CheckMate

The latest On Wall Street magazine has a short piece by Donald Froude, the Head of U.S. Distribution at Legg Mason, where he talks about his life and long career.

A lot of it is what you might expect, but the most important part you might not:

“Growing up, I had little exposure to people who invested, so I thought my job would be dealing with wealthy people who wanted to get wealthier. The client who changed my whole attitude was a prospect I had talked to for months. One day, he said he liked what I was saying and what I was trying to do and wanted to come in and meet me.

“Norman” was an older gentleman. He was a single parent; the father of a child who was severely mentally and physically challenged. He wanted to make sure that when he passed away, his son wouldn’t have to be institutionalized. I was stunned. I could see from his face that he wanted to pass that responsibility to me. I realized then that clients weren’t all just interested in material goods.

Norman and I went through good and bad markets but continued to reaffirm our goals together. He was my client for 19 years–until I turned my book over. I felt a strong responsibility to shepherd that money. It taught me how important our job really is.”

And that’s what becoming a financial advisor is really about…

You can read the whole thing here.

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