The financial lunch and learn speakers
Four local experts in the field of financial and estate planning were on the panel for “Empowering Women for their Financial Future,” a no-cost lunch and learn program for GPS alumnae and parents at the Chattanooga Golf & Country Club. The opportunity was provided for the broader GPS constituency to hear advice and learn financial and estate planning tips that will benefit them, their families, and organizations they support.
Panelists included Betsy Blunt Brown ’92, vice president and trust officer at Cumberland Trust; Melissa Woodall Curtis ’85, president of Woodall Agency Insurance; Ward Petty, founder of the Benjamin F.
Edwards & Co. investment firm in Chattanooga; and Mark Ramsey, attorney with Spears, Moore, Rebman & Williams. The panel presentation was opened by Head of School Dr. Autumn Graves, who described the event as “an opportunity to re-engage with alumnae as they move through the stages of life,” and was moderated by Lisa Shanahan ’83.
Ms. Shanahan asked the experts for “one piece of advice” that they’d give anyone curious about financial planning. Responses ranged from “Don’t put it off!” to “Engage your spouse and learn as much as you can about your family’s finances.” Ms. Curtis encouraged the alumnae in attendance to “dust off that front-row GPS girl and learn.” Mr. Petty, who brought a small safe with him as an example of how to be organized, advised the attendees to have all records in one place.
Ms. Brown recommended going so far as to write letters to those dearest to you. These “legacy letters,” to be shared with family or opened upon a death, can go to a charity one chooses to fund, explaining the donor’s passion for their mission, or to grandchildren and their future, yet-to-be-met spouses. A financial plan, said Mr. Ramsey, should involve a team and be a “collaborative effort” with a lawyer, an insurance agent, an estate planner, and anyone else represented in that person’s financial life.