So what’s the secret to getting ahead at work? I asked my co-workers for their best career advice when I surveyed my peers for professional feedback as I left my last job.  Here’s how I worded it:

“Please share one piece of advice that has been the most valuable for you in furthering your career and professional development. Make it your best career tip, the one that’s been most effective for you”.

I got an interesting mixture of tips ranging from work/life balance, to avoiding embarrassing mistakes, to acting like you know what you’re talking about when you’re in charge.  I worked with a lot of these people for many years and for the most part they’re pretty smart and reasonable workers so check out the tips that have served them best in their career:

Be Honorable and Decent

I have always tried to do the honorable and decent thing. I’m not sure that it has helped my career in a tangible sense, but I am glad that I have done it even if it hasn’t.

If something goes wrong, it is better to confess and fix the problem than conceal the problem. The cover-up is almost always worse than the original problem.

It is much better to deliver bad news in advance than it is to deliver it by surprise at the last minute.

Take a Deep Breath & Pause

Take a few minutes before responding to anything.  Read that email or listen to that voicemail several times before responding – especially if it is a high pressure/client sensitive situation.  The initial reaction to a message may not be what the sender intended as well as you may find an alternative message you wish to convey and if you react quickly, you may miss the point or miscommunicate.

Work to Live, Don’t Live to Work

Don’t put your ALL in your work, share some with your LIFE.  After being sick, it was very clear that jobs, projects, and other highly prioritized events in my life could vanish overnight.  Your family, friends, and things you enjoy should get the best time and attention you’ve got.

Learn and Record

Ask lots of questions and take lots of notes!!

Issue Management

No matter what, there are only three ways to deal with a bad situation:
1.  Talk to someone to see if you can change it;
2.  Leave the situation;
3.  If none of the above work, change your attitude.

Management Tip

When in a management position, you do not have to know the answer to everything. Be prepared to know how to get the answer.

Always Be Positive

always stay positive around your peers. a positive attitude, no matter how much you don’t like a situation, will go further is being successful, than you will ever get by following the crowd of people that bitch about how bad things are going….

Don’t Over-Worry

If you can’t control it, worrying about it is a waste of time.

Learn the Rules

Procedure, procedure, procedure!  Especially in Corporate America, you have to know how things get done.  If you don’t know, ask.  You have to know what the proper procedures are before you can know how to bend them without breaking them.  And as a programmer, you will have to bend them sooner or later.

Put Family First

Don’t sacrifice family time for more pay and responsibility at work.

If you’ve gotten something out of the series of career tips I’ve been running over the last few weeks, click here to subscribe to Money Smart Life for more money tips and advice for a better life!

Have any career advice of your own that you’d like to share with everyone? Feel free to leave your tip in the comment section below.

Career tips are most valuable when they are specific and come from people who are familiar with your industry or working environment.

Career Feedback

Readers were inquiring about the results of the 360 degree feedback survey I ran when I left my job so I thought I’d share some of the responses.  A little background, I was a team lead in my last position and was responsible for a group of software developers, ranging in size from 3 – 6 people over the last several years.

Self Improvement

One of the questions I asked was, “Name and explain 3 things I need to work on professionally that would make me a better person to work with.” Here are some of the things other team leads and some of my team members think I need to improve on:

Be less tolerant of poor performance from your direct reports.
Related to above, don’t step in and ’save’ your direct reports too often. They need to be accountable for their mistakes.

I sometimes struggle with delegation and in an effort to make each project successful I would step in and help carry the load of their projects if they were behind their due dates.  There were a few cases where projects were behind due to poor performance of team members and I should have done a better job addressing their weak points so it wouldn’t happen again in the future.

1.  Better organizational skills, his desk looks like mine
2.  Work more with junior developers to make them more self sufficient.

My desk was definitely messy : )  I need to come up with a filing system at my next job.  Going back to the first response, I let my team members lean on me too much, I should have done more to “get them out of the nest”.

The only thing I think you need to work on are verbal (speak more clearly and loudly) and written (make documents more universally readable)communication skills

I do tend to mumble when I’m thinking out loud; I need to work on my annunciation when I speak.  I’ll have to follow up on the “make documents more universally readable” point and see what they meant.  Maybe I put too much unexplained technical jargon in documents.

As my team lead and coworker I seriously have had zero issues with you but if I have to come up with something that will help you professionally, the only thing I can think of is talk slower at times, Not all of us can keep up

I mentioned that I mumble when I’m thinking out loud, I also tend to talk really fast when I’m excited or “in the zone” and solving problems.  I need to remember to take deep breaths between sentences if I feel like I’m talking too fast.

The only other thing i can thing of is showing confidence in your answers and decisions . not that you were really weak in this area, but once again, something that might need to be better developed as you move up…”

Of course being in charge means you have to make decisions, something I’m not always the best at. Some days are better than others but there were definitely times when I’d go back and forth before making a big decision about a project or issue.  I need to come up with a systematic way of analyzing decisions and gauging risk that will allow me to make faster decisions.

Feedback Results

The responses are still coming in but so far my survey has shown me areas where I can improve my communication, organization, leadership, and delegation skills.  I’ll share some of the other results later in the week.

When you leave a job behind, if you don’t solicit feedback from your co-workers, you’re missing out on a golden self-improvement opportunity.

Last Day of Work

Today was my last day at work, after working for this company for almost nine years I’m making a change and trying something new.  As I filled out my exit interview online and answered question after question about my boss, my group, and the company I realized I was providing human resources and management with a lot of useful feedback.

360 Degree Feedback

I saw an opportunity to help myself professionally so I built a short survey with SurveyGizmo and emailed it out to my managers and co-workers.  After working closely with me for many years, they knew my strengths and weaknesses well and it was a perfect chance to have them tell me what I was doing well and where I needed some work.  Getting feedback from all levels of your job hierarchy like this is sometimes known as 360 feedback:

“360-degree feedback, also known as ‘multi-rater feedback’, ‘multisource feedback’, or ‘multisource assessment’, is employee development feedback that comes from all around the employee. “360″ refers to the 360 degrees in a circle. The feedback would come from subordinates, peers, and managers in the organizational hierarchy, as well as self-assessment, and in some cases external sources such as customers and suppliers or other interested stakeholders.”

Self Improvement Survey

Our typical review process is top-down, from our managers only, so this was a perfect chance for peers and my team members to let me know where I needed work.  I kept it short so people would have time to take it and left the answers open ended so they could write as little or as much as they wanted.  Below are the questions I asked:

1) Describe my contribution to one project where I did a great job or helped you out.  Pick one that really stands out in your mind and explain why you were impressed with my performance. Just to let you know, these are for the resume in case my next job doesn’t work out

Testimonials are wonderful things for a resume.  If you spent years successfully completing projects, don’t hesitate to ask for some documentation of your effort.

2) Name and explain 3 things I need to work on professionally that would make me a better person to work with. It could be a better employee, manager, developer, communicator. Just describe 3 things you think I do poorly or that could use improvement.

Not everyone gave three but most people gave at least one thing I could work on.  After looking through the responses, there were several things I wouldn’t have thought of that could definitely increase my value as an employee if I could improve them.

3) In your mind, what are my 3 best attributes? I’m looking for professional development feedback here so please don’t answer something like nice shoes.

It’s helpful to know what you’re good at.  Especially when you’re in an interview and they ask for the 3–5 adjectives that best describe you or what your strengths are.  Now you don’t have to think about it, your co-workers will tell you!

4) Please share one piece of advice that has been the most valuable for you in furthering your career and professional development. Make it your best career tip, the one that’s been most effective for you

Everyone has a nugget of wisdom to share that has made their work life easier or help them in getting raises and promotions.  Why not find out everyone’s “secret to success”?

On the Way Out the Door

Of course you can run a survey like this while you’re still working at a company too, the benefit to doing it when you’re leaving is that people feel more open about sharing your pros and cons since they don’t have to work with you anymore.

I also asked for their email address (non-work) as part of the survey so that I can keep my professional network growing the next time it’s time for another job change.  Of course I made the email optional so they didn’t have to share if they didn’t want to.

So next time you get a new job, make sure you find out from your peers, managers, and underlings where you can improve so you can fast track your way to success, and hopefully corresponding raises and promotions.

If you love your job, consider yourself lucky, there are many people that hate their boss, their job, and what they do. If you are unhappy with your job, you owe it to yourself to figure out what it is about the work that you don’t enjoy and change it.  Life’s too short to spend it working in a job you don’t like.

What Do You Like/Dislike About Your Job?

As you may know I recently found a new job and had to fill out an exit interview for my current employer, giving them feedback on my experience with the company.  As I answered questions about my boss, my group, and the work I did, I realized that I was going through an exercise in job quality improvement.   In order to attract and keep good talent, the company was reviewing the components that can make or break a job so they can do more to remain competitive in the industry.

What Can Make Your Job Better?

Then I realized that this exit interview is actually a perfect set of questions for any employee to ask themselves to help gauge how happy they are in thier job.  I’m including all 20 questions below so that you can evaluate your job.  Your answers will show where there is room for improvement. You’ll benefit from taking the time to answer these questions whether you love your job, think your job is just okay, or are already looking for a new job. 

Love Your Job
If you’re content where you are, just remember there’s always room for improvement, you can talk to your boss about any questions or concerns the survey raises.

Unhappy with Your Job
If you’re not really that happy but don’t want to look for a new job, these questions can help identify your main gripes with the work you do and figure out the main things you need to address to be happy at work.

Looking for a new job
If you’re on the job hunt, these are all things you’ll want to consider when selecting your next job.  No point in jumping from a job you hate into another that’s not so great. You could definitely use some of the topics covered in the questions as evaluation criteria in your job comparison tool.

Job Satisfaction Survey

Here they are, 20 questions that a big company asks its employees when they leave the company.  Answer them about your current job to see how happy you really are or what you should look for in your new job.  Some of the questions are worded such that they assume you’re leaving, just play along and see what you come up with.  For example, your answer to the first question, “Why are you leaving the company”, should reveal right away a high level list of all the things you don’t like about your current job.

I started off this piece by saying, “If you love your job, consider yourself lucky”, but in reality many people who work in jobs they enjoy are there because they took the time to answer questions like these and then acted on their answers.  Take the time to answer the questions below and help yourself find a job that you look forward to going to each day. I know 20 questions can be a lot to answer so I alternated the colors to keep your eyes interested : )

1) Why are you leaving the company?

2) What prompted you to look for another job? 

3) Before making the decision to leave the company, did you investigate other options that would have enabled you to stay?

4) Could anything have been done to prevent you from leaving the company? 

5) What company will you work for?

6) What type of work will you be doing?

7) In what way do you consider your new position to be different?

8 ) How would you rate your immediate manager? 

• Demonstrated fair treatment
• Provided recognition of your job performance 
• Developed cooperation and teamwork
• Was available to answer questions
• Resolved problems in a timely manner
• Provided resources/information to perform your job duties
• Communicated policies, procedures and expectations
• Provided regular, timely performance feedback
• Encouraged suggestions and new ideas 

9) What would you have done differently if you were the immediate manager?

10) How would you rate the following in your department?  

• Teamwork within the department
• Teamwork with other departments
• Communication within the department
• Communication with other departments
• On-the-job training
• Equipment provided
• Physical working conditions
• Overall morale 

11) How did your management communicate job expectations?

12) Was your workload usually?
Too Great   About Right   Too Light   Too Routine

13) Were your skills and abilities sufficiently utilized?

14) What did you think your chances for advancement were?
Good   Fair   Poor

15) What did you like most about your job or department?

16) What did you like least about your job or department?

17) What did you like the most about the company?

18) What did you like the least about the company?

19) Evaluate the following company-paid benefits:  

• Paid holidays  
• Paid floating holidays 
• Paid vacation or PTO 
• Paid sick time 
• Rate of pay
• Stock service awards program
• 401(k) plan match/profit sharing
• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Long-term disability insurance
• Life insurance 

20) Evaluate the following additional benefits/services:                        

• Vision insurance 
• Voluntary life insurance/AD&D 
• Short-term disability insurance 
• Leave of absence policy 
• Wellness programs
• Educational assistance
• 401(k) plan
• Direct deposit
• Total pay card
• Internal on-line job posting  

If you do decide to leave your current job just remember to calculate the costs of a new job, carefully evaluate the new city if re-locating, plan for health insurance coverage, make sure you rollover your 401k, and give two weeks notice so you don’t burn any bridges.

This job satisfaction survey and tips on job evaluation are part of the Career Finances Guide.

As I was looking for a new job I was reminded of how many key personal finance concerns are tied to our employers.  Of course it’s not just how much you’re paid but also things like health insurance, retirement savings, and even life insurance or disability insurance coverage.

Career Finances

The financial intricacies of finding a good employer can be pretty overwhelming and in some cases can be the cause for people staying in jobs that aren’t necessarily right for them.

I heard a piece on the radio a while back that talked about the history of corporate benefits and how they fit into the economic landscape of the United States.  Due to the rising cost of providing these benefits and smaller profits resulting from increased global competition, corporations are cutting back on the benefits they offer.  This leaves us employees the task of maximizing the benefits we can get from our job and learning about what we can do to cover the gaps.

Managing Job Benefits

While there are certainly things you can do to increase your salary, such as learning the company salary policy and promoting yourself you should be sure to consider all the financial aspects of the job you work in.  In the coming days we’ll be covering some of common issues and questions people encounter about benefits and finances when looking for a job.

So far we’ve covered a tool for comparing jobs, tips on determining the cost of relocation if you move for a new job, and some of the expenses of a new job that you might encounter.

Click here to stay tuned for more coverage of career finance.

Quitting your job can be quite a liberating experience.  The weight of “all things crappy” in your job is lifted off your shoulders and you feel as though you can finally breath again.  Yet, no matter how bad your job seems at the time you leave, it’s wise to quit your job gracefully and not burn your bridges.

My Two Weeks Notice

After almost nine years of working for the same group, I had a long talk with my boss yesterday where I gave my two weeks notice and let him know I was taking a better job for a lower salary.  Of course I didn’t word it in that way, he asked about the reasons I was leaving and I was honest yet tactful.

The main reason for exiting cordially is that you never know when you’ll need a job or a reference in the future so it’s smart to keep the relationship you built intact.  In my case it was also because I’ve become friends with my boss and many of my co-workers.  However from a purely career-centric point of view, leaving gracefully keeps your professional network intact should you need to call on it sometime down the road.

Here are a few things to consider as you leave your job for greener pastures:

Give Two Weeks Notice

In many companies you’re required to give the official notice and go through an exit interview otherwise you forfeit being paid out accrued benefits such as vacation days.  Some companies have a policy that you can’t be re-hired in the future if you don’t give proper notice before leaving.

Wrap it Up

It’s really tempting to wash your hands of everything you’ve been working on and cruise through the last two weeks but if you dump a load of work on your co-workers or boss that will be the last thing they remember about you.  If you come looking for a job or referral in the future that last bitter memory will likely be the first to pop up.

Transition Responsibility

Let people know where all the bodies are buried.  Train your co-workers on necessary tasks and document important processes.  If you don’t do this you may be getting phone calls and emails for weeks or months after you leave your job.  Plus your co-workers will really appreciate the documentation.

Manage Change

Try and avoid the sinking ship syndrome.  When someone leaves a group, especially if they’re in a leadership or key operational role, the people left behind often ask themselves whether they’ll be the last ones left on a sinking ship. 

• Why are you leaving?
• What will happen once you’re gone?
• Is the group or company in trouble?
• Will they have to work overtime to make up for your absence?
• Should they start looking for a new job as well?

These thoughts will likely go through people’s heads in a time of change but you can help calm their fears by the way you handle your exit.  Announce your departure personally to your core team, the people you work with on a daily basis, so that they hear it from you instead of the rumor mill.  Tactfully explain your reasons for leaving, don’t bad mouth the company or other co-workers.  Be ready to answer questions about transitioning responsibilities and shifting project work. 

Smile On the Way Out

Those poor suckers are still stuck working there and you’re moving on!  So smile and be friendly on the way out the door.  You can’t help but feel bad for your co-workers as you leave for bigger and better things.  If you can quit gracefully and leave as a friend it will be better off for your career in the long run.

I’ve been on the job hunt lately and one of the questions employers frequently ask is if I’d be open to relocation.  Here are a few tips from the Financial Planning Association on some things to consider when relocating for a job.

Make sure you thoroughly research the new city well before agreeing to take a job there.  You have to weigh potential salary increases against the cost of living in the new city.  Here are some resources you can use in your research:

• Local newspapers and city magazines, either in print or online
• The destination city’s Web site
• The destination state’s department of revenue and education Web sites
• Online real estate listings 
• Your tax and financial planning professionals
• Utility websites and the American Automobile Association (AAA) daily fuel gauge report to determine your energy spending

Here are some ideas to incorporate into a money plan for a future move:

Study the destination’s cost of living: Most people have a fantasy spot or two in their minds of where they’d like to live.  For most, it’s all about the weather, the culture and creature comforts.  But before you relocate, drill deeper. For starters, onsite or online, it makes sense to study not only rental rates or home prices, but property, local and state tax rates, food and entertainment prices, and given current energy concerns, utility and gasoline prices and whether public transit options are available. And don’t just focus on current numbers – read ahead to see where these costs are going.

Check ahead on insurance: It’s particularly important for self-employed business people to check on what individual and group health insurance may cost in a new destination. But everyone should check on what rental, home, auto and even new life insurance policies may cost. On the home or rental insurance front, it’s also a good idea to see if there are restrictions on any pets or property insurable in that area. If you are changing employers, you should make sure your former employer keeps you on your health plan through COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) so you will have coverage until you move on to new insurance. It’s also a good idea to make sure that insurance will cover you adequately in that new city or state.

Compare benefits:  If you have the option of moving to a new city through a transfer at your employer – or if you expect that to be the only option for keeping your job – it makes sense to do some casual investigation in your human resources department right now to check moving allowances, whether all current benefits will extend to a new location, or whether there are any improvements over your current benefits after the move.

Talk to your tax professional: If you are moving more than 50 miles farther from your former home than your old main job location was from your former home, your move will meet one of the main requirements that will allow you to deduct expenses related to that move. You’ll want to talk to your tax professional about that and other major tax issues you’ll face at your new location, and you may also want to go over deductibility of items you may want to give to charity so you don’t have to move them.

Check critical amenities: It’s important to know the quality of an area’s schools (this is important for all taxpayers, not just those with school-aged children), crime rates in various neighborhoods (and if they’re improving or deteriorating) and the quality of nearby health facilities.  Having access to the best private or public services where you live is always smart money thinking.

Plan your financial services before your move: The financial professionals and services you currently use may or may not be available to you if you move to a new city or state.  If you are working with a longtime tax professional, tax attorney or financial planner, see if you can still work with them after you move.  There might be a host of reasons those relationships may need to end. Various professionals may need to be licensed or certified to serve clients who live in other states or countries. The time to look for a talented referral is now, not on moving day.

Pack smart:  All critical financial data and papers should be organized and ordered so you don’t lose key documents. Carry them with you if that’s possible. At the same time, if you keep financial data on your computer, do a thorough backup that you can keep in a safe place with all your key documents and files.

This post is produced in association with the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the leadership and advocacy organization connecting those who provide, support and benefit from professional financial planning.

Do you put your entire work history on your resume or only jobs that are relevant to the position you’re applying for?

We’ve been doing a lot of interviewing at work lately and I’ve noticed that a lot of applicants list every single job they’ve ever had on their resume, regardless of whether they’re applicable to the job they’re applying for.

Looking at it from the perspective of the candidate, I guess they’re trying to show a long steady history of work ethics and continuous employment. Some of the jobs are quite diverse which I suppose could catch a potential employer’s eye and help them stand out. 

Just listing all your past jobs isn’t such a big deal but when you give extensive detail on past (irrelevant) jobs and even discuss them in the application letter or email it seems almost a form of “resume stuffing”.  As if you don’t have all the skills necessary for the job in question so you talk at length about other qualifications.

So what do you think, from the perspective of someone doing the interviewing/hiring for a specialized job do you care that the candidate delivered pizzas in high school?  When you submit your own resume, how do you decide which details to include and which to leave off? You can share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Below is an email I sent to my team recently giving them the option to have some feedback into their annual performance reviews.  In the past, team leaders have filled out all the information but I think each person is their own best advocate so I wanted to hear what each person had to say. 

I was a little surprised when one person sent back the form with only three or four sentences filled out.  If you have an opportunity similar to this in your job, wouldn’t you put as much detail into it as you could to create the best performance review possible?  As I mentioned, you know best all the work you’ve done and things you’ve accomplished at work so be sure to let your boss know those things when it’s time for reviews. Promote yourself to get promoted : )

=============================

John has informed me its time for annual reviews again. I’d like to incorporate your input into the review document so please send me any information you think is relevant, ex: projects you’ve worked on, congratulatory emails, achievements, training you’ve attended, process improvements, etc.

I’ve attached the form that will be used for the appraisal so you can get a feel for what kind of information is documented. Pay particular attention to:

SECTION I
Information that would be helpful here is a list of the projects you’ve worked on/contributed to over the last year.

SECTION II
As you can see off to the right of this section is where ratings are assigned for each Goal Area.  The Results column is where specifics are entered to support the rating.  Any details you can provide on how you helped work towards those goals during your projects would be useful.

SECTION III
This is similar to SECTION II except it measures the performance factors listed rather than the goals addressed in SECTION II.  You can offer your thoughts and examples on how you performed in each of the performance factors.

One of the things that we include in the appraisal are things to work on next year so be sure to include things you’d like to learn, projects you’d like to be involved in, or things you might want to work on next year.

Feedback Optional
Although I won’t necessarily be able to incorporate all the information you send into the document, I wanted to give you the opportunity to provide your input since you’re the most familiar with all of your accomplishments.  You don’t have to send me anything if you don’t want to, it’s just a way to allow everyone to participate in the appraisal process.

What would you do if your boss pulled you aside today to let you know your position had been eliminated and they were letting you go?  Are you financially prepared for this type of bad news? In today’s world of corporate mergers and cost cutting it never hurts to be ready for the unexpected. The Financial Planning Organization suggests these steps to help prepare financially for the loss of a job.

Build your emergency fund
If you don’t have three to six months worth of savings in an interest-bearing account for emergencies, start socking it away. Try to find an account with an automatic deposit feature so you never have to worry about missing a week of savings. Wondering where you’ll find that extra money? Start tracking your spending.

Slash your high-interest debt
While times are good, cut your spending so you can eliminate credit card, auto and home equity debt first. That’s the kind of debt that’s extremely punishing if you’re out of work. The sooner you can learn to manage debt and use it only for reasonable purposes, the sooner you’ll be on your way to a savings and investment cushion that will protect you in good times and bad.

Keep networking
It’s always a good idea to get to know your peers in the city or town where you work. It’s particularly wise to make the time to network while you’re still employed because you might get the lead on your next job well in advance of the time when you may need it. The money you spend on membership in a group or association key to your industry may be the best money you’ve ever spent. Plus, it may be tax-deductible.

Get a line of credit while you’re still working
If you own a home, consider taking out a home equity line of credit and vow never to touch it unless you run into a serious cash flow problem if you lose your job. If you don’t touch it, it won’t cost you anything. Make sure you apply for the line while you’re still working – lenders want to see that steady salary.

Use your company’s education dollars
Sharpen your skills on the company dime. Take classes that will improve your skills at this company or other employers down the line.

Apply for disability coverage while you’re still working
Personal disability coverage is increasingly important as companies continue to pare benefits. Group disability coverage can be threadbare if you have a lengthy illness or disability. Plus, it makes sense to buy personal disability coverage based on your current income. You won’t be able to buy as much if your income goes down.

Apply for your child’s college financial aid while you’re working
If you have a child in college or ready to go to college, make sure you have filled out the FAFSA – the Free Application for Student Financial Aid – on time. Even if you don’t need the money now, there are hardship forms that can be filled out later in case your child needs the aid and you’re without a job.

Understand your benefits
If you are laid off, you will qualify for a continuation of your employer’s health insurance benefits through COBRA. The federal Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act allows an individual to buy coverage from his former company for 18 months (or more in certain situations) due to employment termination or reduction of hours of work. You’ll end up paying the amount of your total premium since the boss doesn’t have to pay his share anymore, but at least your coverage won’t change. If you’re married, see if you can switch to your spouse’s health coverage – it might save more money than going COBRA. Also, check out what your unemployment benefit will be ahead of time so you can budget.

Stay away from your 401(k)
The possibility of losing your job is an excellent reason never to take out a 401(k) loan. You’ll need to pay it back before your last day at work. And don’t even think about tapping retirement savings if things get tough. Find another way to shore up your cash flow.

This column is produced by the Financial Planning Association (FPA), the leadership and advocacy organization connecting those who provide, support and benefit from professional financial planning.