The words of Michael Jackson echoed in my mind when I received my final* financial planning designation, the CLU®, short for Chartered Life Underwriter®. Now I’m happy to report that I have four sets of financial planning credentials after my name and as far as my continuing education goes, this is it. Seventeen years of post-secondary learning is enough, at least that’s how I felt when I first wrote this note.
If you are from my generation, you may remember how Michael Jackson referred to what was to be his final concert tour. “This is it” he said about that series of shows he planned that would culminate his live performance career. Sadly, he passed before the tour started. I’m happy to report that I do not suspect that I am near death as I embark on what feels to be the mid-point of my post broadcast news career.
The CLU® designation is nearly 100-years old. My view is that one of the most important aspects of it is the curriculum around wealth legacy planning. This is not meant to be advertisement. It is to say that my belief is, everyone deserves excellence when it comes to the field of money, because the world of money matters can be quite confusing. That’s exactly why I’ve chosen to dedicate myself to a high level of learning. I truly want to help as many people as possible to navigate the field of finance and so to my friends I say, thank you for taking the time to read this and thank you for indulging me.
Sincerely,
Byron Harlan, CFP®, ChFC®, RICP®, CLU®
P.S. The asterisk in my first sentence represents a caveat. The truth is, I’m contemplating adding the CDFA® designation to my resume at the end of this year. That stands for CERTIFIED DIVORCE FINANCIAL ANALYST® and yes, it must be written in all capital letters. My wife has already earned it and we have found that people who get divorced can use a hand with their financial circumstances. Roughly two-million people in North America will get divorced this year. That statistic comes from the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts. So maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but divorce can be extremely difficult and we believe it can be quite valuable to help people navigate that process in a well-informed way. So, if Michael Jackson had lived and was healthy, would he have contemplated a follow-up tour?