In the Estate Planning Section from the comprehensive financial planning, we often recommend clients to write a “final letter of last instruction.” A final letter of last instruction details the client’s wishes regarding the disposition of specific tangible property, as well as funeral and burial wishes.  But, this letter is a communication tool between the client and his or her estate’s executor, in the event of your death.  Will that be enough to help your clients go through the three stages of Widowhood? We are so glad to have Dr. Rehl return to continue the discussion of what matters the most?

Resources of the legacy letter.

Guest:

Kathleen M. Rehl, Ph.D., CFP®, CeFT® wrote the award-winning book, Moving Forward on Your Own: A Financial Guidebook for Widows after the death of her late husband. More than 75,000 copies of this book are in circulation. She owned Dr. Rehl Financial Advisors for almost 18 years before retiring to a six-year encore career empowering widows and their advisors through her speaking, writing, and doing research about widows. Her work has been featured in articles published by the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger’s, CNBC, USA Today, and many others. She happily “reFired” on her 73rd birthday in 2020. Kathleen and her new husband, Charlie, concentrate on family, fun, focused-purpose, friends, and fitness. She enjoys writing legacy poetry and stories plus assisting nonprofits. Her website is at https://kathleenDr. Rehl.com.

Host:

Chia-Li Chien, Ph.D., CFP®, PMP®, CPBC, is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Financial Planning Program of California Lutheran University. Before her academic role, she held several senior management positions in Fortune 500 companies, including Diageo, ABB, CIGNA, and RSA Insurance Group. Dr. Chien is a frequent speaker about succession planning at national conferences and has published three books, including her most recent publication, “Enhancing Retirement Success Rates in the United States.” She publishes research on succession topics in a variety of academic and practitioner research journals. Dr. Chien serves on the boards of various national financial service associations. She holds a doctorate in financial planning and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) as well as Project Management Professional (PMP®). Chia-Li Chien is pronounced Jolly Jan.

HYFLEX TEACHING BEST PRACTICE    

The hyflex teaching model allows some to work remotely while others can work face-to-face, explained California Lutheran University professor Dr. Sharla Berry. Dr. Berry is an online learning expert who has been published in multiple top-tier research publications. After a year of online teaching and online meetings, the U.S. is changing its COVID-19 protocols allowing students the option of going to a classroom on campus. Hyflex teaching allows students to be flexible with their learning and decide to learn, whether it is their home or the classroom. 

How Can Faculty Adapt Quickly Into the Hyflex Teaching Model?  

Dr. Berry firstly suggested the use of whiteboards and of course wearing masks to protect others. She also suggested having a set agenda of “what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it,” she said. Setting goals for the day and having a schedule allows for breaks which the students can step away, refresh, and maintain on track for the rest of class, she said.  Another important application is using the Zoom chat box for students to interact with each other and the professor. Dr. Berry suggested question and answer periods to help minimize distractions and constant scanning of the chatbox for questions. 

Dr. Chien, the host of the webinar, mentioned that she likes to have a team captain monitor the chat and also be the co-host in case she loses her internet. The use of team captain rotation, and regularly stopping for questions to check in with students are valuable tools. Ultimately, if the chatbox becomes too distracting or difficult to maintain there is the option to disable its use.  

Should Cameras Be Off or On?

At the beginning of class, establish wanting to have the students be visible on the camera, said Dr. Berry. When students have the camera turned on they are more likely to be engaged, share a personal appeal, have accountability of focusing, and most importantly, it creates a positive impact on learning. I think many students would agree that they feel more attentive and focused when the camera is on as they can’t easily slip away or play Mario Kart on their phones. 

“The more engagement opportunities the course has, the less opportunity you have for people to turn off their video or be passive,” said Dr. Berry. For example, make use of polls, have random questions that they need to respond to, and use breakout rooms for engagement.  

What is the Best Way to Teach on Zoom? 

For the past year, Dr. Berry has used the pre-COVID flipped classroom method and instead uses Zoom to work with her students rather than lecture the material.  “Flipped classroom is when students do a lot of the direct learning outside of the classroom and they come to the classroom ready for a discussion,” she explained. This method allows students to learn or review the material asynchronously at home and then come to class ready for discussion and work on the subject where they can easily ask questions and develop their understanding more in-depth. Dr. Berry explained that hyflex teaching opens the opportunity for asynchronous teaching and can offer more discussion being more manageable. 

Dr. Chien said it can be hard for students to read ahead for discussion. As an alternative, she likes to have group presentations to highlight the main topics of the chapter of the class or encourage other activities and reading. Other alternatives include annotated readings or online discussion boards to help facilitate early prep of readings, said Dr. Berry.  “Letting people know how you’re going to be using a reading and how we’re going to be accountable for it, I think can go a long way,” she said. 

Another alternative are stations. In the break-out rooms, the instructor has the opportunity to jump into them to meet with the students whereas the in-person students can have a different assignment separately. Zoom allows groups to be more interactive with one another. “Giving yourself a schedule and also giving your students those manageable activities makes it easier so that you don’t have to be in all those places at once,” she said. 

How Can Students Warm Up and Engage More? 

Linda Clayton, a financial planning professor at California Lutheran University, said she likes her students to know that the classroom is a safe place to talk. Since day one of class she sets an example to participate, calling on students to answer if her question is received in silence. She said now they answer by themselves and even alternate who does it.  

Other options to help students warm up to participate more is by using polls either via Zoom or Kahoot and the results can be shared in class allowing for further discussion. Students can also work in pairs where they can answer together on a google document. Alternatively, questions can be shared beforehand, “if you have your agenda, questions, and discussion points listed people who do get lost can easily jump in and people that might be nervous and need more time to think about it, they will have the opportunity,” Dr. Berry said. 

Final Recommendations 

“There’s no reason for your in-person students to not be engaged in the virtual space as well,” Dr. Berry said. In-person students can participate in the chat on Zoom with the other students. Let the students determine what they need through surveys and natural evolving to adapt the classroom and teaching methods. Lastly, Dr. Berry said, “the students always value the opportunity to talk to you and each other about how they’re feeling.” Discussions allow the students to feel stronger about the courses and more connected with each other. 

About Dr. Sharla Berry, Ph.D.:

Dr. Sharla Berry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership. Her research explores technology in K-12 and higher education. Topics of interest include technology and college access and online learning in postsecondary environments. Dr. Berry teaches a number of research methods classes.

About the Host:

Dr. Chia-Li Chien is a succession program director at Value Growth Institute, a succession consulting practice dedicated to helping business owners increase their firms’ equity value. Before her private consulting practice, she held several senior management positions in Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Chien is a director of the financial planning program at the School of Management at California Lutheran University. Dr. Chien is a frequent speaker about succession and retirement planning at national conferences and has published three award-winning books, including her most recent publication, “Enhancing Retirement Success Rates in the United States.” Dr. Chien serves on the boards of various national financial service associations. She holds a doctorate in financial planning and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) as well as Project Management Professional (PMP®).

About the Writer:

Rosie Baker graduated Magna Cum Laude from California Lutheran University in May 2021 with honors and departmental distinction. Her bachelor’s degree is in Communication emphasizing in PR and Advertising, minoring in Creative Writing. In July 2020, she published her first book, Mirrors & Windows: Unlocking a New Framework to Envision Your Success, with New Degree Press.

Linda Clayton has a mantra that she lives by when working with her students and her clients. It’s a line from a song called For Good by the Broadway musical Wicked and it goes like this, “Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.” After Clayton has worked with either her students or clients she wants them to be able to say that they are better off from working with her: that she has helped them for good. 

Currently, Clayton is teaching Financial Planning, in prior terms she taught graduate students and business undergraduates. Her influence for starting a career as a financial advisor started when her doctor mentioned to her one day that their advisor was looking for someone just like her. She previously used to manage finances for an airline company but after 9/11 the world changed. Clayton left her job at the airline company after being hired by her doctor’s advisor, she got her securities license and earned her MBA and CFP® at California Lutheran University. Embracing that the only thing she could rely on in her career is the inevitability of change being constant. 

Helping Others Understand Finances

Clayton’s passion is about helping others to “improve their situation and understand what they’re doing,” she said. She wants to share concepts and education that she wished she knew when she was younger to help her students and clients understand the world of finance. 

Her main specialty is being a financial planner working with clients in transition. Over the years she has worked with many members of the same families. She also does wealth management, is a certified divorce financial analyst, CDFA®, mediator, and faculty member at California Lutheran University. Her goal is to empower clients to make financial decisions themselves by giving them the resources and information needed. “As a planner, you hope to really listen and help the clients tell you what they want and how to get there,” Clayton said. She believes that being a mediator has helped her be better at listening to others by developing this skill. 

Sharing Experiences 

Ever since high school, Clayton has been busy teaching others. It’s something she loves and in return, she loves learning from the students and gaining new perspectives. “In my classes, I ask students to share their experiences and I try to develop concepts so that they can talk about what they do with the other students in the class,” she said. It’s very important to Clayton that her classroom is a judgment-free zone where students can learn, share their ideas, and work. 

Another part of teaching that Clayton loves is hearing from her students after they have taken her class. “I hope my students continue to reach out because it’s so fun to hear what they’re doing and how their careers have developed and what their lives look like now,” she said happily. Knowing that her students have embraced the material and put it into practice in real-life examples makes the learning in the classroom worthwhile. 

One Size Does Not Fit All

“Sometimes a topic that you think is really interesting may not be to the students and what their learning style is,” Clayton said. “Some of them really like proof, organization, and detail. Some want to cut to the chase. I try to get an idea of where they’re coming from so that I can make sure they hear me and the communication gets through. One size fits none, you have to be a flexible professor and find different ways to explain if what you are saying is not the way a student processes information.” Being a good professor to Clayton is having the ability to be a good listener to hear your students. She likes her classes to be a mix of lecturing and interaction between the students. 

Making the Most of Class

On the other side of the coin, Clayton believes the qualities that make a good student are having the ability to speak up, communicate with the professor if they’re struggling or need help, and stop having the idea of needing to be perfect on your first try. “I think for students this is such a valuable experience that goes by so fast that they don’t give it their full attention when they’re in class and they try to do too much,” she said. Clayton believes students should stop multitasking in class and get the most out of the program. Although class time and work may feel like forever, it isn’t for very long and students should make the most of the opportunity they have to learn and interact with a professional.  

When Clayton was a student in the Financial Planning program at California Lutheran University she had an inspirational professor. Harry Starn who used to teach at California Lutheran University was the first professor of the first-class Clayton took. “He was really inspiring to me, I loved his approach and detail, and his encouragement. I really felt myself wanting to do a good job,” she said. He inspired her to be the professor she is today. 

Clayton’s Free Time

In her spare time before the pandemic, Clayton loved to go to spin classes early in the morning with her CFP® friend. Since the pandemic, Clayton hasn’t been able to continue her spin classes so instead, she enjoys seasonally decorating her home for the holidays. Currently, her dining room table is ready for St. Patrick Day later this month!  

About Linda Clayton: 

Linda has always known that she wanted a career working with people.  This love of working with people prompted her to be active in the PTA, and in her community, serving as two-term Publicity Chairman and two-term President of La Canada Junior Woman’s Club.

While earning her Bachelor’s Degree in History from UCLA, Linda worked her way through school as a retail manager of several departments at a local Sears store. Upon graduation, she began her career at Continental Airlines. She worked her way up through customer service positions, ultimately promoted to the Western Regional Sales and Marketing Manager of 15 ticket offices for Continental, and another for their international partner, COPA Airlines. Having the responsibility of running each of these offices as her own small business for fifteen years, managing bottom-up budgeting, journal entries, marketing, and auditing, she learned to love finance. After the tragic events of September 11th and the airlines began closing their autonomous offices, Linda switched career paths.

Linda began her career in Financial Planning as a relationship manager/ paraplanner, working in the Life Planning division of a boutique Financial Planning firm. In addition, she also worked in a human resources position with Working Solutions, interviewing applicants for work-at-home agent positions. In these roles, Linda was able to combine her love of working with people and finance. To visit her website click here https://www.lindaclaytonadvisory.com/

About the Author:

Rosie Baker is an undergraduate student at California Lutheran University, graduating in May 2021. She is studying Communication with an emphasis in PR and Advertising and has a minor in Creative Writing. In July 2020, she published her first book, Mirrors & Windows: Unlocking a New Framework to Envision Your Success, with New Degree Press.

Dr. Ekta Kumar opened up the webinar by explaining the difference between the interchangeable words; shaming and guilt. Shaming she said is having a judgment on an individual. It can then be hard to make change happen when feeling overwhelmed with this emotion. For example, “I’m terrible at finances,” is a client shaming themselves. Guilt is behavioral and it can be obstructive. An example of this would be saying to a client, “Stop spending so much on shopping.” 

When a client feels shameful, an advisor should respond with empathy, explained Kumar.  Discussing money is something many Americans have been taught not to talk about with others, therefore it is often difficult to talk about with someone you do not know well. The advisor wants to emphasize and encourage a bond that together they can work on a financial plan. The thoughts about financial decisions they feel shameful about must be reminded are a skill and not a character flaw, Dr. Kumar said. 

Managing Non-Verbals

Before COVID-19, meetings with clients mostly took place in-person therefore meaning body language was very easily accessible to see. Now, the majority of meetings are virtual and I think they will be for the foreseeable future meaning different non-verbal actions are needed when in a meeting. Dr. Kumar said advisors need to think about other aspects compared to the previous in-person format when in a meeting with a client. What are your distractions while talking? What is your body language depicting to the receiver through the camera? Are you using eye-contact and visual cues such as nodding? It is important to exaggerate these in a virtual environment so they can be seen through the screen, Dr. Kumar said. 

In relation to the topic of judgment the host, Dr. Chia-Li Chien, asked what can advisors do to avoid and manage their nonverbals? Dr. Kumar responded by saying advisors need to be aware of what their biases are towards certain behaviors or individuals. “As humans every single one of us has biases and when we try to ignore any that exist, we can’t do anything about them,” she said.  Many of us refuse to acknowledge we have biases towards certain identities or characteristics, however, we all have them. Until they are recognized and understood we are oblivious to fixing them. To help understand, Dr. Kumar suggested reflecting on the situation that was tough for you. Are you aware of any biases being present? How are you going to actively work on those biases? The discussion of understanding Dr. Kumar is talking about is so important to understand no matter what industry you are working in. Especially as our world is becoming more global working with cultures literally from all over the world. 

When it comes to being an advisor there are two strong biases at play, the rules of thumbs such as social security claiming age, and cultural biases such as paying for children’s college. “Each individual has different familiar values, different cultural values that drive their decision making, different obligations to their church or their temple, but also mental health as well. Sometimes different mental health diagnoses have different spending habits,” Dr. Kumar said. 

The Best Way to Work with Biases 

There are biases for all types of identity. In Financial Planning it is important to ask questions and understand what is important for the individual you are working with. What are the individual’s values? When they respond, good listening should be practiced to fully grasp what they are saying. Responses should be sensitive and their values should be honored. The best outcome is to meet their financial goals while honoring their values. 

The best way to work around biases is to understand where it came from and how your point of view is different from the clients. Acknowledging their position is a good place to open up a conversation on ways to meet their financial goals. The best way to achieve this is to ask additional questions to find a middle ground of compromise.  

How to Avoid Unintentionally Shaming Clients?

A question that may come across an advisor’s mind is how do you know when a client has been unintentionally shamed? There are a few potential indicators Kumar explained. Maybe your client stops attending sessions, seems checked out or you are hitting a dead end. “You’re talking about money all day but most people never talk about money. Remember those pieces,” Dr. Kumar said. Also pay attention to what your phrases are and how you feel at the end of different sessions.  

Does Being Vulnerable Help to Understand Clients?

Advisors are human too. They understand the challenges and difficulties that the client may be facing in making decisions. By recognizing that different things can be difficult it shows the client that the advisors understand emotional turmoil. By sharing experience it sheds some light on the fact they aren’t the only ones to be struggling with a certain topic or decision. 

How to Get Clients to Talk Without Shaming Them Into Talking? 

The key to getting clients to talk without shaming them into doing so is to be empathic and sensitive to their perspective. Ask questions and brainstorm with them while maintaining a neutral tone, Dr. Kumar said. You also want to monitor your facial expressions while activating listening and engaging she explained. 

Phrasing Questions

The way questions are asked and phrased will change the type of response that is received Kumar explained. “Why don’t you stop getting your nails done every week?” versus “You nails look really great, is it something you do to take care of yourself?… What about if you got them done every week and a half?” Although these two questions are looking for the same answer, they will receive two very different responses from the client. By demonstrating support and recognition of why the client is getting their nails done it opens the conversation to negotiate a middle ground, explained Dr. Kumar. “There are so many layers of identity there is room for judgment,” Dr. Kumar said.   

Discussing Savings 

Some people find it easier to talk about spending rather than saving. So, how do you engage a client to talk about saving? You want to first learn about the clients value of saving, Kumar said. Ask the client, “How important are savings to you?” This is a neutral way to have the conversation rather than pushing the concept of savings onto the client. 

Ease the Situation Into Helping the Clients Do the Right Thing

By acknowledging and giving feedback of the norms it can help ease the situation of helping the client do the right thing. You want to have awareness of potential different situations that can be around savings that you may not know about e.g. fears of banks or previous divorce, Dr. Kumar said. “To speed up the discovery, create a good environment to help the client feel comfortable to share information,” suggested Dr. Kumar in her last thought of the webinar. If they still don’t share information, it may be they just don’t want to share it.  

If you would like to learn more about careers in Financial Planning, reach out to the Financial Planning program here at California Lutheran University. 

About Ekta Kumar:

Dr. Ekta Kumar is a licensed Clinical Psychologist who received her master’s degree and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) from the University of Indianapolis. At the University of Indianapolis, Dr. Kumar was a diverse fellow and served on the Diversity Advisory Board for the School of Psychological Sciences.  Dr. Kumar has developed workshops and continuing education programs related to diversity, trauma, clinical practice for students, staff, faculty, and clinicians in Indiana and California. Recently, Dr. Kumar was the Director for Community Counseling Services at CLU and is now the Director of Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Southern California. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and provides college students at USC with therapy services. In her private practice, she specializes in working with LGBTQIA+ individuals and POC. Dr. Kumar has a variety of training and experience providing therapy, outreach/prevention programming, and facilitation of difficult dialogue related to trauma and diversity. Finally, Dr. Kumar has presented at various national conferences and is published in the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development.

About the Host:

Dr. Chia-Li Chien is a succession program director at Value Growth Institute, a succession consulting practice dedicated to helping business owners increase their firms’ equity value. Before her private consulting practice, she held several senior management positions in Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Chien is a director of the financial planning program at the School of Management at California Lutheran University. Dr. Chien is a frequent speaker about succession and retirement planning at national conferences and has published three award-winning books, including her most recent publication, “Enhancing Retirement Success Rates in the United States.” Dr. Chien serves on the boards of various national financial service associations. She holds a doctorate in financial planning and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) as well as Project Management Professional (PMP®).

About the Author:

Rosie Baker is an undergraduate student at California Lutheran University, graduating in May 2021. She is studying Communication with an emphasis in PR and Advertising and has a minor in Creative Writing. In July 2020, she published her first book, Mirrors & Windows: Unlocking a New Framework to Envision Your Success, with New Degree Press. 

Dr. Chien interviewed Dr. Ekta Kumar on “How to Counsel Clients Without Shaming Them?” on November 3, 2020, at 3:00 pm PST.

Many of us were taught not to talk about money when growing up. But, the more we make, the more we need to seek help in accumulating wealth. So we can achieve financial independence in life. In this session, we will discuss the following questions:

• What is shaming?
• How do we know we are unintentionally shaming our clients?
• How do we encourage clients to talk but not shame them when providing financial planning or counseling?
• What could financial planning professionals do to avoid shaming their clients?

Failure scares many of us, if not all of us in some way. Whether it is something big like not achieving our dream job or something small like undercooking a chocolate birthday cake. Carrie Beckstrom, an expert in communicating and the CEO of Power Speaking. Inc discusses how to reframe failure, vital communication soft skills everyone should practice, and how to analyze an audience plus many other topics in her interview with Dr. Chia-Li Chien. 

Beckstrom recommends these three ways to reframe failure: 

1. Focus on your strengths and be clear on what they are.
2. Step outside of your comfort zone as the most rewarding things in your life come from doing just this.
3. Practice, Train, and Research communication techniques, but most importantly commit to them. 

The first minute to two minutes is the most vital when you want to make an impression. If you start weak, it is hard to recover, Beckstrom explained. “If you do nothing else, make sure you have your opening down pat, whether it’s an interview you’re preparing for, a difficult discussion, a pitch to a client, or a presentation. You need to rehearse that opening,” she said. 

The Importance of Communication Skills

Having good communication and other behavioral skills are the new power skills said, Beckstrom. “The number one skill that recruiters, CEOs, and employers are seeking from graduates are referred to as either power or social capital skills,” she said. These skills refer to writing and verbal communication, working with others, and the ability to influence others. Now more than ever there is an emphasis on the importance of having these skills as companies are now global organizations. What’s more, having these skills lead to building strong relationships. 

How to Overcome Excuses 

We are all guilty of having excuses for ourselves, whether it is putting off doing a task or having a reason to not step outside of our comfort zones. Ask yourself, Beckstrom said, “How are your excuses and self-imposing limitations serving you?”

How do the choices are you choosing benefit you? Do you want to stretch yourself out of your comfort zone and reap the rewards from being uncomfortable for a period of time? You can only grow and get these rewards when you take the courage to step outside of your comfort zone she explained. “It doesn’t matter what level you are at, there is always an opportunity for improvement,” she said. Whether you are at entry-level or the CEO, learning, and growing will never cease. 

What Makes an Effective Communicator

If you want to be an effective communicator, you want to show others that you are not perfect. What makes us all human is having weaknesses. “Converting confidence, capabilities, aspirations and to be willing to show vulnerability and weakness that humanizes you and makes you so much more relatable,” Beckstrom said. What’s more, effective communicators always come from an audience perspective, never a speaker. We must be mindful of this especially when hosting a presentation. 

Why You Should Analyse the Audience’s DNA 

An audience’s DNA is Demographics, Needs, and Attitudes. 

Demographics covers roles and responsibilities, knowledge level, technical language understanding, and ethnic or gender considerations. 

Needs asks the questions of: Why should your audience care? What’s in it for them? (WIIFM)

And Attitudes is thinking about the expectations of the audience’s feelings. Will they be advocates or naysayers? 

To find out these answers social media resources can be used, in particular, something like LinkedIn and don’t be afraid of asking to learn more. It is important not to make assumptions about who the audience are. A successful communicator is in the preparation. 

Another thing to keep in mind with the audience is that you want to zero in on the purpose at the beginning to have a greater chance of achieving it by the end. By beginning with the end in mind, you know the goal of what you want to achieve Beckstrom said.  

What Are the Typical Objections

Typical objections often relate to cost and ROI. It is the battle of resources. Therefore, it is important to be mindful of these objections and ask yourself what makes yours rise above the others? Those you are pitching to spend their day being asked and pitched to. You want to rise above and be prepared to know how to handle objections. However, don’t ever fake the answer. Sometimes things come up that you aren’t prepared for and that is okay said, Beckstrom. 

Soft Skills Drive Wage Growth 

“The job roles that accelerated in terms of wages over the past 30 years were those that combined soft skills and the more technical skills,” Beckstrom said. To make your financial career differentiate, couple your expertise with strong soft skills for good communication. In finance, do you want to tell or make the news? By using effective communication, you can give insight into the information rather than just sharing the information. Turn a decision into action she said. 

Beckstrom also mentioned the importance of seeking out mentors that you can use to help. The host, Dr. Chia-Li Chien said to not be afraid to ask someone to be a mentor. Growth and learning will come from them. Furthermore, they can help you expand your network. 

One Recommendation From Carrie Beckstrom

The webinar ended with a final thought from Beckstrom. She said you must commit now to honing this skill of soft skills communication. “It will serve you well regardless of your pursuits and it’s a way to differentiate yourself and give yourself a greater edge and more satisfaction,” she said. 

If you would like to learn more about careers in Financial Planning, reach out to the Financial Planning program here at California Lutheran University. 

About Carrie Beckstrom

Carrie Beckstrom joined PowerSpeaking, Inc. in 2018 after more than 30 years in the learning and development field. Her mission was to help take a company that has positively impacted more than 300,000 people over the past 33 years to new heights in leading-edge communication and presentation skills development.

Prior to joining PowerSpeaking, as ADP’s Vice President, Enterprise Learning, I was honored to lead teams that made Training Magazine’s “Training Top 125” 10 years in a row. Driving those achievements was a vision and passionate sense of direction that said, “Our purpose is to make great people even greater at what they do every day.”
Carrie is passionate about her field because it changes lives, careers, and businesses. Carrie states, “I’ll never tire of seeing people transformed and elevated after learning how to speak their truths, communicate with courage and clarity, and inspire others to move their causes, business, and industry forward.”

About the Host

Dr. Chia-Li Chien is a succession program director at Value Growth Institute, a succession consulting practice dedicated to helping business owners increase their firms’ equity value. Before her private consulting practice, she held several senior management positions in Fortune 500 companies. Dr. Chien is a director of the financial planning program at the School of Management at California Lutheran University. Dr. Chien is a frequent speaker about succession and retirement planning at national conferences and has published three books, including her most recent publication, “Enhancing Retirement Success Rates in the United States.” Dr. Chien serves on the boards of various national financial service associations. She holds a doctorate in financial planning and is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) as well as Project Management Professional (PMP®).

About the Author

Rosie Baker is an undergraduate student at California Lutheran University, graduating in May 2021. She is studying Communication with an emphasis in PR and Advertising and has a minor in Creative Writing. In July 2020, she published her first book, Mirrors & Windows: Unlocking a New Framework to Envision Your Success, with New Degree Press. 

Discussion topics will include strategies that enable advisors to communicate in ways that maximize client and company success or reach their goals.

• How do you communicate for success?
• What form of communication is most important when considering goal efficacy?
• How will communications help you grow your practice?

If you were given the opportunity would you take $1 today or $3 in a month?

Chances are you probably would take the $1 as you value it more now compared to in a months time. 

What about if I offered you $3 in a month or $3.50 in two months?

Another month probably would not make a big difference to you so chances are you would probably be happy to wait one more month to get the $3.50. 

Now my last question to you – can you see how the relationship has changed over time from these two questions? 

This is an example behind one of the reasons why people claim their social security benefits earlier rather than later according to Mark Edwards in the second part of his two part webinar Tips for Advising Couples Filing for Social Security. Altogether there are four pieces to the Annuity Puzzle that he discusses and explains in the webinar, as he continues the conversation from part one of Tips for Advising Couples Filing for Social Security. 

I think it is important for students like me to understand that filing before the age of retirement at 66 years old or Full Retirement Age (FRA) leads to a reduction in the benefit claims, whereas filing after FRA increases in the benefit claims. If students know this now at the beginning of their career and adult lives they can plan when to claim their benefits. 

The age they chose to claim social security benefits also affects the spouse claims and their benefits. At the age of 62 claims for social security benefits can start to be made, but the majority of people claim around FRA. Surprisingly though a small percentage of the population claim after FRA despite the fact that delaying benefits to the age of 70 produces a great rise in the amount received by 32%. 

Retirement may seem like a long way in the future to other students like me but it is good to know information like this to allow long term planning, and then have the potential to benefit in the best way when claiming social security. 

To discover more about when the best time for you to claim for Social Security Retirement Benefits is work with a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) practitioner or reach out to the Financial Planning program here California Lutheran University for more information.  

About the Speaker:Mark Edwards is a full time faculty lecturer at California Lutheran University with 30 years of investment management experience. Edwards has an MBA and is Certified Financial Planner. He spent 11 years at Minnesota State Board of Investment, and the next 20 years as a Managing Partner at the Plexus Group. He also written for the Journal of Portfolio Management and for the Financial Analyst Journal.

About the author:Rosie Baker is a undergraduate student at California Lutheran University studying Communication with an emphasis in PR and Advertising. She is also minoring in Creative Writing.

References:

https://www.callutheran.edu/faculty/profile.html?id=mcedward

Watch the archived webinar below:

Tips for Advising Couples For Social Security Pt. 2 – Mark Edwards

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Retiring can seem like a long way in the future for a student who is currently in college and has barely even started their career yet. The idea of working out social security along with financial security is something that probably hasn’t even crossed many students minds at this point in their lives, but the reality is the years go by faster than we can imagine, and as technology along with science develops we are likely to live longer which means we need to make our plans last for a greater number of years. 

In fact, according to Mark Edwards in his first of his two part webinar Tips for Advising Couples Filing for Social Security, people retiring now risk outliving their income and their financial assets. For example, over 50% of women who are over 65 today will live beyond 90. When planning for retirement the normal number of years planned is 20-25 years, soon this will have to increase as people are beginning to live longer than past years. I found this statistic to be shocking, and I cannot imagine what percentage of people when I reach 65 in over four decades time will be living over the age of 90. Edwards also discusses claiming social security benefits before reaching retirement age and other possible situations. 

So how is this relevant to students like you and me? Well, we need to be aware of the number of years we will be living in retirement with no income. Which means we should also know when to claim social security benefits. This provides us with the opportunity to start thinking actively about saving now for the future. Save more, spend less are simple steps to address longevity. Furthermore many of our parents are either at the age of retirement or will be reaching it soon in the next decade or so, this is an opportunity to provide them with information you may have learn from this webinar. 

Edwards webinar discusses when the best time to claim social security is to receive the optimal amount, and in the long run how to make a good plan for couples. According to Edwards, divorced and widowed women have greater levels of poverty compared to men. It is important that the question of “what will happen to the other survivor?” is asked when planning social security, keeping in mind the age of 65 is when Medicare becomes available. Therefore working with a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) practitioner is advisable or reaching out to the Financial Planning program here California Lutheran University for information.  

About the Speaker:Mark Edwards is a full time faculty lecturer at California Lutheran University with 30 years of investment management experience. Edwards has an MBA and is Certified Financial Planner. He spent 11 years at Minnesota State Board of Investment, and the next 20 years as a Managing Partner at the Plexus Group. He also written for the Journal of Portfolio Management and for the Financial Analyst Journal.

About the author:Rosie Baker is a undergraduate student at California Lutheran University studying Communications with an emphasis in PR and Advertising. She is also minoring in Creative Writing.

To watch the archived webinar, click the link below:

Part 1:

Tips for Advising Couples for Social Security – Mark Edwards

Learn more about Cal Lutheran’s Financial Planning Program here and follow us on social media:

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