The Story of Zoe Financial​

The voice droned on and on.

Finally, I turned to Stephanie, who worked in marketing for the bank and was sitting next to me, and asked, “What is a producer?” She said, “Oh, they mean the sales force…you know…the advisors.” She had a conflicted expression of both disgust and pride—like someone who’d once truly believed her firm had a purpose but now knew better. 

I realized that I was witnessing the equivalent of doctors having an internal conference to celebrate which doctor had sold the most drugs to patients.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with the sales profession—this is about context. These people called themselves financial advisors to their clients and promised to help them with the most important financial decisions of their lives…but they knew they were really salesmen. The “production” numbers Mr. Booming Voice was giving awards for were someone’s retirement dreams, college funds, and savings to buy a home.

I Couldn’t Shake It Off

I tried to shake it off, but I couldn’t.  I’d seen behind the curtain. Not long after that, I changed roles. As a research analyst, I could focus purely on identifying investment opportunities for the firm’s institutional clients (pensions and endowments). I thought, If I’m not interacting with financial advisors, then I’m not part of the problem.

One night, as I was putting my four-year-old daughter to bed, she asked me what I did when I went to the office. I spent the next few minutes trying to convince her (and myself) that I was helping people with their money. She kept asking me, “But how?”

I couldn’t honestly answer her. Most of the professionals that were directly responsible for helping people with their money, the advisors, weren’t actually doing so. The worst part was that I knew the average person couldn’t tell the difference between a capable advisor and a salesperson.

As I walked back to my bedroom, a thought that would change my life crossed my mind: I know how advisors get paid. I know what a great advisor is supposed to do. What if I could help steer people to the right advisors: the advisors who have the knowledge, process, and incentives to help people with their money?

In my past work as a strategist, I’d encountered a minority of advisors who had a very different approach. For one, their incentives were more aligned with their clients—they operated independently and weren’t compensated via commission for selling a product. The only person compensating them was the client. Some of those advisors also had more reliable competencies, having passed the rigorous CFA or Certified Financial Planning curriculum. Their focus wasn’t on picking stocks or mutual funds that would try to beat the market, but rather to deeply understand each client’s financial life in a holistic way.

These rare advisors took into account your taxes, insurance, budgeting, goals and fears, *before* guiding your investments. Basically, they were incorporating your whole financial life into your decisions. That’s when I started playing on the word life. Vida in Spanish? Not quite. Wait a minute…the word Zoe, in Greek, means life.

Having “The Talk”

By the time my wife woke up the next morning, I was waiting to have “the talk” about why leaving my high paying job to pursue this endeavor was such a great idea. It turned out to be a quick chat—my wife fully supported the decision. She believed in me more than I believed in myself… and I’ll forever be grateful.

I’d love to tell you I had an amazing, perfect road map of how it was going to play out. Yet, that’s not the real world. Yes, I was excited, but I was also scared out of my mind. The early days were really tough. It was just me with this idea, and a lot of people (who happened to be benefitting from the old way of doing things) thinking I was nuts.

Many mornings, I woke up and thought to myself, “I’m married with two young kids…what the hell was I thinking?” Then I’d remember the other option was to go back to work, regretting that I never took a stab at addressing obvious industry flaws—even though I had the knowledge and resources to do so. 

Fast Forward to Today

We have helped thousands of people with over a billion dollars in aggregate savings make the important decision of who they choose as their financial advisor. Our recent milestones have everyone—from our team to our investors—feeling excited, but we’re not patting ourselves on the back just yet.

For each person who has found a fiduciary advisor through Zoe, there are a million families being peddled with expensive financial products every day by salespeople who dress up as advisors. It’s our mission to empower millions of Americans to make better financial decisions with the guidance of a highly competent fiduciary financial advisor.

Now, I look forward to answering the question my daughter asks me every day when I come home: “How many people did Zoe help today?”