CEO Report: Second Quarter

Jeff Petersen CEO Report - Petersen Hastings

It seems almost like yesterday that this former teaching tennis professional made the decision in 1986 to follow in my father’s footsteps and dive head first into the wealth management profession. There are a lot of similarities between the two professions. You need to have a disciplined approach, work hard on your craft, be a good listener, understand the psychology behind behaviors, and truly care about those that you serve. A few days ago, a fellow colleague inquired about my competitive tennis career. He asked me if tennis was fun because of the competition or the pure joy of playing. I thought, “Wow!”, I had never been asked this question before, and it has resulted in quite a bit of self-reflection around the question. My instinctive answer was the competition was the source of fun. I always enjoyed working closely with a coach to set realistic goals and map out the activity that must take place to improve the probability of success. The competition was always my report card on how well I executed on the plan.

While I approach a “big birthday”, and I have additional reflection time as I recover from a season ending injury, defining “fun” becomes much more complicated. There are additional factors like the relationships, both physical and mental exercise, and yes, the competition. So fun needs to be put in a proper context based upon each of these factors and each day may be different.

Our wealth management needs evolve in a similar way. We work hard to save for our “Golden Years”, to provide for our family, and in many cases, a charity we are passionate about. Most financially successful individuals and families engage a professional to make sure they are on the right track. This decision helps them avoid the situation of looking back after a decade or more and learning that they have permanently lost ground due to a flaw in their plan (or not having a plan).

We have developed our “Areas of Expertise” to meet these evolving client needs. If we consider our investments as the fuel propelling our financial plan to success, we are able to properly link the investment strategy with the financial plan goal of providing for the “Golden Years”, the family, and charitable activity. To provide our clients with the best tools available to achieve financial success, we developed the Petersen Hastings Private Trust so that family heirs will not be involuntarily left in an awkward position of making financial decisions for their siblings or other family members. Our Corporate Retirement Plan services insure that your company retirement plan is managed for the benefit of the participants with diversified and institutional low cost investment options. This way, there is more money (fuel) going towards your financial plan. We all want our charitable contributions to make a real difference and stretch as far as possible. That is why we offer fiduciary education to non-profit Boards of Directors and a low cost institutional investment process.

Yes, it seems almost like it was yesterday that I entered a profession that has allowed our Team to serve so many clients in each of our four primary areas of expertise. For this we are honored and thankful for our ongoing relationship with each and every client. I am proud to say that meeting the needs of our clients is fun!