while we wait for you to get onto TikTok, obviously we appreciate you recording this episode with us. You’ve been all over eMoney stuff between now the HOA podcast, been on the HOA blog, you’ve joined us for a Summit or two at this point. But how else can listeners hear more from you and get more of Erin’s insights?

Erin: Well, first, I appreciate it. I love getting to work with eMoney, and I’m grateful that you always reach out to collaborate because I’ve really appreciated the partnership. I mean, for me, it is, you know, find me at conferences. I love going to the local conferences. I also, as part of my CFP ambassadorship, write blogs for the letsmakeaplan.org website. So that is also where you’re gonna see more planning advice from me, on there.

Sasha: I just have one last question for you, Erin. And we always ask this to every advisor who’s on. It’s how would you define the heart of advice when it comes to financial planning?

Erin: I mean, I think the heart of advice is just finding that thing with the person in front of you. You know, what is that true goal? What is that one thing for them that is keeping them up at night with their finances and helping them solve for it? So whether it’s retiring, whether it’s paying off debt, sending their kids to college, I think truly getting to the heart of what is that part of their finances they think about the most and helping calm that, I think, is really what gets people ready to take action, ready to move forward, but also where you just see the impact of what you’re doing come to life.

Sasha: I think being that calm in the storm is a great way to say what an advisor can do with their clients. So, Erin, I’ve really enjoyed this conversation with you. You seem like a force, and it really comes through in this conversation. And I hope I get to meet you at a conference soon, but I know Connor and I have really enjoyed this conversation, and thank you for joining us.

Erin: Likewise. Thank you so much for having me.

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