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From the President
May 2008

We had about 75+ members at our kickoff meeting and I would love to top that for our final meeting of the 2007-2008 year.

How about this: FPF will sponsor beer and wine, light snacks, and we’ll hold the cocktail hour on a beautiful spring afternoon at 5pm on May 20th in the courtyard of the Stanford Park Hotel (please note the time and date), and we’ll finish it off with a great speaker. And if you order before midnight tonight we’ll even throw in a set of steak knives (just don’t let the hotel see you taking them.)

Please register for the meeting now, so we can better plan for what size room we will need.

Our speaker is Stanford Professor, Greg Rosston, PhD, Deputy Director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and Deputy Director, Stanford Public Policy Program.

The Topic: A Comparative Analysis of thePresidential Candidates’ Economic Policies

Greg is a wonderful speaker and this subject is relevant to all of us. Looking forward to seeing all of you there!

Last month’s meeting was well attended and a big FPF “thank you” to Tom Brady for giving us insights into how to retain, incentivize, and create a succession plan for closely held businesses through Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPS).

A Year in Review
At the beginning of year the board set the following goals:

To increase the use of technology to enhance the member’s experience.
It’s still a work in progress but with the help of web master Ed Bierman, and board members Todd Flesner of Stern Mortgage and Jennifer Cray, CFP, of Investors Capital Management, LLC, we have implemented an entirely new registration and payment platform which is running smoothly! We also have an online member directory.

We wanted to increase FPF’s exposure via the media. In doing so we brand the organization as a media resource for all the membersWe had coverage in the Palo Alto Weekly and the San Jose Mercury News, and I gave financial commentary on the NBC11, 11:00pm news 3 times using my FPF President Title. One of the stories on the Economic Stimulus Rebate went national giving FPF very high visibility. Links to some of my media work can be seen at www.elmaninsurance.com

We created a community service award for FPF members in honor of our friend and Past President, Ken Kaye. Thank you to board members Neil O’Keeffe from Bernstein and Richard Zimmerman from Divorce Mediation Group for your thoughtful work on this award.

Krista Conover, JD, from Borel Private Bank & Trust was instrumental in securing corporate sponsorship and she single handedly put on the 35th Anniversary Celebration in September.  Incoming FPF President and estate lawyer, Bruce Hamilton has been busy preparing next year’s programs and a special thank you to CPA Karin Swanson and Accredited Financial Counselor Veronica Dostal for always: Handling our reservations, taking our calls, coming early to set up, staying late to collect the name tags, and always being there when we need you.

But most importantly the board wanted to make sure that the members had the opportunity to learn from each other and network for business.  I am proud to have been the 35th Financial Planning Forum President, and look forward to serving the organization as a board member next year.

Register Now

Register | Change Registration

You can now register and pay for Financial Planning Forum membership and events on-line. Simply click on the links below and follow the directions on the website. Financial Planning Forum Membership (click here) Your payments can be made using a credit card or a bank account via 123SignUp. The registration page will take you directly to the 123SignUP web site for payment.

If you do not yet have an account with 123SignUp, it's a simple process to enroll. We are hopeful that this will facilitate making it quick and easy to make reservations for future Forum events. If you would like to mail in your payment: please make your check payable to the Financial Planning Forum and mail to: Financial Planning Forum, C/O Karin Swanson, CPA, 2600 El Camino Real, Suite 600, Palo Alto, CA 94306 Call 650.842.0330

Mail/Fax Meeting Registration Form

* Late Fee = $10.00

Member Name: __________________________________________ ($47)

Guest Name: ___________________________________________ ($57)

Total Enclosed: $ ___________

Meal Choice: ______ Meat or ______

Vegetarian Please make your check payable to the Financial Planning Forum and mail to:

Financial Planning Forum % Karin Swanson, CPA 2600 El Camino Real, Suite 600 Palo Alto, CA 94306 Questions: Call Karin @ (650) 842-0330 Fax: (650) 852-9912

Thank you to our

Sponsors:

• Bernstein Investment Research
• Crist, Schulz, Biorn & Shepherd
• Johnson Marotta
• Lasecke, Weil Wealth Advisory Group
• Miller Law Group, P.C.
• Sullivan & Serwitz

Sustaining Members: