Birnbaum Financial Group

Shmueli’s Upsherin

A recent past Sunday, I flew to Atlanta to spend the day with my son, and his family, since this was the day that their youngest son, their #5 son, and their #7 child, had his Upsherin. Until he is the age of 3, his parents let his hair grow uncut. He then has it clipped in an ad hoc ceremony, where Rabbis, relatives, and friends cut locks from what was his quite beautiful head of very dark hair. A professional barber comes in and makes order out of chaos and random cuts.

Light food is served, and from this point on, he begins studying his letters. He begins the road to reading and literacy. On this day he begins being taught the alphabet.

Years ago, my mother gave me a picture of me before the Upsherin picture. Mom, who I never perceived as cruel, put them in curlers, to make my hair look more attractive. Being around three, I did not realize what was happening and probably didn’t care.

The idea of committing oneself to being literate at early age fosters into a family that books, studying and reading are important. It is not surprising that as you mature you keep that thirst for knowledge throughout your whole life. That I am a lifelong learner is cultural and expected. I am not surprised at all by this trajectory since we are after all the People of the Book!

Chanukah 2025 – Family and Good Food

A Celebration of the Victory of Forces of Light over Darkness

Chanukah is a very popular Jewish holiday since it commemorates how the few were able to overcome the many and reaffirm their right to practice their faith. An event that took place in Israel, about 200 years before Jesus walked, and 800 years before Mohamed was conquering the tribes in Saudi Arabia is still celebrated for these 2,300 years with the lighting of candelabras in every Jewish home, by every participant in the home.

Men, women, and children each light candles, with each night another candle being added, so that the house is bathed in a crescendo of candlelight, growing each night by one candle in each candelabra. Putting them in the windows, by the doors, outside the home (which is the custom in Israel), the goal is to share the glow with the world.

A message that even in dark times, there is hope, is relevant for any time period. Persecuting a people due to their faith, as the Greeks did to the Jews, ended badly for the oppressor when good people banded together to stand up to the tyranny. The enemy seemed overwhelming, they seemed to be everywhere, and even among the Jews there were Hellenists who supported the Greek oppressors. This scenario does feel familiar!

In the small town of Modin, which today is a thriving city in central Israel, a father, Mattathias, and his 5 sons, Jochanan, Simeon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah stood up to the tyrant Antiochus when it seemed absurd to do so. The rebellion which took 26 years, culminated in the removal of the Greek rule of Israel, and the reestablishment of the Jewish Commonwealth.

Our wish for all is that we remember that all is possible. Good will triumph over evil with G-d’s help, and that we need the unflagging determination of well-intentioned, committed participants to succeed. With this formula, we will continue to celebrate such victories in the future!

Top of the Table – Phoenix, AZ 2025
Or
Waymo Gone Slowmo

There are about 4,000 advisors worldwide who are members of the MDRT Top of the Table (TOT), worldwide. The whole organization has about 95,000 members. Of the TOT members, about 600 were present in Phoenix this past week. I attended this conference, and it was inspiring and informative as they all are.

The goal was to network, be exposed to leading edge ideas, and thinkers, and to improve their practice management and technical skills.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) was highlighted by several speakers, and sort of set the stage for my Waymo adventure. Phoenix, being one of the few cities that permit Waymo (which is a driverless car) gave me an opportunity for an adventure. I figured how much damage can a driverless car do to me on going back to the airport early Sunday morning.

At 3 AM, I requested my Waymo, not realizing that the Phoenician did not want Waymos on their property, and that the car would wait for me at a spot off the property. When the car arrived, it notified me that it arrived at the location, but it was nowhere to be found. I texted the car, and it told me that I have five minutes to get to the boarding area. The application let me know also that I was 8 minutes from the car! As I tried to race the car, I received notice that the Waymo had left, and that I was being charged for order. This was frustrating, since at that point, I needed to take an Uber to get to the airport.

I guess Artificial Intelligence is a pale comparison to Intelligence. I would have designed the software, where the car would note that I am 8 minutes away, and given me the option to have it wait longer, even for an additional charge. A human as a driver would respond: “No problem, I will wait”.

I tried to get an agent, but one could not be raised. This was not a satisfactory experience, but I am committed to giving it a chance again when the environment would not be so challenging. Waymo may need a bit Way more to go to be more satisfactory and useful.

Good Vibrations
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Four Summer Interns Who Are First Cousins

This summer we had 4 interns work in the practice. 2 were from Chicago, and 2 were from Monsey, NY which is about 30 miles north of New York City. Projects were arranged for them that were back burner for our office but needed to be done at some time.

One project was calling on clients to make sure that their beneficiaries were correct and that they had current wills. What triggered this campaign was a client whose husband allegedly took care of the finances. When he suddenly got sick and died, he had not designated a beneficiary on a 403(b) he had with an old school he had worked with years ago.

We never confirmed the beneficiaries to be correct because we thought the other carrier had done so. The account went into probate when it really didn’t need to. The interns started this campaign to contact our client base and encourage them to review them now. I now confirm all beneficiaries on all contracts to make sure that they are correct for their current circumstances not to have this oversight of the client repeat itself.

We went paperless in 2018. Since the practice started in 1991, a total of 27 years of files needed to be digitized. Our interns were going to files, scanning parts of them into cloud storage, and shredding what remained of the files.

Our last project was calling clients who we had not reviewed their insurance products in a while. The 2 that were making the calls to such clients had a contest to ascertain who could get the most review appointments in a set time period. They had fun and enjoyed themselves.

These four interns were my grandchildren, 2 each from 2 different families. Their ages were 18 to 21 so that these girl cousins had a great deal in common and made the summer go quickly. A good time was had by all, and work was done as well. Their bonding during their stay at the company was a side benefit which seemed like a bonus to everybody.