A Message from Our Managing Partner

I hope that this message finds you all safe and healthy.

As of this writing, it has been 12 weeks since we announced to our staff and clients that our offices would be closing. In some ways, it has seemed like business as usual as we have continued preparing our clients’ tax returns,  reviewing their financial statements, and assisting them with their financial planning goals. But this has also been a time of uncertainty and difficulty for all of us.

We have recently polled our staff in order to gauge their comfort level around returning to the office. The responses have confirmed the belief of firm leadership that our strategy must be driven first and foremost by the need to  maintain a safe and healthy work environment, and we are striving to do that. Our return will be gradual, and we must be flexible in recognizing those whose lives have been upended by disruptions in schooling, daycare, and senior care. All that being said, we are fortunate that our staff are healthy and that we are able to continue working effectively from home. 

I have been amazed at the efforts of my colleagues to quickly digest, summarize and disseminate information relevant to our clients in the recently enacted CARES Act. We have often spoken in the past about the idea of hosting webinars and for whatever reason have not executed on that strategy. In the past month, we have held 5 such webinars, with as many as 400 attendees, and plan to hold several more in the coming weeks. The response from attendees has been extremely positive.

Another positive aspect of our current situation is that I have heard many stories from my Partners about different ways that we have helped our clients to manage their businesses through this crisis and have deepened our client  relationships in the process. Our mission as a firm, at the most basic level, is to help people meet the business and personal financial challenges they are faced with, and it has been most gratifying for us to have an opportunity to help people in these times.

To that end, this issue of our July Statement’s Newsletter will be dedicated to how RINA is responding to the current calamity. Finally – we must acknowledge the pain that many of us are feeling, brought on by the recent killing of George Floyd. We have been following closely the protests in our communities and across the globe and are encouraged by the scope and diversity of the peaceful protests taking place. We stand with the Black Lives Matter movement, and hope that it results in positive change so that people of color no longer must face the systematic discrimination that has been prevalent in our society for too long.

Thank you to our staff, clients and friends and we look forward to continuing to work together with all of you!

— Tom Neff