Following the recent disruption and problems for financial planners, Dante De Gori, CEO of the Financial Planning Association, painted a positive picture for them at the Pritchitt Partners Annual New Financial Year lunch held earlier this week.When Dante talked about how he sees financial planning evolving and some of the issues that need to be managed, it struck me that there were similarities with the future of public relations.While PR may not have had to deal with some of the scandals that have emerged in recent times about financial planning, we believe that some consultancies do not always act in the best interests of clients, or at least over-charge for services provided.Dante spoke about how he hopes that financial planning and financial advice become recognised as a profession throughout Australia. Public relations associations have been striving for the same sort of recognition for public relations practitioners for many years.He also spoke about financial planners being recognised as specialists, not only in traditional areas like SMSF advice and aged care, but also new and emerging areas. As an example, he pointed to the USA where they have financial planners who specialise in divorce clients.In public relations, it’s a similar story – we believe specialists, like us in financial services, will prosper. As will good communicators and strategists in new areas such as social media and yet-to-emerge communication paths introduced by technological developments.Mr De Gori concluded that financial planning has a great future but it will be different. He said that those who take the challenge and opportunities that are available will thrive and so too will the profession. Exactly the same can be said of public relations.The full text of Dante’s paper can be seen on the articles page of our website here