Our Beginning to Your Future

More than financial planning

'Better Financial Health in 15 Minutes (or less!)' Podcast

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Financial planning. That’s a term that I never heard growing up. My dad sold life insurance. That wasn’t a glamorous profession but he worked hard to make sure that families had enough life insurance to make sure their families would be financially okay if the primary breadwinner passed away unexpectedly. After the wife of one of his clients was killed in a tragic car accident, he also came to understand that stay-at-home wives provided a lot of valuable services that were now costly to replace by a bewildered single father grieving for his wife.

My dad loved getting to know people and a sales career gave my dad a good deal of flexibility with his schedule. While he was often in his home office making phone calls for at least an hour or so each night, he almost never missed a game or performance that his kids were involved in. We also took Tuesday day trips to a local lake. My friends and I loved those days where we were one of the few people out boating and skiing. Dad was smart. By offering to take a group of kids to the lake, he knew our friends. He was able to talk to us about the choices we make with work. The value (and risks) of a sales profession. How important it was to save for a “rainy” day and the joys of being able to spend time with family and friends. Who would’ve thought that those lessons helped lead me to my career in financial planning? I didn’t go to college, graduate and start working as a financial planner. Early in my career, I worked as a Manager at Ernst & Young in their municipal finance consulting practice. It was as boring as that sounds. It took a couple of wrong turns, but eventually I discovered financial planning and I knew that it would be my career.

I generally work with two types of clients – Individual financial planning clients and employees and retirees of Nucor Corporation. The individual clients usually seek me out because they are going through some type of transition: death of a spouse, retirement, divorce, new business owner or the idea of continuing as a “do it yourself-er” loses its appeal. Most of my clients would be considered “millionaire next door” types. They’ve worked hard for most of their lives, they live relatively modestly and are close to their families. Their concerns are primarily centered around health care, having enough money to maintain their lifestyle and being able to help out their kids and grandkids financially. For those who have lost a spouse, our work is more delicate. We have to help them re-orient themselves to a new way of life that is neither welcome nor wanted. In those cases, we acknowledge their grief, anger, loneliness and a myriad of other feelings and try very hard to limit the decisions that must be made immediately. Having cash from life insurance sit for 6 months in a bank account while a widow decides her next steps is not a bad thing. Yes, it might earn more if it were invested, but at what cost to the person?

Many of the articles I read talk about the niche that you serve. I’ve given this a great deal of thought over the past year. The common themes among my clients are these: single women primarily through widowhood, but some through divorce; happily married couples where the husband wants his wife to more fully participate in the family’s finances and investments; and finally, gay and lesbian couples.

Other clients we see are those that we meet with due to our relationship with their employer, Nucor Steel. We hold group meetings to educate them on their employer benefits and also hold meetings to help them prepare for retirement. We also meet with them one-on-one to help them more broadly with budgeting, credit management, goal setting, estate planning and utilizing other employer provided benefit programs (employee stock plans, flex spending accounts, disability programs, etc.). For many of these teammates, we are their first and maybe only interaction with a financial planner. If we can get them on the right track early, we can change the financial trajectory of their family for the better. That’s just cool!

After working as a financial planner since 1995, I’ve learned a few things. People’s relationship with money is often rooted in childhood experiences. For those that grew up with parents that catered to their every whim, saving for the future is difficult. At some point, we realize that we internalize so many of the lessons that our parents taught us either explicitly or through example. Losing my mom to cancer when I was just 21 and she was only 46 had a profound impact on me. I realized at that moment, that while saving for the future and working hard were important – so were those that I loved and spending time with them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big saver, but we’ve gone on so many amazing trips with our kids and have truly learned to appreciate giving back to our community through service and monetary support.

We’ve named our firm Envision Financial Planning. The dictionary defines Envision as “to imagine as a future possibility.” I’ve now realized my future possibility with the founding of our firm. We’re beyond excited to help you Envision your future!

We will:
Our approach is to discover a client’s goals, determine the personal financial plan that is needed, and aid the client in reaching those goals. Our success is measured by how well our clients achieve their goals.
Hank has had a distinguished career in the financial services industry, including more than 40 years in the financial planning and securities fields. From 1985 to 2013, Hank provided fee-only financial planning services through his firm, Lifetime Planning, Inc. Hank merged his practice with Stacey’s in 2014. In addition, Hank is a member of both the local and the national chapters of the Financial Planning Association (FPA).
Hank received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Mississippi, where he also lettered in football. He received his initial securities training at Merrill Lynch. He was a financial planning consultant for the Memphis office of Ernst & Young and financial planner at Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. from 1982 through 1984. In April 1984, Hank completed his CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional requirements with the College for Financial Planning in Denver, Colorado.
In addition to his financial planning practice, Hank has enjoyed serving on the boards of Presbyterian Day School, Second Presbyterian Church, University of Mississippi, and the Christian Community Foundation. Hank served as the chief financial officer of the Christian Community Foundation from its inception in October 1998 until October 2000. Hank enjoys reading, hunting, and attending baseball and college football games.
Clay serves Envision Financial Planning’s clients as the investment officer and portfolio manager. His duties include overseeing the firm’s investment process and money management strategies with a strong focus on “goals-based” investment planning.
As a firm, we believe in concentrating on things we can control such as:
Clay is a native Memphian and a graduate of the University of Mississippi. He began his career working for a regional broker/dealer specializing in fixed-income securities, and prior to joining Envision, Clay was an investment research analyst and portfolio manager for a private wealth management firm in Memphis. Clay currently holds his FINRA Series 66 securities registration and obtained his CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation in 2021.
In his free time, Clay enjoys playing golf, exercising, reading, and cooking with friends and family. He and his wife, Margot, have two boys named Callan and Wiley.