FPA of Hampton Roads Chapter News and Events

While many refer to these days as the "Dog Days" of summer, and some European countries even take the month of August “off” for vacations and holiday, a number of significant things are continuing to develop within the FPA.

On the local level, we are gearing up for our Symposium in October. You should have already received an email, and the brochures are on their way to your mailbox. This is going to be a great, solid six hours of CFP and Virginia Insurance Continuing Education (CE) covering “boomers”, coming attractions in the tax landscape and ethics. Please recommend our Symposium to your associates who are not members. This is a great way to complete the CE requirement in a most cost-effective manner and to also see the value and benefit of membership. Chuck McGee, President-Elect, and his committee are putting the final touches on the details, and their hard work is very much appreciated.

The Symposium coincides with Financial Planning Week. Those activities are being lead by Gayle Blachura and will encompass community awareness activities and things to specifically raise the public’s awareness of the benefits of financial planning.

And …(drum roll)…. FPA National has launched their new website. Since I have been a member there has been angst over the FPA’s National website. We now have a new portal to the FPA. My “tour” was most positive and I think this effort will have significant benefit for both members and the public who are seeking information on financial planning and even in search of a financial planner. Of course, there are things not working exactly right, and there is also the dreaded excuse of “…work in progress” but certainly the look, feel and access to information is dramatically improved for all. I recommend you spend some time learning the features and tools, and I would be interested in any feedback you may have on this effort.

Have a great August, and I look forward to seeing you at the Symposium.

Mark O. Flaherty, CFP®

2008 FPA Chapter President

President's Remarks on Recent SPAM

Last month, members received an email from a person in the local area representing an investment strategy and implying association with the Financial Planning Association of Hampton Roads. To say that this email fell into the category of “unwanted” would be understatement. Several members of the Board (who were also recipients of the original email) were contacted by members on the inappropriateness of the email and wondering if we (the Board) had allowed commercial access to our email listing or changed the previous policy of not doing so.

Succinctly, the Financial Planning Association of Hampton Roads has not and will not provide commercial entities (including our Partners) a copy of our membership listing for purposes of contact.

However, so the public can find and contact a financial service professional who is a member, this information is available on our website. Certainly this service is intended for use by the public and members for contact.

In this information age we have to find the balance of wanting our contact information available to each other and those seeking our services but not for unwanted contact which can only be defined by each member.

What is perhaps ironic is that because the sender of the offending email failed to take the time to learn more about us, his email quickly found its way to computer oblivion never to be read past the first sentence. It really is all about taking the time to know the client.

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