Why Pay for Education?

August 25, 2010

As some of you may know, I used to be a financial advisor with the brokerage affiliate of a national bank.  As a financial advisor, I made a living by providing advice and selling investment products and services.  Since the only way I would make money is if I sold investment products or services, it did not make much sense for me to spend time helping bank customers that did not have assets to invest or a need for my services.  That, however, did not stop many of the bankers from referring their customers to me when they needed financial help.  Whether it was helping someone to get out of debt, or to simply create a budget, the bankers figured that since I was a financial planner it was my job to help their customers with these issues.  The truth is I loved to help, but the reality was I could not afford to help as much as I wanted to. Continue reading “Why Pay for Education?”

Spouses – They Should Have a Voice too, Regarding Benefits

August 03, 2010

Flash back to last fall, the typical time for open enrollment at work and my husband is handing me his un-opened benefits packet for me to pick for him.  Sound familiar?  As with many couples, there is one who cares a lot about making these choices, and sometimes there is one who has no clue about the importance of this annual event.  I recently was counseling an employee regarding her retirement goals, and, as I normally do, I started asking about her husband’s retirement plan, how much he has saved so far, how much he defers, etc.  She got upset because she was not able to answer any of my questions! Continue reading “Spouses – They Should Have a Voice too, Regarding Benefits”

Training Calls from Hades

July 30, 2010

To understand the types of calls we receive on the financial helpline, new-to-the-firm CFP’s (not the same as new CFP’s – every planner here at Financial Finesse has at least a decade of experience in financial planning) listen to a lot of recorded conversations with our partner firms.  Some of the biggest names in the S&P are our clients, or partners.  Their employees call our team of financial planners on topics ranging from consideration of bankruptcy & mortgage foreclosure through how to handle the tax treatment of a sophisticated international investment or deal with how to reduce taxes on a very large estate.  When the phone rings, we don’t know if you are teetering on the brink of financial disaster or if you are dealing with complex tax issues.  Every call is unique.  There is no “typical” caller.  I think that it’s good to be a little schizophrenic to work on our helpline, but that may just be the voices in my head talking ….

Continue reading “Training Calls from Hades”

Don’t Shoot the Messenger

July 28, 2010

“Good luck getting anyone to show up.”  That is how I was greeted during a recent visit to one of our client’s locations for a live workshop.  Needless to say this was not the response I was looking for.  For several weeks we had been reaching out to this particular location to try and schedule a workshop, and for weeks they had been resisting, telling us that the workshop would be poorly attended, and not worth the trip.  But this meeting was going to happen whether they liked it or not.  Continue reading “Don’t Shoot the Messenger”

Time for a Change

July 21, 2010

Despite it’s never-ending and (often questionable) invention of “innovative” new financial products, services, and securities, the financial services industry is woefully behind in the area that matters most to Americans in this economy: financial counseling.

You see, there is no money in helping someone to get out of debt, or helping someone deal with a job loss, yet every day I come across individuals that are dealing with just those sorts of issues. Personally, I think every financial professional should be required to receive training in the area of financial counseling. For starters, someone dealing with high debt or low income could probably benefit the most from professional help. Secondly, we need improvement in financial literacy among all consumers in our country if it’s truly going to rebound from this difficult economy, and what a better way to do that than by having financial experts available for folks who may otherwise never work with a financial professional.

So how do you get tens of thousands of financial professionals to suddenly take interest in a group that has little to no assets to invest? Continue reading “Time for a Change”

Two Training Meetings—Three Slides

July 19, 2010

This week I started training on a new workshop.  So far, I have had two training sessions and my progress so far is three slides.  I know that doesn’t seem like very much progress and it is even more interesting when you find out that my homework was to go back and work on the same three slides to show Bruce, our trainer, what I can do.

To give you some perspective, this is not my first rodeo.  By the above paragraph, you might think that I’ve never done a workshop or spoke in public before.  But actually just with Financial Finesse, I’ve given over 200 workshops and webcasts as well as hosting our monthly podcast, Your Money Minute for the past two years.  Before that I was on ABC news in Northern California as a regular guest for 5 years as well as being a guest and guest host on a weekly radio program.  Over my 25 years as a planner, I’ve given many presentations – far and wide.  So what’s with the three slides?

Continue reading “Two Training Meetings—Three Slides”

The Beauty of Being Virtual

July 14, 2010

My wife has long ranted about the ills of my business travel (I have four kids all under the age of 12).  Today I’m on a quest to end this arcane practice of old-school business with a little help from my friend the virtual workshop.  To understand the virtues of the virtual workshop we must first understand the good and the bad of the live workshop.

Continue reading “The Beauty of Being Virtual”