Professional Experiences

I have been exposed to the right blend of what the industry has to offer. After graduating from Northwood University with a degree in Finance & Economics, I went to work at a boutique tax & retirement planning firm where I worked with a few high net worth clients on an incredibly deep planning level. Looking back, I can't believe how much I learned about the technical aspects of financial planning and wealth management and genuinely appreciate the premium training I received.

Desiring to have a more significant impact, I went on to work for three Fortune 500 companies as a function of navigating two corporate mergers. Recognized for my client’s success, I was tasked to help other advisors replicate my financial planning process for their clients. Providing coaching on region-wide calls and speaking on stage at national conferences was incredibly rewarding.

Most recently, I was responsible for about 350 local families amounting to over $850 million in my practice. While that responsibility was incredibly motivating, doing hundreds of retirement plans each year caused me to realize that I'd grown beyond capacity, potentially to the detriment of my client's experience.

The pandemic of 2020 or "The Great Pause" was an excellent catalyst to show me what was important in my life. Crisis accelerates change. I felt like I had over-rotated from where I started earlier in my career and now couldn't provide the experience that my clients had grown accustomed to, and was turning families away that didn't meet asset requirements. Ultimately, I didn't want to tell anyone no anymore and wanted to select who I accept. Having the luxury of learning from my older client's experiences and wisdom, the most common denominator I noticed was regret. Regret not pursuing a dream and regret not making time for the people that matter. While I was impacting many lives and being a good corporate citizen, my impact was a thousand miles wide and six inches deep.

I look forward to measuring success based only on my clients achieving their goals, rather than any corporate agenda. Aligning a compensation structure that makes it so my family cannot get to our goals unless our clients do as well was essential to me.

I've realized that my clients ultimately want to know in my review meetings two things: 1- Am I okay? 2- Am I making progress? A wise man once told me that you either have reasons, or you have results. So if I don't have the tools to get you the results at the end of the day, then the reasons don't matter. Ensuring we have access to the best technology the industry offers is also a pillar of what I believe necessary to the client experience.

Personal Experiences

I grew up in a rural town in Central Michigan on a small farm across from the local Amish schoolhouse. Math and money were always subjects we talked about growing up, as my father was a high school math teacher. I still remember in 2008, during the global financial crisis, my Dad flipping around the computer monitor and showing me how much his account was down. I'll never forget the dejected look on his face when he confided that his advisor still had yet to call him.

This experience was remarkably impactful on me and kindled my interest in personal finance. I thought, albeit naively, that I could make an impact based only on 'what not to do'. Since then, I’ve read anything and everything related to personal finance that I could get my hands on. I believe that wealth management is my calling, and I want to help as many families navigate complex and emotional financial transitions as I can in my career. That responsibility fires me up in the morning and is the source of my passion.