When a movie cast and crew finishes filming, they throw a wrap party. As I write these words, and my staff and I review the last pages of an enormously effortful project-the compilation of our annual independent broker-dealer survey-I feel like throwing a wrap party of my own.

People don't give Oscar speeches at wrap parties (or so my film-world sister tells me) but here's mine: I would like to thank a talented and devoted staff. Let's start with Deputy Editor Stacy Schultz, who has been emailing, calling, cajoling, nagging, tallying numbers, then emailing and calling again-to close to 100 independent firms-in order to gather and verify the comprehensive data that goes into our survey. I am more than a little bit cowed by her diligence and persistence, as well as her ability to maintain grace under pressure (and while sleep-deprived, let's not forget that). Plus-she reported and wrote an article on frontier markets.

Senior Editor Paul Menchaca has brought new insight to our broker-dealer coverage, and his observations and analysis of the industry have taken our survey findings to new heights. Paul is a dogged reporter, and it's great to have him on the team.

Art Director James Jarnot takes all this data and somehow manages to turn it into tables that don't fry my eyeballs. Every year, he comes up with intriguing ideas for colors and graphics to make a whole lot of information go down smoothly.

Senior Editor Donna Mitchell and Associate Art Director Javier Samaniego pulled more than their weight in putting together an issue thick enough to seem like it's from 2007. Contributing Editor Pat Durner pitched in with formidable skill and freelance editor Brenda Campbell made sure that our words were grammatical, as well as golden.

It's a great gift to know that you are working on a strong, accomplished team. We do our best for you every month; we thank you for reading.

-Marion Asnes, editor in chief

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.