Our daughter Evelyn was born in June 2015, and we just had our second child, Ford, a couple of weeks ago. What better time to start planning for kids' college than when you have two children under the age of 2? Naturally, as a financial planner, I have already been contributing to accounts for the benefit of our children (both a 529 plan and an UTMA account, just as many of our clients do). But like many of our clients, my wife and I are already having discussions about how much (if any) we want to contribute to our kids' college expenses. That's right: it's not a given that we will contribute any amount at all toward a four-year degree for our children. We want to be open-minded enough to question whether that will necessarily be the best step for each of our children.

The team and I began our yearly conference, seminar, and education travel schedule in April and have been full-tilt into the summer. All of us believe in the importance of ongoing education and improvement in our profession. Being independently owned and operated allows us the opportunity to take advantage of many industry-wide learning events.