Evidence-Based Financial Planning : To Learn . . . Like a CFP

• The financial planning profession's body of knowledge consists of a mix of consensus-based best practices and research-based findings founded upon formal standards of evidence. Even a cursory examination of that body of writing and codified practice, however, reveals the former to vastly dominate the latter. • The scientific method provides a framework for validating the profession's best practices, so that practitioners can have confidence that their “best” practices are based on the “best” evidence.• If financial planning is to leave its adolescent stage of development and achieve its full potential as a learned profession, three requirements must be met: - It will require a commitment by all practitioners to stay abreast of new research, without regard to whether or not it qualifies for CE credit. - It will require practitioners to possess or acquire the ability to read and critically evaluate that research and a commitment by financial planning educational programs to impart those skills to students. - It will require a commitment on the part of practitioners to partner with academics in identifying the profession's most important questions and designing research initiatives to answer them