The most expensive and lavish is the Investment Management Consultants Association (IMCA).  It is more focused on investing and attended mostly by financial advisors, not financial planners.  It is attended by mostly males,  In fact, alpha males!  The song “Barracuda” always plays in the back of my mind.

There is also the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), which is attended primarily by financial planners, not financial advisors, despite the misleading name.  The ratio of women is steadily rising, probably one-third of the attendees are now female.  Think social workers!  I’m confident the average compensation of attendees at a NAPFA conference is substantially less than at the IMCA conference.

Then, there is my favorite – the National Association of Business Economists, which is held each year in Washington and attended almost entirely by economists.  Think “pocket protectors” and slide rules.  They are a decidedly different type of attendees, and I enjoy them immensely.  I’ll be attending their lectures for the next two days and cannot wait.