An Annapolis, Md.-based financial advisor faces allegations that he fired a female employee because she was pregnant, according to claims by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland. The group alleges Michael Chartos, an advisor with insurance firm Northwestern Mutual, fired Leslie Ann Bentley, who was working as an assistant for the solo practitioner, shortly after she told the advisor that she was pregnant. Bentley challenged the firing under state and federal anti-discrimination laws, but Chartos claimed that because he was a solo practitioner, he was too small to be covered by the law, the ACLU says. The group is asking Chartos for an apology to Bentley, lost wages for one year and reimbursement of medical expenses related to the birth of her son. "When women like Ms. Bentley are pushed out of the workplace, they lose important income and benefits when they need them the most,” said Nick Steiner, an attorney at the ACLU of Maryland. “We are sending a message to employers, including national conglomerates with local affiliates, that regardless of how they structure themselves, Marylanders will make sure they don't get away with civil rights violations in the workplace." Northwestern Mutual told The Baltimore Sun that it was reviewing the allegations.
Snoop Dogg Doesn't Have A Will, And Doesn't Care
While Prince’s lack of a will and the estate issues it created following his death has served as a cautionary tale for advisors and their clients, another celebrity musician proudly admits that he doesn’t have a will and isn’t concerned about it. Following a recent concert in Manhattan, Business Insider asked Snoop Dogg if he has made plans for his estate. The rapper, actor and media mogul responded by saying that he won’t care because he’ll be dead. Snoop also said he hopes to be reincarnated so he can personally observe the chaos that emerges over his estate. Hopefully, Snoop’s financial advisor convinces him otherwise, as Snoop has an estimated net worth of $135 million.
Wealthbox Announces Five New Integrations
Wealthbox CRM celebrated Cinco de Mayo Thursday by announcing five new technology integrations. The first is Zapier, a program that creates automated workflows between web apps, like instantly sending data to another wealth management app whenever a contact, task or event is created in the Wealthbox CRM. Wealthbox also joined TD Ameritrade’s Veo platform, integrated with Riskalyze so advisors can look up a client’s risk score within the CRM, and integrated with Orion to view real-time client account information within their record page in Wealthbox. The tech firm also integrated with Microsoft Office 365 via a Google Chrome extension to let advisors add information to the CRM from their email. And if that wasn’t enough, Wealthbox also announced a new user experience coming soon that the company said will cut down on the time advisors spend entering tasks into the CRM.