Federal Employees' Testimonials

testimonials

***** 5 Star review! I learned so much in his three day class!!! thank you Stephen!!!

I took a mid-career retirement planning course with Stephen and it was super helpful. It helped me fine tune my retirement plans and gave me tips that I could apply right away to my TSP, health benefits, and other insurances plans. I’d definitely recommend the class to others.

Completed the Introduction to Investing and Mid-Career Federal Employee Retirement Courses. Stephen is an incredible educator, speaker and professional. His knowledge of federal employee benefits, investing and financial planning is unparalleled and his witty delivery is both thought provoking and extremely effective. I understood this subject matter clearly for the first time under his training despite attending several similar trainings over the past 25 years. Two of the best courses that I have taken in my nearly 25+ year career and will look for others.

Hands down one of the best trainings I've had as a federal employee. Stephen's course, "Retirement for Early Career Federal Employees," was highly recommended to me by my colleagues, and it did not disappoint. Stephen is an energetic and fun instructor and made a normally mundane topic engaging. I have far better understanding of the federal benefits system than I did prior to the training, even having previously received the onboarding presentations when I federalized. I wholeheartedly recommend Stephen's services and courses to others, and I plan on taking his trainings again!

I had no idea what to expect from the course I took from Stephen, but it was everything I needed and more! Beyond being knowledgeable and engaging, he has a way of explaining complex information in a way that is both fun and useful. I truly appreciated his style of teaching and how he made such dense topics more accessible.

I just completed a 1 day course with Stephen which focused on retirement planning for early federal career professionals. Stephen was engaging from the first minute, and provided actionable information which I plan to use in the near future regarding my federal benefits and retirement planning.

First, I took your class in 2017 at DOE. You saved me THOUSANDS, but more importantly, you got my wife to listen. I listened to you back in March, did what you advised, gained 6 figures to date. THANKS Soooooo.... TSP is proving it has outlived its usefulness. Do you offer fund management accounts? If no, who do you recommend? Thanks again

Stephen is an energetic teacher that is extremely knowledgeable on the federal financial and retirement system. Uses a highly quantitative mathematical approach to put your money to work for you, but also recognizes and understands that every single person has different financial priorities. highly recommend

I recently attended a retirement class taught by Stephen. He took a dry, complex subject and turned it into three days of learning that was interesting, easy to understand, and incredibly helpful! As a federal civil servant, I highly recommend Stephen as a fantastic resource for financial planning & retirement questions! He understands all aspects of our benefits and is able to ask the "right" questions.

Mr. Zelcer's pre-retirement class opened my mind to myriad possibilities that could save me money and improve my financial position in retirement. Stephen has a comprehensive knowledge of the complicated interrelationships between the Federal retirement systems and Social Security, Medicare, health insurance options, and alternative financial investment instruments. I recommend Stephan's seminars for Federal employees for developing strategies that will enable them to make efficient financial decisions that will help them even before they retire and certainly in retirement.

Our Federal agency has hosted Stephen multiple times over the past few years to provide retirement financial planning seminars and our staff has rave reviews for him every time! He's always very knowledgeable, insightful, well-prepared, and engaging. I'm sure we will continue to keep him as a learning resource to share his expertise and counsel.

Stephen's one of those rare people that can provide not only a sound understanding of instruction, but also put it all into real-world context. Following a two-day FERS retirement training course with Stephen, I understood more about Medicare, average rates of return on investments, standard deviation, and risk tolerance, best time of the year (for me) to retire, and so much more. Because of Stephen, I feel more confident about my federal retirement strategy and I highly recommend Stephen as your guide too in this regard. Thanks Stephen!

Taking Stephen’s class was so eye opening for me in planning for my future. He provided options for improvement I was able to act on immediately to improve my portfolio and secure a better future for me and my family. His effort to stay abreast of Federal benefits and share them in a platform that was both educational and at times humorous was so valuable. Feds should have a first year in govt. training with a refresher every 10 years to really understand their options with career growth. Thank you Stephen and DOE for investing in us.

As a government employee that participated in a two day FERS Retirement Seminar hosted by Mr. Stephen Zelcer. I highly recommend his seminar to all that are relatively close to retirement. His presentation was spot on and keep the classroom engaged. The information I received was extremely valuable and has provided me the ability to make informed decisions regarding investments, life insurance and TSP allocations. He demonstrated a worth of knowledge, touching on several topics (TSP, FERS, and Social Security). This experience has given me the opportunity to educate my co-workers and others.

Stephen's financial planning advice is top notch. He is able to convey important concepts in an understandable way with real world examples. He also provides diverse advice that covers many financial planning topics from taxes to investments to retirement planning and does so in an excellent manner.

Met Stephen while he was teaching the FERS/CSRS retirement course. Great presenter with your interests in mind. Even if you think you know it, Stephen KNOWS SOMETHING YOU DON'T....and what you don't know could cost you and/or your family. I plan to attend again with my spouse.....if he's the instructor.

Stephen Zelcer's FERS Retirement course is excellent! Mr. Zelcer is a lively and entertaining instructor. I didn't want to miss any part of his course. He provided very helpful insight and guidance for retirement planning.

Stephen did a great job explaining our federal benefits and how they all integrate with one another to achieve financial independence in retirement. Highly recommend the FERS Retirement class from Stephen. He is a great instructor.

I have told at least 4 people in the last few days how good this class was. There are so many moving parts to understanding Federal retirement and Stephen "gets it." I was very surprised how many decisions I thought were obvious were actually not the best choices. Stephen challenged us to understand how a different choice made more sense financially. Stephen covers FERS, TSP, Social Security, life insurance, health care (FEHB and Medicare), and outside investments. Well worth the three days.

Stephen is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Federal retirement. All Federal employees should take a retirement seminar as early as possible. If you have a choice, you should take the seminar with Stephen. I'm still reviewing my notes from the class and making little changes now to help me in the future. Thanks Stephen!

Referring to Stephen Zelcer as an expert financial advisor is an understatement. I have never encountered an individual with such an overabundace of retirement information. In fact, I took his retirement class twice he was so informative! Absolutely no question from the class went unanswered. Perhaps the most salient point I gathered from the class was to think differently on investments and that the common thought of eliminating debt is not always sound advice. I highly recommend Stephen for all your financial needs. I plan on doing a personal consultation with him before I retire.

Stephen was extremely knowledgeable with regards the federal benefits and financial planning. I would highly recommend him for your training needs

I thoroughly enjoyed Stephen's 1 1/2 day on site training: mid career financial planning for federal employees. I thought I had a decent financial plan coming in but the course revealed that my plan is not optimally aligned with my retirement goals. Stephen takes a holistic 360 degree view of the benefits offered to federal employees (TSP, pension, health care benefits and life insurance options), offers strategies to get the most out of them and includes outside investment approaches, e.g. non-qualified accounts for tax diversification, for me to consider and at a level of risk I'm willing to bear. Better yet, he makes the material approachable (ugh, math!) and he does so with humor and empathy! I'm not even one week out of the training course and I've already recommended him to 5 friends and colleagues who also work in the federal government. Word of mouth marketing is the best endorsement there is!

I took Stephen's FERS Early Career/Financial Literacy training course for federal employees. Stephen's enthusiasm for the material, as well as his mastery of the subject matter, were apparent from the get-go. In addition to offering excellent financial advice for any and all individuals (as opposed to just federal employees), Stephen offered numerous tips on maximizing benefits offered to members of the federal civil service. In particular, his discussion of TSP options, life insurance, and health savings accounts were extremely eye-opening. I have no doubt that my financial literacy and awareness improved as a result of Stephen's instruction. I would highly recommend this class to new federal employees who are struggling to wrap their heads around the many options afforded to them upon joining the federal workforce. I would also recommend it to individuals who feel like they have already mastered the ins and outs of federal benefits, simply to absorb some savvy financial advice that we all need to be reminded of from time-to-time. In summation, Stephen is an excellent instructor whose enthusiasm makes light of a dense subject matter. If you have the opportunity to take one of his courses, don't pass it up!

I found Stephen's mid-career financial planning class too be very helpful. He made what many consider complicated concepts and calculations clear and understandable, and was patient in all his explanations, going more in-depth whenever asked. I would recommend his class to anyone who wants to put him/herself in the best possible financial position upon approaching - or even just thinking about - retirement.

Stephen Zelcer’s Federal Retirement seminar was very comprehensive and gave me a fresh perspective on how to approach many of the key financial considerations associated with my impending retirement. As a result of attending, I am making some adjustments to my plans. Stephen’s goal-based approach also identifies some popular misconceptions about certain elements of financial planning. I found this approach useful and refreshing.

I just finished a federal government retirement seminar with Stephen. I plan to retire from the Department of Energy at the end of this year and, like everyone who retires from the federal government, I was trying to figure out all the ins and outs of the next chapter of my life. Stephen was amazing - he had a great way of taking complicated subjects and demystifying them into something we could all understand. He also helped to set my mind at ease with the assurance that I not only have the desire, but the means to enter that chapter! And, as it turned out, I was able to use the information to help a friend. After the final day of classes, I met a couple of friends for a "girls night out" dinner. As I was discussing my class, one of my friends said she was trying to decide if she should start to collect her social security at 62. I was able to use some of the examples and words of wisdom I had just heard from Stephen's class to help her decide what to do! Stephen is certainly the federal retirement expert and I highly recommend his class. Thank you, Stephen, for helping to put my mind at ease.

A fiduciary advisor specializing in retirement planning and federal benefits

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