I would like to introduce our newest employee, Thomas Kone. I met Thomas and his family through our shared love of basketball. He is a good friend of my son Hayden, and we have known him and his family since the 7th grade (my, how time flies!). Thomas and Hayden played middle and high school basketball together. Thomas reached out to me earlier this year looking for a summer internship, and he joined us in June. As an intern, he was influential in helping us find new ways to more effectively utilize our technology platforms. Thomas brings a skill set that is, quite honestly, something we haven’t seen and he adds tremendous value to the team. He is currently working on his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science while helping us out on a part-time basis. It’s a really great feeling to see Thomas grow up and blossom right before my eyes, and I couldn’t be happier to have him join the One Wealth team. Welcome Thomas!
As the resident technology lead at One Wealth Advisors, last week I had the opportunity to attend the Coachella of tech conferences: Dreamforce. Dreamforce is sponsored by Salesforce, a company that builds Client Relationship Management (CRM) systems for organizations, including OWA. The theme of this year’s conference was Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how it can help different types of companies, including Financial Planning firms, in a variety of areas, such as predictive analytics, risk management and AI enhanced customer solutions.
At One Wealth Advisors, a primary driver behind the growth of our business has been from client referrals. Our philosophy has been that the more we focus on client service and planning, the more clients might be inclined to introduce us to a friend, family member or any other individual in their network. Upon being introduced to a prospective client, oftentimes we are asked, “What is your minimum?” When we first started One Wealth my favorite answer was to say, “Our minimums are nice people!”
If someone asked you today, how do you feel about the economy, what would you say? What about the stock market? If you follow the news, what is your perception of 2023? These questions may feel quite loaded, but they have been on my mind as we approach the end of the year.
About five months ago, I wrote a One Wealth Perspective on an important goal I had set out to achieve: passing the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER exam. On Friday, November 3rd, after 14 months and approximately 1200 hours of studying, 170 questions and 6 hours in a cubicle at a Reno testing center, and maybe a few tears later, I did just that.