My path into financial planning started out boring. I never changed majors through college and landed an internship in my final semester with a small Registered Investment Adviser (RIA) firm in Springfield, Missouri.
What I thought would be a short-term role turned into full-time work, and I quickly learned that I enjoyed both the technical side of being a financial planner and the relationships I was building with my clients.
I was having fun going into work, and my only worry was working towards partner over the next decade. Easy enough, I thought.
Given that I'm writing this, it's fair to assume that things didn't go the way I'd planned. A short eight months later, the firm announced that it was being acquired.
The transition was admittedly intimidating at first, and I had no clue what to expect being so early in my career. But as difficult as it was to have my plans shaken up, it wasn't all bad. Pay and benefits improved, I got a new title, and our fancier technology made doing my job easier.
But some things were different, and I found myself missing the way things felt when the firm was smaller.
I decided I wanted a change, so I started looking elsewhere.
In 2023, I got the opportunity to join the wealth management practice of a large accounting firm, where I expected to work for thirty or forty years and happily retire. Problem solved, yet again.
But the change of scenery wasn't as different as I'd hoped. The building I worked in downtown was beautiful, the coworkers I had are some of my closest friends, and I was treated fairly as an employee.
Yet, I had my own perspective on a sequence of "small things" that ultimately drove the decision for another career adjustment.
There's more factors than I can realistically list here, but these four "small things" moved me towards independence:
1. Fees: I noticed that some firms were using hourly or flat-fee structures and I wanted to offer it myself.
2. Clients: In larger firms, there's often a need to transition clients between advisors to manage workload. There's nothing wrong with this, and most people didn't mind, but I really wanted to keep the same clients for the long term.
3. My Beliefs: Like any professional, I’ve developed my own opinions through research, continuing education, and experience. I wanted to implement those beliefs into a planning process and communication style that was uniquely mine.
4. Specialization: I wanted to focus my practice on those who are approaching the transition into retirement or are already retired.
Though I probably wouldn't recommend my exact career path to anyone, it's provided tons of exposure in a short period of time.
- I've seen the inner workings of RIAs with tens, hundreds, and thousands of employees.
- I've served clients ranging in age from their 20s to their late 90s.
- I've served clients with tens of thousands to tens of millions.
- I've seen all sorts of meeting agenda formats, client model portfolios, financial planning tools, Christmas card templates, and the list goes on...
This firm is the result of my combined experiences. Each firm I've worked for did some things better than the others, and I've done my best to take the "best of the best" and apply them here. I then added some brand new concepts, like implementing a different fee structure and openly displaying it on my website.
Above all, I wanted this business to be what I think every business should be: Somewhere you can turn to for help and expect to receive honesty, fairness, and a kind voice when you call.
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