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Special Projects


Raising Financially Mature Children

Wealth managers hear it over and over again – their high net worth clients want to know how to raise financially mature, well prepared children.  When asked for their choice of topics for client education events, wealth management clients request help with financial parenting most often of all.  Indeed, affluence does bring special parenting challenges.  The more money a family has, the more deliberate parents have to be to steer their children’s approaches to its use.  
In large audiences and smaller groups, Suzanne Slater guides parents to succeed in three key areas:  demonstrating their chosen financial values to their children, communicating openly in the family about money, and teaching specific financial management skills to their children.  Suzanne provides parents with specific suggestions and demonstrates positive parenting approaches.  Audiences are invited to share their stories and leave with abundant resources to ensure their success

Contributions/Presentations

  • “How to Introduce Your Children to Investing,” ( S. Slater quoted) Cleaver, Joanne, www.usnews.com (2015).
  • “Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise…”  Guest Speaker, 2014. The Wadsworth Anthenium, Hartford, CT.  Sponsored by Gottfried & Somberg Wealth Management Co., Simsbury, CT.
  • “Preparing your Heirs for Wealth” Guest Speaker, 2013. The Pond House, Hartford, CT. Sponsored by Filomeno Wealth Management Co., West Hartford, CT.
  • “The Sibling Sinkhole,” Sullivan, Missy.  Smart Money Magazine (2012).
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Financial Planning with Same-Sex Couples_

Now that marriage equality is the law of the land, same-sex couples are a hugely expanded market for estate planners and wealth managers. To take advantage of this lucrative opportunity, planners need special preparation.  

Recent work by wealth psychologists on assessing “the complexity factors”* for financial services clients is especially relevant in work with same-sex couples.  Specifically, an advisor must recognize, evaluate, and control for three relevant areas of same-sex couples’ lives.  These areas include partners' typically nontraditional approaches to designing their financial roles within the partnership, the greater vulnerability of their inclusion in family wealth transfers, and their still-varying legal (and hence financial) status as couples. Suzanne trains financial professionals in interviewing techniques which broaden their discovery process.  Advisors can then assess the financial relevance of these complexity factors and build them into the wealth management plan.  This preparation can ensure an advisor’s success with this growing client group.

Contributions/Presentations                       

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  • "A Group Psychology of LGBTQ Clients and its Relevance to Financial Professionals,"   Pride Planners Association, 2015 Annual Conference,Boston, MA
  • "Financial Planning with Same-Sex Couples," Journal of Financial Planning, December, 2014.
  • "Successfully Serving Same-Sex Couples: Mastering the Complexities,"  Northwestern Mutual, October, 2014, Chicago, IL.
  • " Changing World" LGBT Challenges for Family Firms and Their Advisors," Family Firm Institute Conference, 2014, Wash. DC.
  • "Financial Planning With Same-Sex Couples," presented with Kathleen Burns-Kingsbury, 2013, www.brighttalk.com.

Psychology of Money

Wealth managers contend with influences they cannot see.  This is because, for most of us, our approach to money is largely unconscious.  Greatly shaped by childhood money messages, by our unique “money personalities” and by our original family’s financial circumstance, these (at times) irrational forces can drive our financial decision-making – until these dynamics are brought under conscious control.

Drawing on her experience as a psychotherapist and as a teacher, Suzanne Slater presents her audiences with clear and vivid pictures of these drivers of financial behavior.  Using lecture and discussion, personal vignettes and small group exercise, Suzanne engages audiences to awaken to these factors and invites them to take control of their now-conscious patterns of financial behavior.  Participants leave surprised at how much they learned about themselves- and how much they shared with each other.

Contributions/Presentations

  • "Feeding the Family in Family Business," Guest Speaker, The Delaney House, Holyoke, MA, (2016).  Sponsored by The Family Business Center of the Pioneer Valley.
  • Grubman, James (2013) Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations (S. Slater quoted) Self-published.
  • “Below the Surface: Money and Successful Female Executives,” Guest Speaker, The Ocean House, Westerly, RI, (2013).  Sponsored by The Women Presidents’ Organization. 
  • “Legal Tender: Women and the Secret Life of Money,” Guest Speaker, Smith College, Northampton, MA.  (2013).  Sponsored by Thomson Financial Management Co., Northampton, MA.
  • “Money and Family Relationships,”  Guest Speaker, The Heart of Money Conference, The Log Cabin, Holyoke, MA (2013).  Sponsored by Mass Mutual Financial Group.
  • Burns Kingsbury, Kathleen (2013) How to Give Financial Advice to Women: Attracting and Retaining High Net Worth Female Clients (S. Slater quoted).  McGraw-Hill, NY, NY.
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Securing Family Legacies Through Strengthening Family Ties

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