Student Forum – Other Career Options with Your CFP® Designation

Student Forum Meetings are intended for those students at UCSC-Extension who are enrolled in the Personal Financial Planning Program and for members of the Financial Planning Association (any chapter). These meetings are not open to the public.

Overview:

Other Career Options with Your CFP® Designation

Most students, upon completion of the UCSC-Extension Personal Financial Planning coursework, begin their job search with “traditional” financial planning firms – those providing full service financial planning support to their client base. But, as with other professions, there are often other, nontraditional, sources of employment for the newer practitioners. We have recruited a panel of 3-4 professionals that have found, either currently, or in a previous position, employment utilizing their CFP® designation in somewhat nontraditional areas: Credit Unions, Financial Coaching, and others.

Come join us for this lively and informative panel of professionals sharing their experiences. Whether you know exactly what path you plan to follow or are still weighing your options, this talk will provide you with valuable information.

There is no charge for this event, which is open to FPA members and UCSC Ext. PFP students only.

About the Speaker:

Chris S. Blodgett began his career in financial services over 17 years ago upon moving to the South Bay Area to attend school. Chris became licensed and registered in 2008 with the firm CUNA Mutual Group with an emphasis on helping to provide alternatives to traditional retail banking solutions. Wanting to continually help clients at a greater depth and provide service in a more holistic way, he decided to make the transition to working with CU Financial Partners, LLC.

Chris focuses on helping individuals and families of the Greater Bay Area, in particular Credit Union members with their individual and unique financial objectives. His main emphasis is retirement planning, insurance, investments, alternatives, and generally educating members on financial awareness. He is currently registered with Series 6, 7, 63, 66 Securities registrations and also holds a California Life, Health, Annuities, and Long-Term Care Insurance licenses. Also, Chris has recently completed the UCSCx Certificate program in Financial Planning and is preparing to sit for the CFP exam this July. Chris is a graduate of San Jose State University with a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Financial Markets.

Dr. Renée Snow, Ph.D., CFP®, EA has worked as a Certified Financial Planner® for the past 20 years and has combined technical expertise with psychology and philosophy in service to her clients. She earned a M.S. in Accountancy and worked 8 years for a large regional CPA firm. While at the firm, she prepared income taxes for clients and began pursuing her CFP designation. Today, Dr. Snow manages her own firm and specializes in tax planning, asset management, and the psychological aspects of wealth management. Dr. Snow is an associate professor at Sofia University, formerly the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, where she teaches Transpersonal Finance, Quantitative Research, and Mixed Methods Research. She is also Chair of the Personal Financial Planning Program at the University of California Santa Cruz Extension and teaches the Practicum course.

Christine Teh, is the founder of Teh Financial Coaching. She teaches people how to budget and basically take control of their financial house. Most of the issues surrounding clients is the struggle to get to positive cash flow. Last year she realized her passion for finance and decided to take the first CFP class. She fell in love with it on the first class and started thinking of transitioning to become a financial planner but realized it’s more realistic economic wise to keep her day job and start doing financial coaching on the side. Christine started her career as a Data analyst at Wells Fargo. She is currently continuing the work fulltime at Visa for Internal Audit. She has also completed the income tax class with H&R Block and became a certified tax preparer helping two experienced tax preparers. She hopes to add this service to her business next year. Her motto right now is to do what she loves on the side without giving up on her stability and good income till hopefully someday she can making a living only doing what she loves.

Niki Theil, CFP®, MS in Finance, spent her early career in corporate finance for HP. Shortly after finishing the Personal Financial Planning program at UCSC Extension and passing the CFP® Exam, she started working at Investor’s Capital Management (ICM) in 2013. At ICM she helps with all aspects of the business. Her responsibilities are split between traditional financial planning work, such as setting up new clients, attending client meetings, creating financial plans, and her other role of managing the office. In that role she hires and supervises employees, organizes office operations and procedures, and does just about anything else necessary to keep the office running smoothly. For fun, she prepares taxes for seniors as an AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteer. She is also a member of the Financial Planning Association (FPA). Niki lives in Mountain View with her husband, Jeremy. Her two children are currently in college.

Cost:

There is no charge for this event, which is open to FPA members and UCSC Ext. PFP students only.