A couple of days ago I had breakfast with James Dailey, a young and talented RIA whose business had recently moved into a new phase. He was bemused, though not surprised, at the extent of the investment he and his partner had made in their practice to prepare for the change.

In addition to some legal filings and a GIPs audit, Dailey and I discussed the day-to-day challenges of running a rapidly expanding practice. "It's one thing to know what to do, but actually doing it can mean changing fundamental habits," he observed. "You can't read about that enough."

And that, my friends, is why Financial Planning continues to focus so closely on practice management. Changing habits is not easy-even when you know you'll benefit. What's more, business needs do shift over time, so you are faced with the need to change again and again.

But practice management does more than help you to evolve and upgrade. As many advisors learned over the past couple of years, good practice management prepares you to withstand adversity. During the market meltdown, you may have been forced to make tough business decisions at the same time as you expanded your outreach to clients and the community. The better-organized the back office, the more likely that you were to segment clients effectively and channel communications appropriately. A well-defined identity among clients and in the community didn't hurt either. For those who were caught unprepared, 2009 was a year to adapt or die.

We aren't facing a financial meltdown any more (touch wood), which gives everyone a chance to breathe-and to think about changing for the better, rather than for survival. So the staff of Financial Planning stepped up our coverage. We've taken your most pressing concerns, turned them into questions, and rounded up top experts to provide the answers. Our 14-page special report starts on page 42. Enjoy!

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.