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Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Justin King

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Yesterday, George interviewed Justin King, a trainer in the Life Planning community, a financial planner specializing in retirement, and is involved in the Life Planning community in the UK.

Listen at the link below to hear their thought provoking conversation about a vision for A Golden Civilization and the importance of community. Justin opens by explaining life planning’s ability to express his clients’ desire to make a difference in the world and how this authenticity could help start a movement toward A Golden Civilization. Against the backdrop of polarized politics in both the UK and the US, George and Justin discuss the humanity employed in finding similarities and community instead of division when faced with a problem in order to arrive at a Golden Civilization.

Justin is managing director at MFP Wealth Management and is one of the country’s most qualified Independent Financial Advisers with over 25 years’ experience. He is both a Chartered Financial Planner and a CISI Chartered Fellow. In 2018 Justin launched The Retirement Café Podcast. As host, Justin interviews guests on all manner of retirement-related topics to help people feel informed and confident in their retirement. Justin is co-author of “Ready, Steady, Retire!’’ written to share his experience of financial planning and help those thinking of retiring plan for success in the new age of retirement. 

You can read more about Justin here: https://mfpwealthmanagement.co.uk/independent-retirement-advisers/justin-king-ifa/

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Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Mark Mazur

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George recently interviewed Mark Mazur, a prominent member of the financial and life planning world, and cohost of a podcast about life planning.

Below is their conversation about the Map of Mindfulness, and its ability to bring to the forefront moments of freedom, elements of a shared vision for A Golden Civilization, and the recipe for an ongoing, sustainable Golden Civilization Conversation that doesn’t always have to be united in one action step or initiative. George and Mark discuss the recent Golden Civilization Conversation that they hosted together and ways to move it forward into the future.

Mark D. Mazur is a financial planner at San Diego Wealth. Mark has nearly 30 years of business and financial services industry experience and is a Registered Life Planner®. Mark co-leads the firm's life planning and oversees operations and the firm’s marketing and branding initiatives. Mark also cohosts a podcast with fellow life planner Aries Jimenez. called Health Wealth & The Pursuit of Happiness, where they help listeners live an authentic and inspiring life aligned with their true nature, through the exploration of life structures like routines, nutrition, spirituality, relationships, mindfulness and movement. They address key game changers like managing time, energy and resources; leveraging one's unique wiring and abilities; and overcoming obstacles like resistance, fear, bias and ego. 

You can read more about Mark’s background here: https://www.sandiegowealth.com/team/mark-mazur

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Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Kevin Chung

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George interviewed Kevin Chung, a Registered Life Planner® and early participant of the Golden Civilization Conversation movement yesterday.

Check out the video below to hear George and Kevin’s discussion about what they have learned so far through Golden Civilization Conversations that they attended together in Hana, Hawaii, San Francisco, CA, and Sepastopol, CA. Beginning the conversation by noting that in the different places, the conversations have describe the same vision and then differ on obstacles and action steps, George and Kevin delve into a conversation about the privilege of delivering freedom, relationship building, and hierarchies of power.

Kevin K. Chung is a Managing Director and Advanced Planner at First Republic Investment Management in San Francisco. Kevin has over 15 years of experience working with high net worth and ultra-high net worth families in designing their financial, estate and charitable giving plans. Prior to joining First Republic, Kevin was a Financial Advisor and the Director of Financial Planning at Jackson Financial Management and taught as an Instructor in the Personal Financial Planning Certificate program at the University of California, Irvine Extension Program.

You can find more information about Kevin here: https://www.firstrepublic.com/all-profiles/kevin-chung

Peace UCC in St. Louis discovers "A Golden Civilization"

Rev. Wendy Bruner invited George Kinder to spend the day at her church, Peace UCC in St. Louis, which is known for being progressive and having members that are very engaged in the community. George attended the early and late morning services, where Rev. Bruner connected the concept of a Golden Civilization into her sermons. During the adult learning session that took place between the two services, George spoke about his latest book and led a brief mindfulness exercise. After the 11:00am service, members enjoyed refreshments and George facilitated a Golden Civilization Conversation with the help of his good friend Lesley Wellman. See the pictures below for the results of their conversation. George will be returning to Peace UCC on Sunday, October 20 to lead a follow-up Golden Civilization Conversation.

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Moving Forward on Golden Civilisation and Cultivating Wisdom

Our Conversation on Primrose Hill on Tuesday 10 September

We conversed on our intent and actions in the world:

  •  Taking steps, showing courage, speaking truth to power

  • Challenging ourselves to be more ambitious

  • Our stance in our over-provided ‘first’ world (‘less’)

  • Being accountable to our fellow human beings and other species on the planet

  • Noticing that many who are much worse off than us are living wise lives

  • The danger of elitism

  • The importance of context and education

  • Much that is challenging – and also grounds for optimism and momentum, for instance in the growing move from shareholder to stakeholder, the growing attention to responsible business, the accentuating importance of organisational and individual purpose

We noticed that, without collaboration, our individual and organisational efforts were constrained. We talked about listening, about truly understanding the needs of others, about common ground, about alignment. We talked about the importance of place, community, dialogue across diversity, common ground again.

And we explored our inner world, bringing our deep intent into being and action in the world:

  • Our deep, profound inner resources

  • Listening, attending, reflecting, digesting, embedding, choosing what to enact

  • Our unconscious self, moving into consciousness

  • The ‘prick’ of conscience, noticing what is right (do the words ‘ethics’ and ‘moral’ matter?)

  • Some of the quotes that Jane brought to our attention (much more in her article):

    • Conscience is ‘the pearl of great price; it is both the instrument and the supreme realisation of visionary seeing….With the awakening of this eye, you no longer see Wisdom; you are Wisdom’ (Bourgueault)

    • ‘We are not treating the moral dimensions with the same respect we are treating the other Q’s (intelligences). It is really as simple as that’ (Jawad and Kakabadse)

    • Shwartz and Sharpe – psychological research has tended to focus on ‘moral skill’ (insight, empathy, perspective) rather than ‘moral will’ (commitment to the wider good) 

And Ali’s reading of part of Ben Okri’s wonderful poem, Mental Fight (title taken from William Blake):

“You can’t remake the world
Without remaking yourself.
Each new era begins within.
It is an inward event,
With unsuspected possibilities
For inner liberation.
We could use it to turn on
Our inward lights.”
“If – as a consequence of our work together and in league with other likeminded groups across the world - we, the human race:
·         Live in liberty, with truth, freedom of expression and justice at the core of our existence
·         Place the health and longevity of planet earth and all who live on it at the forefront of our attention
·         Delight ourselves and each other with our joy, humour, optimism and sense of fun
·         Live in harmony and compassion, embracing difference in a spirit of empathy, kindness, tolerance and love
·         Explore and deepen our wisdom, self-knowledge and creativity through vibrant dialogue, learning, science and art
·         Move forward every day with a deep sense of collective endeavour, courage, vigour and vitality to improve the lives of all on the planet…..

………How would that be?’”

Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Farida Hassanali

Yesterday, George interviewed Farida Hassanali, Chartered and Certified Financial Planner, and fellow of CISI. CISI is a global organization, formerly the Institute of Financial Planning that provides the Certified Financial Planning designation in the UK.

At the link below, please listen to Farida and George’s conversation about one of the first Golden Civilization Conversations in the UK at an event sponsored by CISI. They discuss the importance of modeling life planning ourselves and the introspectiveness required to achieve this, inner and outer peace, impact investing, and ways to help move toward A Golden Civilization within a generation.

Farida is a financial planner and investment analyst at Jarrovian Wealth with 10 years of experience in the financial planning profession. Farida has previously worked at EQ Investors and UBS Wealth Management. Farida serves in a voluntary role as Chair of the Paraplanner Interest Group and is a member of the Professional Forum at the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments (CISI). Farida’s qualifications include Chartered and Certified Financial PlannerTM, Investment Management Certificate and Society of Trust and Estate Planning (STEP) Certificate for Financial Planning. She is also a Fellow of both the Personal Finance Society (PFS) and CISI.

You can read more about Farida here: https://www.jarrovianwealth.com/meet-the-team/

Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Cristina Livadary

This week, George was joined by Cristina Livadary, Registered Life Planner and global citizen from Mana Financial Life Design, for a discussion about A Golden Civilization and the Map of Mindfulness. Cristina helped to cohost a Golden Civilization Conversation before the book even launched.

Cristina starts the conversation by reminiscing about own life-changing experience learning about life planning while working in a strong product environment. Taking steps to change her own life very quickly after attending a 5 Day EVOKE® training, Cristina brings her experience of living her life plan to her conversation with George about life planning civilization. They discuss Plato’s ideal of a civilization based on prosperity with moderation, the wealth gap, a guaranteed basic income, the differences of conversations in California for example, in comparison to places where democracy and freedom are not as available, and Graham Hancock’s America Before.

Cristina is CEO and Co-founder of Mana Financial Life Design, and a Certified Financial Planner® and Registered Life Planner®. Formerly, she led sales and consulting efforts as a Regional Director for Russell Investments, working for the Advisor and Intermediary Services division in both Southern California and Hawaiian markets. Cristina has consulted for and worked with over 10,000 financial advisors. Following her own life plan, Cristina co-founded Mana with the intention to build deep client relationships, to change attitudes towards spending, and to democratize financial advice. It is her mission as a financial planner to do everything in her power to positively impact the lives of her clients.

You can read more about Cristina here: https://www.manafld.com/who-is-mana

Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Michael Coppes

George interviews Michael Coppes, who will be organizing a number of Golden Civilization Conversations in Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, which George will co-lead when he visits in January.

Listen to their conversation about a Golden Civilization Conversation that Mike and his wife led with their friends, colleagues, and family; the upcoming Conversations that will be occurring in Hawaii; how Mike has been working on applying Life Planning to his philanthropic work; and George recounts his experiences from Conversations in Mumbai, Tokyo and Singapore.

Mike is the Director of the Office of Estate and Gift Planning at the University of Hawai‘i Foundation, where he provides estate and gift planning counsel to the UH ‘ohana and friends on tax-smart strategies for philanthropic support of the University. He is a licensed attorney, retired from private practice in 2008 after 30 years of practice focused on wills, trusts, estate administration, general probate law, and advising non-profits on charitable gift planning. Mike's charitable gift planning expertise encompasses charitable bequests, charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts, business and real estate planning, and charitable gift annuities. Mike was also certified by the Indiana Supreme Court as a civil law mediator, and is a former Master Commissioner of the Marion County (Indiana) Superior Court, Probate Division.

You can read more about Mike here: https://www.uhfoundation.org/about/departments/estate_and_gift_planning/coppes

Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Spencer Sherman

George hosts Spencer Sherman, Registered Life Planner® and Kinder Institute trainer, for his most recent Facebook Live interview.

Give this video a quick listen to hear their profound conversation about the potential that the Golden Civilization Conversations have to change the world. Spencer opens the conversation speaking about the ways in which the life planning movement has impacted him and his inspiration to apply a philanthropy and investment lens to taxes as a way to implement education reform. Spencer shares a personal story about a transformative difficult money conversation and the way that it has impacted his life, suggesting that perhaps one of the best ways to move forward toward A Golden Civilization is to have those difficult conversations between people who believe differently on topics, even citing a website, All Sides.

Spencer is a certified financial planner, who was named one of the top wealth advisors in the US, is cofounder of Abacus Wealth Partners. He is a workshop leader, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of The Cure for Money Madness. Spencer has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and in The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. He is the co-creator of the Financial Intimacy workshops and practiced meditation since 1980.

You can read more about Spencer here: https://abacuswealth.com/team/spencer-sherman/

Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Tina Weeks

This week, George interviews Tina Weeks, Registered Life Planner®, host of Golden Civilization Conversations, and thought leader across the UK.

Listen to their conversation below to hear about the Golden Civilization Conversation that she and George co-hosted in the UK for colleagues, friends, and families. They discuss themes of freedom, privilege, prejudice, fear, and life planning.

Tina has been a financial adviser since 1996 and specializes in Financial Life Planning. She advises her clients on pensions, investments, insurance, estate planning and every other aspect of their financial planning. In addition, Tina will help clients get a clearer understanding of their relationship with money and teach them tools to better manage their finances on a day to day basis. She is also known for explaining complex financial and tax concepts in a simple way. She works predominantly with professional families that need investment advice, asset protection ongoing coaching. She also works heavily with small business owners who need advice and guidance for both their business and personal situations.

You can read more about Tina here: http://www.serenityfp.com/team-member/tina-weeks/

Seeking a Golden Civilization - by Andy Coote

On the 1st of July this year we welcomed George Kinder to the Greenbank Hotel in Falmouth for a Golden Civilization conversation. This event was made possible by Jeremy Squibb of Serenity FP, a student of George and a follower of his Life Planning approach.

Unlike our approach to Life Conversations, which as I explained last week is agenda free, George has an Agenda for his conversations. He is asking groups to explore what, to them, a Golden Civilization might look like, what obstacles exist to achieving that and what we, individually and as a group, can do to move in that direction.

After framing the conversation, George moved on to asking about our vision for that Civilization. What actions, behaviours, values and emotions might drive that. We soon had a flip chart full of those visions and elements of vision. 

George switched our focus to the obstacles that we foresaw to moving in the direction of the vision. Obstacles can be large, complex to resolve and long term, small, simple to fix and short term and all shapes and sizes between. Knowing what the obstacle is, allows thinking and planning to overcome it. For the small obstacles, that may be a personal change process. For more complex problems, there may need to be an active movement, with others cooperating to ensure that change is being facilitated piece by piece.

That leads into actions. Small steps that we, as individuals or groups, can take that will move us towards the ideal outcome.  The smallest changes can make a big difference. Larger changes will consist of many smaller steps. With actions (what could be done) come committments (what WILL be done, by who and by when).

The process that LifeMOT undertook to continue with Serenity and with support from George and his organisation is to develop themes and begin the process of change. To do that, we will follow the vision, barriers, action model at some future Life Conversations around themes from the July 1st conversation. 

An initial review suggests we can look at macro issues such as peace, understanding, equality and sustainability and group and personal issues such as communication, openness, transparency and compassion. We’ll have the flip charts from the original session with us on Wednesday afternoon (and images are in the header, above) plus additional paper for notes, doodles and insights. We'll first decide our starting point and then move with the group dynamic. The only ground rule will be to be positive and progressive in our contributions.

If you want to change the world, if you want to change your community, if you want to change you, the first step is to define where you are going and what your passion may be.

Come and join us and take steps in a positive direction.

-Andy Coote

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Client Appreciation: Life Planning Clients Look at Civilization

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When Indresh Malik heard that George Kinder would be visiting Mumbai, he jumped at the chance to do whatever he could to make George’s time in the city easy. After all, it’s not every day that he gets to spend time with his mentor, who lives on the other side of the world.

Indresh attended a keynote speech that George gave at the 4th India Wealth Management Conference hosted by the CFA Society India. He agreed to speak on two panels about his experience using George Kinder’s Life Planning process with clients.

Thinking about the clients, Indresh suggested that George meet the group of accomplished professionals, who he has led through Life Planning process. George thought this was a great idea and offered to make the experience even more impactful for Indresh and his clients by facilitating a Golden Civilization Conversation with them.

The dozen leaders, entrepreneurs, and artists gathered in a boardroom at the Taj Lands End, Mumbai and met the “Father of Life Planning,” who led them through the Life Planning process again but this time thinking about civilization. Indresh’s wife Nidhi captured the group’s vision on the whiteboard along with perceived obstacles to the vision and action steps that should be taken. The group finished with each making personal commitments for how they would affect civilization in a positive way immediately.

Indresh committed to keeping the conversation going with his clients. For a impromptu client appreciation event, there is much to appreciate in this new group of conversation leaders.

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Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Steve Conley

On an record-breakingly hot afternoon in Yorkshire, Steve Conley joins George for a conversation about life planning and A Golden Civilization.

In this conversation, George and Steve talk about life planning and the EVOKE® process as it applies to civilization, igniting a passion that gives people the vigor required to make a difference in their life and civilization. The dialogue that unfolds covers topics from impact investing and transparency to wisdom and balance.

Steve is an award-winning financial services professional for over 30 years, who started in the large banking world, and is now a Registered Life Planner®. He offers fee-only financial planning on-line direct, without financial intermediation. His specialties include life planning, lifetime cashflow forecasting, retirement planning, tax planning, estate planning, business planning, and asset recovery. He authored Your Money or Your Life: Unmask the highway robbers – enjoy wealth in every area of your life. Steve is also CEO of Asset Recovery Network UK Limited, helping foreign banks recover stolen assets and assets in breach of contract held in the UK. And, Executive Director at The Fraud Team where I help the UK public recover stolen assets. He is former head of investments at HSBC, RBS Group and Santander and former Chair of the BBA Bancassurance Steering Group.

You can read more about George here: https://www.academyoflifeplanning.com/about-us/

Connecting and Moving Towards a Curriculum for Wisdom, 6-96!

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Here is what I most recall  from our lovely, stimulating and supportive conversation on 11 July as we shared and developed perspectives on all we were doing in the world to support improvement in our civilisation, and generated ideas on a curriculum for wisdom, 6-96:

  • Imagination:

    • Envisioning what could be- individually, collectively

    • Our torch

    • Guided and stimulated by what could be

  • Generosity of spirit:

    • ‘Warm showers’ – ‘Share a couch’

    • Giving without obligation – reciprocity – it stands out

    • Compassion, love, kindness – treat neighbours as self

  • Truth to power:

    • Antisemitism

    • Our own integrity

    • Showing up, knowing what we stand for, standing for truth

  • Stepping into engagement, agency and dialogue:

    • Dealing with aggression and judgment, ‘hail buffeting the window’, ‘putting on a Gor-tex coat to stand in the hail’

    • Stance and skill of inquiry – understanding, empathy, common ground

    • Contrast with ‘black and white’

  • Grounding ourselves, steadfastness, peace and joy:

    • Nature, gardens

    • ‘Il faut cultiver notre jardin’ (Voltaire)

    • Holding steadfast within the cacophony of ephemeral inner thoughts and voices

    • Connecting with wider consciousness, love, ‘flow’

    • Playfulness

  • Knowing ourselves, our essence, our sense of purpose

    • Meditation

    • Contemplation

    • Personal inquiry

And on the back of Lorraine’s closing comment – ‘I am not sure where else I would have this type of conversation’ – I conclude by repeating some gorgeous words that Jane sent from Parker Palmer’s ‘A Hidden Wholeness’ – about community, ‘a circle of trust’:

‘Like a wild animal, the soul is tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy and self-sufficient: it knows how to survive in hard places…..Yet despite its toughness the soul is also shy….It seeks safety in the dense underbrush, especially when other people are around (and), unfortunately, community in our culture too often means a group of people who go crashing through the woods together, scaring the soul away…. Under these conditions the intellect, emotions, will and ego may emerge, but not the soul: we scare off the soulful things, like respectful relationships, goodwill and hope. A circle of trust is a group of people who know how to sit quietly ‘in the woods’ with each other and wait for the shy soul to grow up.  The relationships in such a group are not pushy but patient; they are not confrontational but compassionate; they are filled not with expectations and demands but with abiding faith in the reality of the inner teacher and in each person’s capacity to learn from it.  The poet Rumi captures the essence of this way of being together:  ‘A circle of lovely, quiet people/becomes the ring on my finger’.

Go well all! Many thanks again and more on next steps soon.

Julian xxx

Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and George Barbov

George Kinder met George Barbov at a Life Planning Talk and Golden Civilization Conversation at Coventry University in England, where Professor Lien Luu has been leading the world’s Universities in Life Planning and A Golden Civilization.

Listen to their reflection of the Golden Civilization Conversation that occurred at Coventry University and the process the group went through when they formed their collective vision for a Golden Civilization. George speaks about his homeland of Bulgaria and his own love of traveling, and how it has led him to realize that no matter people’s background and environment, most people share the same view for A Golden Civilization and would be willing to spread the world.

George has a background in both analytical and commercial professional roles and just graduated from Coventry University with a first class honors degree in Finance and Investment. Prior returning to school, George was a Credit Consultant in the Commercial Banking industry at UniCredit Group and a Financial Analyst at Volvo Financial Services. His specialties include financial regulation, investments, portfolio management, and taxation.

You can read more about George here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-barbov/?originalSubdomain=uk

Golden Civilization Conversation: George Kinder and Jesse Giordano

After a surprise fire drill, Jesse joins George his latest discussion about life planning and A Golden Civilization.

Listen to this video to hear Jesse speak about his personal journey to financial life planning and his choice to bring his clients, colleagues, friends, and family together for a Golden Civilization Conversation. They discuss being vulnerable, helping others identify their personal goals, building trust, and inspiring change in others.

Jesse formed Opal Wealth Advisors with Lee Korn and Joe Filosa in order to make a meaningful difference in clients’ lives with a visionary process of financial planning and investment management. Prior to Opal, he co-founded the 360 Group inside Morgan Stanley, working as a Financial Advisor and Family Wealth Director. Jesse began his career at Merrill Lynch. He was recognized as a 2019 Best-In-State Wealth Advisor by Forbes, a list honoring top advisors across the country. Jesse sits on the Board of Trustees for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). As a blood cancer survivor, LLS is a personal mission and he is very active with them. He’s also on the board of advisors for Mercy College MBA program. In addition, Jesse volunteers his high-level training skills as a speaker helping college students learn about financial literacy and leadership.

You can read more about Jesse here: https://opalwealthadvisors.com/team/jesse-giordano-cfp/