I’m an affiliate representative of a broker-dealer, and … basically, I’m contractually obligated to be a salesperson for their products. It’s become unacceptable to me because a lot of their products are garbage, and I won’t recommend my clients put a nickel into them. I want to start my own wealth management firm, but the broker-dealer has me in golden handcuffs.
I share my predicament with my Colleague Lloyd.
“If I leave, I lose a multimillion-dollar pension set to pay me a million dollars a year, plus I forfeit $500,000 in a wealth accumulation plan and also bye-bye to $500,000 of annual renewals… I lose all my money.”
I was born in Danville, Illinois, and raised in Indianapolis.
My parents split when I was in Kindergarten. We went from a poor family of 5 to an even poorer family of 4. Dad left the picture and didn’t give my mom financial support. We were forced to move from an apartment to Section 8 housing and had to go on food stamps, etc.
Mom worked multiple jobs waiting tables, and still, everything was a money struggle. Our fridge had a padlock on it so that we wouldn’t eat without her permission.
She’d leave me at home alone to watch my brother and sister, both in diapers, even though I was only 7 and 8 years old. I had strict instructions never to leave the house for fear of the drugs, gangs, and abuse that were right outside our door. We had no cable TV, so time wasn’t passed easily.
I grew up hiding, poor, and afraid, but the hardships
that my family and I experienced did not crush me.
The first opportunity I seized was a full-ride football scholarship to college. The first in my family to attend, I maximized every credit hour I could get, from economics to entrepreneurship, architecture to urban planning. I got my master’s in technology and a great first job as a tech consultant for AT&T. For the first time, I had money, but it wasn’t satisfying because I wasn’t helping people.
I wanted to help people with their financial stability, independence, and financial future. This is what I wanted for myself, and I figured others wanted the same.
Fast forward to when I’m 39. I’m a wealth advisor,
Top 10 in our company multiple years in a row, and one
of the most successful in the country.
Along the way, I’ve learned personally from the truly wealthy – family offices, professional sports team owners, billionaires – and have seen how completely different they manage money than the rest of the world.
But despite this “wealth” of knowledge I’ve become privy to, I CANNOT advise people EXACTLY HOW I want to because I’m restricted to only offering the products and services of the broker-deal firm I affiliated myself with contractually.
Unless I quit.
Forfeit golden handcuffs worth millions of dollars. And “Laugh and let it all go.”
So I did.
I did it so that I could sit on the same side of the table as our clients and offer what I believe is in their best interests, not the best interests of some institution.
I founded Invst, in June 2016, along with my partner Lloyd Easters. Now we were forever free to completely implement financial strategies that would radically help our clients as a true fiduciary. No contractual obligations to peddle garbage.
I believed with all my being that we’d do well because now we could help people better than anyone in the industry. We could change the entire game.
It happened. Within a few months, we were managing
100 million in assets.
a 300 million dollar real estate portfolio that pays monthly cash flows to investors, and we help business owners scale, maximize value, and exit while leaving a legacy for their family. Invst has clients in 46 states and offices in Indiana, Florida, New Jersey, and on Wall Street.
I’m deeply grateful. We’re helping a lot of people, and I never forget where I came from. Too many people struggle with anxiety over money. Income, debt, career, lifestyle, taxes, and so much more put pressure on us. I lived through all these fears and anxieties in my formative years and watched my mother suffer the same.
From my past and my pain came my purpose:
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Please review important Disclosure Information set forth in this website. Check the background of our investment professionals on FINRA’s BrokerCheck. Invst is an independent Registered Investment Advisory firm headquartered in Indianapolis, IN with offices in Tampa and New Jersey. Our mission is to educate, guide and counsel our clients to achieve their full financial potential.
