We recently connected with Jack Kennedy and have shared our conversation below.

Jack, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

Most “financial advisors” and “brokers” are salespeople that either make commissions from selling financial products or they put clients in cookie cutter market following investments. Both of these paths are flawed to the detriment of the individual investor/family and oftentimes put the advisor’s interest first. Commission based brokers are alwys needing to create trades to earn a paycheck. Market following portfolios are great when interest rates are at 0% and everyone is funnelled into the market. Those days are long gone. Understanding market valuation and owning undervaled assets, both stock and bond, will drive long-term performance. Lastly, “fee-only” financial advisors, such as myself, align the interest of the investor with the advisor. We make more money, when our clients make more money.

Jack, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have a math degree and first took the road of pension actuary before settling into the investment field. This allowed me the basis to understand risk/reward for my clients as well as pension implicitly. Second, I worked as an analyst for four years before taking the risk to start my RIA; spending the early part of my investment career researching and valuing stocks, bonds and other assets. Our Firm is a “fee-only” RIA, meaning that we earn money on our clients assets. When our clients’ investments increase in value, we make more money as a Firm.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

It took myself and my firm four and a half years to make as much money as I did working as an analyst. Acting as fee-only professional is a long grind that is so very rewarding both personally and financially if you do the right thing for clients over a long period of time. There is no “get rich quick” scheme and that turns off many to working in this field as a prudent fiduciary.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The way I learned to effectively grow my business was to get out into the community and earn trust. I joined two chambers and several small business groups in the early years and spoke about the markets and what I was doing to achieve success for clients whenever I could. This led to new clients and countless referral sources.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jbmeridian.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JBMeridianAdvisorsLLC/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-a-kennedy/