Dear Members and Partners,

As the new year begins, we want to take a moment to reflect on last year, share our thoughts for the future, and express our gratitude for your support of our chapter and the local financial planning community.

To highlight a few of the upcoming speakers for 2025:

• In late January Vanguard will present an Economic and Market Outlook which will be hosted over Zoom and which will be free to all STL FPA members. Members received a calendar invitation from bjohnson@onefpa.org in early January.
• In February we will host JJ Flotken of Caravus at the Doubletree to speak on healthcare trends and healthcare benefit options. 
• In March we will host Larry Swedroe at the Doubletree for an interview and Q&A on his 2024 book, Enrich Your Future. *Consider reading the book ahead of that discussion*



Event details for these meetings and the remainder of 2025 will be out very soon.

You may have noticed that we have been tweaking our speaker formats to favor more interviews and panels and fewer lectures. We plan to continue that trend in 2025. We are leaning towards content that virtual CE sessions can’t deliver - local presenters, dialogue and debate, topics on the fringe of financial planning, and rolling Q&A sessions. We’d love feedback on if you like these changes (or not). If you have potential presenters in mind or want to help organize speakers consider joining our programs committee.

On the social side, we hosted our first FPA Family Summer BBQ and we hope to make it an annual tradition.

We say a fond farewell to our long-time chapter executive Jim Susman. Jim has served our chapter for 30 years guiding us through many changes along the way. We also welcome our new chapter executive Brandy Johnson who takes the helm in January. She is already well versed in FPA because of her work as chapter executive of the FPA of Greater Kansas City chapter and we look forward to introducing her during our January Zoom meeting.

We remain committed to being partners in planning by helping our members realize their vision of success with practice support, learning, advocacy and networking. If you are looking for ways to support the chapter and our direction here are two:

• Consider becoming a Season Pass holder. It’s a discount versus paying for each meeting (7 meetings for the price of 6) and reoccurring revenue certainly helps us budget. Chapter members can purchase the season pass today here.
• Bring a colleague/friend CFP to a meeting.

Thank you for making FPA of Greater St. Louis such an impactful community. With your involvement and enthusiasm, I am confident we can reach even greater heights in the coming year.

Wishing you a prosperous New Year!

With gratitude,

Jason Sandfort, CFP® President 2024

Dan Hummert, CFP® President 2025