COVER STORY
Hannah Moore
Founder, Amplified Planning CEO, Guiding Wealth Richardson, Texas
Cindy Wilson
CFP, MBA Senior Wealth Advisor and Shareholder HB Wealth Alpharetta, Ga.
Training Beyond The Textbook
Hannah Moore says behavioral skills— not just credentials— will define the next era of advice.
When Moore entered the financial planning profession in March 2009, she was 22, fresh out of Baylor University with a degree in financial planning and working for a 68-year-old solo female advisor who, she recalls, threw her“ in the deep end, seeing if I would swim.”
And swim she did, despite what she came to recognize as a lack of infrastructure that could take the raw material of a great advisor and hone it until it shone.
“ I was very fortunate to have a salaried job with a female advisor. But there wasn’ t a lot of training,” she says.“ I really felt like I was an island unto myself out there.”
From the first day in the deep end, she was sitting in client meetings— a privilege many young planners don’ t get today— and studying for her licenses. But what was missing was a sense of context.“ There was a lot of confusing noise that I didn’ t know how to interpret,” she says.“ I was never given a framework for understanding how to serve clients.”
More than a decade later, Moore has built a career around creating that framework— not only for herself, but also for thousands of future advisors.
Today she operates at the intersection of three ventures: The Externship, an experiential training program that last year enrolled more than 2,000 participants; Amplified Planning, a firm focused on advisor development( within which the Externship sits); and Guiding Wealth, her RIA. Together, they form a tightly integrated system designed to solve one of the profession’ s most persistent challenges: how to transform motivated entrants into competent, confident planners who thrive in front of clients.
The distinction, Moore says, is between technical competence and professional excellence. The CFP curriculum, for example, establishes the knowledge baseline. What it does not systematically teach, she says, are the“ behavioral-based competencies” that determine whether an advisor can actually serve clients well.
What differentiates great planners, she says— and coincidentally future-proofs them against AI— is an ability to engage clients, build trust and navigate nuanced conversations. All trainable.
And if that passion weren’ t enough, Moore’ s conviction is tied to a broader ambition. From the beginning, what she saw was an entire industry that could be poised to help people— including the tens of millions who currently go unserved.
“ When I started, that was my‘ Why.’ I immediately understood the impact of financial planning,” she says.“ Just a little bit of financial advice can change the trajectory of someone’ s life. And that to me was just the most powerful thing.”
— Jennifer Lea Reed
Combatting Financial Illiteracy
What gives Cindy Wilson, a 22-year veteran of financial services, the biggest joy in her job as a financial advisor? Sometimes it might come from being an accidental marriage counselor. She remembers a time, years ago, when she asked two longtime clients, a husband and wife, about their goals. It turns out the wife wanted to go on vacation but they had failed to even discuss the topic with each other and hadn’ t taken one in years. He was claustrophobic and hated flying. He thought his wife wouldn’ t want to spend the money. So, they never talked about it— until Wilson asked.
“ For the first time in years they had a conversation about going on vacation and then did it,” she says.“ I usually get at least one photo a year of them on vacation. That will never show up in the rate of return they have on their portfolio. But [ for ] this couple who had not been on vacation for a very long time, it helps build their relationship even stronger. Just because I asked what is a very simple question.”
It’ s the striving to have that impact beyond money that animates Wilson’ s career, to positive effect. For almost four years she’ s been at HB Wealth, a $ 29 billion AUM fiduciary and fee-only registered investment advisor in Atlanta. She was promoted in February to senior wealth advisor and shareholder after starting as wealth advisor in 2022.
Wilson’ s client base is wide, but she mainly works with those who have at least $ 1 million to invest.“ I’ ve had everything from a couple that won the lottery to CEOs and about everyone in between, whether it’ s women who are suddenly single because of the divorce to different types of professionals,” she says. Most of them, she adds, are“ self-made.” As is she. She grew up in Kalamazoo, Mich., in a middle-class household. Her father was a police officer and her mother a medical technician in a hospital. After the age of 15, Wilson was raised by her mother alone after her parents separated, eventually witnessing her mother losing the family home, financially unable to keep up repairs. Finances weren’ t discussed much in the house.
Wilson later worked in sports management and marketing before entering financial planning. She says she witnessed athletes lose many millions because they lacked the proper financial education.
Combating financial illiteracy is a key component of her career. She’ s a member of HB Wealth’ s Financial Literacy committee and also president of the HB Women’ s Leadership Network, and she devotes many hours to pro bono financial planning services through programs the firm offers with local organizations in Atlanta.
She helps serve her diverse clientele armed with a certification in behavioral finance, knowing that managing money is fraught with emotions.“ It really focuses on how you are feeling as an advisor, because that colors how you go into a meeting,” she says.“ It’ s about understanding the client. A lot of the coursework is about … actively listening, not just hearing the words.”
In Wilson’ s case, it also allows her to ask the simple questions outside a client’ s portfolio that sometimes produce the biggest returns.
— Christopher C. Williams
38 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | MARCH / APRIL 2026 WWW. FA-MAG. COM