• Register for Wespath’s Quarterly Investment Webinar
• Wespath Responds to EY Media Report
• New Wespath Websites
• Webinar on Starting a Clergy Debt Refinancing Program

Register for Wespath’s Quarterly Investment Webinar

This quarter’s investment webinar will bring you face-to-face with Chief Investment Officer Dave Zellner and the investment team! The team will make its video debut, appearing on-screen during the webinar, scheduled for Thursday, October 24 at 11:00 a.m. Central time.

To register, please click here. Registrants will receive a confirmation e-mail with login details for the webinar.

Webinar Details

• Date: Thursday, October 24, 2019
• Time: 11:00 a.m., Central time
• Duration: 50 minutes

Webinar Agenda

• Market update: Hear what factors drove the markets' performance
• Fund performance: Understand how the markets impacted fund performance
• Economic overview: Review key economic indicators and their potential implications
• Sustainable investments: Hear about Wespath's latest sustainable investment initiatives
• Q&A: Watch Dave Zellner respond to questions from investors

Wespath Responds to EY Media Report

Wespath was recently made aware of a media report indicating that Ernst & Young (EY) provided Women’s Leadership Training to a group of EY employees, offering guidance that does not reflect the values of Wespath or the UMC.

Senior leaders from Wespath contacted EY’s senior leadership to express our significant concerns. As Wespath strives to do with all of our partners, we urged EY to improve practices that make a positive impact on its employees and stakeholders.

During the conversation, we found them to be responsive to addressing our concerns. EY has cut ties with the third-party vendor that provided the training. They are also conducting a full review of the situation. We will continue to monitor the situation and respond to UMC stakeholders, as appropriate.

A copy of our official response is available on our website here.

New Wespath Websites

Wespath will debut two re-designed websites in early December—one for Wespath Benefits and Investments and another for Wespath Institutional Investments. The new sites are designed to be easier to navigate and more user-friendly with a mobile-compatible design.

The new websites will offer:

• Rewritten content will offer more concise, high level information about Wespath plans and programs on the section landing pages with more detailed information available on second- and third-level pages.
• More intuitive site navigation
• Independent landing pages, rather than one page that redirects to the two separate sites

The redesign resulted from Wespath’s efforts evaluating the current site through audience focus groups, surveys and user testing. This valuable feedback helped inform our decisions as we developed new hubs for sharing information about Wespath with all of our audience groups.

No action is required from site users to access the new site content—all current links will redirect to the new pages. Additional information about the site launch will be shared in November.

If you have questions about the new Wespath websites, contact Lisa Drew at ldrew@wespath.org or 1-847-866-4111.

Webinar on Starting a Clergy Debt Refinancing Program

The Clergy Financial Well-Being Initiative invites you to a 60-minute webinar presentation on Tuesday, November 5 at 10:30 a.m., Central time to hear the stories of three successful clergy debt refinancing programs that are helping pastors on their journey toward financial well-being.

We will be joined by Katherine Yarnell of the Iowa United Methodist Foundation, Brad Crossley of the United Methodist Foundation of Western North Carolina and Wesley Palmer of the Preacher’s Aid Society of New England. Our panelists will speak about their very low interest loan programs to help clergy reduce and manage student and consumer debt. Currently, their programs combined have 96 active loans totaling $3.58 million.

Click here for additional information and to register for the event.

Contact Dale Jones at djones@wespath.org if you have any additional questions.

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