The clients I work best with arrive with a question rather than a portfolio. They want to understand whether their plan is on track to pursue what they envision, and they are willing to work through the numbers and details to find out. That is a different starting point from simply wanting someone to manage money, and it shapes what the first year together looks like.
Starting my career in 2000, I have seen plans I built in my early years become the retirements clients are now living. Watching that happen changes how you plan. You spend less time focused on the projection itself and more on the parts that get tested: what happens when one spouse outlives the other by a decade, when a parent needs care, or when the market does something ugly in the first few years someone is drawing income. Over the years, I have had the chance to work with clients through multiple stages of life, and much of my work today involves revisiting and adjusting plans as circumstances change.
Before I recommend anything, I want to know what someone is working toward, including the parts that are hard to put a number on. Whether a family wants to fund grandchildren's education or someone wants to stop working two years earlier than the spreadsheet says is comfortable, those answers should shape the strategy rather than the other way around. Daniel, Logan, and I worked together for years before we put our own name on the door, and that shared history matters. We know one another's clients, plans, and reasoning, so the relationship is supported by a team rather than resting on one person alone.
I am a Green Bay Packers fan living in Oklahoma, which requires some explaining and an annual trip to Wisconsin. Exploring national parks has become a favorite hobby, and I am steadily working my way through as many as I can. Alaska remains my favorite trip so far, including a helicopter tour and dog-sledding experience that will be hard to top. Closer to home, I enjoy golf, visiting zoos, and spending time with Jack, a rescue beagle with firm opinions about the daily schedule.
- CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ (CFP®)
- B.A., Oklahoma City University
- Financial advisor since 2000