Last week, the Garrett Planning Network held its 2009 national convention. A hot topic for many of the hourly fee-based financial planners in attendance was ETFs.

Sheryl Garrett has been a pioneer in creating an international network of financial planners who share the same basic set of beliefs. Namely, that comes down to charging by the hour for their services and advice—rather than using the old model of peddling products based on commission sales.

The network she has helped form provides investors with a source to connect with hourly fee-based planners from all over the world. Planners who participate in Garrett's network earn their money based on advice given, eliminating conflicts of interest between representing financial products and giving independent advice.

It can be difficult for Garrett planners. The industry tends to try to mesh everything together, from promoting products to providing sound investment advice and long-term financial plans.

This year's conference, the network's ninth, was held in Kansas City. There were about 160 planners in attendance, which was a very good number considering how few planners truly get paid just for their advice. After all, limiting exposure to any future conflicts of interest means an adviser must be willing to pass on potentially lucrative product tie-in deals.

The Garrett conference was extremely rewarding because it brought together planners who are genuinely trying to make it on the basis of their own expertise and understanding of investing—rather than how well they can push products.

I gave a presentation on exchange-traded funds. The response was huge. Clearly, a lot of planners are thirsty for more information. And they don’t want marketing. In Kansas City, they were particularly interested in technical issues and general education about ETFs.

Questions revolved around the techniques of using ETFs. For example, IndexUniverse.com's  recent two-part series on bond ETFs was a topic of interest. Among other issues, attendees expressed an interest in discovering more about premiums and discounts with fixed-income ETFs as well as learning how bid-ask spreads work.

We spent a lot more time, though, looking into leveraged and inverse ETFs. That’s a very hot topic right now, and I gave examples of how they don’t work over any longer than a one-day period of time. We went into what leverage is designed to do and misconceptions on the part of many investors and the public about the dynamics of these types of ETFs.

As you can probably tell, these planners were more than willing to spend an hour and a half discussing in detail the nuts and bolts of ETFs. I’d encourage any financial planner to check out the Garrett network and its efforts to link like-minded advisers who are interested in limiting conflicts of interest.

Richard Ferri is founder and chief executive of Portfolio Solutions LLC. He has written five books on low-cost investing using index mutual funds and ETFs. Ferri welcomes comments and suggestions for future blogs at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .