As this issue goes to press, I am recently returned from the FPA National Conference in Anaheim. The weather was cloudy, and so were the dispositions of many attendees. People were worried.

What did encourage me, though, was the optimism of the youngest and oldest practitioners. The students were out in force and bubbly as ever, and the most forward thinking conversation I had was with an octogenarian, E. Denby Brandon Jr.

Brandon, who is co-author of The History of Financial Planning, started our meeting by handing me a sheet of paper that outlined new challenges for the profession. "A second financial planning revolution is emerging," he said. "We now have 120,000 CFPs in 20 nations who are skilled and educated. They will be frontline soldiers in building a better ownership society."

That society will be built, in part, through education, he continued. "There is a huge need for more financial literacy and maturity," he said. "Now is our chance to build good habits." Although much research has demonstrated the difficulty of changing any kind of habit, Brandon was unfazed. He built his practice, he said, around "a real-world concept of life." Growth and change are part of the deal.

The planner's best tool, in Brandon's estimation, is life planning, which puts money in the role of vehicle rather than destination. This has always struck me as a more realistic way to think about a long life. Or maybe it's the times-when money is hard to come by, people do a lot more mental accounting.

I've always been a fan of people who dream big, and Brandon fits that category to a T. He's ready to be a standard bearer for this next financial planning revolution. May he get his wish.

There are a lot of big dreamers in this issue, and one of them is smiling on our cover: Mark Casady of LPL. Senior Editor Paul Menchaca paid a visit to this historically press-shy company and found a purring machine. The executive team appears to be unified about the company's direction, even as all eyes focus on the IPO that must inevitably come. What struck Paul most was LPL's passionate conviction that independence was the superior model for broker-dealers and advisors. They like not having to push products, and they like being able to leave their advisors free to offer unbiased advice.

About a year ago, when Merrill Lynch was absorbed by Bank of America, I asked various industry figures: Who's the next Merrill? I asked the question not about Merrill's failure, but its previous dominance in the public's imagination of Wall Street. LPL is big enough to take a shot, but it seems to have found a better idea.

Marion Asnes became the editor of Financial Planning magazine in 2005. Financial Planning is the leading professional magazine for independent financial planners and has a circulation of 115,000. The topics covered on its pages range from industry news and trends to sophisticated discussions of portfolio management, estate planning and philanthropy. Asnes is the first female editor in chief of Financial Planning in the magazine's 38-year history.

Before joining Financial Planning, Asnes was a senior editor at Money, participating in the magazine’s coverage of personal finance, retirement, investment and health care issues. Her areas of expertise included retirement and 401(k) planning, asset allocation, estate planning and the particular financial challenges faced by women. In addition to her regular editorial duties at Money, Asnes co-edited Money for Women, an annual special issue that was featured exclusively on “The Today Show” on NBC.

A 27-year service journalism veteran, Asnes has contributed to a long list of national publications including Vogue, Elle, Glamour, Good Housekeeping, More, Mirabella, Working Woman and Lear's. She has spoken at conferences and symposia ranging from the National Endowment for Financial Education’s Retirement Summit to the National Football League’s Rookie Symposium. In addition, Asnes has appeared on national television programs as an expert on financial and economic topics including CNN, CNN Headline News, NBC's Today, ABC's 20/20, PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor.

Asnes graduated with a B.A. from Cornell University.