Talk to any financial planner out there and most—if not all—will agree that it’s never too early to start saving money.
Certified financial planner Aaron Clark agrees. How you go about doing that is all up to you, and people like Clark are there to help.
Clark is a certified financial planner (CFP) for Monarch Wealth Strategies. Originally based in Santa Barbara, he’s now taking his team of CFPs to Santa Maria.
Although Clark opened Monarch in Santa Barbara in 2008, he wanted to make a bigger presence in the county. It dawned on him: why not Santa Maria?
He ended up coming across John Ross, who currently owns John Ross Financial in Santa Maria. Ross is retiring on April 30 this year, but he hit it off with Clark and his crew and discovered that Clark was the right fit for the clientele Ross will be leaving behind.
“What we found was a mirror image of the type of clients and investments they had,” Clark said. “We want to highlight the fact that we’re picking up where John Ross left off, and we’d like to grow more in the Santa Maria area.”
He discovered that the market is not as saturated in North County in terms of financial planning. With this in mind, he established his Santa Maria office in May 2015.
If you’re wondering whether to trust Clark, just consider one thing: He knows what he’s doing. After all, he’s a CFP and he has a master’s degree. More importantly, he’s not an outsider. He grew up in Santa Barbara, went to college in San Diego, and returned in 2003.
By coming to Santa Maria, Clark is expanding his company’s footprint and putting Monarch on the map, again. He said his main goal is to focus on clients and what their needs are. It sounds like a no-brainer as far as customer service goes, but Clark said you’d be surprised.
“It gets to the point where the clients become just numbers in big firms,” Clark told the Sun. “We really want to personalize our service.
Clark staffs his Santa Maria office with at least three financial planners and keeps a similar office structure at the one down south. Most of his clients are retirees or people who have acquired their wealth over time and want to preserve it.
Although there is no threshold to quality for Monarch’s services, Clark said clients can get the best results from his services with a portfolio worth $1 million or more. And when he says portfolio, he means diversification—mutual funds, investment properties, and having good insurance to boot.
“Your financial picture is like a machine,” Clark told the Sun. “You might have the motor, and the battery, and you want to make sure that you’re maintaining it well, like any other machine. Like with a human being, with a heart and a brain, you want to make sure everything’s working well.”
There is no “one shoe” that fits all, Clark said, adding that anybody should be able to retire with the right plan and the right amount of time.
“We’re less about you trying to hit a home run, but you’re never going to strike out with us,” Clark said.
Clark’s office is located in the southeast corner of Broadway and Betteravia, but you wouldn’t know it because he doesn’t even have a sign on the building yet. But Clark said that’s coming, and by May 1 he’s hoping the transition will be complete.
Monarch Wealth Strategies is located at 2222 S. Broadway, suite B. For more information, call Clark at 614-4999, 259-3111, or email him at aaron@mwsus.com.
Highlights
• On Jan. 8, Keller Williams Realty’s Santa Maria branch selected associates for its 2016 Agent Leadership Council (ALC). The selection includes Krista Murchison, Duke Parmelly, Paul Rodriguez, Misty Means, and Danny Batsalkin, who is the council’s operating principal. The ALC is made up of top associates and backed on various committees by agents in the office. The council allows agents to express their input into the policies of the company. Keller Williams is a franchised, international real estate company that’s headquartered in Texas. More information on Keller Williams can be found at kw.com. Call 310-5170 for more information on the local office.
Staff Writer David Minsky wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, email, or mail.
This article appears in Jan 14-21, 2016.