Member Spotlights

Is there a specific way your designation has enhanced your career?

Both the CPWA and RMA designation have been pivotal for improving the depth of my practice. The CPWA has helped me to incorporate complex wealth planning strategies around estate and tax planning into my practice that I was not previously comfortable to openly discuss with my clients. It empowered and emboldened me to specialize in these areas and have found them to be in high demand. The RMA has also been incredibly valuable as it added a layer of depth to my income planning and retirement planning strategies that was not part of the CPWA curriculum.

What is a challenge in the industry right now?
There has been such a focus on market volatility that it has scared several clients to stay idle rather than be nimble in the marketplace. The biggest challenge has been to re-educate our clients to plan for the long term through creating short-, medium-, and long-term investment goals that essentially immunize their portfolio from short-term volatility as opposed to a single risk-based portfolio strategy that is equity heavy. Clients often react through emotional bias from what they see in the news. It is our job as wealth advisors to educate our clients and help them to refocus their strategy on the long term instead.

What is the best financial advice you have received or given?
I would have to say that it was having a hard conversation with one of my clients about realigning their goals and investment strategy from a traditional risk-based accumulation model to a more life stage income planning approach. We had just completed a wealth planning review and there were some possible shortfalls identified late in their retirement years. We realigned their portfolio leveraging some of the income planning principals from the RMA certification and we were able to secure a floor that would satisfy his income needs for the rest of his life while simultaneously taking a substantial amount of risk off the table for him.

What are you most grateful for in your life?:
I am most grateful for my faith. There have been times in my life when everything seemed lost. My faith has always been able to ground me, give me direction and purpose, and help me find the way forward when it was not otherwise clear to me.