Charles "Chuck" Failla, CFP®’s Post

Transcript

OK. If it is Wednesday at 3:00 Eastern Time, that could really mean just one thing. It's time for the GORI live stream. And with me today I have Thomas Howard as a special guest and we have a special announcement that comes along with that. Thomas, thanks for joining us for the live stream today. Nice to be here. Thank you, Chuck. All right. And for those of you that don't know, Thomas actually wears 2 hats. He is actually the Director of financial planning for a financial planning firm, RIAA out on the West Coast are called Bedell Frazier, if I have that correct. What's bringing him today is the other hat that he wears, and that is as the 2024 Chairperson for the FPGA Norcal Conference. That conference, I think has a ton of accolades. I believe Michael Kitsis has it one of the top conferences to attend as an advisor. I myself am a fairly active member of the FP. I'm on. On the board here in Connecticut and we have a conference, but I think it's not quite at the scale that you guys have put on. I've heard, I've heard the stories and the legend and the myth of FP Norcal. So I'm super excited about this. So Thomas has been kind enough to share some of his time with us today to talk about the conference. And what I'd like to do, Thomas, with these weekly streams is focus on the going RIAA aspect. And I know when I was going RIAA and I was doing my research seven years ago and I went RI about five years ago. What I found most valuable about these conferences, the presentations for sure, but the time in between those presentations, the coffees, the lunch, the beers afterwards I found to be super valuable. As I was putting together my checklist of things I should be thinking about, could you expand on that a little bit in your experience and I know you've been involved with FP Norcal Conference for some time, you're chairing it this year. What are you seeing advisors saying they're getting out of these conferences when they attend? Yeah, well, as in previous years, the FA Norcal conference is held the Tuesday and Wednesday after Memorial Day. It's always the same date, same place at the fabulous Palace Hotel in downtown San Francisco. And it's just an opportunity for business owners, advisors, financial planners to come together to network, to get some new ideas, to, to learn things that they can implement in the office the next day. We have 4 fabulous keynotes. This year we have Christy Yamaguchi, who's going to talk about from figure skating to philanthropy, the Olympic gold medalist. We have Kristen Berman, who's going to put on a behavioral finance experiment during her keynote session. We have Melody Hobson coming in, who's the Co CEO of Aerial Trust Investment. She's going to talk about financial literacy. And then we have Sarah Malik, who is the Chief Investment Officer at Nuveen, who's going to give a market update. So we have these fabulous keynotes. We have all sorts of breakout sessions with things from the state planning to investments to financial planning. We have 29 1/2 CE available, CFPC available this year. But I think the real thing is, is to be in person and to be able to network, to be able to talk to to those that have already gone RA and to rub elbows with them. You know, ask about the advantages, the disadvantages, maybe some pitfalls. We have many, many business owners from the Bay Area, but we have business owners from all over the country. You know, it's just a great opportunity to. Expand your network and grow your practice. We actually have, I have it written down here. I I'm not sure I can pronounce it correctly, but we have people coming from New York, Delaware, obviously, you know California, but Wolo Mulu, Australia. So we have a we have someone coming in from Woolloomooloo, Australia. Never. I've never heard of that until I looked it up earlier this last week. So it's going to be great. I tell you what if someone's coming from Walla Mulu, Australia, you know it's a pretty big event. And what I'm super excited about, because I love these conferences, is we will be taking Go RA on the road, which we've been doing now for the past six months. We've done it at NFPA National, we've done it at 3. We've done it at UH. Oh my gosh, I'm drawing a blank most recently. Ohh alright ascent. Getting them all kind of conflated here, and I'm super excited to be bringing Go RIAA on location to the NFPA Norcal, especially with that lineup. One person too, who I guess maybe not officially a keynote but often noteworthy to listen to, is going to be catches. He's going to be doing a presentation there and I know he's going to be on our Go RI live stream, so I can't wait for that. Yeah he's a he's a he's a he's we we can he's here almost every year he's a he's a we call him a pillar of the NFPA in Norcal. He's he's just a great advocate for the conference but they're really nice. Thing is you know he he gives his presentation but he hangs out. You know you'll see him in the grand ballroom. You see him at other breakout sessions and he'll he answers other people's questions as well. So just just a just a great. Great, great financial planning nerd and a really nice person as well. He really is. I've had the opportunity to do a podcast with them and. Excuse me, I'm getting over a bit of a sinus infection as we talked about offline. So, so far it's holding up. No, no major coughs on on air yet but he he is so generous with his time for someone as you know famous as he is and whose opinion is so sought after as his is. He is just so approachable, such a nice person and not to mention the information that he has is is really really good. So I'm really looking forward to his session and we'll be doing a live stream with them. But to your point, Thomas, you know he he just mills around. Right. He will be talking with folks and he is always an incredibly generous with his time, which I think is really impressive thing. Yeah, we have, you know, that's that's the really nice thing about being back in person. As you know, Michael be walking around, we have Cheryl Holland and Carolyn Mcclanahan and other really, you know, stars of the industry who they're they're they're there the whole 2 days that you can walk up to them and ask questions and you know have follow-up discussions. It's really, it's really a unique opportunity for advisors and financial planners. You know, Thomas, I think that's a really important point. So I've been back on the the conference trail now for the better part of a year and it it reminded me, you know, and I'm a big fan of virtual work and working from home and I just love it. But that said. You know, when you're setting up a zoom, and let's say, for example, you're setting up a zoom with a vendor you're looking to bring on, you know, you're talking about this, that, and it's very, you know, down to business and and off you go. But when you're at these conferences, you let that conversation kind of flow and it goes in these different tangents. And all of a sudden you're, you're understanding things and you're finding out things that you never would have bothered asking in. Like, I've got 10 minutes on the zoom with this particular person. Let me just bang out my 5 questions. It just evolves naturally and it really. Opens up your eyes And again for the advisors listening to this live stream that are looking to go RIAA #1 FBA, Norcal, a legendary conference, lots of advisors and they are all really eager. To share their experiences, The good, the bad, and the ugly. And if you're looking to go RIAA, you want to talk to the different vendors, you know, the account management software, the financial planning software, the CRM software. But you're always talking to a salesperson, right? Which is not to say they're going to mislead you necessarily, but they're they're going through a lens. But if you want to hear the unfiltered version, talk to someone that just brought on XYZ vendor and they will tell you the good, bad. The ugly is, is that some of the feedback you've been receiving as well. Well, yeah, that's the that's the great thing. So we have you know we have the keynotes and the breakouts and all the informational thing but then we have networking breaks in between. So the Sunset Court is just alive with different vendors and different financial advisors and planners. And you know you can go into the the tech lounge and and you know sample a new a new product and then you can go out in the Sunset Court and have a conversation with some of your other friends from you know from the Bay Area or from your your background and say you know does that something that you you implemented, does that work for you. What have you heard about that? So it's just, it's just an opportunity to to have impromptu conversations and and follow up as well. And those are super valuable. I call that the muffin top, right? If for the Seinfeld fans out there, if you remember that episode, the muffin top, you know, the whole part is good. You know, the conference is good. The stump, you know, which is the presentation is very good. But that muffin top boy, that's the key for me at least. And I think you agree with that as well. OK. I think that kind of wraps up for today. Why don't you share, if you would, Thomas, There's still time to register, I think, Yeah. Yeah. Registration closes Friday, May 10th, so we have a little over three weeks. We still have a couple of spots left. If we get the usual May bump that we get, I think we will approach sell out for the first time since COVID. So that would be spectacular. So please, I'd love to have you join us May 28th, 29th at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. OK, beautiful location as well. I have yet to be to that. I have not been to that hotel yet, but I saw some of the pictures and boy, that's pretty nice too. It's, it's fabulous. And this is our 52nd annual conference. Our theme this year is embrace change and we are the longest running financial planning conference in the world. Very cool. That's a good place to end it. I didn't realize that. Good tidbit. All right. Thomas Howard, Chairperson for NFPA Norcal conference. I cannot wait May 28th and 29th, I will be there. I know I already have my tickets booked and I will see you out there. Thomas, thanks so much. Looking forward to seeing you. Have a good one. Thank you. Take care. And for those of you in the audience, thanks for joining us. And I'll be back this time next week, Wednesday at 3:00 Eastern Time with another guest and some more information. Thanks for joining and we'll see you soon and hopefully we'll see you out at San Francisco later in May. On behalf of Gower, IA fueled by Investment news, I'm Chuck Valeb. We'll see you soon. Take care.