Everything changes and nothing stands still.

Even a cursory review of the past decade highlights this truth. Yet as many financial advisers close out 2015, they will make no plans for their businesses to grow, change or adapt in 2016. In fact, according to The Future of Practice Management study conducted by the FPA Research and Practice Institute, a research entity of the Financial Planning Association, half of the nearly 2,400 advisers studied did not have a business plan, and 46 percent did not have a plan in place for their own retirement. While clearly ironic in a profession that expounds the virtues of planning as a fundamental part of clients’ long-term financial success, it could also be an indication of a lack of direction among many of today’s financial planning firms.

Such lack of planning begs the question: If few banks today would lend money to a business without a strategic plan for growth and operation, why should clients entrust their money