Happy News from the Week

We were having lunch with Danica, Jensen, and Lily yesterday. Or should I say that the three adults had lunch while the kids played on the crawly toys, fought over French fries, and spilled cup after cup of water on our lunch. Anyway Danica asked about the highlights of the week and there were three I would like to report.

#1. Mom came home after two weeks of travel and training and I picked her up at the airport on Monday night. I didn’t realize how much I missed her and how empty the house was without her. Yes – Austin and I had run out of leftovers and groceries, but even more I missed her buoyant personality, creative ideas and companionship. I surprised myself by twisting her ear with meaningless stories from my day’s activities and wanted to hear all about the silly little things from her day. I realize how important it is to have someone that will listen to you and for you to love enough to listen to them. I love having her back.

#2. I’ve had a client for about 5 years now that is an ornery, cantankerous, old crusty dude that challenges me on everything. He lives in Golden and refuses to come to my office, so I have to drive to him. He doesn’t have email so I have to snail mail him everything special. He doesn’t attend the client appreciation dinners so he wants me to take him to lunch mono-e-mono. Every quarter I have to prepare a detail report justifying my advice and fees. He doesn’t like Scott and so I have to deal with all of his issues. But he has a good amount invested with us and so I smile and drive. Well he nominated me for the “Top Client Satisfaction Rep” of Denver from the prestigious local magazine “Denver 5280”.

I found out this week that I had won and will be published in the magazine as one of the top Reps in Denver valued with Top Tier Client Satisfaction…..You know Golden isn’t all that far away and every person is important, besides one of the sales to him paid for Tiana’s wedding.

#3. I was working on a financial plan for one of the client’s I have inherited from Dennis Graves. She is a sweet widow lady who has very little understanding about financial things. She recently lost a lawsuit against her and had to pay nearly $200,000. We had to take some major withdrawals from her IRA to pay the bill. She had $337,000 in one account and we could take only 5% from that one which was $16,890 dollars. That all happened in January. When I got her 1st qtr. statement she only had $190,000. She was missing $150,000. What had happened is that the 5% withdrawal maximum was $16,889.99 and the withdrawal was rounded up and took one more penny than was allowed. That one penny extra above the allowed limit caused everything to be reset and she lost nearly $150,000. I felt sick, how could this happen??? Well after battling with the insurance company and talking to a supervisor we got it fixed and the money was restored to her account. There is balance in the force and hope for the future.

I hope you all have a great week.