Investing For Retirement Focus of Workshops

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Afraid your investment portfolio won't provide for your retirement?

Don't know whether to practice "do-it-yourself" investing or use a professional?

Intimidated by investment terminology?

Then you'll want to attend three workshops focusing on "Investing for Retirement" to be held from 8-11:30 a.m. May 1, 8 and 22 in Room 112 of Jacobs Management Center on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus.

The workshop on May 1 will focus on mastering investing basics. The second session on May 8 will concentrate on how to choose mutual funds for retirement and allocate assets in a pension fund. The final workshop on May 22 will address managing investments.

Designed for the general public, the workshops are being conducted by the UB Securities Clinic, one of only four of its kind in the U.S. The clinic, a unit of the UB Center for the Study of Business Transactions, is a collaborative effort between the university's Law School and the School of Management.

The workshops are sponsored by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the UB Center for the Study of Business Transactions.

The investment-education workshops are part of the Securities Clinic's multidimensional outreach services, which include independent evaluations of individual investor portfolios and specific financial products, as well as dispute-resolution services.

Speakers will be the clinic's co-directors, Joseph Ogden, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of the Department of Finance and Managerial Economics in the School of Management, and Cheryl Nichols, assistant professor in the Law School.

Nichols, an NASD Regulation, Inc. arbitrator and a former senior enforcement attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has more than eight years of experience in the financial-services industry.

Ogden has testified in litigation cases involving investor-broker disputes, has written extensively on various topics concerning the financial markets -- including bond, futures and options pricing -- and has won several research awards, including the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) Award of the Financial Management Association for Best Paper in Investments.

Team members will be available for one-on-one consultations.

Individual workshops are $15 per person and $35 for the series.

Space is limited. Those interested in attending may register by calling Beverley Prendergast at 716-645-2167.