This blog has been guest-written by our Associate Financial Planner, Daniel Stefanski, sharing his experience in a financial planning career thus far and what brought him to Longmont and MY Wealth Planners.
Balancing Analytics & Empathy
I became interested in personal finance for a multitude of reasons. First, it is such a beautiful blend of both quantitative and qualitative skills. On the one hand, I can appreciate the beauty of a nice Excel spreadsheet (that might be an acquired taste). However, I do not want to stare at them all day long in windowless rooms. I enjoy them to a degree but do not want them to dictate my day-to-day. On the other hand, this profession involves a lot of qualitative or soft skills too. You spend your days having very deep conversations with people. Sometimes, discussing things that have never been spoken about aloud before. The mix between those two is what genuinely excites me. I have been fortunate in my career thus far to share in some of the families’ most significant achievements, from having children to marriages. On the other hand, I have shared in heartbreak, death, and divorce. Despite the ups and downs, both of which are a privilege and honor to have shared with me in confidence and confidentiality, we receive constant reminders of how precious life is, in both good times and bad.
The other day I was watching Hard Knocks, a TV show that follows NFL teams for a few weeks during their season. It allows you to get an insider’s view into what goes into preparing for the NFL on a week-by-week basis. Mike Tomlin, the coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, was on one of the episodes and was discussing the difference between a job and a career. He went around asking players if they were preparing for the season as if it was their job or for their career. This really stuck with me as a unique parallel between what I do for work. I respect the fact that I know so little and have so much more to learn; I must be a constant student of the craft that is financial planning to deliver my best for clients. It is infinitely more exciting to realize that every new thing I learn will help not just me but my clients throughout my entire career. Having what I consider to be a career allows me to focus a lot of my time on development and education, knowing it is only going to help propel my success and allow me to help more people over time at a higher level. The never-ending chase for improvement and knowledge is something that is both alluring and frustrating for me, given that there will always be more to learn and more to improve and iterate.
Finding the Courage to Move On
I have always been fascinated by psychology, how our minds work, and certain biases we all hold. One psychological paradox I have always been interested in is the Region Beta Paradox. The Region Beta Paradox can refer to a situation where something is not bad enough to leave but also not good enough to stay. A good example we can likely all relate to is that one friend who is in a relationship that will not last. The partner is a little rude, not a great fit, etc. But they treat them well enough, so they stay with them. In an odd way, that friend would be better off if the partner treated them worse because at least then they would feel more urgency to leave.
I found myself deep in Region Beta with my old firm while back in New Jersey post-graduation. During my time with the firm, I watched as leadership grew more sales-oriented. As a curious young professional, I continued to see education and development time stray away from financial planning concepts and move more toward sales strategies and tactics. But for a while, it was simply good enough to stay. I had a respectable degree of autonomy with my client base and knew enough to serve them well. I felt stuck there, knowing I would eventually leave, but I could not find the justifications quite yet.
That was, until one day, a colleague of mine asked a more experienced “advisor” a question about deferred compensation strategies. The advisor, and I quote, answered with: “I usually don’t give a f- about people’s deferred comps because we can’t sell anything off of it.” Ladies and gentlemen, there it was. I had finally felt a strong enough compulsion to get out of there while I could. It was a massive kick in the gut. I was a 1099 independent contractor, so I technically was not an “employee,” but at that moment, I felt as if I had just been fired because I knew I would never be using their platform to serve clients again.
All this to say, I left my old firm to escape the sales culture that was starting to permeate and take away from doing excellent financial planning. Now, I am not naive enough to believe sales are not important. Sales are what keep the lights on in any business and are, in fact, a good thing if you really believe in what you sell. If what you sell is great, then you should want to tell everyone about it. However, with a straight face, I could no longer tell people I love that where I work is the best place for them when I no longer felt that way myself. It was then that I decided I would be leaving, even if that meant a step back in title or position, to find what I considered the right fit for me and my client’s long term.
Learning Before Earning
I was fortunate early on in my career to be the recipient of good advice. People much more intelligent than me told me the importance of finding a position where education is the main driver, not the immediate level of compensation earned. I told myself and deeply committed to this idea that my next move would not be for the money, it would be for the opportunity to grow. I wanted to go somewhere where I knew I could learn a lot from great financial professionals. I started to look for more opportunities where the priority was not compensation but instead focused on development and provided chances to make mistakes, learn, and ask questions. This is truly harder said than done, however. When you have friends out of college with jobs paying six figures, lunch ordered-in every day, gym membership, etc., it can be a little bit harder to tell yourself those things do not matter and instead to chase experience and education over benefits.
For context, in my interview process last year, I was offered a position with a financial planning firm that would have paid 85% more than my position when starting with MY Wealth Planners. I did not take this fantastic job opportunity for a few reasons that I think are important to discuss. First, I did not pursue this offer further because I did not see myself staying with that firm for very long. Financial planning is a long-term commitment for clients engaging in the process and for planners committing to their careers. Clients should not have to think that their advisor will leave their current firm every other year because some other firm has offered them a bump in compensation. Families should be confident that they can expect consistency in that regard.
Additionally, from a cultural perspective, I did not think I would mesh well with the other team members. That is not to say they were bad people. We just have many different views, experiences, and interests. You do not have to be friends with everyone you work with, but if you cannot spend time together and grab a beer with a couple of your colleagues, it will be hard to enjoy your work. At a minimum, you spend around one-third of your week with your colleagues. Annie Dillard said it best in that “how we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” I wanted to work in an environment where I enjoyed working and collaborating with my peers, given I would spend about one-third of my time per week with them.
In hindsight, I honestly believe it was a great career move. To play out an alternative scenario, let us say I took a job that paid more. I would have joined the firm and not have enjoyed my day-to-day very much. Over a year or so, I would lose enthusiasm and start looking for new opportunities. I would leave that firm a few years older, with a little less hair and a little more money in my pockets but no transferable skills. Conversely, I am in a position now where I am always learning, and my curiosity is high.
I was willing to take a pay cut to join MY Wealth Planners and forgo a substantial raise at the other firm because I knew that at the beginning of my time with MY Wealth Planners, I would be responsible for back office and admin work in addition to other responsibilities. Typically, back-office admin work is something financial planners try to avoid or delegate; it is not the most glorious thing, after all. However, even as an experienced advisor, I did not know how to perform these tasks because at my prior firm our focus was on meeting with clients and bringing on new clients, not serving clients by completing administrative tasks. It was particularly important to me to learn these skills because, while they are not “sexy,” they are necessary and important. It is crucial to understand how everything moves from one place to the next and how the movement of money works, so that when you need to, you can clearly articulate to clients the exact steps needed for the movement of money, or for the opening of an account.
You must learn to crawl before you can walk in this profession. Over the last seven months, I have taken steps back to learn how to “crawl,” and in turn, I am now much better equipped to walk and run on the path to helping my clients live their best financial lives. I am now once again serving clients directly; however, I am much more confident in my skill set, which will help to serve families moving forward. I could not be more excited about what the future has in store professionally.
On a personal level, I moved across the country from New Jersey to Longmont for this position. Leaving most of my close friends and family back on the East Coast. Since my move, the great state of Colorado has opened its arms to me. I have been embraced by the community and continue to build a community of my own on the Northern Front Range. I took a chance a little over a year ago, and thus far, I think things have been working out wonderfully. For this, I am so fortunate.