“Do You Have Your Act Together?”

It’s funny how the theme of so many blogs seems to be building multi-connected relationships with people! Last week First American Trust hosted a luncheon at its campus headquarters to celebrate our OCBJ supplement “Keys to Wealth Management.” I thought this would serve as an excellent opportunity for everyone in the supplement to meet each other and network. It was a huge success, and I know many wonderful ventures will come out of it! I am extremely grateful to Richard Reisman and Laura Garrett of OCBJ. The supplement was Richard’s inspiration, and Laura has been the brains behind much of it. Thank you both!

Among the attendees were the supplement sponsors such as Matt Brown, Kathy Mericle and Vanessa Gregor of Brown & Streza, LLP Attorneys at Law. This firm is amazing and gave Matters at Hand our first volume reorder of kits! Melissa Pollard and Craig Henton from Comerica Bank also attended. Melissa, who is the founder of the Comerica Women’s Business Symposium (WBS), gave our What You Need to Know Kit^TM to all the WBS panelists, and sits on the board of Girls Inc with me.

Dean of the number one executive MBA program in the state was luncheon attendee Andy Policano, of UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business, and leader of Merage’s Center of Investment and Wealth Management. Dean Policano has asked me to teach the first ever wealth management course for MBAs at UCI.

Dan Banis, president, and VP Kimberly Dwan-Bernatz welcomed the group and Ken Peterson and Brad Hixson of First American Trust also attended. I appreciate First American giving us a volume order of the Kit.

An enormous help in proofing the Kit was Tyler Terry of Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and the Waltos Group. Tyler was on WBS panel this year, and will be a guest lecturer in my Wealth Management MBA course at UCI. Also, Bob Waltos has asked me to be the speaker October 9^th at the Chapman business school’s Distinguished Speaker Series.

Originally introduced to me by the Waltos Group, Kurt Kingsolver and Aimee Alford of Gold Reverse Mortgage were also supplement sponsors and luncheon attendees. Be sure to check them out, they have a great new model for reverse mortgages.

Don Dahl of Grant Thornton has a long time dedication to teaching people about wealth management – and even ordered a Kit for himself and his wife!

We enjoyed seeing Lupe Erwin of Wood Gutmann & Bogart Insurance Brokers, who helped proof the Kit, was a WBS panelist this year and will be a guest lecturer in my Wealth Management MBA course. Tim and Darci Voorhees of Family Office Services who have a web based wealth management tool will be working with me on potential co-branding of the Kit.

My personal corporate and estate planning attorneys, Jim Leese and Cheryl Barrett of Ferruzzo & Ferruzzo attended, as well as Keith Offel of Offel Wealth Management Group (the very first advisor to make a volume order of the Kit), who will be on the 2009 WBS panel.

Someone you should all get to know is Penny Lambright of Clutter Cleaners who came as well. They are the BEST at removing clutter and were even featured on Dateline. Also there was Evelyn Zohlen of Inspired Financial. The niche market company provides unparalleled services in wealth management for women.

Luncheon attendees also included Colleen Barney of Albrecht & Barney, LLP, Jane Couperus, Director of Client Services for Knightsbridge Asset Management, Laine Ainsworth and Mark Moehlman of the Wealth Management Network. Mark is the Chair of the CIWM at UCI Merage, and Laine and Mark are both on the UCI Merage Board of Advisors with me. Ellen Wright and Gary Million were representing Baker Jensen/BTA Group investment advisors and I showed off Guy’s new book: “Manage Market Not Stocks” – which you can find on their website. By the way, Gary also works with Million Voorhees Family Office Services.

One of my best friends, Hilary Kaye of HKA, Inc, public relations was there too. Winner of the prestigious Ethics in America Award for Business and Walk for MS Most Inspirational Group she is a phenomenal influencer in the community. We were also pleased that two non profit groups joined us – The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and Carla Vargas and Kathleen DesCoteaux of the United Way.

Well, as I’m sure you can tell this luncheon was full of some talented and influential professionals. We look forward to having them back in next year’s WM supplement helping the OC community to get their WM act together. Do you have your act together?