Today we’d like to introduce you to Jarrod Sandra.
Hi Jarrod, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I went to college in the University of Central Oklahoma, due a last-minute change from my plan of enlisting in the Navy (I’m the first guy in family to not go the military route in several generations). However, I had no clue what I wanted to do. I began working at a bank and enjoyed helping people with finances, but knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do long term. In 2008, I happened upon a job board at school and saw a position for a wealth management firm. I thought the stock market sounded cool, so why not check it out and I was hired pretty quick. Well, I almost quit on my very first day because they were asking me to reconcile gain/loss reports. I didn’t know what a mutual fund was, much less what I was reconciling.
However, I progressed along in my understanding of the business by doing whatever was asked of me. Sometimes that meant standing at a copy machine and scanning in documents for hours, running billing for the firm, analyzing portfolios of prospects, or trading client accounts each week.
A few years into this, I took over a primary role of reviewing 401(k) plans for companies and helping to educate employees about the company benefit and saving for retirement. I loved being able to work with complex topics but also serving the everyday American. Most people weren’t rich, but they needed the help and appreciated it. I also started pursuing my CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM (CFP®) designation around this time as well. The CFP is the gold standard in the industry, and many consumers consider it a requirement to work with a financial advisor. It covers cash management/budgeting, risk management (insurance), investment planning, retirement planning, estate planning, and college planning. It’s a lot, but it’s much more fun to go beyond just investments. I began to think “Man, it would be so cool to have my own firm where I could do this!”, but I knew I didn’t have enough gray hair for most people to take me seriously when it came to providing financial advice.
In 2011, I picked up my life in Oklahoma City and moved to Fort Wort. I worked for another firm locally but only stayed there about 2 years, again attempting to work on my CFP®. The primary reason was related to my investment philosophy and that of the firms. They were more into trading in and out of the market, and I was more into low-cost, broadly diversified strategies. Additionally, they didn’t want to work with 401(k) plans and that was a huge letdown because I felt like I finally hit my stride in the kind of clients I liked working with.
As luck would have it, I was posting on LinkedIn about a new regulation that 401(k) plans were going to have to abide by and saw a job at Fidelity Investments as a Managing Director, working with 401k clients. I had some connections there and leveraged them to get to the interview and ultimately landed the job!
I did that specifically for about 5 years before going into leadership. In 2018, I had a unique opportunity where Texas Tech was flying professors to the Fidelity campus to teach their Masters of Personal Financial Planning program in a cohort format. This would also count towards what I needed to become a CFP, I had always wanted my masters, and Fidelity had a tuition reimbursement benefit. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass. I figured I would always retire from Fidelity, but I was old enough to know that life throws curveballs. So, I took this opportunity to get my masters and work towards my CFP® as an insurance policy for my career – never really thinking I would need it.
Also, during this time, I obtained what I thought was my dream job as a Vice President of Relationship Management where I lead of team of Managing Directors who helped companies run their 401(k) plans. I was responsible for 13 team members and 900 clients that comprised $8 billion in assets. I felt on top of the world as, at the time, a 32-year VP at one of the largest financial firms in the world, wrapping up my masters, and loving my life. Then March 2020 hit.
The biggest thing that changed in my life was that I was no longer commuting to work one hour there and one hour back (I’m in Crowley and was driving to Southlake daily). Quick math says that’s 10 hours a week, 40 hours a month, 520 hours a year of my life I just got back. I didn’t realize the impact that commute had on my life! I wrapped up my masters in May of that year and sat for the CFP® exam in September 2020, successfully passing on my first attempt. I was spending more time with family and friends and enjoying this work from home life.
As time continued on, I kept having this thought of opening my own firm. I wasn’t sure why because I was having such a successful career at Fidelity and making a great living. But I think what the past few years has shown is that life is not about making more and more money and to continue climbing the corporate ladder. I was able to spend more time doing the things I liked and taking care of myself more. I was able to leverage the extra time from not committing to take my daughter to school each day, go cycling and train for triathlons. My wife would comment that she felt like I was happier and that means a lot!
So between getting that gray hair, gaining 15 years of industry experience, having a solid education foundation in a masters of personal financial planning, becoming a CFP®, enjoying more of my life at home, and a wife plus friends and family encouraging this, I set out on my own to open Chisholm Wealth Management and serve both 401(k) plan sponsors and provide financial planning to individuals and families. I’m not particularly a big risk taker, but we planned well to make this move and have always landed on the worst thing that happens is I fail and go back to work for someone in the future!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been nearly as smooth as I thought nor nearly as bad as it could be.
Struggles for me were:
- I no longer had a team to bounce thoughts off of.
- I no longer had an organization where “there was a person for that” and I could go to them.
- I’m truly solo. My wife listens, but I can’t talk client stuff with her and some of this can get boring if you’re not in the business.
- It sounds fun being a business owner, but I’m literally wearing all the hats in a solo firm. So, I don’t get to always spend time on the things I love, I have to spend time on things that I don’t particularly like.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Chisholm Wealth Management?
I offer two lines of service:
- Personal Financial Planning: I offer a subscription-based model (starting at $300 a month) for personal financial planning and an assets under management fee for investment management. What does this mean? You don’t need to have $500,000+ to work with me as a financial advisor! I actually have no minimum requirements! If you’re looking for help with investments, retirement planning, insurance reviews, estate reviews, college planning, budgeting and how they all work together, then that’s where I come in. The best part, I’ll never try to sell you a financial product. I often help small business owners, but I’m open to working with all sorts!
- Retirement Plan Consulting: I help companies start, fix and/orrun their 401(k) plan, focusing on start-up plans up to $10M in plan assets. Throughout my years in working in this space, I’ve seen these plans lost in the shuffle of providers and neglected until they grow larger. Unfortunately, that means these plans have expensive funds (a lot with embedded commissions) and expensive admin costs – at the expense of the employees! I help keep these costs in check as well as helping the plan sponsor stay compliant since 401(k) is not their day job. I finally pair all of this with employee education and advice.
Pricing:
- A typical personal client is a minimum of $3,600 a year (paid monthly or quarterly)
- Start-up 401(k) plans range between $2,500 and $5,000 paid by the company, until the plan is large enough to sustain the fee.
- Established 401(k) plans range between 0.25% – 0.50% per year, typically paid by the plan.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ChisholmWM.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/
jarrod-sandra/
