FPA NE - WGT Retire Right: The Wicked Smart Way

Agenda* Subject to Change

• 11:00 - 11:45 Registration / Visit with the Partners South Foyer/Berkshire Room
• 11:45 - 12:30 Lunch Commons Dining Room
• 12:30 - 12:40 Welcome Auditorium
• 12:40 - 1:30 Sharon Carson Guide to Retirement
• 1:30 - 1:40 Platinum Partner Shorts Auditorium
• 1:40 - 2:30 Beth Pinsker Financial Caregiving: Lessons learned from "My Mother's Money"
• 2:30 - 2:40 Platinum Partner Shorts Auditorium
• 2:40 - 3:10 Break / Visit with the Partners Berkshire Room
• 3:10 - 4:00 Matthew Rutledge Best-Laid Plans: When Careers End Surprisingly Early
• 4:00 - 4:50 Marcia Mantell Social Security Updates and Options for Solvency
• 4:50 - 5:00 Raffle Giveaway Auditorium
• 5:15 - 6:30 Happy Hour - Painted Burro  99 3rd Ave, Waltham, MA 02451

About our Speakers

Guide to Retirement

Using J.P. Morgan’s Guide to Retirement, Sharon Carson, one of the authors of the Guide, will cover timely topics for pre-retirees, including using the Guide to interest clients in a retirement plan, Medicare basics and pitfalls, planning for the possibility of long-term care needs, taking clients’ long-term tax picture into account and developing a retirement plan that gives clients more confidence.

Sharon Carson, Executive Director, is a Retirement Strategist on the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Retirement Insights Strategy team. She is one of the authors of J.P. Morgan’s Guide to Retirement. She develops and delivers retirement insights on topics such as Social Security, Medicare, elder care, and spending patterns in retirement. Her work is used by financial professionals, retirement plan sponsors and policymakers. She has over 20 years of experience in various roles spanning strategic planning, innovation, and program management.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan in 2012, Sharon developed retirement planning insights at Merrill Lynch. Sharon received a B.A. from Bowling Green State University and a M.B.A. from Columbia University. She has the Certified Retirement Plan Counselor designation (CRPC).

Financial Caregiving: Lessons learned from "My Mother's Money"

My session would show the interconnectedness of retirement planning and estate planning; what is their “why” for estate planning interests, values, legacies. I'm a financial-planning columnist and was a financial caregiver for my mother, and the book I have launching Nov. 4 , "My Mother's Money: A Guide to Financial Caregiving," (Penguin Random House), is everything I learned along the way. I talk to many other experts and caregivers -- including many other CFPs -- to give people a full picture of what they need to know in order to make this difficult time easier.

Beth Pinsker is a financial-planning columnist at MarketWatch and has been a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ since 2018.

Previously, she worked at Reuters, Fidelity and Walletpop.com. Prior to covering personal finance, she was a film critic and entertainment business reporter, writing for Entertainment Weekly, The Dallas Morning News and many other publications. Her book, "My Mother's Money: A Guide to Financial Caregiving," is out in November 2025 from Crown Currency. You can follow her on BlueSky (@bethpinsker.bsky.social) or LinkedIn (@bpinsker).

Best-Laid Plans: When Careers End Surprisingly Early

This presentation will discuss the factors that influence when workers plan to retire, the barriers that arise that may prevent them from reaching their planned retirement date, and the consequences – to themselves, to the economy, to government programs, and to society – of earlier-than-planned retirement.

Matthew S. Rutledge, Ph.D is a professor of the practice in the Boston College Department of Economics, where he teaches courses in statistics, microeconomic theory, and the public policy of aging. He is also an affiliated researcher at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, where he conducts research on labor market outcomes for older workers, Social Security claiming behavior, disability insurance application, pension coverage, retirement saving, retirement expectations, employer demand for older workers, unemployment insurance, and health insurance coverage. He has also worked for the Economic Research Initiative on the Uninsured and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Boston College, and a doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan in the fields of health economics, labor economics, and public finance.

Social Security Updates and Options for Solvency

It’s been years we’ve been saying Congress needs to take action to shore up Social Security. So far, not much has happened. Yet the turmoil and concerns are mounting fast. The 2025 Trustees Report was alarming, projecting an even earlier depletion of the Reserve Account. Clients are understandably shaken. Financial Advisors are increasingly pressured to keep clients on course. What’s the way out of this dilemma? In this update, we’ll look at the current state of affairs of this critical program. And importantly, review some of the options Congress could (should?) take to fix Social Security for the long term and quell the concerns of older clients.

For over 30 years, Marcia Mantell has been helping the country's foremost financial services firms, advisors, and consumers increase their knowledge of complex retirement concepts, laws, and regulations. She has a remarkable ability to decode and translate those concepts into everyday language.

Mastering Social Security and Medicare was not part of Marcia’s original plan. But with an overwhelming amount of legal information to comprehend, a non-stop stream of questions from advisors and consumers, and nowhere to turn, she’s become a leading expert in both programs.

Marcia is the author of four retirement books. Her “Cookin’ Up Your Retirement Plan” and “Creating Your Medicare Recipe” were featured in the Wall St. Journal article: 5 Books to Help You Build a Bigger Nest Egg—and Have a Successful Retirement.



She’s an ongoing contributor at ThinkAdvisor, and blogs at BoomerRetirementBriefs.com. With her in-depth knowledge of retirement topics, Marcia is often sought after by journalists at prestigious news outlets, on the radio, and by podcasters for a lively conversation.