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Eleanor Blayney, CFP® is the Consumer Advocate for the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, reaching out to consumers to help them understand how financial planning and CFP® professionals can improve their lives.\nThe author of Women’s Worth, a book about how women can make the most of their financial lives, Eleanor worked with individual clients for more than twenty years to help them articulate and plan for their financial goals. As the only woman partner in a four-partner firm, Eleanor drew upon her female intuition, communication strengths, and facility for sustaining relationships to help build a wealth management firm that has served hundreds of clients in the Washington, D.C. metro area and around the country.\nPassionate about finding ways to foster gender parity in the financial planning profession, Eleanor helped to spearhead CFP Board’s Women’s Initiative (WIN) to address the industry’s “feminine famine.” On behalf of the WIN Advisory Panel – comprising leaders in the area of women in financial services – Eleanor authored Making More Room for Women in the Financial Planning Profession, a 2014 white paper which presents the findings of a comprehensive research study on why there aren’t more women CFP® professionals and offers the WIN Advisory Panel’s recommendations to help attract more women to the profession.\nEleanor holds a number of degrees and designations. She earned an MA in English Literature from the University of Cambridge UK and an MBA from the University of Chicago. She is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional.\nWell-known as a conference speaker and frequently quoted in the news media, Eleanor has played a pioneering role in building and shaping the financial planning profession. She has taught for the College of Financial Planning, and has helped to develop practice standards and ethical requirements for CFP® professionals in the U.S.\nVisit Eleanor on CFP Board’s website at http:\/\/www.cfp.net\/learn\/advocate.asp or follow her on Twitter at @EleanorBlayney.

Elaine Stokes is a vice president of Loomis, Sayles & Company and portfolio manager for the Loomis Sayles fixed income group. She has 23 years of investment management experience. In addition to working as associate portfolio manager for the firm's flagship Loomis Sayles Bond Fund—which won the 2009 Morningstar Fund Manager of the Year award in the fixed income category—Elaine also manages a variety of mutual fund and institutional strategies, including the Fixed Income, High Income, Institutional High Income, Investment Grade Bond, Investment Grade Fixed Income and Strategic Income funds, and the Multisector Full Discretion, Core Plus Full Discretion, High Yield Conservative and High Yield Full Discretion portfolios. Elaine has experience working in high yield and global markets. She has also worked as a trader and portfolio specialist. Elaine earned a BS from St. Michael's College.

Elaine M. Leichter is Of Counsel in JMBM’s Taxation Trusts & Estates department. Advising, drafting and negotiating prenuptial, postnuptial and cohabitation agreements grew from Elaine’s estate planning practice. Her personal agreements clients include business executives, family business owners (or heirs to a family business), entertainers, licensed professionals and high-net-worth families.

Elaine Bedel, CFP®, has more than 35 years of experience in the financial services industry. She is president and founder of the Indianapolis-based wealth management firm, Bedel Financial Consulting, Inc., which achieved its twenty-year milestone in 2008. The firm provides fee-only financial planning and investment management services to individuals and families; advice and fiduciary guidance to trustees of employer retirement plans provided by corporations, educational institutions, and not-for-profit organizations; and investment management and oversight for institutional investment portfolios and charitable endowments. Elaine has been recognized as one of the leaders in her profession by several national financial magazines. She was recently named to Wealth Manager’s 2008 “50 Distinguished Women in Wealth Management” list and recognized by The Indianapolis Business Journal as a “Woman of Influence” in 2009. Medical Economics has included her on the list of “150 Best Financial Advisors for Doctors” every year since 1998. Currently she is a weekly contributor to Inside Indiana Business e-newsletter, The INside Edge. Elaine’s first book, Advice You Never Asked For…But wished you had!, was released in April, 2009.

Elaine A. Sarsynski is currently the Executive Vice President of MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division and Chairman and CEO of MassMutual International LLC. Ms. Sarsynski joined Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company in 2005 as Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, responsible for Corporate Services, Human Resource Management, Corporate Communications, Community Relations and MassMutual’s Strategy Implementation. \nShe was appointed Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of MassMutual International LLC in July 2006, responsible for MassMutual’s international insurance operations, which currently includes subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Japan, and Luxembourg, and joint venture relationships with companies in Chile and the People’s Republic of China. Ms. Sarsynski assumed additional responsibility for the company’s retirement services business in January 2008. Under her leadership, in 2010, MassMutual’s retirement business achieved its third consecutive year of 20%+ sales growth and the division’s highest annual retirement plan sales in its 60+-year history. At year-end 2010, MassMutual’s retirement services business also achieved a new milestone of $50 billion in assets under management.\n  \n Ms. Sarsynski has cascaded her strategic focus to be the retirement services provider of choice across the entire division. Her commitment to service excellence helped MassMutual’s retirement services business achieve record levels of customer satisfaction and retention as well, and led to numerous industry awards including the highest number of awards among all providers from the Profit Sharing\/401k Council of America for excellence in retirement plan communication and education. \n Ms. Sarsynski was previously a Managing Director at Babson Capital Management LLC – a MassMutual subsidiary – where she was responsible for the Portfolio Consulting Group. Prior to joining Babson Capital, \n Ms. Sarsynski served two elected terms as First Selectwoman for the town of Suffield, Conn. She was responsible for management of all aspects of the town’s government and municipal activities. She also served as economic development director for the town of Suffield, where she was responsible for business development.  \nIn 1998, Ms. Sarsynski founded Sun Consulting Group, LLC, offering consulting services to the real estate industry. Sun Consulting was responsible for helping Connecticut Innovations Inc. to develop and implement Connecticut’s multi-million-dollar biotechnology lending and construction development program. Ms. Sarsynski previously spent 17 years at Aetna where she held multiple senior management positions overseeing segments of the company’s Investments Division and leading the Corporate Finance Department. In this role, she was responsible for general corporate finance activities including rating agency management, banking relationships, capital allocation and currency hedging. She also served as Corporate Vice President of Real Estate Investments, responsible for the direction and oversight of Aetna’s $15 billion mortgage loan and owned real estate portfolios throughout the Unites States. Prior to joining Aetna, Ms. Sarsynski was an analyst at Morgan Stanley Realty\n in New York.\nCurrently, Ms. Sarsynski is a director of the following MassMutual subsidiaries:  HYP Management LLC, MassMutual Assignment Company, MassMutual Europe, S.A., MassMutual International LLC, MMHC Investment LLC, MML Investors Services, LLC, MassMutual Asia Limited, and MassMutual Life Insurance Company (Japan). She is the CEO for MML Distributors, LLC. She is also a director of the Employee Benefit Research Institute.\nMs. Sarsynski holds a B.A. in economics from Smith College and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. She has taught real estate finance in Columbia University’s M.B.A. program and is a Founding Lecturer for The Retirement Advisor University offered by the UCLA Anderson School of Management Executive Education. Ms. Sarsynski is a registered principal of MML Investors Services, LLC and a registered principal of MML Distributors, LLC. \n

Eileen R. Heisman, ACFRE, is the President and CEO of National Philanthropic Trust. She is a nationally recognized expert on charitable and planned giving. Ms. Heisman has been interviewed about philanthropy and donor-advised funds on CNBC, PBS and CNN International, and by nearly every national newspaper and major trade publication, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Bloomberg, CBS MarketWatch, Financial Advisor and Investment News. She was among the first fundraising professionals to earn the distinguished ACFRE certification. In 2011, she was named by NonProfit Times as one of their Power and Influence Top 50, an annual listing of the 50 most influential executives in the philanthropic sector. Ms. Heisman is currently a member of the faculty at Leadership Philadelphia, as well as an adjunct faculty member the University of Michigan's School of Social Work graduate program, and at the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice. She is also a regular lecturer for the Nonprofit Board Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Ms. Heisman serves on the Advisory Board at New York University's George H. Heyman, Jr. Center for Philanthropy and Fundraising, the Community Foundation of Singapore and the University of Michigan's School of Social Work. She is also a member of the Board of Directors at the Arden Theater Company. Ms. Heisman has a bachelor's degree with honors in psychology from Carnegie Mellon University and a master's degree in social work with a major in social program evaluation from the University of Michigan. She is a member of the third Wharton Fellows Class at the University of Pennsylvania and completed the Executive Program for Philanthropy Leaders at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

Leeds concentrates on issues relating to the design, administration, and taxation of health and other welfare benefits plans. Leeds represents employers in the negotiation and drafting of contracts with insurers, third-party administrators, and other vendors, in documenting and communicating welfare benefits plans, and in complying with applicable state and federal laws, including the Affordable Care Act, HIPAA, HITECH, COBRA, cafeteria-plan requirements, and the rules applicable to government benefits programs, such as Medicare.

Sometimes becoming an advisor is more obstacle course than straight road.