Parker
Trasborg, CFP®
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Hello and Happy New Year! As we kick
off 2020, I want to express my gratitude to Chris Rivers, our outgoing
President for his leadership last year. We started 2019 with a lot of
uncertainty surrounding the status of our chapter as well as the future of the
FPA when FPA National rolled out their OneFPA initiative. Thanks to our many
members who provided feedback on the initial OneFPA proposal and to Howard
Pressman, our 2018 Chapter President, who stepped up and joined the OneFPA Task
Force for a year long commitment (which is turning into two years); FPA
National has pumped the brakes on that change and it will be business as usual
for FPANCA through at least the end of 2021. We thank you, Chris, and the rest
of the Board, for all of your efforts and success over the past year.
As always, the uncertainty will
continue into the new year. Hopefully
not from the FPA, but rather the uncertainty will come from abroad with the
slowdown in Europe and the ongoing Brexit negotiations, and here at home with the
continued trade-war and our Presidential election in November. However, despite all of the past and future uncertainty,
the 2010s close out the first decade in the stock market’s history without a
recession. If you have been paying
attention to the constant news stream, it may not feel that transpired, but it
was by most measures a great decade for equity markets.
This year’s Winter Symposium on
January 24th promises to be one of the best Financial Planning
conferences of the year. We have moved the location from Dulles to the Marriott
in Tysons Corner, VA. We hope that the
new venue will be a more accessible location for those attending from all over
the Washington DC Metro Area. The theme
is “What’s Next?” We’ll hear from a
number of speakers discussing the future of our profession as well as the
relevance, or lack of, the Federal Reserve in the future. The day has 7 CFP® CE credits pending
approval. Register today if you haven’t
already.
Looking ahead, don’t miss our annual
Career Day on February 21st in Reston, where you’ll have the
opportunity to meet many talented students and job seekers, as well as have an
opportunity to network over lunch and happy hour.
Our Programs Directors are diligently
working on finalizing the rest of our 2020 programs. If you have any specific speaker that you’d
like to hear from this year, please send us an e-mail. We love to receive feedback from our
membership.
Finally, if you are interested in
getting involved or volunteering this year, no matter how big or small, please
reach out. We need to continue to bring
in fresh faces with new ideas to keep our chapter vibrant and healthy. Wishing you all a happy, healthy and
successful New Year!
