What drew me to finance was seeing markets as living systems, shaped by human behavior, risk, and opportunity as much as by math. That view took hold in a college finance class taught by a former options trader, and it rerouted me from a planned career in accounting into this one. Accounting would have had me recording what already happened. I wanted to help people shape what could happen with their money. After years with Morgan Stanley, I joined SeaCrest in 2008.
My work starts with how you actually want your life to look, and only then do I move to the numbers, so the plan serves that picture. I am comfortable deep in the technical details, from tax and withdrawal sequencing to portfolio construction, and I treat retirement and distribution planning as the heart of the plan, since that is where a great deal of hidden value sits. Every recommendation I make comes with a plain explanation of why it matters and what it means for you, and I protect real time each week for research so the ideas I bring are current and well-founded. I still think about a couple in their late fifties who were sure they would never be able to retire, until we organized their scattered accounts and built a straightforward retirement and tax plan that showed they could stop sooner than they expected and still travel and help their family. Moments like that are the reason I do this.
I am a Rapid City native, and it is still home. We are the Gateway to the Black Hills, so I can be out on world-class trails within minutes of the office. My family is a big part of why I do what I do; my son Baxter is an investment banker in San Francisco, and my daughter is finishing her senior year at Creighton. When I am not working, I am usually outside on a mountain bike, seeing how far I can push a trail before I call it a day. I stay closely involved in my community, especially around children and families, serving on the Children's Home Society Foundation Board and the Rushmore Rotary Board and directing the Rushmore Rotary Golf Tournament that supports the Children's Home Society campus in Rapid City. I will confess I have no patience for golf, but the mission more than makes up for it, giving vulnerable kids the safety, support, and real shot at a better future they deserve.
- B.S. in Business Administration, Finance emphasis, University of South Dakota
- M.S. in Business Administration, Finance, San Diego State University