​Keefe Gorman of Merrill Lynch is a finance industry expert hailed as one of the top 50 brokers in the United States. Outside of Merrill Lynch, Keefe Gorman enjoys wakeboarding.

As with most sports, wakeboarding carries of risk of injury. According to Active and Safe Central, 25 percent of all injuries sustained while wakeboarding are lacerations, 11 percent are concussions, 10 percent are ankle sprains, and 5 percent go to leg fractures and shoulder dislocations each.

ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears are the most common category of injuries and make up 31 percent. They usually occur when the wakeboarder jumps or falls. Treatment usually involves surgery or physiotherapy.

To avoid injuries like these, wakeboarders benefit from taking a course at a reputable school. The course helps participants familiarise themselves with proper techniques and safety rules. Practicing balance training exercises also reduces the risk of lower body injuries by up to 50 percent. Wakeboarders should also learn how to assess weather conditions before heading out. It allows them to stay vigilant about low and high tide times.

Keefe Gorman, a multi-award-winning wealth management advisor, holds Certified Special Needs Advisor (CSNA), Certified Financial Planner (CFP), and Certified Financial Manager (CFM) designations. He leverages these credentials in performing his responsibilities as a managing director at the Ithaca, New York office of Merrill Lynch. In addition to his professional undertakings at Merrill Lynch, Keefe Gorman is deeply involved in various charitable causes. He is a frequent donor to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).

LLS is the world’s leading non-profit organization that seeks to find a cure for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma, through groundbreaking research and innovative approaches. LLS also advocates for changes that address the burden of blood-cancer patients and their families through its Office of Public Policy.

LLS has praised passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. This significant legislation allows Medicare to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs. Patients can save up to $800 per year through Medicare’s negotiated prices. Under the Act, Medicare will negotiate prices for 100 drugs over the next 10 years, and pharmaceutical companies are required to rebate back price increases that are higher than the inflation rate.

Out-of-pocket Medicare Part D costs for medicines wil be capped at $2,000 annually by 2025. This provision ensures that blood-cancer patients will no longer face the hard decision to choose between pursuing treatment and paying for their living expenses. Over 40 percent of patients enrolled in the Medicare program reportedly abandon their cancer treatments when they spend over $2,000 on a single drug prescription.

​A wealth management advisor in Ithaca, New York, Keefe Gorman serves as a managing director of investments with Merrill Lynch. When he isn’t working, Keefe Gorman is an avid outdoor sports enthusiast who considers mountain biking to be one of his favorite activities.

The top mountain biking path in the Ithaca area, according to the independent authority Trailforks, is the Black Diamond Trail. Beginning within Ithaca city limits, this trail stretches nearly 8.5 miles along the shore of Cayuga Lake to reach Taughannock Falls, a 215-foot waterfall in Ulysses, New York.

Composed of stone-dust gravel, the Black Diamond Trail is relatively easy to bike for people of all skill levels. As they ride, bikers travel through a forest environment full of maple, oak, hickory, and hemlock trees in dozens of adjacent ravines.

A “rails to trails” project, the Black Diamond Trail is built over a section of passenger train track formerly operated by the Lehigh Valley Railroad. In fact, the track transported the Black Diamond Express, Lehigh Valley’s flagship luxury passenger line that ran from Buffalo to New York City.

​Keefe Gorman advises clients on investment and wealth management matters at Merrill Lynch, for which he oversees such services as managing director at the company’s Ithaca, New York, office. Outside of his commitments at Merrill Lynch, Keefe Gorman belongs to the World Pro Ski Tour (WPST). The tour’s 2021-22 season culminated in April 2022 with the WPST World Championships.

Held in New Mexico’s Taos Ski Valley and presented by Rocket Mortgage, the 2022 WPST World Championships featured a qualifying set, a women’s and men’s parallel slalom race, and a parallel giant slalom race. Normally the top 32 athletes from the men’s and women’s qualifiers proceed to the finals, but organizers reduced the number for the women’s event to 16 due to a turnout of two dozen women. The finals consisted of a super-slalom competition with two gate sets and multiple pro-style jumps, followed by a giant slalom race that tested skiers’ technical skill.

Numerous top-tier athletes and former Olympian medalists from across the world participated in the 2022 World Championships, including 2021 WPST champion Robert Cone, three-time Olympian winner Resi Stiegler, two-time Olympian Tricia Mangan, and 2020 WPST Rookie of the Year Simon Breitfuss-Kammerlander. The winners of each slalom race received a $20,000 prize, and an additional $25,000 was awarded to the male and female skiers with the best overall performance.

Olympian and 2022 National Champion Paula Moltzan achieved the top score among the women with 65 total points, while Olympic silver medalist Linus Strasser and World Championships silver medalist Erik Read tied for most points in the men’s standing. Both amassed a combined 45 points across the slalom courses. Strasser and Moltzan also earned the highest scores in the men’s and women’s super slalom, respectively, and Read won the men’s giant slalom competition. First place in the women’s giant slalom went to Stefanie Fleckenstein, a three-time All-American university racer who made her WPST debut this season.

The 2022 WPST World Championships took place April 8-10. Total prize money amounted to $250,000, an increase from previous years due to a contribution from Taos Ski Area.

Keefe Gorman is a director of investments and wealth management with Merrill Lynch. When not serving clients of Merrill Lynch's Ithaca, New York location, he enjoys a range of outdoor pursuits. An avid skier, Keefe Gorman has competed in the World Pro Ski Tour (WPST) multiple times.

In 1969 Bob Beattie , the then-current ski coach for the U.S. Olympic team, created World Pro Skiing, using the dual-slalom format. As opposed to Olympic skiing, the race format readily engaged audiences. Beattie’s incarnation of the series lasted until 1982, when he left the organization and racers went on strike, when Ed Rogers, an ally of World Pro Skiing, created the U.S. Pro Ski Tour. The competition gained a foothold in sports broadcasting on multiple networks, but it did not find a lasting home, with Fox hosting its last races in 1998.
​
In the succeeding years interest in competitive skiing continued to grow, so in the 2017-2018 season Rogers and his supporters revived the WPST, with major changes. Not only did the tour broadcast on the CBS Sports Network, but it employed a dual-slalom, single-elimination format. Announcers also engaged with fans via online polls and social media discussion of events in real time, to align with other televised sports events’ practices.

​When not serving as the managing director of investments and wealth management at Merrill Lynch’s Ithaca, New York office, Keefe Gorman enjoys skiing. Earlier in his life, Keefe Gorman competed at the World Pro Ski Tour (WPST). After revamping its operations, the WPST adapted its broadcasts to suit modern audiences.

The WPST first gained wider recognition via its televised events in the late 1980s. From major television networks like NBC and ESPN, audiences learned about high-level alpine skiing in greater detail. However, 21st-century coverage did not resume until the 2017-8 season, when the WPST switched to broadcasting on CBS Sports Network and unveiled modernizations like a different race format. In 2019-20, the current manager Jon J Franklin added social media elements to allow fans to engage with the race and athletes.

The WPST hosted the first of 11 events, eight men’s and three women’s, for the 2021-22 season, in December 2021. All races proceeding the world championships will occur in Colorado, and the world championships will take place in New Mexico. Athletes compete in dual super slalom races with a single-elimination bracket structure.