The FPA Silicon Valley chapter continues the fantastic work with military families at the local Navy Operational Support Center.

Seminars are provided during the reservists’ drill weekends on various topics such as investments, insurance planning, and managing credit.  As needed, one-on-one consulting and financial planning for individuals, is scheduled on Saturdays of the monthly drill weekend. The Project Manager for this program is an FPA member and CFP® professional who is also a military reservist. The program has been running since 2006 and has served over 400 reservists and full-time military personnel.

An informational manual was developed to assist civilian financial planners in understanding military issues and culture, and has been shared with the Financial Planning Foundation for publication and distribution to all chapters that would like to develop a similar program, including a program already underway in San Diego.  The Project Manager has developed an active liaison with the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s Office of Personal Finance and Transition (Military Community and Family Policy). Through this relationship, the manual has been offered to the curriculum development team for the entire Department of Defense, and we continue to offer our lessons learned through development of this pro bono effort and through an ongoing relationship with the FPA representative in the OSD.  In turn, they are working at adding FPA to the preferred vendors list for the Department of Defense, which will facilitate establishing FPA pro bono programs at additional military bases.

The Military Project is run by Peggy Stephan who is a drilling reservist at the Naval Reservist Operational Support Center in San Jose. As an officer and a CFP® professional, Peggy is in a unique position to assist her unit in maintaining battle readiness since a reservist can lose their security clearance due to adverse credit circumstances. Since 2006 Peggy has arranged seminars on a variety of topics at her reserve unit. Seminars are generally held on Sundays from 1:30 – 2:30 pm and must be presented by individuals who are CFP® professionals. The presenter generally chooses the subject and can use their own presentation or choose one from the committees library. One on one financial planning is also offered to the reservists and generally occurs Saturdays from 12 – 4 pm. Generally there is only one planner per session and they must hold a CFP® certification.