Curtain Call

 The Center's Team enjoys sharing their knowledge with the press to help stories come to life, share facts and bring important topics to the forefront.  We are also honored when we are recognized by media and publications for our work and service to our profession. Here's what's new:

Observer & Eccentric

Troy Wyman, CFP® was recognized as 2013 Secretary for Birmingham Bloomfield Chamber Executive Board in Hometown Life on January 20, 2013 in an article titled, "Chamber names new officers." 

Investment News

Melissa Joy, CFP® was quoted in Investment News January 13, 2013 in article titled, "Gaffney blazes her own trail" by Jason Kephart.

Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of an investment company carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information and should be read carefully before investing. The prospectus is available from your investment professional.

Links are being provided for information purposes only. Raymond James is not affiliated with and does not endorse, authorize or sponsor any of the listed websites or their respective sponsors. Raymond James is not responsible for the content of any website or the collection or use of information regarding any website's users and/or members. The information contained in this report does not purport to be a complete description of the securities, markets, or developments referred to in this material. The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete. Any information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation. Any opinions presented are not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James. Expressions of opinion are as of this date and are subject to change without notice. There is an inverse relationship between interest rate movements and bond prices. Generally, when interest rates rise, bond prices fall and when interest rates fall, bond prices generally rise.

What to do in the Last Crucial Months before Retirement

 After years of saving and planning for retirement, you may be relieved and excited about the prospects of making the decision to move forward and retire.  If you are at this point, careful planning in the months leading up to retirement can help you ensure a smooth transition from employment to retirement. But many of us may be missing out on an important step in this process.

I recently read a statistic about women and retirement that surprised me.  Insured Retirement Institute (July 2012) reported that through planning with a financial advisor, women can take steps to increase their optimism and financial outlook for funding their retirement years.  Yet, nearly 53% of Baby Boomer women reported that they have not consulted with a financial advisor.  This is a pressing problem that has the potential to create long term financial and emotional roadblocks for women who are on the cusp of retirement.  The following information to help you gauge retirement preparedness.

Conversations to Have as Retirement Draws Near

These conversations should include a detailed look at the following areas of your financial plan:

  • Inventory investments, review employer retirement plan options and analyze Social Security benefits to make sure you can afford to leave the workplace.
  • Decide on an initial annual withdrawal amount that you feel you can take from your investments every year without substantial risk of running out of money.
  • If you are under age 65 and not eligible for Medicare, determine how you will cover health insurance needs.

Transition From the Work Force Into Retirement

Once you have a clear understanding of your retirement resources, another important part of retirement planning is to focus on the period of transition as you move from the work force into retirement.  Here are some suggestions to help make the transition run as smoothly as possible:

  • Reduce or eliminate credit card debt prior to retirement.
  • Carefully weigh your options for handling your mortgage.
  • Focus on your actual expenses today and think about whether they will stay the same, increase, decrease, or even disappear by the time you retire.

If you find yourself with unanswered questions, I recommend hiring a financial professional to help you understand financial options and opportunities for retirement.   The decisions you make in the final months leading up to retirement can have a considerable impact on your overall retirement plan.  

Laurie Renchik, CFP® is a Senior Financial Planner at Center for Financial Planning, Inc. In addition to working with women who are in the midst of a transition (career change, receiving an inheritance, losing a life partner, divorce or remarriage), Laurie works with clients who are planning for retirement. Laurie was named to the 2013 Five Star Wealth Managers list in Detroit Hour magazine, is a member of the Leadership Oakland Alumni Association and in addition to her frequent contributions to Money Centered, she manages and is a frequent contributor to Center Connections at The Center.

Five Star Award is based on advisor being credentialed as an investment advisory representative (IAR), a FINRA registered representative, a CPA or a licensed attorney, including education and professional designations, actively employed in the industry for five years, favorable regulatory and complaint history review, fulfillment of firm review based on internal firm standards, accepting new clients, one- and five-year client retention rates, non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered, number of client households served.

The information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that the foregoing material is accurate or complete.  Any information is not a complete summary or statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision and does not constitute a recommendation.  Any opinions are those of Center for Financial Planning, Inc., and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James.

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Matt Chope, CFP® Attends Raymond James Conference

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 It is no surprise that health care costs are growing, but some people fail to consider the rising cost when planning for retirement. That was a key take-away for Matt Chope, CFP® who recently attended the Raymond James winter symposium at the Raymond James home office in St. Petersburg, Florida.  This invitation-only event brought some of the leaders in the industry up-to-date on new tax laws, Medicare and Social Security planning, investment markets and the global economy. Matt said he was exposed to new ideas and came away from the trip with a reminder for his clients to adequately budget today for the health care costs of tomorrow.

Years of Hard Work Produce an MBA for Laurie Renchik

 It took four years of juggling a full-time career and sacrificing a lot of precious free time, but we are proud to announce that our Laurie Renchik, CFP® recently completed postgraduate work to earn a Master of Business Administration degree from Walsh College. Despite the challenge, Laurie tells us, “I enjoyed the journey which was filled with new opportunities for learning.” Walsh College is a private school that was founded in 1922 and is one of Michigan’s largest graduate schools of business.

Her newly minted MBA comes with a specialization in Finance, which is a perfect classroom match for her position at the Center.  Laurie says the MBA program helped, “Expand my analytical abilities beyond the scope of personal financial planning to include business management expertise, ultimately helping me better serve Center clients and our Center 2020 Vision.”

What's up next for Laurie? She says she will take the knowledge she gained and put it to work. We applaud Laurie for her recent accomplishment and the four years of hard work and dedication that made it happen.

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Teaming up with Gleaners Food Bank

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 On Saturday February 23rd, Center team members and their families volunteered to support Gleaners Food Bank.  Jen Hackmann, Client Service Manager said we really pulled our weight.

Thank you, thank you for all the support for the 1st Gleaners volunteering event - we had a total of 214 pounds of donations (I think Tim’s donation of multiple cans of fruit cocktail put us over the 200 pound mark),” Jen reported. “And according to the organizers at Gleaners, this food donation will provide 178 meals for our hungry neighbors in need.  Gleaners collects over 2.5 million pounds of food from food drives like ours and distributes the donations to more than 600 partnering groups in need each year.”

After an orientation and video introduction to Gleaners Food Bank, our volunteers got to work. We went from standing still, trying to figure out what we were going to be doing, to a full-on assembly line working at what felt like a 100 miles per hour.  Jen remembers saying to Troy Wyman, CFP ®and Gerri Harmer, Client Service Associate, “I have a new and GREAT respect for assembly line work!”  Apparently it is not as easy as it looks!  Some of us packed bags of fruit while others worked with packaged food, putting together large boxes of noon-perishable goods to be handed out to families in need. 

And despite the demanding morning of helping out at the food bank, we couldn’t get enough! We’ve already planned another Gleaners volunteer day on Saturday, September 21st from 9am – noon.  Anyone who would like to join our group is more than welcome.  If you happen to get the volunteering itch on your own one Saturday morning, you can just show up at 9am on any Saturday at the Detroit Gleaners Distribution Center.  You do not need to be part of a group and the Detroit Distribution Center is the only site that takes “walk-in” volunteers.

Jen Hackmann Earns Registered Paraplanner℠ (RP®) Designation

 Congratulations to our Jen Hackmann for completing the Registered Paraplanner℠ course of study.  The curriculum encompassed the financial planning process and general financial planning concepts. We applaud Jen for her recent accomplishment as she passed a rigorous examination that tested her ability to synthesize complex concepts and apply theoretical concepts to real-life situations.

As a Registered Paraplanner℠, Jen will renew her designation every two-years by completing continuing education hours, reaffirming adherence to the Standards of Professional Conduct and complying with self-disclosure requirements. But she says she’s ready to start putting her recently tested knowledge to work. Jen explains,

It will be exciting to continue to broaden my knowledge base and be able to support the overall direction and vision of the Center’s financial planning process.”

Well done, Jen Hackmann, RP®

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Parents and Children Misaligned on Finances

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 As the mother of a teen and a pre-teen, I can testify that parents and children often speak different languages. Like when my daughter says "I'm going to die," it doesn't generally mean she's seriously ill; it more likely means she got a hole in her favorite pants! I live for the promise of the day when my children are grown and we will be able to communicate on the same plane.  After reading the recent Intra-Family Generations Study conducted by Fidelity Investments, I’m not so sure that will ever happen…at least when it comes to finances.

The Intra Family Generations Study found that parents and their adult children are on different pages when it comes to several key family financial issues, including retirement planning, inheritance planning, and caring for elderly parents.  The study found that 97% of parents and children surveyed disagreed on whether adult children will care for their elderly parents if they need long term care assistance.  Children tend to overestimate the value of their parents’ assets (by an average of $100,000 or more) and parents are overly critical of their children’s financial decisions.  In addition, while 24% of adult children surveyed say they will need to help their parents in retirement, 97% of parents say they won’t need help.  Clearly, there are misunderstandings between the generations.

So why, you might ask, are adult children and parents so disconnected?  According to the study, (which I can vouch for in my personal experience) families simply don’t talk about financial issues.  Talking about things like investments, debts, savings shortfalls, income taxes, or estate planning is taboo in many families. 

Most interestingly, the study did find that 60% of adult children and 68% of parents indicated that they would be more comfortable discussing these important financial issues with a third party financial professional than with each other.  Financial planners are the ideal financial professionals to lead productive family meetings.

If you find yourself as either a parent who has not discussed future financial issues with your adult children or as an adult child who has not discussed long term care or financial issues with your parent, contact your financial planner to schedule your family meeting today.

Sandra Adams, CFP® is a Financial Planner at Center for Financial Planning, Inc. Sandy specializes in Elder Care Financial Planning and is a frequent speaker on related topics. In 2012 and 2013, Sandy was named to the Five Star Wealth Managers list in Detroit Hour magazine. In addition to her frequent contributions to Money Centered, she is regularly quoted in national media publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Research Magazine and Journal of Financial Planning.

Five Star Award is based on advisor being credentialed as an investment advisory representative (IAR), a FINRA registered representative, a CPA or a licensed attorney, including education and professional designations, actively employed in the industry for five years, favorable regulatory and complaint history review, fulfillment of firm review based on internal firm standards, accepting new clients, one- and five-year client retention rates, non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered, number of client households served.

Any opinions are those of Center for Financial Planning, Inc., and not necessarily those of RJFS or Raymond James.  Links are being provided for information purposes only.  Raymond James is not affiliated with and does not endorse, authorize or sponsor any of the listed websites or their respective sponsors. Raymond James is not responsible for the content of any website or the collection or use of information regarding any websites users and/or members.

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Jennie Bauder Attends Branch Professionals Opportunities Conference

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 When Jennie Bauder got the invitation, it was an "opportunity" she couldn't pass up.  Jennie is one of our Client Service Managers and was among 100 select Raymond James professionals who received an invitation to participate in the Opportunities Conference.  The two-day program, held in St. Petersburg, Florida, focused on daily operations for client service professionals and recent technology enhancements.

The Opportunities Conference gave Jennie a broader perspective on Raymond James.  "This was my first visit to the Raymond James Headquarters in St. Petersburg.  It was a great experience and wonderful to meet so many of the faces at Raymond James."

Conference organizers did due diligence while planning the conference.  Conference leaders gathered information from all attendees in advance to design the conference so participants had a change to align with other professionals who shared key interests.  "We shared numerous best practices within our group, and also tackled some common challenges," Jennie explained.  And after two full days packed with new information, Jennie was happy to come back and share what's up and coming with her peers in Southfield, Michigan.

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