Yeske Buie Learns Big at FPA NorCal

This week, members of our Financial Planning Team in San Francisco attended the Financial Planning Association’s NorCal Conference. The conference has a national reputation for hosting knowledgeable and inspirational speakers and provides quality networking opportunities for those financial professionals who choose to attend.

Members of Yeske Buie’s Financial Planning Team pose at the FPA NorCal Conference. From left to right is Camille Bouvet, Russell Kroeger, Sabina Smailhodzic, Dave Yeske, Jennifer Hicks and Cody Daniels.

Among the group of experienced speakers was Dr. Dave Yeske who gave a joint presentation with fellow CFP^® Jonathan Guyton titled ‘Human to Analytical Side: Tools to Carry Clients through a Long Retirement’. Dave and Jon shared their thoughts about the challenges and importance of creating robust, resilient retirement portfolios and managing them to meet Clients’ needs over the course of a long retirement.

Dr. Dave Yeske and Jonathan Guyton present at FPA NorCal 2016.

Including Dave and Jon’s presentation, the conference was home to nearly forty different speaker presentations. Our team members, always eager to Learn Big, attended a wide variety of presentations and have shared their thoughts and learning moments from their experiences. Notably, each of our five conference attendees selected different sessions as their favorites which speaks highly to the diversity and the quality of the conference speakers. Furthermore, most of the insights the team shared can be implemented immediately into their daily lives which is, of course, the ultimate goal of attending a conference of this nature.

Sabina Smailhodzic who will soon be graduating from Yeske Buie’s Financial Planning Resident Program, noted that her favorite presentation was by Kate Holmes titled ‘How to Add Value, Reduce Expenses, and Expand Your Client Base by Adopting Virtual Aspects’. “As someone who aspires to own a virtual financial planning firm,” Sabina said, “I found this presentation very inspiring and informative. I left the presentation with a long list of items to research and add to my knowledge bank.”

Sabina, Russell, and Jen are ready for the start of a presentation at FPA NorCal.

Cody Daniels found it challenging to select just one presentation as his favorite! One of the quotes that resonated the most with Cody came from Dan Ariely’s keynote presentation titled ‘Advanced Hindsight: The Psychology of Money’. During the presentation, Dan said, “Maybe we need to do a bit more than provide information, and get more into people’s lives.” For Cody, he really “loved how Dan’s presentation went beyond “what” financial planners do, and brilliantly shared the “why”. Cody, and many other attendees, also enjoyed Annette Brinton’s presentation on “Mining the Tax Return for Planning Gems” which, as seen in the picture below, was packed with planners eager to learn.

The room was full for Annette Brinton’s presentation on mining tax returns.

Jennifer Hicks, who was attending her fifth NorCal Conference, selected ‘Communication and Framework’ presented by Ross Levin as her favorite session. Ross spoke about successful relationships and how financial planners can communicate in a way that builds strong connections. He elaborated on how planners must be willing and able to talk openly, feel deeply, and think clearly in order to succeed. Jen was captivated by the session from the beginning as Ross opened with the following poem in order to set the tone:

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

-John O’Donohue “A Morning Offering”

Jen takes notes as she watches a presentation.

Camille Bouvet found Craig Watanabe session on Cyber Security to be the most interesting breakout session as her learnings can be applied immediately to her personal and professional life. Camille plans to pursue additional research regarding Craig’s suggestion for using password managers as a secure way to keep track of our never-ending number of complex passwords. This research and suggestion aligns perfectly with the work Camille is doing on a project for Yeske Buie focused on our fraud policies.

Camille watches attentively during a speaker presentation.

Following the conclusion of the two day conference, the FPA NexGen community hosted a reception to connect with engaged and passionate, like-minded individuals to advance the NexGen movement. As Co-Directors of NexGen for the San Francisco FPA Chapter, Yeske Buie’s own Russell Kroeger and Jennifer Hicks coordinated and hosted the reception which proved to be a great success! Russell shared his appreciation for the opportunity to be a part of the NexGen Reception saying, “It’s an amazing opportunity to connect with like-minded young professionals in a collaborative environment where we are all able to learn from and encourage one another. It’s really special to see how invested the profession is in facilitating the development of the next generation of financial planners!”