Other than agriculture, I always knew the world of finance was where my heart lay. At age 22, witnessing a relative's experience with two investment advisors solidified what I believe about the financial planning profession: that the financial planning process - thinking through your goals and working with somebody who understands them to create a sound financial plan - is the best way to go about investing your money.

After more than fifty years of work, my relative finally had a little money to invest, and he let a slick, New York stock broker invest it for him. Initially, the advice was good. He bought good stocks. They did well. But then he recommended selling them and buying other stocks. Well, it became a transaction-oriented relationship, and resulted in significant losses as well as the realization that the broker had no idea who my relative was, what his needs were, and what his long-term goals were.

So my relative went to a local broker, who invested in his money in solid mutual funds that would have done well, but on October 19, 1987 the stock market crashed. The broker called and said, "I hate that you lost so much money. If this is a real concern, you probably ought not to be in the market in the first place." So he sold my relative fixed investments, which locked in market losses of 30 to 40%. As the market quickly turned around and regained what it had lost, my relative did not.

On these two occasions, it was clear that the client-broker relationship was more about the brokers and their commissions than about doing what was best for the client.

That's when I got involved. This all happened at about the time I came out of college and began looking for full-time employment. I went with a company that, at the time, was as good at the financial planning process as anyone. I learned the importance of laying out a client's assets, liabilities, income, and expenses, of talking about their goals - short term, long-term, risk management, and estate planning - and of looking at the big picture, not just one thing at a time, to develop a plan that works over the long term. Adjustments are always necessary along the way as life changes and goals change, but the big picture usually doesn't change.

I also learned that how we make adjustments is just as important. I am a true believer in long-term investing. I don't believe you can outsmart the market. Yes, it is more volatile today than ever, but to me the only way to stay in it is with a long-term perspective. I saw a statistic this week showing that the average stock fund returned over 9% per year over the last 20 years, yet the typical stock market investor averaged only 3.43%. If you only watch short-term gyrations and listen to the news every day, you'll never make the right decisions; most people don't.

That's a quick summary of my story, my beliefs as a financial advisor, and why I am here at Legacy Advisors, Inc. It's a joy to work with two other individuals, Bill Hurley and Drew Burton, who share my beliefs and commitment to our clients.