Mark Youngs and Merrill Lynch after 9/11
October 2004
Helping the Families of Heroes
IN THE THREE YEARS SINCE THE TERRORIST attacks of September 11, 2001, the surviving wives and children of firefighters who died in the collapse of the Twin Towers have had to deal with agonizing trauma and grief. They've also had to deal with sudden financial crises as well as torrents of money pouring in from governmental agencies and the public.
To help the 9/11 families, the New York City Fire Department worked with the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) to develop a program called "Time to Take Control of Your Finances." Creating the content and teaching the monthly seminars since early 2002 -- all at their own expense and without any intention of profiting from the effort -- have been three Merrill Lynch brokers: Mark Youngs, 46; Rick Cullen, 56; and Bill Shields, 47.
How did these three Merrill brokers based in Annapolis, Md., come to help the families of New York's Bravest? Through a client connection.
One of Youngs' clients is Ron Siarnicki, executive director of the NFFF, which is headquartered in Emmitsburg, Md. Congress created the non-profit organization in 1992 to honor firefighters killed in the line of duty and to assist their families in re-building their lives.
"Ron attended a workshop that I ran as a fundraiser for a local charity, and then he asked me to do an educational program for a charity for underprivileged kids in Prince George's County," says Youngs, who currently teaches a course on personal finance at a community college in Annapolis. "All three of us have been working with colleges in the area to develop programs. The financial education in our school system is very poor. That's why we've been doing these workshops right along."
At the time Siarnicki involved the Merrill trio, the 9/11 widows were facing traumas similar to other women who have lost their spouses abruptly -- only more so.
"There was an existing group of firefighter widows, so from that standpoint they had more support than other widows, but they were under an awful lot of scrutiny as well. Everyone around them was aware of their situation," Youngs says.
The public was also aware of the money the 9/11 widows were receiving, and that sometimes made for problems with neighbors and family asking the widows to help them out financially. "We've even had stories of kids hitting up other kids," Youngs says.
Additionally, there were "monies that had been designated directly for the children, and that's unusual," says Bill Shields. "Some of the children were newborns or two-year-olds, and their mothers were precluded from establishing trusts. That money has gone into custodial accounts, but at 18, it's theirs. It's a unique problem that they'll have to address down the road: How to protect the children from using all of this money very quickly and losing their motivation to be productive citizens."
Rick Cullen says that one of the widows' biggest concerns is the effect of the money on their children.
Because of these concerns, the New York City Firefighters' financial counseling program is two-pronged. In addition to the program for widows, it includes a series of seminars for "young teens, starting at age 10 or 11, and up to 17," says Malachy Corrigan, the director of the FDNY's counseling service unit. So far, children from 23 families have participated in the teen program, while 65 families have taken part in the "Take Control" program, he says.
"Take Control was created by the Merrill Lynch brokers and given to us by the Fallen Firefighters Foundation," Corrigan says. "The brokers get nothing out of this financially; the seminars are purely informational. That's what they promised, and that's what they continue to do."
Siarnicki says the widows needed help going through the "huge amount of paperwork" needed to collect their benefits from different sources.
"Mark and his group did a great deal of research into the specific benefits provided by the FDNY pension plan and the City and State of New York and by other groups. That's why the program was so well-accepted; it was specifically designed to their situation," he says.
"Often," adds Corrigan, "these are young women who don't necessarily have a lot of experience in dealing with this kind of money. They have the grief and loss and the responsibility of being a sole parent, and then they're being accosted."
The first bit of counseling the brokers offered was to take a step back and a deep breath.
"They didn't have to rush out and do something with their money right away," Youngs says. "They had well-meaning family members telling them to do this or do that. And these widows were getting cold-called by every investment advisor, insurance agent, and banker out there. They were totally inundated."
Shields says the group taught the widows the basics of compounding and estate planning, so that their assets were titled properly for transition to the next generation.
The program developed by the brokers has been so successful that it is expected to be rolled out nationally to other firefighter widows sometime over the next year. Youngs has helped Siarnicki write a proposal for funding from the Merrill Lynch Foundation, which is still pending as of this writing.
"A lot of the lessons we're learning up there in New York will be translated into the nationwide program, to allow for better counseling for families when it comes to money," Youngs says.
"What I like about the classes is what I like about Mark," says Siarnicki. "He takes his time in explaining the various aspects, and he shows true concern for the families in answering their questions and working them through the steps of the class," he says.
-- Rosalyn Retkwa
