Random Acts of Kindness

At a meeting in Washington D.C., Pete Muckley of Trust Company of America sat next to me at a dinner and described an idea of encouraging our financial advisors to create a “Pay It Forward” program with their clients. This idea immediately inspired me to suggest that we start with some of our top advisors by giving them each a sum of cash to offer people in need whom they encountered. The idea was to provide an opportunity for them to share the spirit of the holidays by helping someone in need.

We sent a $100 cash to each advisor to be used for a charitable act of kindness of their choosing. We then asked the advisors to share their stories with us. The hope was that this Pay It Forward idea would encourage our advisors to consider using the idea with their own clients in the future.

As several of the advisors that we chose are already financially successful, we were happy to find out that many of them added their own cash in addition to what we had given them to make it even more special and meaningful. As some of our folks were discussing how the results of their “Paying It Forward” with these little acts of charity and help was overwhelming, their emotions were palpable.

Some of our advisors described the emotions of the recipients as so powerful that there were no words they could find able to accurately describe the level of gratitude, joy and appreciation they felt for the gift. We have compiled some of the responses we received in this brochure. We hope you will enjoy reading them as much as we did and find them a source of inspiration.

Ultimately, we believe that this program will create an ongoing and ever-growing momentum for the betterment of all concerned. Many of our advisors have already decided that they are going to begin this program within their own families and businesses. Being able, in some small way, to directly impact the lives of everyday people who may be struggling is so gratifying, we may even create a desire to do more.