Author: marionvermazen

I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter and genealogist. I am retired after working for almost 30 years in the Computer Industry. I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband Duke.

Vacation

Duke and I leave on vacation tonight. We are flying to Chicago then driving up to visit my Aunt and Uncle at their lake house near Stone Lake, Wisconsin. From there we will drive to Manchester, Iowa to visit Duke’s  family, and then back to Chicago to fly home. It is quite a bit of driving but we love exploring and Wisconsin. Illinois, Iowa are a beautiful part of the country.  I don’t expect to be near a computer so won’t be blogging or answering email. I will be keeping my mind open for interesting and surprising tidbits to blog about when I get home. Have a great  Independence Day!

Broker Dealers and Clearing Houses

I have been calling financial planners this week to ask them if they would like to help us test some new software . On of the things I ask them is what firm they use as a custodian. I am mainly talking to financial planners who manage their clients assets for them. That means that the planner is able to trade and manage assets in the client’s account. Planners custodian their accounts with companies like Schwab, TD Waterhouse, and Ameritrade. What is confusing is that there is also the concept of a broker dealer, and a clearing house. It is important to know who the clearing house  is because that will be the source of account downloads. If I understand it correctly big companies like Schwab and Waterhouse do both the broker dealer function and the clearing house function. But there are broker dealers who use  a separate clearing house like Pershing. In talking to planners it  is important for me to know the difference  because it will impact our testing. I am enjoying learning all this new stuff.

A’s Baseball

Duke and I are going to the A’s vs Mariners game tonight.  Every year I become more of an A’s fan. Thanks to Duke’s boss we have gone to 2-3 A’s games a year for he past few years.  The book MoneyBall by Michael Lewis greatly increased my interest in the team. It is much more than an A’s book or a baseball book. It is a book about thinking outside the box  and running an organization based on what you measure not on your preconceived notions. I also enjoyed the book because it tells some great player stories. I like knowing something about the backgrounds of the players.

The human side of the story is one of the reasons I really liked the  Josh Suchon story about the A’s reliever Ron Flores that ran in yesterdays Argus. Flores was the 870th pick in the 2000 baseball draft and he is one of only 47 major league baseball players who have a college degree. It is an inspiring story and Suchan tells it well. It is well worth reading.

Financial Planner Research Project

Intuit is looking for financial planners who would be interested in participating in a research project over the summer, late July through October. We would like you to try out a new product and tell us what you think about it. The product focuses on helping you manage your clients’ portfolios. If this sounds interesting to you please send me an email at marion_vermazen at intuit dot com. Give me your phone number and I will give you a call back to give you more information.