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Years ago, when our oldest turned 15 and secured his learner’s permit, my older attorney sister asked me how much umbrella liability coverage Kathie and I had.  I responded, “None!”  She reminded me that over the course of the next 2 years, our liabilities on the road...

Conflict is a tenured resident in almost every human relationship. I suspect in honest moments, our most challenging conflicts meet us in the corridors of our own individual selves. We wrestle with values, beliefs, morality, prejudices, loves, hates, likes, dislikes,...

There may be no more difficult and demanding family challenge than caring and providing for a special needs child. Over the last 40 years, I have been with couples in the hospital when they first learned their newborn had Down Syndrome or another cognitive disability....

I remember working closely with a family and their young adult children who, over several months, asked us to take them through our planning process and bring their portfolios under our management.  Small business owners, we learned this family also owned property...

Fred sat in my office one afternoon and asked me about the need to invest his annual IRA contribution. Earlier in April, he brought a check by the office when I was visiting with another client, leaving a message asking me to call him. In that call, he said, “Let’s...

When a client says, “I need to think about it,” “Let me get back to you on that one,” or “I don’t feel good about moving forward,” they may be telling you more than they realize. To be clear, there are times when waiting is not only needed but required. In my...

Summer is the season when many families change. Seniors graduate from high school and college. Children often marry in the summer months. A job change may require relocation.  I remember vividly a conversation I had with my mother 26 years ago when our oldest son...

No one is in the financial services business long before having a conversation with a prospect or client clawing through money problems. Credit card debt, a house-poor mortgage, student loan payments, private school tuition, car payments, and the basic cost of...

The first day of summer is but a few days away. If you’re like me, the summer solstice shows up when most of us have already morphed into the change of pace that comes with warmer weather. That is unless you live in Asheville, NC where our furnace fired up last week...

Noise is a tenured resident in our modern lives. Whether it’s the whirl of a tumbling dryer, the muted voices of sportscasters calling a game, the hum of an automobile’s engine, or the buzz of the florescent fixtures in our offices, all manner of noise is with us and...

A few years back, in one of those “out of the blue” moments, a call showed up on my phone from a senior client. Unexpected. On the weekend. Concerning. They both were both clients and decades-long friends. “We had to put John in the hospital yesterday and I wanted you...

It’s more common now than perhaps ever before. We take a call from a client whose world seems to be turning upside down. The economy is adversely affecting their profession, a family situation comes out of nowhere, or they are second-guessing a major business decision...

I remember the conversation well. “Michelle’s sister is responsible for her mother’s financial affairs,” her husband Bob reported. I quickly saw a furrowed brow on the wife and an edge to her husband’s normally smooth voice. Bob added, “I know she has ‘borrowed’...

Last week’s blog began exploring the many factors that contribute to fear in our lives and in the clients we serve. As you have listened and asked a few follow-up questions, you may sense the need to jump right in and offer some measure of solace. Frankly, you may...

The words “investor” and “fear” seem joined at the hip. One client expresses a fear that the market may be too volatile. Another sits on the sidelines of a new bull market cycle unable to pull the “buy” trigger. The first client is fearful of a pullback, correction,...

In 2015, Forbes published an article by Robert Laura titled “When Couples Argue About Retirement” which grabbed my attention. Laura noted the one, often overlooked part of a couple’s retirement plan: managing their relationship when work is in the rearview mirror....

We humans live by story. Stories, like tributaries meandering into a larger river, flow and feed who we are and what matters most to us. And yes, more so now than ever before, voices heard and overheard, posts, blogs, and sound bites trickle ideas into our...

What we know about a prospect or client is the heart and soul of CRM software. You may use Salesforce or another similar platform to manage client data. These platforms’ robust technologies create a process that uses what is known about a client to drive marketing,...