Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Janet Briaud, CFP® established Briaud Financial Advisors in 1986. She had seen firsthand the conflicts that arise out of the commission-based model, so she took a risk and established a fee-only business model. Today, Briaud Financial Advisors is recognized nationally as a leading provider of financial planning and asset management services. She has been widely quoted in national magazines and newspapers.\nJanet has served as President of the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors, as well as Chairman of its Board of Directors. She has also served on the TIAA-CREF Investment Advisor Advisory Board, the Vanguard Investment Advisory Board and currently serves on the Texas A&M Finance Advisory Board. Of Janet’s most recent accolades, she was included in The Top 50 Women in Wealth Manager’s April 2008 edition and was named one of NAPFA’s 30 Most Influential People in April 2013.

Kelli Cruz is a Financial Planning columnist and the founder of Cruz Consulting Group in San Francisco. Follow her on Twitter at @KelliCruzSF.

Paula Vasan is a freelance reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @PaulaVasan.

Michelle Smith is Co-Founder and CEO of Source Financial Advisors, LLC, a wealth management firm which specializes in guiding clients through significant personal financial events such as divorce. Ms. Smith has a specialty in concentrated stock positions (both public and private) and the myriad complex issues that arise from the distribution and transfer of these public and private interests incident to divorce.   As Founder and President of Smith Financial Strategies Group, LLC, Ms. Smith assists clients and attorneys with divorce-related financial analyses, including lifestyle analysis, tracing and property characterization, analysis of investments, non-cash compensation including stock options and restricted share awards, personal economic projections, and cash flow modeling of various settlement options.  She is often a neutral financial expert in the mediation and collaborative law process, as well as providing traditional litigation support and trial consulting services.  \n 

Rob Whitaker is SVP and Group Publisher of SourceMedia’s Professional Services Division, overseeing the company’s flagship advisor and public accountant titles including Financial Planning, On Wall Street, Bank Investment Consultant and Accounting Today. In that role he is responsible for the strategic direction and continuous evolution of the brand’s content platform, including digital, social, print and live events.\nWith over 20 years in media and marketing, Rob has always been the driving force behind innovation. He launched one of the first paid subscription B2B media websites, AmericanBanker.com, in 1997, developed one of the first 24\/7 “virtual” environments for Accounting Today and has produced over 250 live events as SourceMedia’s Managing Director of Conferences, serving 20,000 attendees per year across the technology, banking and financial services sectors.\nRecently he has been the catalyst behind much of the company’s new research, video, social media and lead generation strategies and solutions. His philosophy is simple, “As media evolves, the focus must be on becoming connected brands, engaging with our readers to deliver content when, where and how they choose to consume it”.