Christina Bobyack felt stuck. She’d had some investments since birth and knew she should do something with the money. But she didn’t know where to start. That’s when her godparents introduced her to Cindi Crane, their Thrivent financial consultant in Cranford, New Jersey. There was an instant connection.
“Cindi was able to explain it to me in a way that I could understand,” says Christina, a Thrivent client in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. “I felt like I had met someone who cared about me and my financial future.”
The relief and empowerment of getting unstuck felt great, and Christina wanted to share it with her dad, Mitchell Bobyack. He still hadn’t settled the estates of his wife, who died seven years earlier, or his mom, who died two years earlier.
“He was having a hard time settling Mom’s estate, and then when my grandmother passed away, it complicated it even more,” Christina says. “I literally had to drag him in to meet Cindi, but after that first meeting, his whole attitude about his finances changed. He found someone he could go to for guidance on how to get on the right track.”
In their meetings, Crane collected all the information from the two estates so they could see exactly what they were dealing with and what decisions Mitchell would need to make as he moved accounts to his name. With the time that had elapsed since both deaths, Mitchell had missed some opportunities to create tax efficiencies, Crane says, but they worked together to thoughtfully invest the money.
“We got all but one of his wife’s accounts and two of his mom’s accounts in his name when the unexpected happened—Mitchell died,” Crane says.
Christina and her sister, Amanda Bobyack, a Thrivent client in Washington, D.C., are devastated at the loss of their dad. But they also are grateful for how working through the estates with Crane had helped him.
“He’d call me after every meeting with Cindi; his tone felt so much lighter,” Amanda says. “The burden of what he’d been putting off for years was lifted. He could see the light at the end of the tunnel. He was starting to make plans again.”
Christina and Amanda have continued meeting with Crane over Zoom to settle their dad’s estate. They also purchased
“Cindi made a four-page list of what we needed to do after our dad died,” Amanda says. “I thought there was no way we were going to be able to do this. But Cindi was very strategic about what we needed to consider first, and we moved through the list.”
Crane continues to guide Christina and Amanda as they finish paperwork and make financial decisions.
“She’s been there to help us settle the estate and everything in between,” Christina says. “I feel confident about the decisions we’re making and empowered to make them.”
