The Beacon Pointe Team is extremely passionate about financial literacy and actively engages with the community to further financial education.  Mark Moehlman, Managing Director & Partner and Allison Hillgren, Director, Head of Marketing  at Beacon Pointe volunteer time and expertise to the LIFEvest Program at UCI’s Center for Investment and Wealth Management.

LIFEvest is a one-week, on-campus program for underserved 9th grade students from Orange, Los Angeles, and Riverside counties. Designed for students who have the potential to be first generation college attendees, the program attempts to strengthen understanding of financial matters, encourage admission to a four-year college or university, expose students to various career options, teach social etiquette skills, and inspire confidence and success in all areas of life.  During the program, students:

• Participate in financial literacy education seminars
• Evaluate stock portfolios
• Network with local business leaders,
• Explore their academic and career aptitudes
• Are exposed to on-campus life at a four-year university
• Participate in confidence building exercises
• Develop presentation skills
• Work on a budget
• Learn how to save for retirement
• Take field trips to local corporate headquarters
• Are fitted in business attire they get to keep
• Make new friends and a community to support their future goals

The Financial Literacy Summer Residential Program was inspired by the life of the program’s founder, Beacon Pointe’s Mark Moehlman’s, mother. Mark was a teenager when his father passed away and his 48-year-old mother was left with the daunting task of raising three children and managing family finances. With no financial experience, Mark’s mother had to learn to work through this unnerving responsibility in order to take care of her family’s needs. She made Mark pledge that if he ever had the opportunity to influence the education women received, he would be sure they were always encouraged to take an interest in money matters. Mark was able to keep that promise and more. With the help of fellow Center for Investment and Wealth Management members and volunteers, he launched the first annual Financial Literacy Summer Residential Program for 30 teenage girls in 2010. Now, each summer, the program hosts 30 girls and 30 boys in separate week long programs each summer.