[nFBMI-Talk] The Blind Working In Securities: Big News From Colleagues In My Firm

[Kane Brolin]

Greetings.

I find the following rather remarkable--and it involves the place
where I make my living.  So I decided to share this.

As some of you know, I am connected professionally with a
broker/dealer in the securities and financial planning business whose
name is the Commonwealth Financial Network.  Back in 2015 while
attending our National Conference in Washington, DC, I found out that
one of my Massachusetts-based colleagues is on the board of directors
of the Perkins School for the Blind.  So I have kept in touch with
this guy periodically ever since.  Late last year, Scott wrote to me
and said he is attempting to prepare a young, blind man to be an
understudy in his own business.  Were there materials in Braille or
another accessible format that this man could use to study for
required licensing exams?  I said that, based on my own experience,
nothing of this kind exists, because I always had to rely on human
reader/recorders both to do the studying and to take these exams.  At
the same time, though, I pointed to one or two possible resources and
offered that I would do anything I could to help improve industry-wide
accommodations in this area, but that I would need some help from
folks on the inside to get it done.

Last night, I received the note from my friend which at the top of the
message string I reproduce below.  The man named Wayne Bloom whom he
references in this message is a co-founder of Commonwealth, and he
currently serves as CEO.  And Mr. Bloom personally has gotten behind
this initiative, which apparently will result in Kaplan creating study
materials for some of these Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
exams in Braille.

The remarkable thing is, Commonwealth serves 1,900 advisors and
perhaps millions of individual clients nationwide.  I am not exactly a
prominent player in this company's affairs, nor am I a particularly
high producer or located in a highly populated part of the country.  I
am practically the only presence Commonwealth has in Indiana, outside
of maybe Indianapolis.  But this company has not only given me an
opportunity to represent them as a blind person; they are stepping
out, doing research into accessibility, and standing up for a truly
diverse workforce and making it easier for the blind to work in the
securities industry as a whole even when it does not produce immediate
revenue for them.

Yes, I have suggested Commonwealth applies to take part corporately in
this summer's NFB Job Fair, a part of National Convention in Orlando
the first week of July.

-________________________________
From: Scott Schutte
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2018 5:01 PM
To: Kane Brolin <kane.k.brolin at brolinwealth.com>
Cc: Christina De Sario <CDeSario at COMMONWEALTH.COM>; Wayne Bloom
<waynebloom at commonwealth.com>
Subject: RE: Study Materials request

Kane:

I hope you are well.

Well, I think we may have made history today for the blind and
visually impaired individuals. I'm cc'ing Christina in the
Commonwealth Licensing Department and Wayne Bloom as they played a
role.

I was able to develop a contact at Kaplan, who is working on turning
their financial study material, such as the Series 6 & 7 study guides
into braille. I believe they will be utilizing the Braille Press in
Boston to produce the materials in the future. They are also working
with testing centers to help make the process easier and more
accommodative when taking the tests for Blind and V.I. As you
mentioned in the email below the hurdles should be minimized soon. In
fact, I ordered a Series 6 book for my teenaged son today! He's
expressed interest in our field. I've also spoken with Wayne Bloom,
who said, barring any FINRA rules or hurdles, would be willing to
sponsor him in the Series 6 exam, assuming he's an employee with me.
So, I believe this is the first ever financial exam study material in
braille and hopefully the testing center will be easier for him than
in the past.

Also, Kate Creagh (the head of HR at Commonwealth) attended a ½ day
workshop with me in Boston last year to understand the accommodative
technology for future employees who are blind and visually impaired.
She was blown away by all the new technology and resources available
to blind and V.I. folks in the financial industry. I'm continuing to
work with Perkin's School for the Blind and our board helped find jobs
for 24 blind college students last year. I'm hoping that with the new
study material and easier exam work flow, will make it easier to
employ more blind and VI folks in the financial industry in the very
near future.

I just wanted to let you know as we spoke about this a few years ago
at the Commonwealth National Conference. I look forward to catching up
with you in TX this year.

Regards,

Scott


G. Scott Schutte, AIF®
Wealth Management Director
[scott sig]

Newton | Hingham

2344 Washington Street 2nd Floor
Newton Lower Falls, MA  02462
P: (617) 581.6100 F: (617) 231.0664

Website<http://www.lightshipwealth.com/> |
Map<https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lightship+Wealth+Strategies,+Inc./@42.3252441,-71.2594708,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e383c6e887fe17:0xd636147d5e805935!8m2!3d42.3252441!4d-71.2572821>
| Email<mailto:scott at lightshipwealth.com> |
Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/LightshipWealthStrategies/?rf=1465094737142305>
| LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-schutte-72a3a046>

[cid:image002.png at 01D3C12C.0F4E0710]

Securities and advisory services offered through Commonwealth
Financial Network®, member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment
Adviser.
Fixed insurance products and services offered through CES Insurance Agency

-________________________________
From: Kane Brolin
Sent: Tuesday, March 6, 2018 2:50 PM
To: Scott Schutte <scott at lightshipwealth.com<mailto:scott at lightshipwealth.com>>
Cc: Christina De Sario
<CDeSario at COMMONWEALTH.COM<mailto:CDeSario at COMMONWEALTH.COM>>
Subject: RE: Study Materials request

Scott and Christina:

Thank you so much for reaching out.  I sometimes feel rather isolated
from other folks at CFN between National Conferences; but of course,
Scott, I remember you and your work with the Perkins School.  Kudos to
you for hiring and doing everything you can to support an employee in
your practice who lives with visual impairment.

Scott, I think I know of a way to solve the problem of inaccessible
Series testing, but so far no one has listened to me or followed up
with me.  Perhaps you through your unique points of contact there in
the East could help out in this respect.  Unfortunately, I have no
ready answer for you relative to any plug-and-play solution already in
existence to make FINRA Series study materials accessible.  I have
voiced concerns about this in the past, but have received no answer
from anybody on that.  I did just today reach out to a lady named
Monica Victorino at Wells Fargo.  Monica has participated actively on
behalf of her company to help recruit blind employees, and I am
somewhat familiar with her through the side work I do as a member of
the Employment Committee in the National Federation of the Blind.  So
far she has not responded in any way, but I just sent my introductory
query to her about an hour ago.

My own experience with the Series 7 and Series 66 came clear back in
the year 2000.  There were 0 accessible study materials, even in
audible form, available in Y2K when I had to pass those exams.  I had
to work with fellow employees at American Express Financial Advisors
who were preparing at the same time and who would read practice
questions to me orally from the study CDs.  My mother-in-law
tape-recorded much of the material in the book we used as source
material.  And the exam itself, I took with the aid of a human
reader/recorder who was hired by Prometric to perform those functions.
This is still how securities exams are administered, and it was even
how I had to take the CFP Board exam back in 2005.

Just so you know, this issue has been on my mind for years, and I
think I know of a company that has the wherewithal to produce
accessible exam and exam prep material for this industry, if FINRA
were forward-looking enough to contract with them to do this.   I sent
a message to Derek Anderson, who at least then served as our director
of compliance at Commonwealth, back in 2016.  In early July, I
attended the 2016 National Convention of the National Federation of
the Blind<https://nfb.org/>
   in Orlando, Florida.  While there, I spoke with a gentleman who
represents a textbook publishing company known as
VitalSource<https://get.vitalsource.com/accessibility>.  What sets
this company apart is that they cut deals with specific publishers to
produce educational materials that are in formats accessible to those
persons who have print disabilities.  Among other things, VitalSource
has an application called
Bookshelf<https://support.vitalsource.com/hc/en-us>, which makes this
content usable on a variety of different platforms, including Android
and iOs.



When speaking with that individual at Convention, I flashed back to my
own predicament back in 2000 when I was studying for Series 7 and
Series 66 licenses, recalling what a struggle it was as a totally
blind person not having any access to either the exams themselves or
the study materials related to them, except with the help of a hired
human reader.  I asked Derek for a contact I could make at FINRA to
open the doors of communication about this, since it was and still is
my goal to open up opportunity for more persons who have print
disabilities to work in financial services, and I contend that making
FINRA-approved textbooks, practice examinations, and real licensing
examinations accessible to us would be quite helpful in this regard.
He never responded to my query, so I still know no one at FINRA to
whom I could refer a VitalSource account rep.



So, Scott and Christina,  if you or any colleagues in our Compliance
area at Waltham or San Diego could deliver any guidance to help me
make appropriate contacts, I would greatly appreciate that.  I would
take the ball and run with it.



Let's keep talking about this.


Kind regards,

-Kane

________________________________
Kane Brolin, CFP® ChSNC® MBA | Registered Representative
CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER(tm) Practitioner
CHARTERED SPECIAL NEEDS CONSULTANT(tm)
113 Lincolnway West, Ste. 100
Mishawaka,  IN  46544
574-254-7180 | 574-400-0964 (fax)

Kane.K.Brolin at brolinwealth.com<mailto:Kane.K.Brolin at brolinwealth.com>
www.brolinwealth.com<http://www.brolinwealth.com/>

Securities and Advisory Services offered through Commonwealth
Financial Network, Member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Advisor.

Fixed Insurance products and services offered by Brolin Wealth
Management or CES Insurance Agency.

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-________________________________
From: Christina De Sario [mailto:CDeSario at COMMONWEALTH.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2018 11:10 AM
To: Kane Brolin
<kane.k.brolin at brolinwealth.com<mailto:kane.k.brolin at brolinwealth.com>>
Subject: Study Materials request

Hi Kane,

I hope this email finds you well!

I was speaking with one of our advisors Scott Schutte who says he's
spoken with you at conferences and requested that I reach out to you.
He let me know that he has an employee who is studying to take his S6
who is vision impaired and reads Braille, and he was wondering if you
would have any advice as to where he would be able to get study
materials. I've reached out to some of our vendors and I'm still
waiting to hear back, but I thought I should reach out to you as well.

If you have any recommendations or advice for Scott, his email is
scott at lightshipwealth.com<mailto:scott at lightshipwealth.com> and his
office phone number is 617-581-6100. I would also like to know if
you've got any ideas, in case a similar situation were to arise in the
future.

Thank you for your help!

Best,

Christina De Sario
Licensing Specialist
800.251.0080 x7255 | 781.398.9953 fax |
CDeSario at commonwealth.com<mailto:CDeSario at commonwealth.com>

Commonwealth Financial Network®
29 Sawyer Road, Waltham, MA 02453-3483 |
www.commonwealth.com<http://www.commonwealth.com/>

This e-mail and any attachments are intended only for the addressee.
If you are not the intended recipient, please permanently delete this
message immediately and do not use, copy, distribute or forward any
part of this message, as it may contain proprietary, confidential, or
privileged information. Also, please let me know of the error by
return e-mail. Thank you.

Commonwealth Financial Network® does not provide legal or tax advice.