My brothers and I grew up fishing salmon commercially in Alaska during the summers. I was able to save most of my earnings each year and, when I was 14 years old, opened my first brokerage account to invest my savings. Around the same time, my mom allowed me to start helping her rebalance her 401(k) plan. My mom's account grew modestly during my tenure as her manager, while my own account lost value (go figure). This experience taught me at a young age a lot about risk management and the importance of removing emotions from the decision making process when it comes to money (especially someone else's money!).

During the week, I spend 1-2 hours per day researching tax, investment, economic and retirement benefit issues relevant to my clients. The remainder of the day is normally earmarked for client calls/meetings and, once or twice a week, I'll host a webinar/conference call to discuss current events relevant to clients and prospective clients. On my weekends and days off, I enjoy playing golf, tennis, racquetball, and taking road trips with my fiancé Angie and my dog Murphy.

I would say without a doubt the most important contribution I can make in the lives of my clients is to educate them to a place of comfort with their financial decisions. With a constantly changing financial system, it's a never ending process, and I couldn't be more grateful for the opportunity. I also believe this aspect of my process sets me apart from many of my peers in the industry. When a client feels comfortable enough with me to refer a friend or colleague, I know I've done a good job educating them about their financial decisions.  

The ability to hold someone's hand through, statistically, one of the most stressful events in their life and getting to have a good laugh with them on the back end of it. Never gets old.