In this episode of The Smarter Planner Podcast, host Belle Osvath, CFP®, welcomes Nicky Amore, MBA, MA, CFP®, CPWA®, ChSNC®, CFT™, CCFC, a wealth advisor who is also a certified financial therapist. Nicky teaches CFP exam coursework, serves as an adjunct college professor, and works with families navigating disability, caregiving, and long-term care. In this conversation, Nicky draws a clear line between three practices that often get blurred together. Financial counseling adds skills around budgeting and debt management. Financial planning adds tax strategy, insurance, and investments. Financial therapy goes a step further and asks a different kind of question, the one she opens with: what did you learn about money as a kid? She notes that the question is almost always followed by a sharp intake of breath, and that what surfaces is usually less about the numbers than about what someone does not want to repeat. Much of the conversation looks at where Nicky applies financial therapy in practice, which is with families living with disability and long-term caregiving needs. She explains why she added the ChSNC® designation, how she collaborates with other advisors on special needs trusts and public benefits, and why the work so often means bringing the wider family into the conversation. If a sibling is going to serve as trustee, she asks, what do they need to understand to stay inside the rules of the road for distributions and ongoing care? Facilitating that, she says, is mostly a matter of explaining complex material in a way anyone in the room can follow. Belle raises the kind of conversation that stops a plan cold: the parent who is three decades older than the child they care for, and the arithmetic that follows. Nicky's answer points to a document that is neither legal nor financial, the letter of intent. She describes it as writing the truest story you can for your loved one, including their favorite restaurant, the toys they will not go to bed without, and who their providers are, so that whoever steps in can provide the care the family would have provided, particularly when a loved one is nonverbal. For advisors considering the designation, Nicky walks through the process at the Financial Therapy Association, including the self-paced video curriculum, the application and recommendation requirements, and an hours requirement she describes as roughly 500 hours split between direct service in finance or mental health and alternative experience such as teaching, facilitating financial literacy programs, peer-reviewed research, or writing financial plans. She notes the course and exam ran about $850 at the time of recording, and mentions a weekend externship offered in the fall for advisors who want to see financial therapy practiced in the room. Nicky and Belle also discuss her financial literacy work, including a doctorate in progress focused on instructional design and a dissertation using free financial literacy video games with women veterans returning from service. She points listeners to several free resources, including the Next Gen Personal Finance arcade games, a free financial helpline for women, and a free two-year financial literacy program for adults under 40, which she suggests aspiring CFP® professionals consider volunteering with as mentors. Asked the question Belle puts to every guest, what is one thing financial planners should know but don't, Nicky turns it back on the profession: Planners sacrifice more of themselves than they are willing to admit, and taking care of themselves is part of taking care of their clients and their families. As she puts it, you cannot pour from an empty cup. Guest Links Nicky Amore at Parallel Advisors: https://www.paralleladvisors.com/people/nicky-amore LinkedIn: Nicky Amore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/namore Financial Therapy Association, CFT™ certification: https://financialtherapyassociation.org/cft-certification/ Next Gen Personal Finance Arcade (Build Your Stax, Credit Clash, Time for Payback): https://www.ngpf.org/arcade/ Savvy Ladies Free Financial Helpline: https://www.savvyladies.org/ Third Decade free financial literacy program: https://3rddecade.org/ Recommend a Podcast Guest 👉 https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PWXHTV7 The Smarter Planner Podcast is produced by the Financial Planning Association National Capital Area Chapter (FPA NCA) for educational purposes only. Belle Osvath and FPA NCA do not endorse specific individuals, firms, products, or services mentioned.
