Best Conferences for RIAs to Attend
June 29, 2022 | RIA Resources
In the previous article, we explored the benefits of attending in-person conference events along with the various types of RIA conferences. In this article, we’ve gathered reviews from several sources to make our picks and we looked at speaker selection, venue, and overall execution. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to make the best choices to advance your RIA goals.
The Best Conferences for RIAs to Attend
Here are our favorites for RIAs to attend in 2022 and put on your calendar for 2023 and beyond.
FPA NorCal
While this is a “regional” conference of the Financial Planners Association (FPA), this event is now in its 50th year – and feels much more like a national conference given the significant number of nationally-known speakers and an impressive list of sessions across six separate tracks.
There’s a reason why FPA NorCal has become a popular destination for both firms and attendees. Northern California, and especially the Bay Area, has some of the highest concentrations of wealth in the country. As a result, there is a similarly high concentration of financial planners.
The event sells out most years, as the Palace Hotel in San Francisco only has a 600-person capacity. But it’s well run and relatively inexpensive compared to other conferences with similar offerings, and there’s plenty do in the area to make a working vacation of it if tickets are still available.
Future Proof Festival
Future Proof is a brand-new event for 2022, aiming to take educational conferences to the next level – while also making them more tolerable. The event will occur along a half-mile portion of the beachfront in Huntington Beach, California, with four days of outdoor CE sessions, debates, food, and entertainment.
If this sounds a lot like South By Southwest (SXSW), that’s because it’s supposed to. Organizers are calling it “the world’s largest wealth festival” and are not only inviting advisors, but the entire financial industry to attend – including wealth management, asset management, financial planning, fintech, cryptocurrencies, brokerages. and banking. The hope is that, like SXSW is for Silicon Valley, Future Proof becomes more of a cultural event than simply a financial conference.
Ticket prices are just $450, with organizers hoping to attract more than 3,000 attendees, which would make it one of the largest RIA events of the year. While there’s no guarantee it will be that successful, it is run by the organizers of the successful Inside ETFs and WealthStack conferences and is one of Mike Kitces’ ‘new conferences to watch’ in 2022.
AICPA & CIMA ENGAGE
If the idea of a SXSW-like atmosphere while working towards CE credits isn’t appealing or sounds distracting, consider ENGAGE instead. This conference offers a more traditional experience, with the opportunity to earn up to 41.5 credits over the four-day event (although advisors will find the first three days the most useful).
While the conference caters to CPAs looking to make the natural transition over to an advice-based business, RIAs will find the personal financial planner (PFP) track useful. With over eight hours of CE per day, if you can handle the workload and are looking for some more advanced content to challenge yourself, ENGAGE is worth checking out.
Your Custodian’s Conference
Attending your custodian’s yearly conferences is always a good idea. While these events focus on a particular firm and its products and services, some offer additional programming dealing with the industry and its challenges. Here are a few of the largest events:
Summary
With most conferences taking ample precautions to protect attendees, including vaccination requirements and improved air circulation and filtration, these steps make it safer to attend in person.
Try to attend at least a few industry gatherings this year to stay up to date on industry trends and changes, some of which you might have missed over the pandemic. If you’re not yet comfortable, most events offer an online option (or access to recorded sessions) so that you don’t miss out on these conferences’ informational and educational aspects.
The Shoestring RIA is a series of articles written and published by the BillFinTM team at Redi2 Technologies designed to help RIAs as they start out on their own. We recognize just how challenging it is to venture out and build a successful business. Our articles will be focused on helping these new businesses with a wide range of topics.
