It’s a pleasure to welcome Sheryl O’Connor to In The Suite. Sheryl is a CEO and Founder of an exciting SaaS product called IncomeConductor® with 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. She’s an award-winner with an impressive list of accolades such as being listed as a 2020 inspiring fintech female in the founder division for NYC FinTech Women. She’s a Board Member for the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC), a senior member of Women in Finance Association/WIFA, and a Member, Women in Insurance and Financial Services/WIFS. Most of all, she’s a warm soul who has the rare gift of caring wholly, fully for everyone.
Sheryl has built large enterprise teams across global business and technology sectors as well as start-ups with her 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. She’s spent time at companies such as Mass Mutual as an Enterprise Project Consultant/IT Manager. Now she’s the CEO and Founder of a Software as a Service (SaaS) product called IncomeConductor®, a dreamchild that emerged to problem-solve issues not at the office but at her parent’s home.
When Sheryl’s dad developed neuropathy and dementia in his later years, it threw the family in a loop. Despite his full pension and medical benefits, it wasn’t enough. This darkness inspired Sheryl to create a guiding, helpful light for others. Her father passed away in 2014 and that same year IncomeConductor® was born.
Sheryl spearheaded the development of IncomeConductor®, a cloud-based, proprietary SaaS product with her Co-Founders Phil Lubinski and Tom O’Connor at WealthConductor. WC’s revolutionary retirement income platform, IncomeConductor uses a time segmented distribution strategy that allows financial advisors and financial advisory firms access to software to create a customized plan based on the income needs of the client.
“No two retirements at the same nor should they be. You should be able to pursue your own personal dreams,” Sheryl tells us in the podcast episode. IncomeConductor® allows you to create a completely personalized plan while still being able to interact with the advisor.
In this episode, you’ll find out how Sheryl finessed her skills in technology and finance in order to better serve and help humanity. For example, the IncomeConductor® system tracks how your investments are doing and sends out automated alerts to your advisor. Like many women, some of us are dealing with retirement planning and hoping it will help us lead to our best life. You won’t want to skip this exciting and necessary discussion.
There are so many components of retirement to worry about; Medicare, long-term care, estate planning, home planning. Sheryl is a lighthouse, guiding others to the shore with her knowledge. She shares insightful information on all things retirement, from why you should interview your financial advisor to differentiating commission vs. fee-based financial advisors.
“The older I get, the more I see how everything relates to each other,” Sheryl says.
Sheryl brings a unique wealth of experience to the discussion, specifically around women in retirement planning. Listen to Sheryl’s episode and utilize these three strategic concepts to help make wiser retirement decisions.
- Vet out your financial advisor. Do your due diligence on an advisor. You can start by going to their website and looking down under the disclosures section at the bottom of the homepage. Click the broker check and you can see all the registrations they have and if there are any disclosures in their history.
- Hone in on those communication skills. “Communication skills are extremely important,” Sheryl says. It’s not technical skills that allow you to succeed, it’s communication skills that allow you to articulate yourself in emails, on the phone, in Zoom calls. Communication is needed in nearly every field from engineering to fintech to education.
- Read and stay curious. Stay inspired to be a lifelong learner. You can learn lessons from books and other places of knowledge and then apply them to your own daily life to make it more successful. “Just open your mind up and be a lifelong learner, shut the TV off, get outside,” Sheryl says.
Show Notes:
Today’s episode of In The Suite with Sheryl O’Connor is all about retirement and finance. Sheryl comes with 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. She’s a CEO and Founder of a SaaS product called IncomeConductor®.
She has earned a notable list of accolades such as being listed as a 2020 inspiring fintech female in the founder division for NYC FinTech Women. She’s a Board Member for the Connecticut Technology Council (CTC), a senior member of Women in Finance Association/WIFA, and more.
Above all, Sheryl has an intense caring and kindness that you can pick up on right away. She cares for people, the world, not just family or clients. You can tell because she personally invites listeners to contact her with open arms with questions. You won’t want to skip this exciting and necessary discussion.
In this podcast episode, Sheryl shares utterly insightful information on all things retirement, from why you should interview your financial advisor to the reality of aging, retirement, medical costs in the 21st century.
She is an inspiration and we’ll leave you with this nugget from the podcast “Just open your mind up and be a lifelong learner, shut the TV off, get outside,” Sheryl says.
Join the conversation to hear about:
- How Sheryl got her start in retirement planning and financial services (06:40)
- Sheryl’s parents and the reality of aging, retirement, medical costs (11:10)
- The 401k generation and rising cost of health care (17:35)
- Commission vs. fee-based financial advisors (20:45)
- What is a dual registered advisor? (24:50)
- RICP and CFP (28:00)
- How to use IncomeConductor®: no two retirements at the same (28:50)
- Why you should interview your financial advisor (32:15)
- All about the 4% rule (34:40)
- Has retirement planning philosophy changed? (40:30)
- What it’s like for Sheryl to work with her son (43:40)
- Why communication is such an important skill to have (47:25)
- Instilling lifelong learning in your children and own life (51:40)
- Sheryl’s superpower and guiding principle (55:30)
Referenced Materials
- Sheryl O’Connor – LinkedIn
- IncomeConductor® – Website
- IncomeConductor® – Contact Page
- IncomeConductor® – Twitter
- 2020 Inspiring Fintech Females
- Insights on Using the 4% Withdrawal Rule From Its Creator- Bill Bengen
- The 3-Day Effect Book by Florence Williams – Amazon
