Building Financial Stability in the Bay Area
The Magic of Pro Bono Financial Planning
At Yeske Buie, we authentically live within our values system. Our values, which we call “The BIGs”, serve as our pillars and are often the filter we use when analyzing what we do for Clients, for each other, for the firm, and for our community. When we think about pro bono financial planning, we think about GIVE BIG – we believe that sharing unconditionally is the path to abundance. It is through the sharing of our time, our energy, and our expertise that we exemplify our commitment to the profession.
Our purpose at Yeske Buie is to empower people to pursue their Live Big® lives. We believe that this pursuit should expand beyond our Clients and should touch everyone around us – friends, family, and the community. We also believe that pro bono work is at the heart of our profession (and every profession). We are in the business of helping people, and the need for help is not exclusive to any one demographic of people.
On our team, Elissa Buie, Dave Yeske, and Yusuf Abugideiri have been huge advocates for pro bono financial planning, with Elissa and Dave each serving as past Chairs for the Foundation for Financial Planning, a non-profit organization whose mission is to “help people in need improve their financial lives by expending access to pro bono financial planning”. Yusuf has also given back through providing pro bono services to families in need.
Elissa Buie
Financial Planning is a blessing. To those who benefit from it and to those who practice it. Financial planning improves lives. But it is not always accessible to those who can need it. The Foundation for Financial Planning, an organization committed to expanding access to pro bono financial planning, has initiatives that help get real financial planning to underserved communities. It is an honor to be able to support this important and impactful work.
Dave Yeske
Financial Planning has the power to change lives, whether it’s helping Clients educate their children, care for aging parents, plan for a comfortable retirement, or grapple with any of the other myriad challenges and opportunities that fill our financial lives. But not everyone has access to professional financial planning advice and those of us who have been blessed to practice in this incredible profession owe it to ourselves, our community, and the public to bring the power of financial planning to those underserved communities in need.
Yusuf Abugideiri
Working with families on a pro bono basis has helped me deepen my appreciation for the role I get play as a financial planner. I’m dedicated to doing the work that is necessary to instill confidence in a family faced with many difficult and sometimes overwhelming financial decisions. Doing pro bono work has helped me focus on what really matters… it’s a gift.
The Yeske Buie team has a commitment to pro bono financial planning and I have recently taken on the responsibility of managing the Yeske Buie pro bono financial planning efforts. In this role, I will be helping our team accomplish our stated annual pro bono planning goals.
Give Big Spotlight: Bay Area Financial Planning Day with Sydney
In addition to my role within the Yeske Buie team, I also serve as the Director of Pro Bono for the San Francisco chapter of the Financial Planning Association. In this role, I have had the privilege of organizing the chapter’s Annual Financial Planning Day event for the past two years.
This October, eight months’ worth of planning came to fruition as we kicked off the 2024 Financial Planning Day. It was a day full of insightful group workshops and impactful 1:1 financial coaching sessions. Throughout the day, over 130 members of the community were able to receive free, objective, no-strings-attached financial advice from our wonderful group of CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals.
Here are some stories of the individuals & families that were served:
- A self-supporting student working two jobs who plans to join the Peace Corps: looking for general advice on saving money, credit, and planning for the future.
- A 91-year-old woman in excellent health currently living solely off SocialSecurity and wanting to stay in her home, but barely getting by with just her Social Security benefits (we discussed how a reverse mortgage might be a good fit).
- A woman who lost all her statements in the Paradise fire: has no record of cost basis on assets she’s held for a long period of time (we helped her take the first steps of finding a tax professional who could help her estimate cost basis).
- A young woman in her early 30s: needs help determining the best places to save and how to invest her savings.
- A 67-year-old man wants to retire soon but doesn’t know if he has enough money to support himself.
- A young couple who are about to get married curious about what types of financial discussions they should be having before marriage (they learned about some of their partner’s financial goals that they weren’t aware of previously and left with an action plan for prioritizing those goals together).
- A man with large student loans and credit card debt: overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to start (after discussing the snowball method, he felt confident in the path forward and how to begin his journey towards decreasing debt).
Our work is about more than just numbers; it’s about human beings and their stories and their lives. Planning and advice can become a powerful catalyst for change and financial empowerment. Each initiative we undertake not only reflects how we live out our values but also strengthens the fabric of our community. I, and the rest of the Yeske Buie team, look forward to continuing to foster a culture of generosity for our Clients, their loved ones, and other members of our community. The experiences we have with each individual and family we assist reinforce our belief in the transformative power of financial literacy, and that every human can benefit from financial planning.