Ozarks Profile: Steven Young

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Tell us about your company:|ret||ret||tab|

I offer objective, unbiased, financial planning and advice on an hourly as-needed basis. The most exciting part of my business is that I work with middle-income people. It's really difficult to add value to a very wealthy client. They have already achieved most, if not all, of their life goals, but planning for middle-income individuals is where the challenge and risk are heightened. Planning will make the difference between a comfortable retirement or spending their golden years penny pinching and worried about paying for basic living expenses. |ret||ret||tab|

My practice works much like a doctor's or attorney's practice. Clients call or visit when they have a need, and they pay only for the amount of time spent evaluating their financial situation, providing specific recommendations and/or implementation assistance. By taking an hourly fee-only approach to financial planning, my compensation comes directly from my clients; I do not sell or receive commissions from the sale of investments, insurance or other financial products. This method of delivering financial planning removes conflicts of interest and ensures that all my clients receive unbiased advice and a genuine client-comes-first attitude. |ret||ret||tab|

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How did you arrive in this position?|ret||ret||tab|

In the mid to late 1990s, I found myself in a position of needing financial advice. I had questions like: Is my retirement nest egg adequate? Will it provide me and my family with enough income in our retirement years? I will have two children in college at the same time, how much is this going to cost and where should I save to meet this looming obligation? |ret||ret||tab|

To get answers to my questions, I visited with several financial advisors. What I quickly discovered was that these advisors were not in the business of giving advice and had nothing more than a computer-generated generic financial plan, but they all advised me to purchase investment products. |ret||ret||tab|

For less than the brokers wanted me to invest in their products, I paid the tuition at the College for Financial Planning in Denver, and two years later I had the knowledge to solve my own financial questions. |ret||ret||tab|

The course work at the College for Financial Planning qualified me to sit for the Certified Financial Planner board of standards test, which I did in the summer of 2000. After completing the three-year experience requirement, I was licensed to use the CFP designation in January 2003. |ret||ret||tab|

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What is your business/management philosophy?|ret||ret||tab|

Planning has nothing to do with buying financial products; it has everything to do with accomplishing goals and turning dreams into realities. |ret||ret||tab|

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You were recently featured in Investment Advisor and pictured on the cover. How did that come about?|ret||ret||tab|

Investment Advisor has an annual piece about "New Faces of Planning." They were looking for someone who had transitioned into financial planning from another field. I was recommended by Sherly Garrett and Marie Swift of the Garrett Planning Network. My background in agriculture was very interesting to the editor, and I feel very fortunate to have been selected for the article.|ret||ret||tab|

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Have you gotten much feedback from that yet?|ret||ret||tab|

Investment Advisor is not widely read by the public, but I have received several interesting e-mails from friends and colleagues from within the planning community. |ret||ret||tab|

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What are your biggest challenges and how do you handle them?|ret||ret||tab|

My biggest challenge is to re-educate people on what planning is and how it can help to build a more promising financial future. |ret||ret||tab|

The brokerage industry has used financial planning as a tool to further the sales of products, and now many people are wary of the term, thinking it will only lead to them having to buy a bag full of products. |ret||ret||tab|

I think this is a good analogy of where we are today in financial planning: If you're walking down the street and you experience chest pain, where do you go? Without exception the answer is, "I go to my doctor." No one has yet to answer, "I go to the pharmacy." Yet when we experience financial pain or just have financial questions we always seem to end up at the financial pharmacy. The situation becomes even more confusing when you consider the fact that some salespeople are actually qualified to give advice and planning, but which ones and how do we know? Do we even know what questions to ask to find out?|ret||ret||tab|

To give consumers a clear choice and completely unbiased look at their financial situation, I have chosen not to sell products. I am free from the conflict on interest inherent in sales and can focus on long-term planning and advice. Planning is a process, not an event.|ret||ret||tab|

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Tell us about your family.|ret||ret||tab|

Sue Ellen, my wife of 28 years, is an officer at a locally owned bank in Ozark County. We have three grown children. Our oldest son, Christoper John, is flying with an Air Force AWAX crew out of Oklahoma City, Okla. Our second son, Matthew, is in his third year of college at Central Missouri State in Warrensburg, and our daughter, Emily, is just completing her second year of college and preparing to move to Springfield where she will attend Cox School of Nursing.|ret||ret||tab|

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