Nice to meet you!

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 I think the phrase, “it’s a small world” especially holds true here in Rhode Island. As luck would have it, Barbara Kenerson walked into my office a couple months ago to attend a weekly Talmud class with Rabbi Yossi Laufer. It didn’t take long for me to find out that she was the previous business writer for The Jewish Voice.

 

What Barbara did not know was that I had been looking for this type of opportunity for some time (this would probably be the right audience to say that it was bashert!). I quickly contacted The Voice editor, Fran Ostendorf, who kindly offered me the opportunity to continue where Barbara left off.

In introducing this new column, it makes sense to first introduce myself. I am a Rhode Island native, attended The Wheeler School for high school and received a degree from Emory University. I worked in Manhattan for five years only to return to Rhode Island – three miles from where I grew up and where my parents still live. (I keep telling my wife it was a coincidence.) My favorite restaurant is Rasa in East Greenwich and favorite part of Rhode Island would be the lawn at the Castle Hill Inn.

I started working in the financial services industry in 2009, just about the time the market hit a low of 6,600. People thought I was crazy to leave my previous position as a consultant to work in finance on Wall Street. Fortunately, I had luck on my side, and the market recovered to new highs.

In 2011, I joined my father’s wealth management firm, Eliot Rose Wealth Management, which is where I am today (and where we host that weekly Talmud class). We work with about 150 families to transform their lives through the power of financial planning.

Some credentials and community involvement…I am a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder, which is considered the gold standard in investment management and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) professional, which is considered the gold standard in financial planning. I sit on the investment committees for the Jewish Alliance and Jewish Collaborative Services (JCS). I am a trustee of the Miriam Hospital, and pro bono director and programming director for the Financial Planning Association (FPA) of Rhode Island.

Whether I am at work or sitting on the couch at home, I am always thinking about the market and planning strategies, and find myself immersed in newspapers, podcasts and books in the field.

My hope for this column is to share my insights about investing and financial planning that can provide some clarity and direction for readers. I have found that people can feel overwhelmed and daunted by the field of personal finance, and my goal is to help readers feel comfortable and eager to learn about the field.

I look forward to my next column where we can get into the nitty gritty and hope to hear from you if you have questions or concerns that I might be able to answer in this column.

JASON E. SIPERSTEIN, CFA, CFP, is vice president, wealth management at Eliot Rose Wealth Management. Contact him by email, jes@eliotrose.com.