October 17, 2024 • 41 mins
Join us as we uncover the remarkable journey of Judy Tocco, the President and CEO of Aspire Wealth Partners. Judy's story is one of transformation and adaptability, revealing how she pioneered a position from VP of Operations at a credit union to becoming a Certified Financial Planner and starting her own wealth management company. Her narrative is an inspiring testament to creative thinking and the power of seizing opportunities even when they come in unexpected forms.
Judy discusses her thoughts on the evolution of the financial industry and the landscape of investing today, including meme stocks and the rise of digital currencies. Judy's candid discussion also sheds light on the challenges women face in finance and the potential of women-led firms to excel. Don't miss this captivating episode that not only chronicles a career in finance but also offers invaluable lessons on resilience, leadership, and never being afraid to fail.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
People are coming to see you with the hope that they
can do something more than whatthey're doing right now, but I
think you just don't have to beafraid to fail.
I mean, what's the big deal?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello and welcome to Everyone Is.
I am your host, jenniferCoronado.
The intent of this show is toengage with all types of people
and build an understanding thatanyone who has any kind of
success has achieved thatsuccess because they are a
creative thinker.
So, whether you are an artistor a cook or an award-winning
journalist, who has any kind ofsuccess has achieved that
success because they are acreative thinker.
So, whether you are an artistor a cook or an award-winning
(00:32):
journalist, everyone hassomething to contribute to the
human conversation.
And now, as they say, on withthe show, judy Togo was the
president and CEO of AspireWealth Partners out of Tucson,
arizona, which started its lifeas Togo Financial Company that
she founded, and we are heretoday to talk about her life and
her life as a financial planner.
(00:53):
So welcome, judy, to EveryoneIs.
Thank you.
One of the best things that Iliked about us talking was when
we were trying to schedule timewith you.
You were like, oh yeah, I wouldbe happy to do your podcast,
but I just retired and I have togo party in Nashville.
And I was like, all right, yes,we've picked the right person
for this podcast.
We all have our priorities, jen, that's right, like I was
(01:18):
thinking.
The Ariana Grande song, yes,and that's the life you were
living in at that moment.
So thank you for joining ustoday.
Before we get into your life asa financial planner, I want to
talk a little bit about yourlife in general.
Were you born in Tucson,arizona?
Yeah, big family, little family.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I've got a younger brother two years younger than
me, older brother 10 years olderthan me, so you were the middle
kid.
Yeah, the middle kid.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
When you were a little kid, were you into math?
Was that a thing that you weregood at or interested in?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I was always really good at school.
I was one of those people thatdidn't really need to study much
and usually got A's Dean's List, Honor Society.
Nothing really came hard to meat school.
Some things didn't interest meat all, but I still did okay at
them.
One of the things that I usedto hate was history.
(02:07):
I thought it was so boring.
Now I think it's fascinating.
You grow up and realize maybethere is something to be learned
from the past.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, You're living history every day and you don't
even know it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Exactly, but didn't plan on being in this business.
Actually, back in the day the Uof A was recruiting women as
physicians and they tried totalk me into taking the MSATs
and I really did think about it.
But at that point it was like,okay, at the age they were
bringing that up and the yearsit would have taken to get there
(02:38):
, it was like no, I don't wantto do that.
My original career path was law.
I wanted to be an attorney andI started off on that path and
after about two semesters I wasready to hang myself.
It was the most boringoccupation you know, and if it
wasn't boring it was like okay,what part of law are you going
(02:58):
to go into?
Corporate law Super boring.
I'd just been reading 200 pagesof contracts for the sale of
the business.
Oh my God.
Really glad I didn't go intothat.
But just on accident I got intobanking, started off with
Mountain Bells Credit Union atthe time, left there, went to
(03:20):
what was Hughes Missile SystemsCredit Union and I hired in
there back in 85 as the VP ofoperations.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
How did you get hired into the VP of operations role?
What did you have to have inorder to get that role at the
credit union?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Well, basically experience in banking and I had
a few years with Mountain Bellso they took it over.
The credit union was a lotsmaller then when I started than
it is now.
I was on the advisory board forVisa.
I used to fly out to Californiaevery quarter for board
meetings and do things like that.
I ran everything that happensfor you as a client of a bank or
(03:56):
a credit union your checks,your credit cards, your loans,
your home mortgages, yourpayroll deposits, things like
that.
I ran all the back office stuff.
And after a couple of years theboard did a survey of the
members of Hughes, which at thattime was just strictly Hughes.
So they asked what are theservices that we don't have that
(04:18):
you guys would be interested in?
And one of the things theymentioned that was high up on
their list was investmentservices.
I had no experience ininvestment services.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So you said I'm going to do that because I have no
experience.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Pretty much this was my interview, to be honest with
you.
The board met on whatever nightit was.
The next day a couple of theboard members came into my
office and said this is whatwe're thinking about doing.
The board wants to pursue this.
We really don't know anythingabout it.
Are you interested in it?
I was like I guess I could beand their whole question was
(04:52):
they didn't know anything either.
Do you know what an annuity is?
Really I didn't and I said yeah, I got the concept of it.
So if you want it, you can stopbeing VP of operations.
You can start a new corporationfor us and do the investment
arm of it.
So I didn't really realize whatthat entitled, but I was kind
(05:15):
of sick of doing the back stuff.
Wasn't too much excitementgoing on there.
So I started the corporation,met with the attorneys, got the
licenses.
Then I had to go get licensed.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
You did all the sort of legal things that you were
avoiding.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So I had to go get licensed and do all of that, Did
it and I loved it.
It was just like it was justlike always solving a puzzle to
me.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So when you had to get licensed, what does that
mean?
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
To be able to offer securities you have to take
federal exams.
So you have to take like theseries six or series seven.
I took both One's for likemutual fund, one's for general
security, stocks, bonds, all themiscellaneous stuff.
Then you have to get the lawpart of it, the series 65, 66,
the blue sky law part of it.
And then if you're going tosell insurance or insurance
related products, you have toget a state insurance license in
(06:14):
every state you're going to dobusiness in.
And then I wanted to become acertified financial planner
because to me, when you get aseries six or a seven or an
insurance license, I would sayyou're just smart enough to be
dangerous.
So I went and got the certifiedfinancial planner Because to me
, when you get a series six or aseven or an insurance license,
I would say you're just smartenough to be dangerous.
So I went and got the CFP.
During that time too, I wasworking on finishing my
bachelor's, started my master's,started the CFP, which is
(06:38):
another master's level course.
It's a two-year thing.
It's kind of like the CPA exam,except for it's a little bit
more holistic.
It, you know, it includes likepensions and estate planning law
, taxation, investments,insurance, budgeting, things
like that.
Each there's an each sectiontype thing.
You had to pass each sectionand when I did it you know you
(07:01):
didn't sit at a computer and doit you did for like half of it.
It was a six-hour exam on eachsection and you couldn't
progress until you passed thatsection.
It was like 150 multiple choiceand then they would give you a
case if they wrote up a case onyour financial situation and it
might be a 15-, 20 page casecomplete with financial
(07:25):
statements on you and then youhad to write an essay as to all
the things that you need to doand why it's recommended.
So of course that meant youdidn't get your exam results
back for months because somebodyhad to analyze it and do it.
So luckily, you know, I neverknew should I start studying for
the next section or did I failthis and need to go backwards?
(07:47):
But luckily I passed all sixsections on.
The first time took me abouttwo and a half years because
Evan was little.
So you had a toddler at thattime.
Yep, I used to sit in mykitchen, which is where I had my
computer, and you don't ignorea toddler when you get home, but
I would.
After I put him to bed I wouldgo in the kitchen and start
(08:08):
working.
I had a little computer desk inthere and a lot of times at one
or two o'clock in the morningI'd roll backwards or look
backwards and he'd be asleepbehind my chair on the floor.
So, he's been a mama's boy thewhole time through.
But yeah, it was a lot.
It was a lot of studying anddoing that sort of thing.
(08:29):
But once I got going and then Ihired, at that time Payne Weber
was really big.
I hired a couple of advisorsfrom Payne Weber and I just
never looked back.
Yeah, it was really fun.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Going back, like you know, you looked at law and it
was kind of boring and contractlaw sucked.
And you didn't say sucked, butI'm saying, I'm paraphrasing and
then you got into the financialstuff and you said I loved it.
And what did you love about it?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I think it was the interaction with people.
When you're in law, you'd nevergo see an attorney because
you're happy about somethingright.
You go see an attorney becausethere's some legal problem that
you're in, you're going througha divorce, somebody's suing you
over something.
It was just like it just seemedso negative all of it, Whereas
(09:17):
this was.
People are coming to see youwith the hope that they can do
something more than what they'redoing right now and get to a
goal, whatever that may be.
I mean, everybody's goal is toeventually retire and not have
to go to work right, but goalsare buying houses and goals are
putting kids through school.
There's lots of things.
Everybody's got a differentstory.
(09:38):
Everybody's at a differentphase in their life.
We work with people that arereally pretty young A lot of
young engineers right out ofschool.
We work with A lot ofphysicians and they're so busy
they're like herding cats, butthey're kind of fun to work with
too.
Engineers never admit that theydon't know what they're talking
(10:00):
about, and physicians are thefirst ones to say they don't
know it, they don't care, theyknow it.
Just do it for them, you know.
So it's good, you know, youfeel appreciated that way too.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Keeping that in mind, the different types of clients
you've had, do you feel like youhad to adjust who you are to
them a little bit?
Did you find that, or did you?
Were you always?
Did you always take the sameapproach with people?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I would say, for the most part, I'm me.
You know, and when I took thisleap and you're not going to be
a good shit with every clientand you're not going to be a
good fit in every career youdecide you want to try.
I mean, I went through a few,definitely, but I think you just
don't have to be afraid to fail.
I mean, what's the big deal Ifyou fail?
(10:44):
So what?
You stop?
You think, okay, whichdirection do I need to turn?
And you keep going.
So I've never really thought ofmyself as creative, but I've
always been a risk taker.
I guess it's like it works goodIf it doesn't so what?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, we talked a little bit about you know you
worked at Hughes and then youknow you've talked about how you
went on to create your owncompany.
But there's a story I knowabout you, judy, and it's about
when you left the credit unionthe credit union and you your
approach on starting your newbusiness, and I wonder if you
would be open to sharing thatstory.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, when I started the new corporation for the
credit union because creditunions are nonprofits, so they
had to own wholly own acorporation that was a
for-profit.
I mean you don't do financialplanning because you're a priest
, you do it because you want tomake a living and you want to
help people.
So the CEO of the credit unionat the time he just retired
(11:45):
about a year ago.
I mean we're really pretty goodfriends throughout the years.
He was hired about a year afterI was, and I mean he was a
sharp guy, but he was the typethat wouldn't change course
unless he was forced to.
Every year, the same promotionsat the same times, nothing
(12:05):
different, nothing new.
We used to spend hours at timesin meetings me talking about
what color the new branch floorsare going to be stained.
It's like, who cares, I don'tcare.
But he had to have a consensuson everything because I think he
was always afraid to reallytake a leap on his own and I
(12:28):
just got really sick of it.
So he was always the if itain't broke, don't fix it type
of guy, and I was the one of itDon't matter if it's not broke,
it still could be better type.
Right, we finally came to blowsover it.
One day I went in.
It still could be better, right, we finally came to blows over
one day.
I went in I was at a differentbranch came into the main
corporate office where we bothhad our offices and I don't even
(12:53):
know what brought it up, to behonest with you at that point.
But I had a do not compete, donot solicit, you know, contract
with them not to leave.
And we finally just said youknow, this isn't working anymore
.
You are stuck in 15 years ago.
(13:14):
You're afraid to try anythingnew.
I want to keep going.
So we came to terms.
He said well, you're just not agood fit here anymore.
I said I agree with you.
I'm not a good fit here anymore, not under you, because we're
so different in our approach totrying new things.
So we agreed to disagree and Ileft.
(13:36):
They let me out of some of mycontracts.
But the things that they didnot let me out of was the do not
compete and do not solicitcontracts.
Because when I was there atHughes at that time they had
what was called the HughesManagement Club, which was a
certain pay grade and up at theplant site.
So it was mostly like theengineers directors, program
(14:00):
managers, things like that,mostly like the engineers
directors, program managers,things like that.
And I was president of thatclub for two terms running, so I
knew everybody.
So he was a little shaken aboutthat because we had started
building a really nice cashflowbusiness for the credit union.
But my brother and I this was ona Friday that I left I took,
(14:20):
they gave me copies of all mycontracts just to remind me that
they would sue me blind if Idid anything stupid.
And now that's been struck downby the law just in the last
couple of weeks.
You can't take away a person'slivelihood.
And so Joel, my younger brotherand I are talking and he goes.
You know what you should do.
He goes, everybody knows you,he goes, you should just reach
(14:42):
out to them.
I said I cannot reach out tothem, I'll get sued.
So we're looking at thecontract.
It said nothing aboutadvertising.
So what I did is I scrapedtogether some money Billboards
are not inexpensive things but Iput a great big billboard right
outside the main entrance tothe plant site.
(15:03):
So my picture, the new companyname, the phone number, and
that's basically it.
So within hours of thatbillboard going up.
Calls are coming in by thedozens per day and that's what
helped me build my business.
And they got a little miffedabout it and went to their
(15:24):
attorney and the attorney saidyou didn't say she couldn't
advertise and she's not withinthe mile radius of her main
office where you're at.
So too bad, so sad.
So it worked out great.
So I was a one man show forabout a year.
I ran into an office and did myown thing for about a year, got
my first year's taxes done andthe CPA said oh my God, you're
(15:47):
doing great.
You don't have no expenses,build a building.
So that's kind of where itstarted Built the first building
, hired a kid His name was James, he was a really nice guy but
unfortunately he got in a fightwith his girlfriend.
Police report filed In ourbusiness.
You get a police report filedon you, you're gone.
So I had to let him go.
(16:10):
My friend Barb, who I went tohigh school with, was working as
the executive assistant for theCEOs a couple of them at
Crandallet Hospitals.
She had about had it.
So I said why don't you comeover and work with me?
Cause I knew she's super detailoriented and so am I, you know.
So that was really the start.
So we went from me to right now.
(16:32):
The business has about 11people and we're looking like
crazy to hire more because wejust keep growing and it's good.
But you know you have to.
It's hard to find advisorsright now.
You know it really is.
There's a lot of us are in myage group, in the sixties.
You know I don't need to workanymore, I'm tired, I'm sick of
(16:56):
the legal hassles witheverything and all the regs and
Congress, but they can doanything they want and not go to
jail for insider trading andall the other things that you
and I would hang for.
Yeah, so there was a lot ofpeople leaving and I think women
really need to look at this,because I think women are
creative thinkers for the mostpart.
(17:18):
We multitask a whole bunch,whereas I think men are very
smart, but I think they're morefocused on one thing.
When I left, we were with LPLFinancial at the time.
That's the broker dealer thatwe use.
I brought the credit union inTucson along with the credit
union in California, the HughesRaytheon now to LPL.
(17:41):
We did it jointly and when Ileft, when the deals with the
credit union was, I want to beable to stay with LPL.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
If I want to stay with LPL, what is LPL versus
what your company is?
Because part of the things thatyou send out they come from LPL
Financial, but you're your owncompany.
So how do those two work?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
As independent financial advisors, you can
custody your clients' assetswherever you want to right.
So we can custody them atSchwab or Ameritrade or Fidelity
or T Rowe Price or LPL.
What does custody mean?
It means they're the ones thatactually have the trading desks,
(18:25):
they process all the trades,they have all the trading
software.
They're the ones that generatethe statements and send them out
.
So it's not the Bernie Madoffthing where he was doing
everything in his own buildingand those statements were
nothing but lies.
Yeah, totally Right.
So it's kind of that safety netwhere if we got mad at LPL and
(18:48):
said, okay, we've had it, we'removing everybody to Schwab,
Schwab would say, great, we'lldo all those services for you.
So I chose LPL because theydon't have any of their own
proprietary products, whichmeans you know if you're with
Schwab or with Fidelity, theywant you to use their stuff and
sort of it's good, Some of it'snot, and my money's in the same
thing.
So I want what I want Right Formyself and my clients.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
You did the financial advising side of it, and then
LPL does the trading desk Right.
Was that role ever interestingto you?
Like the actual traders?
Like, did you want a wolf ofWall Street?
Is that what you wanted to do,Judy?
Speaker 1 (19:28):
No, because really the traders are.
They work at Wall Street andthey're on the ground screaming
like they did 50 years agoorders.
It's kind of archaic, but no, Ididn't want that.
That to me, is just you're justan order taker, that's.
I'm calling up and saying, hey,jen wants 500 shares of Amazon.
(19:50):
Somebody on the floor is buying500 shares of Amazon In this
case it's going to LPL and thenLPL is taking it to the floor
and when it's aggregated likethat your 500 shares, my 500
shares, everybody else's zillionshares get a little bit better
deal right, rather than doing iton your own, buying a handful
(20:12):
of shares here or there.
So no, I never wanted to dothat.
That isn't any.
There's no problem solvingthere.
It's just processing buy andsell orders Right.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
So for you, like when you're looking at the financial
industry, you've been in it for40 years now, yep.
What are the biggest changesand transitions, and how did you
, as a person, change, shiftyourself to those transitions?
How do you go about doing that?
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I think that kind of jumped into what everything has
evolved to now a little ahead ofthe curve.
I mean, being the CFP, you'rebound as a fiduciary right.
Nobody even heard the wordfiduciary five or 10 years ago.
Now everybody comes in and goesare you a fiduciary?
Yep, have been since the 1990s.
(21:03):
It's like, oh, we didn't knowthey existed back then.
It's like CFPs are alwaysfiduciaries.
The guy with a series seven orthe guy with an insurance
license, he is not a fiduciary.
They can do that.
Standard of care is a lot lessI see.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Well, explain to me what, like I'm a drama major,
what fiduciary means.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Fiduciary basically means, in a nutshell, that
everything we do has got to be100% in your best interest.
Right, with a brokerage with aperson who is not a fiduciary,
just a guy with a series seven,say, or a series six, they might
have two different productsthat would fit your need, right
(21:50):
One who's going to pay them 4%and one's going to pay them 2%.
Which one do you think you'regoing to get?
You're going to get the onethat's going to pay them 4%,
whereas a fiduciary really needsto look and say, hey, these are
comparable, they're the samething.
I can get it for her at halfthe cost.
That's the one we've got to get.
(22:11):
Or the recommendations that wemake have to be based on your
best interest, not in us gettingany kind of reward for it.
And the industry has reallyevolved to where there used to
be some investment products outthere that would pay advisors 10
, even 12%.
Now pretty much they're levelacross the board because they
(22:32):
know they have to answer topeople who want to make sure
their advisor's living up to afiduciary standard.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That's interesting.
I know nothing about investmentAnything I know about
investments.
Honestly, I get from you Fulldisclosure to everyone who's
listening.
So how do you analyze themarket and how do you continue
to educate yourself on how themarket works?
What are the things in themarket that are in play during
the 2008 economic crisis?
How do you wrap your headaround how to deal with things
like that?
What are the things in themarket that are in play during
the 2008 economic crisis?
How do you wrap your headaround how to deal with things
(23:05):
like that?
What are your processes?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
For us, information comes in in a fire hose.
You know, if clients go, I getinformation too.
It's no, you get Yahoo Financefree right, so you get some bias
in there, depending on who'ssponsoring yahoo finance,
whereas with us, there is a lotof white papers put out by
(23:28):
research firms that we subscribeto that we pay a lot of money
for every year just trying toget independent feed, plus all
the investment firms, whetherit's lpl, has got their own
research department, fidelity, tRowe, price, mfs, everybody and
their grandmother has their ownresearch firms and they're
(23:50):
providing their analysis of themarket too.
And I think part of it is justhaving done it for so long, I
mean in 2008, 2007, 2008,.
I had been doing this since1987.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Another financial crisis year.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yes, I think it was the closest I ever came in my
career to saying hell with it.
I'm getting everybody outbecause I was a nervous wreck
and it's my job not to be thenervous wreck, because everybody
else who doesn't do this for aliving doesn't watch it like we
do.
So I came really close.
I did sell out of what werecalled structured notes, which
(24:31):
were bank issued notes, becauseI was really worried that some
of the big banks would fail andthose notes would go for 100,000
down to zero as soon as theyannounced.
That was the only thing I soldout of and I replaced those as
soon as I sold them I boughtback into the market.
Because history shows we havebeen through a lot of crap over
(24:55):
the years economically forhundreds of years.
Right, since the nation started.
There's been good times and badtimes.
But if you just look at ithistorically and calm down, you
have to adjust.
But you don't just get out,because study after study shows
that those people who get scaredout of the market are way
(25:18):
behind the eight ball five 10years down the road.
But I admit that I think was themost unnerving time you know,
when COVID hit was another one.
Yeah, that was such a fast andfurious downturn I mean that was
like 33% downturn on the S&T500 in about 30 days and then
(25:38):
hit bottom, started coming backup right in the middle of all
this mess and you know the phonewas ringing off the hook and
clients are like, oh my God, weshould get out.
We've never done this, no, wehaven't, but if we get out we're
going to shoot ourselves in thefoot.
So what do we do?
We look at different things.
You start getting rid of themore consumer, discretionary
(26:00):
things like restaurants andDisneyland and things that
people were not doing Airlinesyou know things like that and
you get back into the basics.
Right, yeah, the tech industrydid great.
We did tech more than everduring COVID.
I never used Zoom before COVID.
(26:22):
Now it's a routine part of life.
You know we're on Zoom almostevery day, even with clients
that are in town, and we haveclients in 26 different states.
It was like it was kind of niceto see their faces.
You know some people I'd nevermet in person.
So it kind of put a differentelement into the business.
It's a little bit more personal, I think.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
How did you expand across 26 different states?
From Tucson, arizona, westarted basically with Tucson.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
But I had a lot of clients in California too,
because they used to fly backand forth to California and
invest there too.
So a lot of California people.
And then people start movingright, they leave right beyond
our hues and they go to work forIBM in Minnesota.
(27:11):
So we're in Minnesota, or youknow.
Or people retire, you know they.
They say heck with California,heck with Arizona.
I'm going to Nevada wherethere's no state tax, or I'm
going to New Mexico where it'scooler and it's not so crowded
as Arizona.
So just little by little, youknow, just kind of splinters out
.
And then those people refertheir family members, and most
(27:34):
family members don't live in thesame state as where they grew
up.
So it just kind of splinteredout.
So yeah, it's a little bit of ajob because every state has got
their own requirements.
Good thing there's somerepricosity arrangements out
there.
But you know it just spread, itjust grew like wildfire and
(27:54):
still is.
So really lucky for that.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
One of the things I hear a lot in what you're
talking about is sort of theconnections that you've made
over the years.
Like you talked about how youknew so many people when you
were at Hughes and you were ableto take those relationships and
turn that into a business.
So how involved are you in alarger community that keeps you
connected and what do thosecommunities look like and how do
(28:19):
you approach that?
Like you're not an introvert,but how do you approach new
relationships with new clientsor new people in the industry?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Um, with new clients.
You know people come to ouroffice.
It's not going sitting at yourkitchen table and talking about
things, so it's.
It was a comfort level for meand I would have to say I am an
introvert in a lot of situations.
Yeah, I think so, because I'mnot real comfortable in a room
full of people.
(28:50):
I really don't know One of mygood friends.
She comes here from Reno, shelives in Reno.
We'll go somewhere.
We'll know everybody in therestaurant before we're out of
there, because she's talked toeverybody.
I would never do that, but Idon't know.
I think it's a confidence level.
When you're confident in yourabilities to be able to help, I
(29:11):
think you're more likely to getout there and do that.
You know, over the years I'vebeen on a board of a lot of
different charities andorganizations, from Th writing
to Tucson to open, in, which wasa homeless shelter for kids.
Basically, I do a lot of stuffwith Tucson unified school
district, the educationalenrichment foundation, so you
(29:32):
get to know a lot of people thatway too.
Over the last couple of yearsbecause it's so busy in this
transition, because I knew I wasgoing a couple years ago- you
knew you were going to retire.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
You had that plan.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, and there was just so much going on with the
transition of the businesslegally and financially and
everything, I stepped off theboards and said you know, give
me a break, I don't have timeright now.
When I retire I'll considergetting back on doing more
community service work, which Ialready started with TUSD.
(30:07):
But what is that organization?
Tucson Unified School District?
Oh, okay, yeah, so theEducational Enrichment
Foundation.
We do.
They have a lot of littlesplinter groups in TUSD.
Tucson, the middle of Tucson, isnot the good part of Tucson
anymore.
It used to be.
When we grew up it was a nicepart of Tucson.
Now it's the suburbs that arenice and Tucson itself and the
(30:31):
city limits, those schools.
You know the kids have grown up.
When I went to Oliverton HighSchool when I started my
freshman year it had just comeoff double sessions and there
was 8,000 kids going there.
Now it's mostly empty rightbecause they're in the center of
town.
There's not really youngfamilies in a lot of the center
(30:52):
of town, they're more on theoutskirts.
I think it's starting to change.
They're starting to move backin and do things like that.
But you know, it's justdifferent.
It's different.
But I think just keep it incontact and you know some of
them are starting to contact menow.
So will you help and will yoube back on the board?
I'm still not to the pointwhere I want to be sitting in
meetings.
It's like I'd rather go muckthe stalls for the horses or
(31:16):
wash a horse right now than besitting in a board meeting again
.
I'm not ready for that yet.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yeah, I want to ask you about this whole meme stock
craze.
What do you think about that?
Like the AMC and the, what doyou think about that?
It feels like investing is somuch more emotional because of
social media than it used to be.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah, and I think that's wrong.
I mean, the bottom line is,investing is numerical, it's not
emotional, but it is a veryemotional thing because money is
emotional for people.
You want to make it.
You're afraid of losing it.
I think there's a lot ofopportunity to be in the wrong
thing at the wrong time.
I don't like Bitcoin.
(31:55):
I kind of like blockchain, butI don't like Bitcoin.
I think it's still a little tooscammy and unregulated for me.
Meme stocks same thing.
It's just like, really, whenpush comes to shove and times
are bad, who's going to buy thatthing from you?
It's only worth what you cansell it for, right, right.
So to me, I don't know.
(32:16):
I'm more into sticking with theI won't say just the big
companies, because done reallywell in some small companies too
.
But you have to have somethingthat you feel, if it isn't
making a profit right now, thatthe potential is there, and I
think you just got, you have toget a little gut feeling.
(32:38):
I had a contractor that'sworking on my house up north.
He's been a general contractorforever.
He's opened a women's spa inPinetop Arizona, where my house
is, and he goes.
Do you want to be a partner?
I don't know anything about awomen's spa.
You don't know anything about awomen's spa.
He goes, oh, but there'snothing here.
(32:58):
I said there's a few things tohear in Pinetop because I've
gone to get massages.
There's a couple of nice places.
I don't think you're going tomake it.
He goes, so you don't want tobe a partner.
No, I don't want to be apartner, you know.
So I think you really have totake the emotion out of
investing and you have to lookat the numbers.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
What are the things that you've done in your career,
your life, that you're mostproud of?
What are those things?
What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Definitely starting my own business.
Before I even started it whichI started like a week after I
left Keys Credit Union I had acouple of job offers with some
of the big banks here doinginvestments, just like I was
doing I thought, you know, I'mgoing to do it for myself.
So when I contacted LPL becauseI got permission to stay with
LPL from the credit union LPL isa Fortune 500 company and Dan
(33:51):
Arnold, who's the CEO of LPLsuper nice guy.
Him and I are good friends.
We were sitting on the beachoutside of Puerto Vallarta, in
Punta Mita actually, like a yearago, and we're sitting outside
this beautiful restaurant in theocean and he goes why aren't
there more women advisors?
(34:13):
I said, number one, I thinkwomen sometimes don't have the
confidence to do that.
I said I think they're betteradvisors and CEOs than men.
Just statistically, looking atcompanies run by women CEO
versus men CEOs, women-run firmsare more profitable public
(34:35):
firms.
We're really underrepresentedin boards and stuff.
And I said but you know why?
One of the reasons why thereisn't many women advisors is?
I said I'm going to tell yousomething, dan, when I started
my own business and I'm talkingto your office, your recruiters,
to get me set up as a newbusiness, as a new rep.
(34:56):
I said the guy I talked to andI said can I remember his name?
And even if I did, I wouldn'tmention it, probably not even
there anymore.
Anyways, he told me flat outthat people who start their own
business that come from banks orcredit unions they never make
it.
He says he really didn't evengive me the time of day I had to
(35:16):
push him to get everything done.
He goes.
You're kidding me.
We said that to you.
I said, yes, you did, and youstill treat women in this
business the same way.
I said if you go up and I'veseen you do it, dan, we're
outside on in a cocktail hourparty and there's a couple there
and you go up and shake theman's hand, assuming he's the
(35:36):
advisor.
I said you know you got to getwith the times, man.
Women are doing as good a job,if not a better job, than a lot
of men in a lot of occupations.
When you look at colleges,people coming out of colleges,
there's more women doctorscoming out than men doctors
coming out.
There's more women attorneysthan men, I said, but
(35:59):
unfortunately in the financeworld it's still more men.
It's still an old boys club andI said you guys got to get past
it.
So I think, doing that andactually making it, there are
23,000 offices that LPL supports.
We are number six, so we're inthe top tier of the 1% out there
(36:20):
.
We are number 400 in the nation, regardless of the firm,
whether it's Merrill Lynch orFidelity, whatever.
So, and two women own thatbusiness, right, it's like we
can do it Honestly, judy, you'rea baller.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
That's why I wanted to talk to you today.
You officially retired in April, is that right?
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, march 21st was my last day.
We're still working oncontracts and signing, so I'm
technically still there, but Ihaven't been in.
I help, I do some work onlineand do some research and stuff
and help with a little bit ofthe portfolios, and I'll keep
doing that for a while, probablyfor the next couple of years.
Jen is really good.
(37:03):
Jen Aikens, my business partner, excellent at it, but you know
she's going through a bigtransition right now too, so I
told her I'm here, I'll help youout, have laptop, we'll travel.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
I love it, and so you're not on boards yet.
You'd rather wash some horsesor muck for some horses.
What are your immediate plans?
What are you going to do now?
What's Judy's next six monthsgoing to look like?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
You know I started with the trip to Nashville the
next morning.
That was a blast.
Never been there, love it.
I would rather go back therethan Vegas.
I think it was just a lot morefun.
I love to golf, so I'm golfingtwo or three times a week.
I keep.
All my clients are going.
(37:49):
You got to learn how to playpickleball.
So for retirement I got allkinds of pickleball equipment.
I haven't tried it yet, butthat's why I said I guess you've
got to do that, because I don'twant to get thrown out of the
retiree club.
I think it's a must.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Listen, I'm not a retiree and I love pickleball.
We'll go play pickleball whenI'm down there again.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Perfect, yeah, so that I love to travel and I've
been outside the United States alot.
I'm going to Australia in March, got that planned.
One of my clients goes you'rein Australia, you might as well
go to Singapore.
It's only three hours away.
It's like, well, they'llprobably be about as close as I
get.
I looked it up, it's eighthours away.
(38:28):
I don't know where you're.
You must have slept through thewhole flight.
But I might add that on there.
But really, what I want to doright now, like I said, I've
been to a lot of places,especially in Europe, and I love
it.
Evan's trying to talk me intobuying a house in Italy.
He's sending me listings everyother day.
(38:49):
How convenient, evan.
Yes, because I made the mistakeof telling him that if you get
dual citizenship which I can get, doesn't take that much work, a
little genealogy, research andsome paperwork that you get a
better deal on taxes and stufflike that in Italy.
So man that put him on thebandwagon.
(39:09):
So he sends me pictures ofthese hell holes that are 700
years old.
He goes look at this.
It's like Evan, I saideverything in that place is 700
years old too.
I said I wouldn't say never buya place there, but it isn't
going to be one of those placessomething newer, but you know.
(39:30):
So I want to travel but I wantto actually see a lot of stuff
in the US.
I've been to all the big citiesin the US, you know LA, san
Francisco, chicago, new Orleansall the fun places New York a
bunch of times, but I haven'tbeen to Mount Rushmore, I
haven't been to Yellowstone.
You know that's kind of what Iwant to do is take a year or two
(39:52):
and just a lot of places inUtah that I want to see
Beautiful parks there, yeah.
So I want to do that.
I think that's next on thebucket list.
More than the big ordeal trips,more the car trips or four-hour
flight trips Sounds a lotbetter than the 14-hour one
coming up going to Australianext year.
(40:14):
So that's it.
I got my mom still around.
She's still around.
So checking on her a coupletimes a week at least she's
doing well, thank God, but she's90.
So I don't want to wander toofar either.
Yeah that's fair.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
You've had an amazing career and you've done some
amazing things and you continueto do amazing things and I'm
just impressed by you and I wantto thank you so much for
chatting with us today.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Thank you for listening toEveryone Is.
Everyone Is is produced andedited by Chris Hawkinson,
executive producer is AaronDussault, music by Doug Infinite
(40:51):
, our logo and graphic design isby Harrison Parker and I am Jen
Coronado.
Everyone Is is a S disappointedProductions, production
dropping every other Thursday.
Wherever podcasts are available, make sure to rate and review,
and maybe even like andsubscribe.
Thank you for listening.
People are coming to see you with the hope that they
can do something more than whatthey're doing right now, but I
think you just don't have to beafraid to fail.
I mean, what's the big deal?
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello and welcome to Everyone Is.
I am your host, jenniferCoronado.
The intent of this show is toengage with all types of people
and build an understanding thatanyone who has any kind of
success has achieved thatsuccess because they are a
creative thinker.
So, whether you are an artistor a cook or an award-winning
journalist, who has any kind ofsuccess has achieved that
success because they are acreative thinker.
So, whether you are an artistor a cook or an award-winning
(00:32):
journalist, everyone hassomething to contribute to the
human conversation.
And now, as they say, on withthe show, judy Togo was the
president and CEO of AspireWealth Partners out of Tucson,
arizona, which started its lifeas Togo Financial Company that
she founded, and we are heretoday to talk about her life and
her life as a financial planner.
(00:53):
So welcome, judy, to EveryoneIs.
Thank you.
One of the best things that Iliked about us talking was when
we were trying to schedule timewith you.
You were like, oh yeah, I wouldbe happy to do your podcast,
but I just retired and I have togo party in Nashville.
And I was like, all right, yes,we've picked the right person
for this podcast.
We all have our priorities, jen, that's right, like I was
(01:18):
thinking.
The Ariana Grande song, yes,and that's the life you were
living in at that moment.
So thank you for joining ustoday.
Before we get into your life asa financial planner, I want to
talk a little bit about yourlife in general.
Were you born in Tucson,arizona?
Yeah, big family, little family.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I've got a younger brother two years younger than
me, older brother 10 years olderthan me, so you were the middle
kid.
Yeah, the middle kid.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
When you were a little kid, were you into math?
Was that a thing that you weregood at or interested in?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I was always really good at school.
I was one of those people thatdidn't really need to study much
and usually got A's Dean's List, Honor Society.
Nothing really came hard to meat school.
Some things didn't interest meat all, but I still did okay at
them.
One of the things that I usedto hate was history.
(02:07):
I thought it was so boring.
Now I think it's fascinating.
You grow up and realize maybethere is something to be learned
from the past.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yeah, You're living history every day and you don't
even know it.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Exactly, but didn't plan on being in this business.
Actually, back in the day the Uof A was recruiting women as
physicians and they tried totalk me into taking the MSATs
and I really did think about it.
But at that point it was like,okay, at the age they were
bringing that up and the yearsit would have taken to get there
(02:38):
, it was like no, I don't wantto do that.
My original career path was law.
I wanted to be an attorney andI started off on that path and
after about two semesters I wasready to hang myself.
It was the most boringoccupation you know, and if it
wasn't boring it was like okay,what part of law are you going
(02:58):
to go into?
Corporate law Super boring.
I'd just been reading 200 pagesof contracts for the sale of
the business.
Oh my God.
Really glad I didn't go intothat.
But just on accident I got intobanking, started off with
Mountain Bells Credit Union atthe time, left there, went to
(03:20):
what was Hughes Missile SystemsCredit Union and I hired in
there back in 85 as the VP ofoperations.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
How did you get hired into the VP of operations role?
What did you have to have inorder to get that role at the
credit union?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Well, basically experience in banking and I had
a few years with Mountain Bellso they took it over.
The credit union was a lotsmaller then when I started than
it is now.
I was on the advisory board forVisa.
I used to fly out to Californiaevery quarter for board
meetings and do things like that.
I ran everything that happensfor you as a client of a bank or
(03:56):
a credit union your checks,your credit cards, your loans,
your home mortgages, yourpayroll deposits, things like
that.
I ran all the back office stuff.
And after a couple of years theboard did a survey of the
members of Hughes, which at thattime was just strictly Hughes.
So they asked what are theservices that we don't have that
(04:18):
you guys would be interested in?
And one of the things theymentioned that was high up on
their list was investmentservices.
I had no experience ininvestment services.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
So you said I'm going to do that because I have no
experience.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Pretty much this was my interview, to be honest with
you.
The board met on whatever nightit was.
The next day a couple of theboard members came into my
office and said this is whatwe're thinking about doing.
The board wants to pursue this.
We really don't know anythingabout it.
Are you interested in it?
I was like I guess I could beand their whole question was
(04:52):
they didn't know anything either.
Do you know what an annuity is?
Really I didn't and I said yeah, I got the concept of it.
So if you want it, you can stopbeing VP of operations.
You can start a new corporationfor us and do the investment
arm of it.
So I didn't really realize whatthat entitled, but I was kind
(05:15):
of sick of doing the back stuff.
Wasn't too much excitementgoing on there.
So I started the corporation,met with the attorneys, got the
licenses.
Then I had to go get licensed.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
You did all the sort of legal things that you were
avoiding.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
So I had to go get licensed and do all of that, Did
it and I loved it.
It was just like it was justlike always solving a puzzle to
me.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
So when you had to get licensed, what does that
mean?
How does that work?
Speaker 1 (05:51):
To be able to offer securities you have to take
federal exams.
So you have to take like theseries six or series seven.
I took both One's for likemutual fund, one's for general
security, stocks, bonds, all themiscellaneous stuff.
Then you have to get the lawpart of it, the series 65, 66,
the blue sky law part of it.
And then if you're going tosell insurance or insurance
related products, you have toget a state insurance license in
(06:14):
every state you're going to dobusiness in.
And then I wanted to become acertified financial planner
because to me, when you get aseries six or a seven or an
insurance license, I would sayyou're just smart enough to be
dangerous.
So I went and got the certifiedfinancial planner Because to me
, when you get a series six or aseven or an insurance license,
I would say you're just smartenough to be dangerous.
So I went and got the CFP.
During that time too, I wasworking on finishing my
bachelor's, started my master's,started the CFP, which is
(06:38):
another master's level course.
It's a two-year thing.
It's kind of like the CPA exam,except for it's a little bit
more holistic.
It, you know, it includes likepensions and estate planning law
, taxation, investments,insurance, budgeting, things
like that.
Each there's an each sectiontype thing.
You had to pass each sectionand when I did it you know you
(07:01):
didn't sit at a computer and doit you did for like half of it.
It was a six-hour exam on eachsection and you couldn't
progress until you passed thatsection.
It was like 150 multiple choiceand then they would give you a
case if they wrote up a case onyour financial situation and it
might be a 15-, 20 page casecomplete with financial
(07:25):
statements on you and then youhad to write an essay as to all
the things that you need to doand why it's recommended.
So of course that meant youdidn't get your exam results
back for months because somebodyhad to analyze it and do it.
So luckily, you know, I neverknew should I start studying for
the next section or did I failthis and need to go backwards?
(07:47):
But luckily I passed all sixsections on.
The first time took me abouttwo and a half years because
Evan was little.
So you had a toddler at thattime.
Yep, I used to sit in mykitchen, which is where I had my
computer, and you don't ignorea toddler when you get home, but
I would.
After I put him to bed I wouldgo in the kitchen and start
(08:08):
working.
I had a little computer desk inthere and a lot of times at one
or two o'clock in the morningI'd roll backwards or look
backwards and he'd be asleepbehind my chair on the floor.
So, he's been a mama's boy thewhole time through.
But yeah, it was a lot.
It was a lot of studying anddoing that sort of thing.
(08:29):
But once I got going and then Ihired, at that time Payne Weber
was really big.
I hired a couple of advisorsfrom Payne Weber and I just
never looked back.
Yeah, it was really fun.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Going back, like you know, you looked at law and it
was kind of boring and contractlaw sucked.
And you didn't say sucked, butI'm saying, I'm paraphrasing and
then you got into the financialstuff and you said I loved it.
And what did you love about it?
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I think it was the interaction with people.
When you're in law, you'd nevergo see an attorney because
you're happy about somethingright.
You go see an attorney becausethere's some legal problem that
you're in, you're going througha divorce, somebody's suing you
over something.
It was just like it just seemedso negative all of it, Whereas
(09:17):
this was.
People are coming to see youwith the hope that they can do
something more than what they'redoing right now and get to a
goal, whatever that may be.
I mean, everybody's goal is toeventually retire and not have
to go to work right, but goalsare buying houses and goals are
putting kids through school.
There's lots of things.
Everybody's got a differentstory.
(09:38):
Everybody's at a differentphase in their life.
We work with people that arereally pretty young A lot of
young engineers right out ofschool.
We work with A lot ofphysicians and they're so busy
they're like herding cats, butthey're kind of fun to work with
too.
Engineers never admit that theydon't know what they're talking
(10:00):
about, and physicians are thefirst ones to say they don't
know it, they don't care, theyknow it.
Just do it for them, you know.
So it's good, you know, youfeel appreciated that way too.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Keeping that in mind, the different types of clients
you've had, do you feel like youhad to adjust who you are to
them a little bit?
Did you find that, or did you?
Were you always?
Did you always take the sameapproach with people?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I would say, for the most part, I'm me.
You know, and when I took thisleap and you're not going to be
a good shit with every clientand you're not going to be a
good fit in every career youdecide you want to try.
I mean, I went through a few,definitely, but I think you just
don't have to be afraid to fail.
I mean, what's the big deal Ifyou fail?
(10:44):
So what?
You stop?
You think, okay, whichdirection do I need to turn?
And you keep going.
So I've never really thought ofmyself as creative, but I've
always been a risk taker.
I guess it's like it works goodIf it doesn't so what?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, we talked a little bit about you know you
worked at Hughes and then youknow you've talked about how you
went on to create your owncompany.
But there's a story I knowabout you, judy, and it's about
when you left the credit unionthe credit union and you your
approach on starting your newbusiness, and I wonder if you
would be open to sharing thatstory.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, when I started the new corporation for the
credit union because creditunions are nonprofits, so they
had to own wholly own acorporation that was a
for-profit.
I mean you don't do financialplanning because you're a priest
, you do it because you want tomake a living and you want to
help people.
So the CEO of the credit unionat the time he just retired
(11:45):
about a year ago.
I mean we're really pretty goodfriends throughout the years.
He was hired about a year afterI was, and I mean he was a
sharp guy, but he was the typethat wouldn't change course
unless he was forced to.
Every year, the same promotionsat the same times, nothing
(12:05):
different, nothing new.
We used to spend hours at timesin meetings me talking about
what color the new branch floorsare going to be stained.
It's like, who cares, I don'tcare.
But he had to have a consensuson everything because I think he
was always afraid to reallytake a leap on his own and I
(12:28):
just got really sick of it.
So he was always the if itain't broke, don't fix it type
of guy, and I was the one of itDon't matter if it's not broke,
it still could be better type.
Right, we finally came to blowsover it.
One day I went in.
It still could be better, right, we finally came to blows over
one day.
I went in I was at a differentbranch came into the main
corporate office where we bothhad our offices and I don't even
(12:53):
know what brought it up, to behonest with you at that point.
But I had a do not compete, donot solicit, you know, contract
with them not to leave.
And we finally just said youknow, this isn't working anymore
.
You are stuck in 15 years ago.
(13:14):
You're afraid to try anythingnew.
I want to keep going.
So we came to terms.
He said well, you're just not agood fit here anymore.
I said I agree with you.
I'm not a good fit here anymore, not under you, because we're
so different in our approach totrying new things.
So we agreed to disagree and Ileft.
(13:36):
They let me out of some of mycontracts.
But the things that they didnot let me out of was the do not
compete and do not solicitcontracts.
Because when I was there atHughes at that time they had
what was called the HughesManagement Club, which was a
certain pay grade and up at theplant site.
So it was mostly like theengineers directors, program
(14:00):
managers, things like that,mostly like the engineers
directors, program managers,things like that.
And I was president of thatclub for two terms running, so I
knew everybody.
So he was a little shaken aboutthat because we had started
building a really nice cashflowbusiness for the credit union.
But my brother and I this was ona Friday that I left I took,
(14:20):
they gave me copies of all mycontracts just to remind me that
they would sue me blind if Idid anything stupid.
And now that's been struck downby the law just in the last
couple of weeks.
You can't take away a person'slivelihood.
And so Joel, my younger brotherand I are talking and he goes.
You know what you should do.
He goes, everybody knows you,he goes, you should just reach
(14:42):
out to them.
I said I cannot reach out tothem, I'll get sued.
So we're looking at thecontract.
It said nothing aboutadvertising.
So what I did is I scrapedtogether some money Billboards
are not inexpensive things but Iput a great big billboard right
outside the main entrance tothe plant site.
(15:03):
So my picture, the new companyname, the phone number, and
that's basically it.
So within hours of thatbillboard going up.
Calls are coming in by thedozens per day and that's what
helped me build my business.
And they got a little miffedabout it and went to their
(15:24):
attorney and the attorney saidyou didn't say she couldn't
advertise and she's not withinthe mile radius of her main
office where you're at.
So too bad, so sad.
So it worked out great.
So I was a one man show forabout a year.
I ran into an office and did myown thing for about a year, got
my first year's taxes done andthe CPA said oh my God, you're
(15:47):
doing great.
You don't have no expenses,build a building.
So that's kind of where itstarted Built the first building
, hired a kid His name was James, he was a really nice guy but
unfortunately he got in a fightwith his girlfriend.
Police report filed In ourbusiness.
You get a police report filedon you, you're gone.
So I had to let him go.
(16:10):
My friend Barb, who I went tohigh school with, was working as
the executive assistant for theCEOs a couple of them at
Crandallet Hospitals.
She had about had it.
So I said why don't you comeover and work with me?
Cause I knew she's super detailoriented and so am I, you know.
So that was really the start.
So we went from me to right now.
(16:32):
The business has about 11people and we're looking like
crazy to hire more because wejust keep growing and it's good.
But you know you have to.
It's hard to find advisorsright now.
You know it really is.
There's a lot of us are in myage group, in the sixties.
You know I don't need to workanymore, I'm tired, I'm sick of
(16:56):
the legal hassles witheverything and all the regs and
Congress, but they can doanything they want and not go to
jail for insider trading andall the other things that you
and I would hang for.
Yeah, so there was a lot ofpeople leaving and I think women
really need to look at this,because I think women are
creative thinkers for the mostpart.
(17:18):
We multitask a whole bunch,whereas I think men are very
smart, but I think they're morefocused on one thing.
When I left, we were with LPLFinancial at the time.
That's the broker dealer thatwe use.
I brought the credit union inTucson along with the credit
union in California, the HughesRaytheon now to LPL.
(17:41):
We did it jointly and when Ileft, when the deals with the
credit union was, I want to beable to stay with LPL.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
If I want to stay with LPL, what is LPL versus
what your company is?
Because part of the things thatyou send out they come from LPL
Financial, but you're your owncompany.
So how do those two work?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
As independent financial advisors, you can
custody your clients' assetswherever you want to right.
So we can custody them atSchwab or Ameritrade or Fidelity
or T Rowe Price or LPL.
What does custody mean?
It means they're the ones thatactually have the trading desks,
(18:25):
they process all the trades,they have all the trading
software.
They're the ones that generatethe statements and send them out
.
So it's not the Bernie Madoffthing where he was doing
everything in his own buildingand those statements were
nothing but lies.
Yeah, totally Right.
So it's kind of that safety netwhere if we got mad at LPL and
(18:48):
said, okay, we've had it, we'removing everybody to Schwab,
Schwab would say, great, we'lldo all those services for you.
So I chose LPL because theydon't have any of their own
proprietary products, whichmeans you know if you're with
Schwab or with Fidelity, theywant you to use their stuff and
sort of it's good, Some of it'snot, and my money's in the same
thing.
So I want what I want Right Formyself and my clients.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
You did the financial advising side of it, and then
LPL does the trading desk Right.
Was that role ever interestingto you?
Like the actual traders?
Like, did you want a wolf ofWall Street?
Is that what you wanted to do,Judy?
Speaker 1 (19:28):
No, because really the traders are.
They work at Wall Street andthey're on the ground screaming
like they did 50 years agoorders.
It's kind of archaic, but no, Ididn't want that.
That to me, is just you're justan order taker, that's.
I'm calling up and saying, hey,jen wants 500 shares of Amazon.
(19:50):
Somebody on the floor is buying500 shares of Amazon In this
case it's going to LPL and thenLPL is taking it to the floor
and when it's aggregated likethat your 500 shares, my 500
shares, everybody else's zillionshares get a little bit better
deal right, rather than doing iton your own, buying a handful
(20:12):
of shares here or there.
So no, I never wanted to dothat.
That isn't any.
There's no problem solvingthere.
It's just processing buy andsell orders Right.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
So for you, like when you're looking at the financial
industry, you've been in it for40 years now, yep.
What are the biggest changesand transitions, and how did you
, as a person, change, shiftyourself to those transitions?
How do you go about doing that?
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I think that kind of jumped into what everything has
evolved to now a little ahead ofthe curve.
I mean, being the CFP, you'rebound as a fiduciary right.
Nobody even heard the wordfiduciary five or 10 years ago.
Now everybody comes in and goesare you a fiduciary?
Yep, have been since the 1990s.
(21:03):
It's like, oh, we didn't knowthey existed back then.
It's like CFPs are alwaysfiduciaries.
The guy with a series seven orthe guy with an insurance
license, he is not a fiduciary.
They can do that.
Standard of care is a lot lessI see.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Well, explain to me what, like I'm a drama major,
what fiduciary means.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Fiduciary basically means, in a nutshell, that
everything we do has got to be100% in your best interest.
Right, with a brokerage with aperson who is not a fiduciary,
just a guy with a series seven,say, or a series six, they might
have two different productsthat would fit your need, right
(21:50):
One who's going to pay them 4%and one's going to pay them 2%.
Which one do you think you'regoing to get?
You're going to get the onethat's going to pay them 4%,
whereas a fiduciary really needsto look and say, hey, these are
comparable, they're the samething.
I can get it for her at halfthe cost.
That's the one we've got to get.
(22:11):
Or the recommendations that wemake have to be based on your
best interest, not in us gettingany kind of reward for it.
And the industry has reallyevolved to where there used to
be some investment products outthere that would pay advisors 10
, even 12%.
Now pretty much they're levelacross the board because they
(22:32):
know they have to answer topeople who want to make sure
their advisor's living up to afiduciary standard.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
That's interesting.
I know nothing about investmentAnything I know about
investments.
Honestly, I get from you Fulldisclosure to everyone who's
listening.
So how do you analyze themarket and how do you continue
to educate yourself on how themarket works?
What are the things in themarket that are in play during
the 2008 economic crisis?
How do you wrap your headaround how to deal with things
like that?
What are the things in themarket that are in play during
the 2008 economic crisis?
How do you wrap your headaround how to deal with things
(23:05):
like that?
What are your processes?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
For us, information comes in in a fire hose.
You know, if clients go, I getinformation too.
It's no, you get Yahoo Financefree right, so you get some bias
in there, depending on who'ssponsoring yahoo finance,
whereas with us, there is a lotof white papers put out by
(23:28):
research firms that we subscribeto that we pay a lot of money
for every year just trying toget independent feed, plus all
the investment firms, whetherit's lpl, has got their own
research department, fidelity, tRowe, price, mfs, everybody and
their grandmother has their ownresearch firms and they're
(23:50):
providing their analysis of themarket too.
And I think part of it is justhaving done it for so long, I
mean in 2008, 2007, 2008,.
I had been doing this since1987.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
Another financial crisis year.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yes, I think it was the closest I ever came in my
career to saying hell with it.
I'm getting everybody outbecause I was a nervous wreck
and it's my job not to be thenervous wreck, because everybody
else who doesn't do this for aliving doesn't watch it like we
do.
So I came really close.
I did sell out of what werecalled structured notes, which
(24:31):
were bank issued notes, becauseI was really worried that some
of the big banks would fail andthose notes would go for 100,000
down to zero as soon as theyannounced.
That was the only thing I soldout of and I replaced those as
soon as I sold them I boughtback into the market.
Because history shows we havebeen through a lot of crap over
(24:55):
the years economically forhundreds of years.
Right, since the nation started.
There's been good times and badtimes.
But if you just look at ithistorically and calm down, you
have to adjust.
But you don't just get out,because study after study shows
that those people who get scaredout of the market are way
(25:18):
behind the eight ball five 10years down the road.
But I admit that I think was themost unnerving time you know,
when COVID hit was another one.
Yeah, that was such a fast andfurious downturn I mean that was
like 33% downturn on the S&T500 in about 30 days and then
(25:38):
hit bottom, started coming backup right in the middle of all
this mess and you know the phonewas ringing off the hook and
clients are like, oh my God, weshould get out.
We've never done this, no, wehaven't, but if we get out we're
going to shoot ourselves in thefoot.
So what do we do?
We look at different things.
You start getting rid of themore consumer, discretionary
(26:00):
things like restaurants andDisneyland and things that
people were not doing Airlinesyou know things like that and
you get back into the basics.
Right, yeah, the tech industrydid great.
We did tech more than everduring COVID.
I never used Zoom before COVID.
(26:22):
Now it's a routine part of life.
You know we're on Zoom almostevery day, even with clients
that are in town, and we haveclients in 26 different states.
It was like it was kind of niceto see their faces.
You know some people I'd nevermet in person.
So it kind of put a differentelement into the business.
It's a little bit more personal, I think.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
How did you expand across 26 different states?
From Tucson, arizona, westarted basically with Tucson.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
But I had a lot of clients in California too,
because they used to fly backand forth to California and
invest there too.
So a lot of California people.
And then people start movingright, they leave right beyond
our hues and they go to work forIBM in Minnesota.
(27:11):
So we're in Minnesota, or youknow.
Or people retire, you know they.
They say heck with California,heck with Arizona.
I'm going to Nevada wherethere's no state tax, or I'm
going to New Mexico where it'scooler and it's not so crowded
as Arizona.
So just little by little, youknow, just kind of splinters out
.
And then those people refertheir family members, and most
(27:34):
family members don't live in thesame state as where they grew
up.
So it just kind of splinteredout.
So yeah, it's a little bit of ajob because every state has got
their own requirements.
Good thing there's somerepricosity arrangements out
there.
But you know it just spread, itjust grew like wildfire and
(27:54):
still is.
So really lucky for that.
Speaker 2 (27:59):
One of the things I hear a lot in what you're
talking about is sort of theconnections that you've made
over the years.
Like you talked about how youknew so many people when you
were at Hughes and you were ableto take those relationships and
turn that into a business.
So how involved are you in alarger community that keeps you
connected and what do thosecommunities look like and how do
(28:19):
you approach that?
Like you're not an introvert,but how do you approach new
relationships with new clientsor new people in the industry?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Um, with new clients.
You know people come to ouroffice.
It's not going sitting at yourkitchen table and talking about
things, so it's.
It was a comfort level for meand I would have to say I am an
introvert in a lot of situations.
Yeah, I think so, because I'mnot real comfortable in a room
full of people.
(28:50):
I really don't know One of mygood friends.
She comes here from Reno, shelives in Reno.
We'll go somewhere.
We'll know everybody in therestaurant before we're out of
there, because she's talked toeverybody.
I would never do that, but Idon't know.
I think it's a confidence level.
When you're confident in yourabilities to be able to help, I
(29:11):
think you're more likely to getout there and do that.
You know, over the years I'vebeen on a board of a lot of
different charities andorganizations, from Th writing
to Tucson to open, in, which wasa homeless shelter for kids.
Basically, I do a lot of stuffwith Tucson unified school
district, the educationalenrichment foundation, so you
(29:32):
get to know a lot of people thatway too.
Over the last couple of yearsbecause it's so busy in this
transition, because I knew I wasgoing a couple years ago- you
knew you were going to retire.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
You had that plan.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
Yeah, and there was just so much going on with the
transition of the businesslegally and financially and
everything, I stepped off theboards and said you know, give
me a break, I don't have timeright now.
When I retire I'll considergetting back on doing more
community service work, which Ialready started with TUSD.
(30:07):
But what is that organization?
Tucson Unified School District?
Oh, okay, yeah, so theEducational Enrichment
Foundation.
We do.
They have a lot of littlesplinter groups in TUSD.
Tucson, the middle of Tucson, isnot the good part of Tucson
anymore.
It used to be.
When we grew up it was a nicepart of Tucson.
Now it's the suburbs that arenice and Tucson itself and the
(30:31):
city limits, those schools.
You know the kids have grown up.
When I went to Oliverton HighSchool when I started my
freshman year it had just comeoff double sessions and there
was 8,000 kids going there.
Now it's mostly empty rightbecause they're in the center of
town.
There's not really youngfamilies in a lot of the center
(30:52):
of town, they're more on theoutskirts.
I think it's starting to change.
They're starting to move backin and do things like that.
But you know, it's justdifferent.
It's different.
But I think just keep it incontact and you know some of
them are starting to contact menow.
So will you help and will yoube back on the board?
I'm still not to the pointwhere I want to be sitting in
meetings.
It's like I'd rather go muckthe stalls for the horses or
(31:16):
wash a horse right now than besitting in a board meeting again
.
I'm not ready for that yet.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
Yeah, I want to ask you about this whole meme stock
craze.
What do you think about that?
Like the AMC and the, what doyou think about that?
It feels like investing is somuch more emotional because of
social media than it used to be.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah, and I think that's wrong.
I mean, the bottom line is,investing is numerical, it's not
emotional, but it is a veryemotional thing because money is
emotional for people.
You want to make it.
You're afraid of losing it.
I think there's a lot ofopportunity to be in the wrong
thing at the wrong time.
I don't like Bitcoin.
(31:55):
I kind of like blockchain, butI don't like Bitcoin.
I think it's still a little tooscammy and unregulated for me.
Meme stocks same thing.
It's just like, really, whenpush comes to shove and times
are bad, who's going to buy thatthing from you?
It's only worth what you cansell it for, right, right.
So to me, I don't know.
(32:16):
I'm more into sticking with theI won't say just the big
companies, because done reallywell in some small companies too
.
But you have to have somethingthat you feel, if it isn't
making a profit right now, thatthe potential is there, and I
think you just got, you have toget a little gut feeling.
(32:38):
I had a contractor that'sworking on my house up north.
He's been a general contractorforever.
He's opened a women's spa inPinetop Arizona, where my house
is, and he goes.
Do you want to be a partner?
I don't know anything about awomen's spa.
You don't know anything about awomen's spa.
He goes, oh, but there'snothing here.
(32:58):
I said there's a few things tohear in Pinetop because I've
gone to get massages.
There's a couple of nice places.
I don't think you're going tomake it.
He goes, so you don't want tobe a partner.
No, I don't want to be apartner, you know.
So I think you really have totake the emotion out of
investing and you have to lookat the numbers.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
What are the things that you've done in your career,
your life, that you're mostproud of?
What are those things?
What do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Definitely starting my own business.
Before I even started it whichI started like a week after I
left Keys Credit Union I had acouple of job offers with some
of the big banks here doinginvestments, just like I was
doing I thought, you know, I'mgoing to do it for myself.
So when I contacted LPL becauseI got permission to stay with
LPL from the credit union LPL isa Fortune 500 company and Dan
(33:51):
Arnold, who's the CEO of LPLsuper nice guy.
Him and I are good friends.
We were sitting on the beachoutside of Puerto Vallarta, in
Punta Mita actually, like a yearago, and we're sitting outside
this beautiful restaurant in theocean and he goes why aren't
there more women advisors?
(34:13):
I said, number one, I thinkwomen sometimes don't have the
confidence to do that.
I said I think they're betteradvisors and CEOs than men.
Just statistically, looking atcompanies run by women CEO
versus men CEOs, women-run firmsare more profitable public
(34:35):
firms.
We're really underrepresentedin boards and stuff.
And I said but you know why?
One of the reasons why thereisn't many women advisors is?
I said I'm going to tell yousomething, dan, when I started
my own business and I'm talkingto your office, your recruiters,
to get me set up as a newbusiness, as a new rep.
(34:56):
I said the guy I talked to andI said can I remember his name?
And even if I did, I wouldn'tmention it, probably not even
there anymore.
Anyways, he told me flat outthat people who start their own
business that come from banks orcredit unions they never make
it.
He says he really didn't evengive me the time of day I had to
(35:16):
push him to get everything done.
He goes.
You're kidding me.
We said that to you.
I said, yes, you did, and youstill treat women in this
business the same way.
I said if you go up and I'veseen you do it, dan, we're
outside on in a cocktail hourparty and there's a couple there
and you go up and shake theman's hand, assuming he's the
(35:36):
advisor.
I said you know you got to getwith the times, man.
Women are doing as good a job,if not a better job, than a lot
of men in a lot of occupations.
When you look at colleges,people coming out of colleges,
there's more women doctorscoming out than men doctors
coming out.
There's more women attorneysthan men, I said, but
(35:59):
unfortunately in the financeworld it's still more men.
It's still an old boys club andI said you guys got to get past
it.
So I think, doing that andactually making it, there are
23,000 offices that LPL supports.
We are number six, so we're inthe top tier of the 1% out there
(36:20):
.
We are number 400 in the nation, regardless of the firm,
whether it's Merrill Lynch orFidelity, whatever.
So, and two women own thatbusiness, right, it's like we
can do it Honestly, judy, you'rea baller.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
That's why I wanted to talk to you today.
You officially retired in April, is that right?
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, march 21st was my last day.
We're still working oncontracts and signing, so I'm
technically still there, but Ihaven't been in.
I help, I do some work onlineand do some research and stuff
and help with a little bit ofthe portfolios, and I'll keep
doing that for a while, probablyfor the next couple of years.
Jen is really good.
(37:03):
Jen Aikens, my business partner, excellent at it, but you know
she's going through a bigtransition right now too, so I
told her I'm here, I'll help youout, have laptop, we'll travel.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
I love it, and so you're not on boards yet.
You'd rather wash some horsesor muck for some horses.
What are your immediate plans?
What are you going to do now?
What's Judy's next six monthsgoing to look like?
Speaker 1 (37:29):
You know I started with the trip to Nashville the
next morning.
That was a blast.
Never been there, love it.
I would rather go back therethan Vegas.
I think it was just a lot morefun.
I love to golf, so I'm golfingtwo or three times a week.
I keep.
All my clients are going.
(37:49):
You got to learn how to playpickleball.
So for retirement I got allkinds of pickleball equipment.
I haven't tried it yet, butthat's why I said I guess you've
got to do that, because I don'twant to get thrown out of the
retiree club.
I think it's a must.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
Listen, I'm not a retiree and I love pickleball.
We'll go play pickleball whenI'm down there again.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Perfect, yeah, so that I love to travel and I've
been outside the United States alot.
I'm going to Australia in March, got that planned.
One of my clients goes you'rein Australia, you might as well
go to Singapore.
It's only three hours away.
It's like, well, they'llprobably be about as close as I
get.
I looked it up, it's eighthours away.
(38:28):
I don't know where you're.
You must have slept through thewhole flight.
But I might add that on there.
But really, what I want to doright now, like I said, I've
been to a lot of places,especially in Europe, and I love
it.
Evan's trying to talk me intobuying a house in Italy.
He's sending me listings everyother day.
(38:49):
How convenient, evan.
Yes, because I made the mistakeof telling him that if you get
dual citizenship which I can get, doesn't take that much work, a
little genealogy, research andsome paperwork that you get a
better deal on taxes and stufflike that in Italy.
So man that put him on thebandwagon.
(39:09):
So he sends me pictures ofthese hell holes that are 700
years old.
He goes look at this.
It's like Evan, I saideverything in that place is 700
years old too.
I said I wouldn't say never buya place there, but it isn't
going to be one of those placessomething newer, but you know.
(39:30):
So I want to travel but I wantto actually see a lot of stuff
in the US.
I've been to all the big citiesin the US, you know LA, san
Francisco, chicago, new Orleansall the fun places New York a
bunch of times, but I haven'tbeen to Mount Rushmore, I
haven't been to Yellowstone.
You know that's kind of what Iwant to do is take a year or two
(39:52):
and just a lot of places inUtah that I want to see
Beautiful parks there, yeah.
So I want to do that.
I think that's next on thebucket list.
More than the big ordeal trips,more the car trips or four-hour
flight trips Sounds a lotbetter than the 14-hour one
coming up going to Australianext year.
(40:14):
So that's it.
I got my mom still around.
She's still around.
So checking on her a coupletimes a week at least she's
doing well, thank God, but she's90.
So I don't want to wander toofar either.
Yeah that's fair.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
You've had an amazing career and you've done some
amazing things and you continueto do amazing things and I'm
just impressed by you and I wantto thank you so much for
chatting with us today.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Thank you for listening toEveryone Is.
Everyone Is is produced andedited by Chris Hawkinson,
executive producer is AaronDussault, music by Doug Infinite
(40:51):
, our logo and graphic design isby Harrison Parker and I am Jen
Coronado.
Everyone Is is a S disappointedProductions, production
dropping every other Thursday.
Wherever podcasts are available, make sure to rate and review,
and maybe even like andsubscribe.
Thank you for listening.
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