Welcome to the spring edition of “Office Happenings.” We use this column to educate, introduce people, technology, and operating systems we use, or, plan to use, to provide our clients with outstanding services. We will also keep you up-to-date and share with you the things we discover that we believe are useful, educational, funny, and just enjoyable.
In case you have not noticed, there is nothing happening at our offices for a few months now. Everyone is working from home. We were quite prepared for working remotely. The only item we did not anticipate was having two spouses working from home simultaneously, and only one computer in the household. We quickly ordered laptops for three of our employee households to solve the problem.
Combating the Pandemic Lockdown with Technology and Teamwork
Last year, our firm completed and invested in a technology audit. We upgraded many cyber security services to provide added protection to our information and databases, and we eliminated on-premises servers and put everything into the Microsoft Cloud. In addition, we invested in a new phone system that lets our team collaborate and work from anywhere in the world that has internet access.
Although the ability to work from home is a new and exciting feature for many companies, we were ahead of the curve, having started this practice many years ago.
Our latest technology update allows us to access our financial planning and investment management software from any location that has internet access, so our employees can work from home if they’re not feeling well. We can also host online meetings with clients and vendors, instead of in-person meetings. These technological advances help to keep our clients healthy and safe during this pandemic, without disrupting any of our services.
While we don’t know how long the current health crisis will last, we do know that it is temporary, and a relatively short-term event. Hopefully, we will be gradually returning to normal soon.
We pride ourselves in being an organization that is always learning.
We are thrilled to announce that Client Service Administrator, Darlene Walsh, recently obtained her Financial Paraplanner Qualified Professional (FPQP™) certification and credentials. As a result, we now have three Paraplanner professionals as part of our advisory team, offering an even higher level of customer service to our family of clients. Congratulations, Darlene! Please feel free to reach out and congratulate her at darlene@rwroge.com.
We also pride ourselves as a place where former employees return.
We are excited to welcome back Kelley Muhsemann to the Rogé team. As the firms Communication and Marketing Manager, Kelley will be overseeing our marketing efforts, and acting as gatekeeper for all internal and external communications. She brings with her over ten years of marketing and communications experience within the financial services industry. Welcome aboard, Kelley! Please feel free to reach out and welcome her back at kelley@rwroge.com.
Portfolio Management
Some clients may have noticed increased activity in their accounts. This is not due to us guessing where the markets might move. Instead, it’s a combination of routine rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting. For the first time in many years now, there are investments with a loss. We sell these securities to capture the loss for tax planning purposes, and with the proceeds purchase a similar investment to maintain proper exposure to the assets needed in each portfolio.
I hope you find this issue of Office Happenings informative. If there is anything you would like us to cover about office operations, our team members, or how we do things in future issues, or if you would like to set up a conference call or video chat, please send us an e-mail at info@rwroge.com.
On behalf of our entire team, we thank you for placing your trust in us to properly navigate you and your family through this terrible event. Wishing you and your loved ones good health. We will get through this together.
Sincerely,
Ronald W. Rogé, MS, CFP®
Chairman and CEO
