Howard Pressman, CFP®

President’s Message

I am excited to be writing this a couple of days after another successful Winter Symposium. I really hope you didn’t miss out, as I received many great comments about this year’s event. Early risers were treated to a fascinating ethics course led by Bonnie Kirchner, whose ex-husband ran one the largest Ponzi schemes prior to 2008. Her insights into the mind of a fraudster can help the rest of us better understand what we’re up against and protect our clients. The symposium was kicked off by Mark Tibergien from Pershing Advisor Solutions, who talked about the future of our industry and our firms. My two take aways from his insights were to always start with WHY and to focus on the client experience in order to remain relevant in a rapidly changing environment. Next, Kathleen Burns-Kingsbury gave a great presentation on breaking money silence and how to get your clients talking to their family about money as a way to increase the success of their plan. Helping a client to understand their rational mind and their emotional mind and the limits of each was a fascinating point to me. Next up was Amy Florian, brought to us by Ivy Funds, who helped us to better relate to our clients who have suffered a loss. Many of us are uncomfortable talking with a client who has recently lost a loved one. If you’re like me, the first thing you say is “I’m so sorry”. Amy explained why this simple platitude is wrong and gave us better tools to help our clients through this difficult time and strengthen these relationships as a result. Richard Clarida from PIMCO joined us to provide his insights on the economy and how he sees the many important dynamics playing out over the course of the year. Then, Stephanie Markiewicz with Fidelity presented the view from Capitol Hill providing valuable insights into the crazy and unpredictable world of politics in the age of Twitter. Lauran Star helped us to more effectively communicate with our clients no matter which generation they belong to. Lastly, delivering our keynote presentation was the incomparable Michael Kitces who challenged some of our long-held beliefs about providing retirement income and how to address sequence of returns risk in client portfolios. A better understanding of the ubiquitous 4% rule and the research behind it was a key takeaway for me.

During the day, attendees had the opportunity to star in their own promotional videos, talking about why they became financial planners and how they help their clients. These videos will be professionally produced and provided to the advisors to use in their own marketing efforts. Just before lunch, we presented awards to two of our Outstanding Award recipients, Ken Robinson, winner of the Norma Severns Award for Leadership and Eleanor Blayney, our winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award. It is truly humbling to see how many pioneers and superstars of our profession are members of our chapter.

New this year, we created 15 lunch tables with specific themes, so attendees could eat and network with likeminded members facing common issues. By connecting our members with one another, we are hoping to foster relationships and discussions that go beyond this one event.

Of course our sponsors were on hand to talk with us about their newest ideas and solutions. Our raffle prizes drawn from tickets distributed by the Sponsors during our networking breaks were a huge success at the end of a great day!

As you can see, this year’s Winter Symposium was packed with great information that could be applied to our practices right away, tools to help you market yourself to new clients and plenty of opportunities to connect and network with your peers. Thank you Dan Lash for creating this fabulous event. (Please see a few pictures from the day on page 12 of this Newsletter.)

We have several amazing events coming up in the next few months, they include: our February 16th Career Day and Professional Development Lunch, featuring Jonathan Guyton. On March 15th, we’ll have Ben Lewis presenting Media Training and Gary Altman discussing the recent tax law changes at Bethesda Country Club. May 2nd is our annual charity golf tournament at 1757 Golf Club, and lastly, our Spring Symposium will be held on June 8th.

Thank you for all that you do to serve your clients and advance our profession. If you have any comments or suggestions about our chapter I would love to hear them. As we think about how to best serve your needs in an ever changing world, I would very much appreciate your input. Please email me at hpressman@ebwllc.com.

All the best,

Howard

Howard Pressman, CFP®

2018 FPA NCA President

HPressman@EBWLLC.com