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The business environment is complex and evolving more rapidly than ever. In order to position ourselves for success, we must understand prevailing environmental trends, how they impact what we do as assurance providers, and the opportunities they present.
Objectives:
- Analyze the trends in the environment that are impacting assurance practice
- Determine impacts on audit quality
- Discover insights into developments that will affect practice in the near future
- Evaluate new assurance opportunities
A truth has emerged: growth begins with behavior. The idea that growth begins with behavior should be no stranger to leaders of professional service, including advisory firm owners. While a focus on behavior has always been present, today there is a major trend within wealth management to help investors focus on their behavior and to shed light on how their actions and attitudes affect their retirement and financial goals. And yet, focusing on behavior is often the last place firm owners think to look when analyzing their own revenue and profit growth. In this session, you will learn the behaviors that are holding back growth, how to look at them differently, and how to overcome them to grow exponentially.
Objectives:
- Identify the three most common problems holding back firm growth, including how to capture overlooked opportunities for growth.
- Discover the most common firm growth barriers and how to overcome them.
With more than 500 different profession-specific software products to choose from in at least 30 different categories, building your tech stack is more complicated than ever. Join a panel of tech experts and business consultants as they survey the landscape and provide guidance on your selection process and what to look for in the CPA planner’s tech future.
Objectives:
- Develop an understanding of the profession’s current tech landscape.
- Create a process for comparing your evolving tech needs with the options in the marketplace.
- Identify some newer software functionality that most advisors are not familiar with.
- Discover what industry experts see coming from technology providers in the next 24 months, including new tech being developed commercially by advisory firms.
- Develop a workable strategy for staying current with technology trends and how to leverage your evolving tech stack.
Inclusion is often described as a Human Resources initiative along with Diversity and Culture. However, it is also a strategic business imperative that can lead to firm growth, increased clients, higher team retention and innovative offerings.
Objectives:
- More about inclusion’s positive impact on team engagement, client relationships, and business partnerships
- How to re-evaluate perceptions and thoughts to more effectively lead diverse team members
- How to increase retention and remove barriers that discourage a sense of belonging
This session will cover the adaptation of change and establishing a new normal.
We will learn how to maintain relationships, teamwork and networking in a new virtual workspace. Learn how to implement virtualization of staff management, client management, and selling. Also, learn to tailor hiring criteria and offering dynamic incentives to retain staff and appeal to incoming talent in today's competitive market. Learn how to take responsibility as a leader to create a people-first culture with emphasis on diversity and inclusion.
Objectives:
- Review the adaptation of change.
- Identify how to establish a new normal.
What have we learned from the past 15 months of living through a life changing pandemic? How has it changed the world around us in temporary and permanent ways? What does it mean for your firm and practice? Have you thought about what it looks like going forward? How has it impacted your clients and their perspective of their lives, goals, ambitions and future direction?
This session will give you the perspectives on these questions from three of the thought leaders in the CPA Financial Planning Profession. These leaders have been thinking deeply about these issues from Day One of the pandemic through their own firms, study groups, and various webinars and conference presentations. Now, as we hopefully see some light at the end of the COVID tunnel, how do we capture the lessons learned from this experience to make our firms, our clients lives, and us better?
Objectives:
- Identify critical pandemic impacts to your firm and how you can prosper going forward.
- Recognize client post-pandemic concerns and how to deepen client relationships using life planning concepts.
- Recognize the value of focusing on both client and technical perspectives in client discussions on retirement, income tax, estate planning and other financial planning.
- Review how the future of the financial advisory profession has changed from our collective pandemic experiences.
2020 was a unique time to lead a practice. There were many DEI related circumstances that impacted firms where leaders were unsure how to navigate. It uncovered diversity focus areas that needed revisiting, and identified the need for difficult conversations to take place among peers. In this panel discussion, attendees will learn how to better maneuver through these different situations, understand steps that need to be taken to advance DEI in their firms, and hear tips for how to handle and manage difficult conversations. Panelists will share and discuss their experiences and the importance of being able to respond appropriately in times of crisis.
Objectives:
- Determine how to lead and move teams forward in times of uncertainty.
- Identify skills and tools that will advance DEI in your organization.
- Discover how to make the uncomfortable comfortable when leading teams.
The much-debated ruling by the US Supreme Court forcing the NCAA to alter long-standing financial policies around collegiate athletics, athletes and teams speaking out on social issues, and the Tokyo Olympics taking place amid a global pandemic has made the intersection of business and sports more apparent and newsworthy than ever.
The role of the trusted, professional financial advisor is critical from the onset of an athlete’s career requiring an understanding of financial literacy, wealth management and compliance. Given the stunningly short, average length of a player’s career, preparing for the day the buzzer sounds should start well before they sign their first professional contract.
This session features lessons learned from three groundbreaking professionals - Amobi Okugo, Jeremy Bloom and Nicole Lynn - each bringing their own unique perspectives on overcoming adversities, maximizing opportunities and navigating an often treacherous business environment on and off the field.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated change in the profession. This panel discussion will provide insights into the trends and issues impacting the profession and how these are creating new opportunities to thrive in the future.
Objectives:
- Describe the current economic environment and important issues impacting the accounting and finance profession.
- Recognize how accountants are leading in economic recovery efforts and hear how the Association is supporting them through advocacy, resources and learning.