Free Financial Planning

On Saturday, October 9  I volunteered as a professional financial planner at “Financial Planning Day” at the Sunnyvale Public Library. I was one of approximately 35 financial planners who provided individual one-on-one advice to the 140+ people who attended. There were also three workshops available throughout the day. The San Jose Mercury News published the following article the next day: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_16300317?nclick_check=1

During the day  met with five individuals and one couple for 30 – 60 minutes each.  These people ranged from their 20’s to their 60’s though most were middle age with concerns due to a recent or pending job loss. Topics included current spending, retirement planning, investments, cash planning, education funding, long term care insurance, social security benefits, and tax planning.

This event is one of over 20 such events happening throughout the country this month, jointly sponsored by the Financial Planning Association, The Foundation for Financial Planning and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. These are free events open to the public at which advice is provide with no strings attached. There is no marketing of any kind allowed: business cards, marketing materials and selling of products or services are not allowed. More information is available at www.financialplanningdays.com

This is my 3^rd year volunteering for this event. The original event was in Oakland 2 years ago and I volunteered in Oakland last year as well. I believe that these events are a very important community service to make financial planning available to people who may not know about or have access to professional financial advice.

This year in addition to volunteering in Sunnyvale, I am supervising a similar event in Scotts Valley in November. The “Scotts Valley Financial Planning Clinic” is also a free event that is open to the public. It is sponsored by the Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce and provides one-on-one financial planning advice sessions with professionals with no strings attached and no marketing or selling of products or services involved. There will also be two short seminars on financial planning topics. The event is Wednesday November 10 from 4pm – 8pm at the Scotts Valley Community Center. For more information see: www.georgefa.com/scottsvalleyfpc