COVER STORY | YOUNG ADVISORS TO WATCH
Valerie Rivera , CFP
Founder / FirstGen Wealth / Chicago
IF DOUBLING YOUR INCOME IS an affirmation of an advisor ’ s success , Valerie Rivera has hit the payload . She ’ s projected to earn $ 250,000 just two years after launching her own firm , aptly named FirstGen Wealth . Money , however , was not Rivera ’ s primary driver . “ I was never seeking to go off on my own , but after being at multiple firms I felt like I was contributing to the wealth divide ,” says Rivera , 38 , a first-generation Latina American wealth builder from the southside of Chicago .
She started her own firm in June 2020 to work with her ideal client , “ people who are like me and my friends , the first to build wealth in their family .” FirstGen Wealth had a wait list after six months and now serves 50 clients .
Rivera ’ s ingenious fee model allows her to work profitably with households earning between $ 150,000 and $ 300,000 annually . Clients pay an up-front $ 1,500 fee and an annual fee , paid monthly or quarterly ( singles pay $ 400 a month , couples $ 525 ). Investment management , done by a third-party custodian , is free up
to $ 750,000 in assets , then costs 0.25 %. Rivera also offers a fourmonth foundational boot camp ($ 4,000 ), and a group coaching program ($ 1,500 ) for those who earn less than $ 100,000 and want to jump-start their financial plans .
Today , she proudly works with an “ extremely diverse clientele , including Indian , Chinese , Black , white and Latino clients .” She ’ s usually the first advisor her clients have had ( if you don ’ t count the wealthy ones who followed her from former firms , even though she wasn ’ t first-generation wealth ). “ There are so many people to help and they ’ re so turned off by the industry ’ s focus on going upmarket . That isn ’ t what I aspire to . I want to make the biggest impact possible ,” she says .
Rivera also hosts an “ Ask Me Everything ” virtual session once a month to encourage diversity and help advisors brainstorm about how to fast-track their own careers . “ I ’ m doing very well . But it ’ s not because I ’ m great , it ’ s because there are so few Latina advisors with CFPs . We ’ re just over 1 % of the industry . The biggest challenge I see is getting people to stay in the industry , because it ’ s not very welcoming ,” Rivera says .
Danqin Fang , CFP , CFA , RLP
Austin , Texas
DANQIN FANG ’ S JOURNEY FROM being a frustrated corporate accountant in Nanjing , China , to landing her dream job as a lead financial advisor in Austin , Texas , took 6,538 miles and 14 years . More important , it took the kind of planning and focus — called “ intentionality ” these days — that most young advisors want , but few have .
But how else could she have positioned herself to teach a Dragonfly Fest workshop in Lockhart , Texas , entitled “ Yoga Your Soul to Your Money ,” that includes guided meditation on money and open sharing of the participants ’ financial experiences , money stories and heart ’ s desires ?
“ I ’ m a bit idealistic . I want to do things in a very ideal way before I yield to the reality that I have to compromise ,” says Fang , now 36 . “ One thing I have learned on my journey is I prefer to compromise as little as possible . Instead , I ’ m willing to work hard to find creative solutions .”
Fang ’ s process for success begins with setting a goal and working backward to fill in the stepping stones needed to take her where she wants to go . Case in point : The day she walked onto the
Texas Tech campus to earn her master ’ s degree in financial planning , Fang looked ahead to her eventual job hunt .
“ I thought about what I needed on my resume , what I wanted it to look like . The different elements that had to be there ,” she says . And so she started knocking them off the list , from internships to networking to being the teaching assistant to carefully chosen professors . She did the same to get from recent graduate to lead advisor at Austin Asset by the time she was 34 .
For her clients , that intentionality is equally important . It ’ s not enough , she says , to crunch expenses and assets to determine whether a client can retire when planned . True client service requires talking deeply about goals and aspirations , and then working backward to get there .
“ There ’ s so much more under the surface . I ’ ve seen clients where their behavior doesn ’ t line up with their goals ,” says Fang , a Registered Life Planner with the Kinder Institute . She recently left Austin Asset in order to put holistic planning front and center . “ In these situations , the mind-to-mind talk doesn ’ t work anymore . That ’ s why I ’ m such a big fan of a life-planning approach to my client work .”
MAY 2024 | FINANCIAL ADVISOR MAGAZINE | 41