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The LIFEvest Financial Literacy Program, hosted by the Center for Investment and Wealth Management at the UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business, is a weeklong, on-campus program dedicated to helping underserved 9th and 10th grade students from Orange, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties. The program, now in its 9th year, is designed for high school students who have the potential to be first generation college students. The program strives to strengthen an understanding in financial matters, expose students to a college campus, encourage admission to a college or university, explore various career fields, teach social etiquette skills, and inspire confidence and success in all areas of life.
LIFEvest has received a $2 million gift from the Pacific Life Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Newport Beach-based insurance company.
"Through the partnership, we aim to instill a lifelong curiosity in personal finance and provide students the necessary financial skills and confidence to pursue a college education."
Read more here.
Laurie Dubchansky, CFP®
LIFEvest Committee Chairperson
Havaplan Financial
I received my undergraduate degree at UCLA, and after earning a Master’s Degree in Health Care Administration, I worked in various health care settings. I married my junior-high school sweetheart, Scott! After raising two great kids, I managed a non-profit for several years, and then decided to pursue an education in Personal Financial Planning at UCLA Extension. I passed the CFP exam in March 2015 while working for Inspired Financial. Now, I embark on my own business, Havaplan Financial to serve those with financial concerns, including planning for retirement, but without regard to current wealth accumulation.
I am an active member of the Financial Planning Association of Orange County, and I enjoy volunteering to provide pro-bono financial education. I am on the UCI Merage School of Business LifeVest steering committee. LifeVest provides intensive life planning and financial literacy training each summer for underserved 9th students in Orange County. I greatly enjoy philanthropy, supporting non-profit organizations focusing on education, hunger and homelessness.
I enjoy high-volume baking, often 300 cookies, brownies or scones.
I’m a football fan, and I love hosting Super Bowl parties! I love hiking, spinning and Zumba! Scott and I usually celebrate our anniversary by traveling to a cold climate for a football game!
Chad Bollenbach
Canterbury Consulting
Chad Bollenbach is an investment consultant to families and institutions and assists clients with asset allocation, portfolio construction and wealth strategies. Prior to joining Canterbury, Mr. Bollenbach was a senior wealth advisory analyst for Capital Group Private Client Services focusing on asset allocation and investment planning. He previously worked at Trenwith Securities as an investment banking associate and at AXA Advisors as a financial consultant. Mr. Bollenbach received an MA in Latin American studies and BA in international relations from Stanford University.
Wendy Chen
Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management
Wendy Chen is a relationship manager in CIBC Atlantic Trust Private Wealth Management's Newport Beach office, with more than 16 years of industry experience. In this role, her primary focus is to manage client relationships and implement strategies designed to help clients achieve their financial goals.
She also works closely with clients and their advisors to create and implement tailored wealth management solutions and contributes to several of the firm’s employee engagement and women’s initiatives.
Wendy earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in legal studies from the University of California, Berkeley and volunteers with the German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County. Additionally, she sits on the advisory board for the Center of Investment and Wealth Management at the University of California, Irvine's Paul Merage School of Business.
Hyun Swanson
UC Office of the President
Hyun Swanson Hyun is a seasoned benefits professional with 20 years of experience. Early in her career, she was a consultant at Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, helping clients design and implement competitive benefit programs. She then moved into an internal HR role as global benefits manager at AES Corporation, overseeing health and retirement plans strategy and administration.
Hyun joined the University Of California’s Office of the President in 2013 as Manager of Benefits Education. Among her many responsibilities is managing the systemwide retirement savings plan communications and education program, which features a robust set of resources to help UC faculty and staff build retirement readiness. “Success” to her means that employees understand UC’s generous retirement benefits, as well as make smart financial decisions that will ensure that their money lasts through retirement.
Hyun holds a BA in Economics from Johns Hopkins and a MPH from Yale. An East Coast native, she currently lives with her husband and two kids in beautiful Irvine, CA.
Feroz Ansari
Compak Asset Management
Senior Principal and Portfolio Manager. He is a CFP® (Certified Financial Planner™) certificant. He holds an MIM (Masters of International Management) degree from ASU - Thunderbird, Graduate School of International Management, Arizona, and an MBA from the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, Pakistan. He has completed risk management, trading, portfolio management, leadership and financial management programs at The Oxford University in England, INSEAD in France, Citibank Training Center-Singapore, Euromoney in New York and Emirates Bank Training Center in Dubai. Feroz Ansari published a research paper dealing with dual exchange rate mechanisms and has conducted training programs for treasury management and foreign exchange.
Prior to joining Compak, Feroz worked in banking and treasury management. He held positions at Banque Indosuez, Faysal Bank and Emirates Bank International. Feroz has over 22 years of experience in banking, treasury management, asset allocation and asset management. He started his career in 1993 as a Treasury Associate at Banque Indosuez and held the Position of Treasurer, Head of Treasury & Corporate Banking and Deputy General Manager at Emirates Bank.
Feroz enjoys playing golf with his two boys and he loves to read and stay informed. He likes to travel to different places to play golf with his boys. He has had one “hole in one” and his lowest score was 79, but that was 15 years ago! Now he is happy to break 90. Feroz has a passion for reading and learning. He belongs to a local book club that is mostly comprised of his close friends.
Feroz has also been selected to serve on the Client Advisory Council of Wealth Advisor Services at Fidelity Investment Institutional Service Company. He is also active in the local community. He serves on the Board of Advisors of University of California-Irvine’s Center for Investment and Wealth Management (CIWM). At CIWM he serves on numerous “Financial Literacy” sub-committees.
Kara Duckworth, CFP®
LIFEvest Chair Emeritus
Duckworth Wealth Advisors
Kara is a wealth manager and the firm’s Chief Compliance Officer. She manages client relationships, provides financial planning services and serves on the firm’s investment committee. Think of her as a friend who will tell you the truth. Kara also manages the firm’s personal office services. To Kara, seeing a client achieve a dream is the most rewarding part of her job.
Named a “5-Star Wealth Manager” by Orange Coast magazine, Kara attended UC Riverside and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. She is a Certified Financial Planner® and a member of the Financial Planning Association. Kara sits on the board of the Center for Investment and Wealth Management for the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. As if that doesn’t keep her busy enough, she also chaired the steering committee for the school’s Financial Literacy Summer Residential Program for five years.
Kristen McNeaney
PAAMCO
Chris Lum
PAAMCO
Jordan Floriani
PAAMCO
Ashley Bleckner
RS Crum
Ms. Bleckner is an Advisor with RS Crum and also leads the Marketing team. Prior to committing to join RS Crum in 2015, Ashley spent nearly four years with a wealth management firm based in Toledo, Ohio serving as a Client Relationship Manager where she helped develop, coordinate, and implement financial plans and manage day-to-day client requests. Ashley takes great pride in her client relationships.
Actively involved in the community, Ashley is a member of ProVisors, the Orange County FPA, the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA), and CalCPA. Ashley has volunteered her time on a number of philanthropic projects, including the Center of Investment and Wealth Management at UCI (LIFEvest), “It’s Your Money,” Alzheimer’s Association, and is a co-founder of the Austin Kudzia Scholarship.
Ashley has previously studied in Florence, Italy and has taught several college classes in Economics. Ms. Bleckner has a Bachelor of Science in Business Economics from Miami University and a Masters of Arts in Economics from Bowling Green State University.
Ashley lives in Capistrano Beach with her two dogs, Ella & Fitzgerald, and her fiance. Her hypo-allergenic pups sometimes even grace the office with their presence. She spends her weekends with them at the beach and exploring the beautiful outdoors that California has to offer. Ashley also has a passion for travel, education and the arts.
All donations directly support the LIFEvest student scholarships. It is the Center’s goal to create an endowment or receive multiple year pledges from donors to provide LIFEvest program scholarships to at least 100 students annually. Together, we can create a brighter future – helping teens build a meaningful life plan by creating lasting financial and educational goals.
Dinner, Drinks and Fundraising for Financial Literacy
June 1, 2019
6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Balboa Bay Resort
LEAD OC provides a platform for Orange County’s leading executives to combine their skills and resources to advance & raise awareness for various local philanthropic causes championing children & military families. Proceeds from this event will benefit the LIFEvest Financial Literacy Program endowment fund to provide scholarships to the program for children in the local community.
LEAD-OC, a group of young professionals dedicated to collectively impacting the Orange County community with their philanthropic endeavors, recently made the LIFEvest Financial Literacy Program their “Charity of Choice” for 2019 which will seed an endowment fund ensuring 1000’s of deserving teens from underserved communities will be able to realize their dream of being the first in their families to graduate from college! LEAD-OC kicked off this fundraising campaign with their 7th Annual Hearts for Children “Sip and Support” on Friday, January 25, 2019 at the UCI Paul Merage School of Business. It was a an amazing event with wine tasting from six different wineries, live music, LIFEvest alumni and their families, and a great program with Dean Eric Spangenberg that provided a wonderful overview of UCI, The Merage School, LIFEvest and their major fundraising event; the Black Tie Gala on Saturday, June 1, 2019 at The Balboa Bay Resort.
Sponsor-A-Scholar ($2,100)
Endowed UCI CIWM LIFEvest Student Scholarship ($50,000)
Endowed UCI CIWM LIFEvest Financial Literacy Program Sponsor ($5,000,000)
My daughter is Raquel Ornelas and she participated in LIFEvest about 4 years ago. Since then Raquel was awarded a 4-year scholarship for high school over 200k! She still remembers the program and will take about it to friends from time to time. I myself believe that this is a great course for teenagers.
– Juana O. (Racquel’s Mother) –
The UCI LIFEvest Financial Literacy “blessed” my daughter Malia with incredible and priceless information and most of all, great insight into the financial industry. We are grateful!
– Gale N. (Malia’s Mother) –
What are the top 3 things you learned from the Financial Literacy Program and how have they helped you?
I learned about stocks and bonds and how to handle a business of my own. This program has helped train me to own my own business as well as how to build a strong relationship with the people you work with. You can't just show up to work and not interact with other employees, you have to show up and treat others with respect so that you can still operate your business successfully.
I learned to develop better speaking skills during the time that I was there and now I'm able to present in front of groups without being timid. I also learned how to work better in teams. The group project that we worked on helped me get a better understanding of how to manage a group, the time, and share responsibilities to get the job done. All these things that I learned have helped me become a better developed student.
I learned many things from the Financial Literacy Program that have currently helped me in many ways. One of the biggest things I learned at this program that will always stay with me is that it doesn't matter what situation you come from, if you have the willpower and put effort into everything you do, you can accomplish almost anything. Hearing other people's stories have really encouraged me and have made me work harder towards my dreams.
The Center helps LIFEvest alumni stay informed and connected by hosting various annual events, such as the UCI Basketball Homecoming Game in March and bowling in October. In addition, the Center sends out a monthly newsletter, “The Legacy” to all LIFEvest alumni and has initiated a mentorship program whereby LIFEvest Alumni are matched up with a current UCI Undergraduate Students so as to assist and guide alumni to be successful in high school and the college going preparation.
