How to treat variable income

Published 6/11/2017 in The Maryland Daily Record We are often advising clients who are the beneficiaries of trust and royalty income. In each case, we spend a good amount of time educating them about how to treat these types of variable income streams. It is a critical misstep to create a lifestyle that is locked into a fixed amount when relying on the variable nature of trust distributions and royalty income. We also consider this type of approach when people may receive annual gift amounts from family members, as circumstances could always change where the grantor is not able or…

Finding a second chance in life

Published 5/12/2017 in The Maryland Daily Record On April 24, I took an afternoon away from my office to visit the men’s and women’s prisons in Jessup. This visit was offered to members of the Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle and my friend Lisa Vogel and I jumped at the opportunity. I visited the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in 2016 and was moved by my experience with the women. This earlier visit was a part of a group that was evaluating a grant for funding from the Baltimore Women’s Giving Circle. The grant was to provide necessary support with the…

Keeping our biases in check

Published 4/7/2017 in The Maryland Daily Record A client of many years recently pointed out to my staff that an email confirmation she received from my office regarding the completion of a money transfer is the first of this type of communication she had ever received. This shocked me, because of all firms we certainly have a laser focus on including women as equal and active participants in the financial process. In my mind, I incorrectly assumed that after her husband notified us of his intention to transfer funds into their investment account, that he also notified his wife. This…

Social media for the reluctant

Published 3/10/2017 in The Maryland Daily Record Anyone who knows me well will vouch for the fact that I am not a fan of social media. Having tried Facebook many years ago and only to shut down my profile soon after, I feel liberated from the traps of social media. I didn’t have great self-control with Facebook. I would constantly check for updates and found that I would spend hours looking at other people’s lives, leading to some part of my own life wasting away. So, I decided to shut it down completely and haven’t looked back. In some ways,…

In pursuit of the truth

Published 2/10/2017 in The Maryland Daily Record In a recent conversation with a top-notch family law attorney in town, I had the benefit of hearing really honest and direct feedback about his experience with financial advisers. I was connected to this attorney by the business development professional at his law firm who is tasked with making thoughtful connections and introductions of like-minded people to attorneys within their firm. This is a brilliant role for law firms to employ, given the challenging balance it takes to cultivate relationships that lead to productive clients, and coupled with the time that is devoted…

Fancy pants and financial discipline

Published 1/6/2017 in The Maryland Daily Record I sat across from a new client recently and declared, “You’re a fancy pants … I know this because it takes one to know one.” To her credit, this client took my comment in stride, and we had a good laugh about the telltale signs of a true fancy pants. This started as a conversation about divorce and the financial reality that impacts everyone who goes through the process. Seeing countless couples manage their way through the division of assets and income – my own personal experience included – neither party ends up…

Finding your business niche

Published 12/9/2016 in The Maryland Daily Record As more time goes on, I am seeing even more clearly how beneficial my decision to focus on such a narrow niche really is. I reconnected with a colleague that I had not talked to in a few years because he remembered that when I left Smith Barney I was focusing on women investors. He was at a board meeting on Monday and a fellow board member asked if he knew anyone that specialized in working with women in a very specific situation and my name popped in his head. This is amazing…

October and DVAM bring a new awareness

Published 10/10/2016 in The Maryland Daily Record October is a month where we call attention to an issue that is impacting so many people in so many different communities. DVAM – Domestic Violence Awareness Month and reflected in the purple banner that calls people to action – is a call to honor those who have been affected by domestic violence, a promise to remember the victims and those who are surviving. Why would a columnist who typically writes about topics relating to the workplace with an emphasis on issues that impact women have an interest in writing about DVAM? Why…

A widow finds strength in numbers

Published 8/5/2016 in The Maryland Daily Record CPAs, estate attorneys, advisors — there are no technical details that escape us. This is why clients rely on us. So when we have worked with a couple for years and the husband, who has been the primary contact, dies, our focus shifts to how will we can best help his grieving wife. It was her husband who hired us and worked directly with us on every detail of their tax, legal and financial situation. She is still grieving months after his death, making it difficult to engage in the decision-making that is…

Five lessons from working with divorcing couples

Published 7/6/2016 in The Maryland Daily Record Recently, I have been in intense negotiations between divorcing spouses. This is not work for the faint of heart. I finish each work day after these meetings feeling emotionally exhausted and, at times, unclear as to what has been accomplished. With more time and reflection, I become aware that a great deal has actually been achieved that isn’t obvious at the outset. I would like to share five key observations that stand out and have continued to emerge over the course of my career: What’s “fair”? The notion of what is fair is…

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