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November 28, 2018 at 02:04 PM
Photo collage by Chris Nicholls/Investment Advisor
With the holiday season in full swing, Investment Advisor asked broker-dealers and financial advisors to describe how they have donated time and other resources over their careers. Reading through these vignettes, we have been touched by the generosity of organizations and individuals and impressed by the incredible variety of their non-profit partners.
Here is part 5 of 5 highlighting the final three of the 14 stories Investment Advisor magazine received from broker-dealers and advisors.
Raymond James
Volunteers at a St. Petersburg Free Clinic Pack-a-Sack program for children in August 2017.
For years, Jodi Perry, president, Independent Contractors Division, Raymond James Financial Services, has given her all to the St. Petersburg Free Clinic in Florida. Perry first supported the free clinic for several years through donation drives and monetary donations and then joined the board in 2018.
“It’s important to me because of the breadth of services they provide,” she said. “From healthcare and dental care, to feeding families and children who otherwise wouldn’t have food for the weekends, to feeding the elderly who may not have the means or transportation to get food, and then the three residences they have: one for families, one for men, and one for women. Their focus is to help people get back to being independent.”
Tyson Ray at a home dedication for a widow and her children as part of Children’s World Impact trip to Haiti in 2017.
Seeing the poverty of Haiti inspired Tyson Ray, founding partner of FORM Wealth Advisors, to launch the Ray Foundation, which today is called Children’s World Impact and aims to break the poverty for neglected widows and children around the world.
“On my first mission trip to Haiti, I witnessed firsthand a country overridden by poverty, brokenness and devastation,” he said. “I knew I had to do more to help change lives in impoverished countries. It’s elevated my purpose for who I am, of what I think matters.”
Since its launch, CWI has donated more than $1.6 million, packed more than 1 million meals, built a school and playground for more than 100 orphans, and financed a well, water filtration and packaging facility that created sustainable income for more than 250 widows worldwide.
Todd Sanford at the Sanford Center for Financial Planning and Wellness at Western Michigan University, 2018
Todd Sanford, CEO and president of Sanford Financial Services, has worked on Western Michigan University’s Sanford Center for Financial Planning and Wellness since 2015. It opened in October 2018.
The center has a three-fold mission, according to Sanford: increase the number of students entering the financial planning field, provide peer-to-peer counseling with trained upper-level students in personal finance to help them effectively establish and manage a budget with hopes that through proper planning each student will realize his/her dream of graduating with a degree, and assist underserved individuals in the community with basic budgeting/financial planning advice to enhance their opportunity to have a secure retirement.
“We need to improve graduation percentages, have fewer students indebted to a point that it impairs their ability to save, increase the number of planners given the huge wave of retirement forthcoming, and serve those with limited resources who need advice and assistance,” the advisor explained.
Securities America
Janine and Bob Wertheim (left), Mindy and Steve Petersen, and Anne and Ken Loeffler at the Fresh Start Celebration Banquet in February 2018.
Nineteen years ago, Janine Wertheim, president of Securities America Advisors, as well as senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Securities America, became involved with Fresh Start for All Nations in Omaha, Nebraska, “a Christian ministry that helps people work through issues of their heart by learning to live a forgiven and forgiving life,” according to the executive.
Wertheim said that both she and her husband are passionate about helping people rise above their circumstances: “To watch the life-changing transformation of a person freed from the bondage of unforgiveness is so gratifying. Everyone deserves a Fresh Start!”
Kimberly Kropp of Moylan Kropp has been a strong advocate for 17 years for the Iowa School for the Deaf.
An Iowa West playground opening for kids with cochlear implants, balance and mobility issues and are deaf/blind in 2014, with Kim Kropp in the center.
“My son was born profoundly deaf, and since that time it has been my mission to help others like him,” she explained. “I serve on the Iowa School for the Deaf Board of Directors and am actively involved in raising money for scholarships for deaf students and helping them to succeed at all levels of education in their lives. These children are brilliant, and all have their own unique gift. The goal is to provide them the best education at all levels, be it elementary, high school, college or trade school.”
(Securities America is owned by Ladenburg Thalmann.)
Veteran Travis Mills at the 2017 Sigma/Parkland Annual Conference.
Sigma/Parkland CEO Jerry Rydell (left) with Travis Mills.
Rehn Family at the JDRF One Walk Atlanta on Oct. 20, 2018. The “A Team” raised over $1,900 for research.
Sean DeFrehn (second from left) and next to him is Anne Marie Walker (former participant turned BOD) at The Dwelling Place’s 30th Anniversary Celebration on Nov. 3rd, 2018
