5 personal stories to inform your career in financial planning

November 21, 2022 2:59 PM

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Whether you're a CEO needing to adapt and transform your business practices rapidly in response to COVID-19 or a college senior having your plans for a career in live music events upended by the same pandemic, the financial planning industry is filled with a wide variety of career journeys.

Here are the personal stories of five individuals from our Voices series that touch on their experiences in the world of financial planning.

No good deed goes unpunished — except when they do

As an advisor, you never know how a new client will come through your door.

"We saw you on TV and looked up your website, and we like your investment philosophy," Sam and Joyce said to Kimberly Foss, president and founder of Empyrion Wealth Management. "So, we were hoping you could help us figure out how to help May."

Foss did indeed help the couple, who unexpectedly discovered they needed an advisor when assisting their elderly neighbor with her finances.

Foss described for Financial Planning how the relationship developed and what she gained from a partnership that started with a good deed and ended with an even better outcome.

Read more:

A couple walks into an advisor's office: A remarkable case history

Andrew_Heuser

Why higher is not always better

Conventional wisdom says the higher a Monte Carlo score, the better the retirement plan. Joe Maier, senior vice president and director of wealth strategy at Johnson Financial Group, begs to differ.

"The real value of a Monte Carlo score lies in its ability to shed light on the one threshold question every plan should answer: Will the client be OK?" Maier said. "That question raises two additional ones: what is the purpose of a financial plan, and is a 99 score always inherently better than, say, an 85?"

Not always, according to Maier, who argues that achieving the perfect Monte Carlo score should not be the objective. Rather, the client's values and goals, coupled with their past, present and projected future actions, should be the basis of a quality, aspirational financial plan.

Read more:

When an 85 Monte Carlo score beats a 'near perfect' 99

Kelli Wilke/Kelli Wilke Photography

Finding your tribe in the post-COVID world

The notion of an ever-changing world should make people more prepared for the unexpected, but the magnitude of the pandemic presented difficulties that even the hardiest of CEOs found challenging. Charles Reiling, president and CEO of CoastalOne, was ready to take them on.

"What you find is that you get through them again and again, and you learn each time to take the hits with less emotion and more objectivity," Reiling said. "You learn to move forward, gain perspective and react optimistically. Perseverance begets success."

Faced with the need to adapt to the new environment, Reiling leveraged the company's innate culture and the camaraderie of its team to transition to a hybrid working environment and accelerate the firm's digital transformation.

Read more:

From one CEO to another: Post-COVID rules on a new playing field

Applying the sports mentality to a career in business

For most people, when their career starts to wind down, retirement is the next step. But for many professional athletes, who may only be in their mid-30s or slightly older, a second career beckons.

After playing baseball in the minor leagues for the Cincinnati Reds and Minnesota Twins, Brandon Roberts turned toward sales, where he quickly discovered how he could apply his approach to professional sports to developing a career as a business professional.

"Professional athletes and entrepreneurs — including financial advisory players working to build a better team — share a common 'hustle culture,'" said Roberts, now thriving in his new career as chief revenue officer at Xplor Technologies.

Read more:

Into left field: 6 sports lessons from a pro ballplayer turned entrepreneur

From the music festival stage to the trading floor

Timing is everything, but for Peyton Prince, on the cusp of graduation from college, the bad timing of the pandemic led to a complete change of direction.

"The career I had been dreaming of since I was in middle school — one in live music and event production — was about to begin," Prince said. "And then I lost everything in a matter of days."

However, a meeting with a former high school mentor who works in financial services opened up an opportunity as a trading assistant at Integrated Financial Group, where Prince is enjoying the satisfaction of making a difference in people's lives after having had his own turned upside down.

Read more:

How the pandemic drove me into financial services — and why I'm staying