Graduation Season Provides a Perfect Reminder to New Yorkers to Update Their Financial Planning

NEW YORK, NY (05/12/2009)(readMedia)-- "As New Yorkers celebrate college and high school graduations, it is a perfect reminder that millions of New Yorkers need to review their personal and family finances and update their financial planning," said Michael P. Smith, President and CEO of the New York Bankers Association (NYBA).

"Whether parents of recent graduates are now turning to planning for their retirements, or parents of young children are just beginning to think about the cost of their children's college educations, now is the time for people across the state to meet with financial planning professionals who can help provide the expert advice so many of us depend upon," said Garry M. Garnet, NYBA Trust Marketing Committee chair and Vice President of Capital One Bank.

Smith and Garnet encouraged all media news outlets - television, radio, newspapers, magazines, websites and blogs - to provide stories about personal and family financial planning issues as a service for their readers, viewers and listeners, particularly in these times of economic uncertainty and worry. They reminded members of the media that NYBA has financial planning professionals across the state ready to help them with stories they may be working on for their readers, viewers and listeners.

"Graduations provide new beginnings and it's never too soon or too early - even for those in their twenties - to begin planning for a brighter financial future," Smith said.

"Long-range financial goals - trusts, estate planning, tax planning, insurance, long term care for loved ones, educational goals for children and grandchildren - do not just happen," Garnet said. "Careful planning is crucial to achieving those goals."

Garnet also pointed to the federal budget and the President's calling for the continuation of the estate tax at 2009 levels, rather than seeing it phased out in 2010 as current law anticipates.

"The estate tax - more commonly and appropriately known as the 'death tax' - is crucial to many families' long-range financial planning," Garnet said. "The issue is currently in flux, and unfortunately subject to the whim of Washington lawmakers. Therefore, now is definitely the time to be looking at this issue with appropriate planning experts."

NYBA recently updated its media resource guide, "Financial Planning Professionals: Leaders in Their Field," which provides sources for the media on issues such as trusts and estates, financial planning, retirement planning, wealth management, tax planning, and elder law.

"These individuals included in the media guide are truly leaders in their field," Garnet said. "They are available to talk to members of the media on the record or for background to provide the kind of expert analysis journalists seek when presenting stories on estate, tax or financial planning, trusts or other important financial issues."

A copy of the resource guide can be found online at the New York Bankers Association website (www.nyba.com), or by clicking http://www.nyba.com/public/Trust%20Media%20Kit%202009.pdf. Please feel free to contact the financial planning experts listed in the resource guide - which includes biographies of those included - at your convenience. A list of the experts is attached.

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