Tech Topics - Fall 2007 - (Page 47)

RealWorld Passport to RETIREMENT By Carol Carter Brother-and-sister team make life after work smooth sailing for Tech alumni GARY MEEK H “The hardest person to deal with from the investment aspect is an engineer. A lawyer kind of tells you he knows it all. A doctor acts like he knows it all. But the engineer has to take it all apart,” O’Brien said. But he doesn’t mind. “The truth is the people we’ve taught at other colleges weren’t at the same level of grasping the information as are the Tech grads. It’s kind of an accelerated course.” He likes the camaraderie in the classes and the personal stories. “Our clients are funny. It’s like a big Sunday dinner with 50 people.” One participant told his class that the most hated words in retirement are, “Hon, I think I’ll go with you.” Then he TECHTOPICS | FALL 2007 “ ow long does it take to change a middle initial? In the case of Wayne Kerr, ABiol 73, MS ABiol 74, it took three months to correct his daughter’s middle initial on an important document after an investment company inadvertently changed it. Kerr and his wife discovered the mistake as a result of taking the Passport to Retirement seminar at the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. The seminar, Kerr said, “caused us to rethink our 401(k) plans, and it caused us to review all of the insurance documents for the beneficiaries.” During that review, the couple discovered the error on their daughter’s initial. “It could have caused major problems,” Kerr said. David W. O’Brien and Jean O’Brien Frank, brother and sister, have been teaching the seminar since 1998. The four-week course runs Tuesdays from 6:30 to 9 p.m. each September, February and May. The next session begins Sept. 4. The advisers, who work for Wachovia Securities under the name O’Brien Investment Group, send invitations to Tech alumni in the 45-year-old to 65-year-old age range, and they charge $99, a fee that goes to the Alumni Association. During the class, participants work through a notebook as O’Brien and Frank teach what they’ve learned their clients really need in retirement. They invite experts from various fields — law, insurance and Social Security, for instance — to speak during the four sessions. Then, following the classes, participants get two private sessions with O’Brien and Frank. They fill out a questionnaire and the advisers run the responses through a simulated financial planning platform. Armed with that and input from a therapist who helps the participants identify their priorities and their values concerning money, the two make recommendations. “I’ll tell you,” O’Brien said, “that most people are ecstatic when they leave because it’s like, ‘Wow, I knew I ought to read the Vanguard (investment) sheets, but I never could figure out how to get to that point of retirement where I wanted to be.’” People want three things when they retire, he said. The first is security. “If I can give you security, you will be almost completely happy. The second One seminar participant said David O’Brien and Jean O’Brien Frank help people embrace the concept of transitioning into retirement. thing everybody wants is freedom of choice. As one of the Georgia Tech people said, ‘I’d like to go to the grocery store and buy Smucker’s instead of the store brand and not worry about it.’ And the third thing that everybody wants is meaning or purpose in their life, and that comes in through charity. ‘Well, gosh, if I have security in retirement and I can make choices, then what else do I want to do with my money? I think I want to give it away.’” Maybe to Georgia Tech, he added. Even though O’Brien is an alumnus of the University of Alabama and Frank of Florida State University, they love working with Georgia Tech alumni. “People at Georgia Tech are savers,” O’Brien said. “University of Georgia people are not savers. Georgia Tech people get out of college and the first thing they think about is retirement. These Georgia Tech people know how to successfully navigate through life.” Many Georgia Tech graduates O’Brien meets make around $90,000 a year and have managed to save $1 million, even while putting kids through college. O’Brien and Frank have taught similar classes at other universities, but they realized they enjoyed Tech graduates most of all, so they narrowed their seminar offerings to the Alumni Association. The hardest person to deal with from the investment aspect is an engineer. A lawyer kind of tells you he knows it all. A doctor acts like he knows it all. But the engineer has to take it all apart. “ described watching his wife slink out to their car in the driveway one morning. She was trying to head off to the grocery store without him because she knew that five minutes after they arrived he would be ready to come home. Some — but not all — participants wind up as paying clients of O’Brien Investment Group. Then and only then do O’Brien and Frank make money off of the seminars. Tom Murphy, IM 62, is one such participant. “I went to a seminar, and I am using his services. It was helpful,” said Murphy, who calls O’Brien his friend. Kerr described the retirement seminars as “just plain fun. David had door prizes, nice snacks. The entire series was most worthwhile. It was the first time my wife and I have embraced the concept of transitioning to an empty house and ultimate retirement.” As for the two advisers, O’Brien summed it up like this: “This has been a life-expanding adventure for us. To be involved in something on this level and to meet all these people, this has such an impact on our lives that I think I want a Ramblin’ Wreck engraved on my tombstone.” More information about the seminars may be obtained by contacting Holly McLaughlin Green at holly.green@alumni.gatech.edu. GT 47

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Topics - Fall 2007

Contents Mail Call Alumni House Historic Renovation 007 Buzz Bash Dazzling Daylilies Living History Cover Story: Key to the City The Hill Tapping Technology Robotics Rivalry No Easy Ride Giving Back Balancing Act Student Life Burdell & Friends Epic Story of Heroism Yellow Jackets Very Good Team Passport to Retirement Real World

Tech Topics - Fall 2007

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