The Holy Grail
We've been writing about financial planners and options for a long time on The Options Insider (see Why Planners Hate Options for more information).

In many respects, financial planners represent the holy grail of the options market. They are a completely untapped frontier in terms of options penetration. They are also the gatekeepers for a large number of conservative retail customers who traditionally shun the options market.

document.write(ibHtml1); A Perfect Fit....On Paper
On paper, financial planners are a perfect fit for the options market. The vast majority of planners manage long equity portfolios for their clients. This makes them the perfect candidates for covered calls, protective puts and collars. In a competitive marketplace where every point of return matters, financial planners should be scrambling to embrace these strategies.

Unfortunately, that simply isn't the case. Even at a time when hedging and downside protection are on the minds of every investor, financial planners simply refuse to embrace these products. The reasons for this reticence go back a long way (again, see Why Planners Hate Options for more information).

Anecdotal Evidence
Whenever I am asked about financial planners and options, I am reminded of my own experience from a few years ago. I was contacted by a financial publication that wanted to do a cover story on how financial planners use options. Naturally, I decided to ferret out a few financial planners that used options so I could analyze their strategies for the article.

I contacted two large financial planner/advisor organizations and had them put out the word to their respective memberships. Then I sat back, expecting to receive a deluge of contacts. While I received quite a few calls from planners looking to get their names in print, only a handful employed any relevant options strategies in their practices.

Even in that small group, most of their options strategies were so remedial they hardly merited analysis, let alone a feature article. It was a sobering, and extremely surprising, experience. Despite numerous reasons to do so, financial planners simply didn't embrace options to any significant degree.

A Ray Of Hope
There has been a great deal of talk in the options industry about renewing the focus on financial planners. There have been conferences, seminars and panels devoted to this touchy subject. Yet, despite all of this talk, very little concrete progress has been made.

But that all changed last week when the Options Industry Council finally launched its long-awaited financial advisor portal at http://advisor.optionseducation.org

This site represents the first step in a concerted new effort to bring financial planners, and the retail customers they shepherd, into the options fold. It's an interesting idea that was several years in the making. With a wide array of new content devoted to this specific segment of the market, and an accompanying media and marketing push aimed at curious financial planners, we may finally see CFPs, CFAs and other planners/advisors embrace the gospel of options.