Building a Firm With 20 Years of Hindsight
I started as a computer geek guru. While attending high school, I was hired to write software for the pension industry. I learned a lot about retirement plans, and after several years, I co-founded a software company that sold pension software to firms all over the country. I was reading pension regulations, writing code, writing user manuals, copying and mailing disks, and providing technical support.
While securing my degree in Computer Science from UC Irvine, a co-worker turned me on to the world of investing, and I began reading all that I could on the subject. After several bad experience with a stock broker, my boss asked me to take over the management of the company’s corporate retirement plan. I knew I needed a more formal education, so I enrolled in some financial planning classes at UC Irvine. After taking my first course, I was hooked on the value of financial planning.
Those classes led to an opportunity to join a (then) small financial planning firm that is now one of the top wealth management firms in the country. Over my 19 years at that firm, I worked my way up from my intern position to financial analyst to financial planner to Director of Financial Planning to Chief Investment Officer and to Partner. It’s been over 20 years since I took those first classes; I’m still hooked!
After leaving that firm, I knew I didn’t want to work in a brokerage environment where success is defined by product sales. I surveyed several established fee-only advisory firms and found none that met my goals to provide wealth management that is customized, accessible, integrated, continuous, and understandable. I decided to start MILE Wealth Management.
It’s not often we get a “reset” in our lives and businesses. I got to rethink everything and have built a new practice using 20 years of hindsight. I’m so excited to show off what I'm doing.