Conferences

Elaine and Scott attended the AICPA Conference for CPAs, held in Las Vegas, on July 26-28, 2021.

They took part in the conference to get a better understanding of the many tax law changes being proposed by the Biden Administration and members of Congress.

Some observations are shared in the Update on Possible Tax Law Changes in 2021 blog post. They will also discuss tax reduction considerations in the Reducing Taxes Before and During Retirement Webinar - Register today!

On October 14-16, 2019, Elaine and Scott attended the eMoney Advisor Summit in Austin, Texas. We use the software from eMoney Advisor for financial planning and the financial portal used by our clients.

Ed O’Brien, CEO of eMoney, gave his vision for the future of the company. Abby Johnson, Chairman and CEO of FMR LLC, talked about the future of Fidelity, our custodian.

We attended training sessions that showed us new ways we can use the software to provide even more benefits for our clients. We also talked directly with their software engineers to give them our feedback on the designs of future.

On September 19, 2019, Elaine, Scott and Linda attended a workshop in San Francisco put on by Fidelity on the topic of Elevating the Client Experience.

We gained many insights about holding educational and fun events, improving the quality of client communications, and delivering customized online experiences.

Elaine, Scott and Linda attended the Financial Planning Association conference for Northern California (FPA Norcal)  in San Francisco on May 28 and 29, 2019.  Over 500 advisors attended to hear from a wide range of speakers.  Some of our key takeaways included:

• Keynote speaker Mike Robbins shared that his years of research has shown how important it is for leaders to be honest, real and genuine.  Effective leaders set a high bar for performance, they clearly define it and they recognize it passionately when it occurs.
• Michael Kitces shared the key trends shaping our industry.  Technology is evolving rapidly and we are implementing the best technology we can find to provide a high lever experience for our clients and to make our team more efficient.
• Brock Long is the former Administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  He reminded us that FEMA has limitations on the assistance they can provide, so it is important for us all to do everything we can to be prepared for natural disasters so we can minimize their impact.

On July -4, 2019, Elaine and Linda attended the BlackRock Women's Summit in San Francisco. BlackRock manages $3T in assets and is one of the largest asset managers on the planet.  They learned more about BlackRock's investment strategies, products and views on the market.  They also heard presentations by other successful women advisors and women in our industry.  The conference provided ideas on new investment strategies to evaluate and ideas on how we can improve the ways we serve our clients.  It also confirmed that the systems and processes we implemented in the past year have put us in a position that is among the top in the industry.

On December 13, 2018, Elaine and Scott attended the Chapman Economic Forecast in Southern California.  Chapman University has been preparing an economic forecast for the US, California and Orange County for over 50 years.  Our key takeaways included the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 increased GDP a little more than they expected in 2018.  They expect US GDP to continue to grow through 2019, meaning they do not expect a recession to begin in the US in 2019.  But they do see a slowing in residential real estate as mortgage interest rates continue to rise.

On October 8-10, 2018, Elaine and Scott attended the eMoney Advisor Summit in Orlando, Florida.  We learned about many new and exciting features that have been implemented in their software.  We had the chance to listen to Abby Johnson, Chairman and CEO of FMR, LLC, talk about her vision for the future of Fidelity.  We also talked with Lisa Burns, the manager of trading and servicing platform for Fidelity.  We shared with her our impressions as a new team using their systems.  It was an outstanding meeting and we learned a lot to help improve the experience for our clients.

On November 9, 2017, Elaine and Linda attended the InvestmentNews Women Advisor Summit in San Francisco.  They heard from top women in the financial industry about important industry topics such as client event ideas, regulatory changes, Social Security and helping our clients through life transitions.

On September 25-27, 2017, Elaine and Scott attended the eMoney Advisor Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Included in the picture is Ed O'Brian, President of eMoney Advisor.  It was an excellent conference showcasing how technology can make all our lives easier.  We learned that there are many exciting enhancements coming from eMoney.

On May 31 to June 1, Linda attended the 44th annual Financial Planning Association (FPA) northern California (NorCal) conference in San Francisco.  This is her 15th time attending this annual conference.  It is considered one of the top advisor conferences in the nation.  Attending these conferences keep Linda up-to-date on the latest news in our industry.  This conference featured top national speakers on topics that include financial planning, practice management, investments, tax planning, estate planning and technology.  In addition to these top speakers, Linda discussed best practices with advisors from other firms and met with representatives of companies in our industry.

On February 18, 2016, Elaine and Scott attended an economic forum where government and business leaders gave their economic forecast for Silicon Valley for 2016.  The speakers at the meeting were:

• Sam Liccardo - Mayor of San Jose
• Garrett Herbert - Managing Partner at Deloitte LLP
• Christina Briggs - Deputy Director of Economic Development for the City of Fremont
• Julio Fuentes - City Manager for the City of Santa Clara
• Kim Walesh - Director of Economic Development for the City of San Jose

The speakers provided an overall optimistic and bullish view for the year ahead.  Per the spekers, the economy of Silicon Valley is doing well and this is expected to continue.  Exciting projects in process include the extension of BART from Fremont to San Jose, automotive companies opening technology centers in the area, a $6B development project in the planning stages across from Levi's Stadium and the announcement of high speed rail coming to San Jose.  The cities reported that the improving economy in the area has helped them build their reserves and strengthen their financial situations.

On February 10-12, Elaine and Scott attended the Technology Tools for Today (T3) conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  It is considered the premier technology conference for financial advisors.  Elaine and Scott were able to talk directly with the representatives of these companies and see demonstrations of their products.  We look forward to sharing more details with you as they become available.