Social Security public affairs specialist Kristen Alberino recently spoke at a "pre-retirement" luncheon sponsored by Centinel Financial Group, apparently in Massachusetts. Centinel is a financial services company. I cannot say for absolute certain but it looks like the company was trying to sell its products at this luncheon.
This is fairly common, though some regions handle it differently. A long time back, as a PR guy for the agency, I found myself speaking at a few such events, until I realized that it seemed just a little too "chummy" and possibly an implied endorsement of a firm's services by the government. I asked permission to politely refuse future invitations and it was granted. Note that this also happens when an SSA rep is invited to a company's "retirement seminar" to which representatives of financial planning firms are also invited to speak. As long as you make clear that your appearance is not an endorsement of any particular service, it's probably not a big deal.
ReplyDeleteShe did a pretty good job.
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