I take great pleasure in announcing 2 employees were
notified last Friday they passed the Certified Financial Planner examination –  Joe Goldfeder and Tim Roof.  Only a
select group of financial planners have met the rigorous requirements necessary
to call themselves CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professionals.

The CFP examination is a challenge that tests in the
following wide range of topics:

·        
General
Principles of Finance and Financial Planning

·        
Insurance
Planning

·        
Employee
Benefits Planning

·        
Investment
and Securities Planning

·        
State
and Federal Income Tax Planning

·        
Estate
Tax, Gift Tax, and Transfer Tax Planning

·        
Asset
Protection Planning

·        
Retirement
Planning

·        
Estate
Planning

·        
Financial
planning and consulting

Joe and Tim are the 3rd and 4th
Valley National employees to pass the CFP exam in 2013.  Earlier in 2013, Frank Stettner CPA and Lou
Mammana also passed the exam.  Valley
National now employees 9 who have passed the CFP exam, the highest number of
CFP’s of any financial planning firm in the Lehigh Valley.

You have not heard me sing.  There is a reason.  My lack of voice control coupled with my
inability to carry a tune guarantees I will not be asked to join a glee
club.  However, I have been
“recorded”.  And it happened
yesterday.  My wife Jo Anne and I
attended the Bach Choir of Bethlehem Christmas Concert held at the First
Presbyterian Church located on Center Street, Bethlehem.  It was recorded so as to create a CD which
will be placed on sale soon.  The entire audience
was invited to participate in three well known songs including, “O Come All Ye
Faithful”.  So I sang and thus was
“recorded”.  I did not sing too loudly
since I happened to be standing only a few feet from the recording microphone
(ha, ha). 

Seriously, the Lehigh Valley is blessed to have this talented, dedicated,
hard working group to perform such magical harmonies.  It’s world class.  And, it’s here in the Lehigh Valley.  For more information including a link to the
CD, click:  http://www.bach.org/

“And he is taking new patients”,   somewhat excitedly replied my close relative
when he described his search for a cardiologist.  This remark hit me – I suspect many U.S.
healthcare consumers in the future will be using this term (hopefully) as they
search for medical professional to handle their needs.  With the current trend in healthcare, I
reckon many in the U.S. will be searching for healthcare professional at the
same time many healthcare professionals will be closing their practice to new
patients.  Conversationally, the American
population will use the phase, “taking new patients” or “not taking new
patients” more and more frequently.

This football
season is teaching me to avoid counting out a team too early in the
season.  After Lafayette College’s
horrible 1 win, 5 loss start to this season, I had counted them “down and
out”.  But, after Saturday’s upset of my
alma mater Lehigh (MBA, Class of ’77)  in
the 149th playing of the rivalry, my alma mater Lafayette (BA, Class
of ’73)not only won the Patriot League but also earned a post-season berth in
the national playoffs.

And the Steelers’
season start of 4 straight losses led me to conclude too early that they had no
shot at the play-offs.  But, the Steelers
went on to win 5 of the next 7 games to move into a tie for the second
“wild-card” play-off slot.

And, don’t forget
about the Eagles!  Who would have guessed
4 weeks ago they would be leading their division?

Last week, five other Valley National advisors and I
attended Charles Schwab’s “IMPACT” investment conference in Washington,
DC. 

IMPACT is an important conference in the investment
industry.  Over 7,000 independent
Investment Advisors attend IMPACT.  Those
advisors manage over $1 trillion dollars of client investments.  So, the IMPACT conference receives attention
and attracts top flight, expert speakers who give us their thoughts on the
current economic conditions and prospects for the future.

I was surprised to hear that each and every speaker
was bullish on the market.  Each had his
or her own set of reasons for optimism. 
But, I felt uncomfortable that ALL the speakers were optimistic.  I do recall the saying, “the candle that
burns the brightest is the quickest extinguished.”

This week, five other Valley National advisors and I
will attend Charles Schwab’s “IMPACT” investment conference in Washington,
DC.  This conference provides an unparalleled
opportunity to obtain valuable information in economics, strategies, best
practices, and forecasting.  I will
report in The Weekly Commentary as to what we learned.

From time to time
I am asked about my retirement plans.  I
am happy to say I have no plans to retire because I enjoy what I do for clients
and working with Valley National’s team members.  I happened across a quote attributed to
Warren Buffett which fits him as well as me:

“I can certainly define happiness, because
happy is what I am.  I get to do what I
like.  I get to do it with people I
like.  I tap dance to work.” – Warren
Buffett

Think about all
the choices TV watchers possess at their fingertips with that thing we call
“the remote” – a new term created since my childhood.  Speaking of TV in my childhood, I grew up in
a remote section of Western PA where I had the choice of TWO TV stations – one
was CBS and the other was NBC.  Now, I have
access to hundreds and hundreds of stations at the flip of my trusty
“remote.”  What are some of the
implications to society? Well, one that I have noted is that each TV viewer can
chose the slant on news they wish to hear – the conservative-minded “right”
turns to Fox and the liberal-minded “left” turns to MSNBC.  Over time, these TV viewers receive only a
slanted version of the news; and thus,
become more and more polarized in thinking. 
I reckon this is one reason why Americans seem to be increasingly
divided.