by Lori Silberman Brauner
NJJN Staff

May 21, 2009

Some 55 women gathered together May 14 to glean strategies and advice from industry professionals at “Financial Empowerment for Women,” a program sponsored by the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New Jersey.

Held at the Aidekman Family Jewish Community Campus in Whippany, the seminar, designed to address current financial concerns of women of all ages and life stages, featured advice from financial planners, lawyers, wealth managers, and other related professionals.

The keynote presenter, Caroline Feeney, Prudential Eastern Territorial vice president, discussed “When it Comes to Money Women Mean Business.” Breakout sessions included “Strategies for Investing in Uncertain Times” with Jean Mandell, CFA, Family Wealth Management Group LLC, and JWF cochair, and Stacie L. Mintz, principal, QM; “Understanding the Retirement Red Zone” with certified financial planner Stephanie Sherman; “Importance of Charitable Giving” with Prudential’s Michael Casalvieri; and “What Every Woman Should Know about Her Family Finances” with Steven Resnick, Esq., partner, Budd Larner PC.

“Don’t expect good professional advice on the cheap,” said closing speaker Ed Zinbarg of Short Hills. In his address, Lessons of an Investment Lifetime, the author of Faith, Morals and Money said, “Financial planning is not rocket science,” but it takes discipline and a certain mindset to proceed in a logical way.

“Don’t give…more than a 50-50 chance that any forecast will be accurate,” Zinbarg, Prudential’s former executive vice president-chief administrative officer, said. “It’s just about a coin flip in terms of accuracy.”

And sounding a warning about money managers like Bernard Madoff, he said that his investors made the big mistake of putting “all of their money with him.”

“No one in the history of the world has produced consistently high rates of return,” he said.

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