Covisum MEET 2025 brought together some of the brightest minds in retirement income planning. On September 25–26 in Kansas City, we gathered advisors, researchers, and innovators to focus on the forces shaping retirement planning today—time, taxes, and transformation.

This year’s conversations were as much about personal growth as they were about client outcomes. Here are a few of the highlights that continue to shape the way we think about planning and connecting with clients.

Time as Capital: John K. Coyle’s Keynote

Olympian and innovation leader John K. Coyle set the stage with a thought-provoking keynote: Time Capital: How to Invest Your Most Valuable Asset for Maximum Returns.

John challenged us to rethink how we measure the tradeoffs between time and money. Just as we weigh the risk and return of financial investments, time investments deserve the same rigor. His “Time Investment Portfolio Matrix” reframed everyday decisions, helping us identify “unicorn time investments”, the activities that yield disproportionate returns in meaning, connection, or growth.

For advisors, the lesson was clear: helping clients align financial choices with how they most value their time is just as important as optimizing returns.

Tax Planning After the Big Beautiful Bill: Wade Pfau, Ph.D.

Few researchers have shaped retirement income planning like Dr. Wade Pfau. At MEET, Wade explored how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) reshaped the tax landscape. His session, The EMR Process After the Big Beautiful Bill, brought both academic rigor and practical insight to effective marginal rate (EMR) planning.

For advisors, this means continuing to move beyond “rules of thumb” toward precise, data-driven strategies that illustrate when, why, and how taxes spike, and how to proactively manage them with Roth conversions, withdrawal sequencing, and more.

Rethinking Returns: Laurence Black

Historical returns often dominate client conversations, but as Laurence Black reminded us, “the past is not the prologue.” In his session, Returns and the Index World, Laurence unpacked the challenges of projecting past performance into the future, particularly given how today’s indices differ fundamentally from the benchmarks of decades past.

For advisors, the insight is clear: relying too heavily on backward-looking assumptions may not capture the realities of the current or future markets. Index construction itself is evolving, and our planning needs to evolve with it.

Lessons in Growth and Leadership

  • Will Doty, CFP®, AIF® shared his journey from appointment setter to Managing Director at Modern Wealth, overseeing $225 million in client assets. His story underscored how persistence, humility, and adaptability can shape a career.

  • Paul Dyer offered practical insights into building a tax preparation business without adding headcount. His experience showed how tax services can be scaled efficiently alongside an advisory practice, providing both value to clients and new revenue opportunities.

  • Brad Gotto demonstrated how Fiat Wealth Management grew into a $370 million firm by building a  practice laser focused on delivering value for clients. His insights highlighted how clear messaging, education, and community engagement can fuel both growth and client trust.

Advisor Panel

  • Tim Kulhanek explained how his practice grew to multiple offices and an incredible growth rate using multi-channel marketing including radio, podcasts and seminars.  

  • Adam Tafoya dug into how he found a CPA/Attorney to bring on as a partner in his office and the service offerings that allow them to be extremely effective for their clients.  

  • Matt Seitz brought key insights on how a dedicated marketing person thinks about client personas and how JL Smith re-engineered their process focusing on their ideal client to rocket to $700 million of AUM.  

EMR in Practice: My Sessions

I shared my own insights on Social Security and Tax Updates as well as how to integrate EMR planning into meeting processes.

The real-world lesson? Tools like Tax Clarity®, Income InSight®, and Social Security Timing® aren’t just about software, they’re about systematizing conversations that deliver clarity and confidence to clients. The most effective advisors in our community are those who consistently put EMR into practice, helping clients see the hidden costs of different decisions in ways that feel intuitive and actionable.

Looking Ahead

Covisum MEET 2025 was a reminder that the best planning happens at the intersection of academic rigor, personal experience, and practical application. Advisors left Kansas City with new strategies and fresh energy for the growth ahead.

If you weren’t able to join us, stay connected through our Resources Page, where you’ll find recordings, insights, and ongoing updates about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and more.

And for those who were with us, thank you! Your engagement, questions, and collaboration are what make Covisum MEET such a powerful gathering. Together, we’re improving lives through better decisions.

A Special Thank You to Our Sponsors

Events like Covisum MEET would not be possible without the support of our sponsors. We are deeply grateful for their partnership in making this year’s event a success:

2025 MEET Sponsor logos

Your commitment to supporting the advisor community helps us bring together the insights and conversations that move retirement income planning forward.