Tuesday 24 November 2026 | 8:00am - 10:00am

CFP® Professional Connect

An exclusive breakfast workshop for

CFP® professionals

Navigating wealth, wellbeing and vulnerability across generations

Financial advice is becoming more complex, and more important than ever before. This CFP® professional exclusive interactive workshop explores how advisers can confidently support clients and their families through every stage of life, from building wealth to navigating intergenerational transfer and vulnerable beneficiaries. Through practical strategies, real-world case studies and the latest research, you'll gain tools to deliver better outcomes with empathy, confidence and impact.

Session Overview

As Australia enters the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in its history, financial advisers are increasingly supporting multiple generations within the same family while navigating complex client circumstances. Whether it is helping young adults establish healthy financial habits through superannuation, supporting clients with vulnerable beneficiaries, or working with ageing clients with diminished capacity, advisers must balance technical expertise with empathy, ethical judgement, and professional responsibility.

This highly interactive workshop will explore how advisers can deliver better client outcomes by extending the whole-of-life approach to advice.

Drawing on both practical examples and leading academic research, participants will examine the evolving role of financial advice in supporting financial wellbeing from cradle to beyond the grave. The workshop will identify how to engage young people to take an active interest in wealth creation and discuss strategies for wealth transfer involving beneficiaries who are clinically, cognitively, or behaviourally vulnerable, such as those experiencing mental illness, addiction, disability, cognitive decline, family violence, and financial abuse.

In addition to technical strategies, the workshop will translate evidence into practical tools that advisers can immediately apply in client conversations. Participants will work collaboratively through realistic case studies, identify potential risks and opportunities across different life stages, and develop practical approaches to communicating with clients and families while maintaining professional and ethical obligations.

CFP professional members will explore:

The changing nature of intergenerational wealth creation and transfer in Australia.
Superannuation as a lifelong wealth-building vehicle—from first employment through retirement, estate planning and legacy.
Recognising and responding appropriately to clients whose families and/or beneficiaries are experiencing vulnerabilities.
National and international research on financial capability, trust, financial wellbeing, and behavioural decision-making, and how these findings can improve advice practice.
Practical strategies for engaging multiple generations within families while balancing competing objectives and managing ethical dilemmas.

Designed specifically for CFP professionals, this separately ticketed event is designed to be highly participative, with part of the session devoted to discussion and practical application. Participants will be equipped with new perspectives, evidence-based insights, and actionable strategies to confidently navigate the opportunities and challenges of advising families across generations.

Pricing

CFP professional members: $85 inc GST per person (includes a hot plated breakfast)

Meet your speakers

Dr. Mark Brimble CFP®

Professor (Finance), Dept of Accounting, Finance & Economics Griffiths University

Dr Mark Brimble is a Professor (Finance) in the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics in the Griffith Business School. In his substantive role at Griffith University Mark is the Dean (Online Strategy), Office of the Provost, Griffith University. Mark has previously held leadership roles including. Head, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, and Dean (Learning and Teaching) of the Griffith Business School.

He has a Phd on capital markets and has active research interests in financial markets, sustainable finance, personal finance and finance education, financial literacy with publications in various national and international journals including Accounting and Finance, Corporate Governance: An International Perspective, Housing Theory and Society, Australian Tax Forum and Higher Education Research and Development.

Professor Brimble is a Commonwealth Office for Learning and Teaching National Fellow and is the recipient of numerous teaching and learning grants, citations and awards, including leading the team that won the 2010 Business and Higher Education Round Table award for the best higher education and training collaboration. Mark was awarded Australian Teaching and Learning Council Citations in 2011 and 2016, and an Australian Award for Teaching Excellence in 2016. Mark is also a long-standing panelist for the Australian Awards for University Teaching.

Dr Brimble is a FCPA, a Fellow of the Finsia, a member of the Financial Planning Association of Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Mark was a foundation member of the Financial Planning Education Council and Chair from 2012-2017, a foundation ministerially appointed member of the board of the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority, and the Founding Co-Chair of the Financial Planning Academics Forum. Mark is a foundation member of the GPS Wealth Investment Committee (since 2013) and is the Co-Founding Editor of the Financial Planning Research Journal. Mark received a Distinguished Services award from the FPA Australia in 2014 in recognition of service to the profession.

Dr. Michelle Cull

Head of Discipline (Accounting & Financial Planning) & director, Centre for Small Business & Entrepreneurship, Western Sydney University

Associate Professor Michelle Cull is Head of Discipline (Accounting and Financial Planning) and director of the Centre for Small Business & Entrepreneurship at Western Sydney University’s Business School. Michelle is a leading academic in financial planning with her research featured in peer-reviewed journals, industry publications, news articles, television and radio.

Michelle is co-editor of the FAAA’s Financial Planning Research Journal, president for the Academy of Financial Services in the United States, chair of the national Financial Planning Education Council, and on the advisory board of Adviser Ratings. Michelle also serves on the UniSuper Consultative Committee and Women’s Committee of Canterbury Bankstown Chamber of Commerce.

Michelle is passionate about empowering people to make wise financial decisions that positively influence their lives. Her current projects include the role of life purpose coaching in financial planning, reducing inequities through financial literacy, ethics in financial advice, charitable giving conversations in financial advice and small business growth.

Michelle previously worked for 15 years in accounting and finance roles at ASX-100 companies and as a consultant. When she is not working, Michelle enjoys spending time with family and friends, and playing field hockey.

William Johns CFP®

Principal Adviser & Social Entrepreneur, Disability Finance Specialist, Insurance Claims & Impairment Expert, Founder of HearMe®

William Johns is one of Australia's most distinctive voices at the intersection of health, disability, insurance and financial

planning. Over two decades he has pioneered a field that barely existed when he began — specialist financial advice

and insurance advocacy for Australians living with serious illness, disability, and complex family circumstances.

William has built three complementary businesses from the ground up: Health & Finance Integrated (HFI), a specialist

financial planning social enterprise; ClaimRight, a consumer insurance claims advocacy practice; and HearMe®, a proprietary impairment identification and documentation module that bridges the language gap between a client's

lived experience of disability and the evidentiary standards required by insurers, the NDIS, and Centrelink.

William is one of the few professionals in Australia dually qualified in disability studies and financial planning. His

Master of Disability Studies (Flinders University) sits alongside his CFP® designation and Trust & Estate Practitioner

(TEP) credential — a combination that gives him an unusually deep understanding of how illness, injury, and body

impairment intersect with financial systems, insurance definitions, and legal rights.

He completed six years on the board of Australia's peak financial advice body — the FPA and its successor the Financial

Advice Association Australia (FAAA) — including service as inaugural Chair of the Professional Designations Committee

overseeing the CFP® designation.

The FAAA Chair publicly recognised William for being 'a passionate advocate for

members with an unwavering commitment to ensuring the FAAA is always doing the right thing.'

William speaks and consults across disability finance, insurance impairment assessment, TPD claims, estate planning, the NDIS, aged care transition, and the regulatory landscape for financial advice. He lectured at Western Sydney

University and Flinders University, is an accredited expert witness, and has been published and quoted widely in the industry and mainstream press.

Dawn Thomas CFP®

Financial Adviser, The Wealth Designers

Dawn is a financial adviser, mother of three, part-time PhD student, trance music fan, hockey enthusiast, and passionate home cook. She is known in the profession for her heart-led approach to advice—building deep relationships of trust and tailoring strategies around what truly matters to her clients.

A multi-award-winning adviser, Dawn was named Financial Planner of the Year at the 2025 Women in Wealth Awards. She is also the recipient of the Individual Excellence and Industry Thought Leader awards at the IFA Awards (2023), as well as the Transformation Award (2022) and Inspire Award (2019). Her impact has earned her a place in Australia's Power 50 list of most influential financial advisers.

Dawn is currently undertaking PhD research focused on the superannuation behaviours of Gen Z, driven by her passion for helping young people engage early with their financial futures. She also founded Start Well, a financial literacy initiative of The Wealth Designers, and hosts two podcasts: Start Well and Your Money Story, the latter exploring money through a feminist lens.

FAAA Member Registration

Non Member Registration

The Financial Advice Association Australia acknowledges Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters, and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.

Disclaimer: By registering for the 2026 FAAA Congress, delegates grant permission to the Financial Advice Association of Australia Limited (FAAA), its agents and others working under its authority to take and to have full and free use of video/photographs containing their image/likeness. It is understood that the FAAA may use these images for promotion, news, research, online, multimedia and/or educational purposes. Delegates agree that they are not entitled to remuneration, residuals, royalties or any other payment from the FAAA in respect of their image/likeness or its use. Attendees will be required to sign a media release prior to any interviews that may be conducted.

CFP®, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® and CFP logo mark are certification marks owned outside the U.S. by the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB). The Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA) is the marks licensing authority for the CFP marks in Australia, through agreement with FPSB.