Playing the Long Game

Kathy Gufstason | Keen & Pocock Financial Partners | Fairfax, VA

Across the Potomac from the capital where Washington and Lincoln loom large, Kathy Gustafson’s priorities have always been closer to home. When the Fairfax, Virginia, financial advisor joined SFA Partners in 2012, she had five kids at home and little interest in being anywhere else. “I wasn't attending conferences because I just didn't want to take that time away from my family.”
 
The independence SFA Partners offered extended beyond her practice at Keen & Pocock. The flexibility to run her practice on her terms meant she could be present for her family while building something that would last. As her children grew and headed off to college, Gustafson started showing up to conferences, engaging with the advisory council, and making real use of the peer network available to her. “When you first start coming to the conferences, it can be a little intimidating. You see people who all know each other, and you start thinking, well, how do they know each other and I know nobody. But then you start realizing that a lot of this networking has to be driven by your own desire to connect. You can sit on the sidelines if you want to, or you can learn from the people around you.”

By investing in the SFA Partners community, Gustafson discovered that some of the firm's greatest value comes from the people within it. While the operational support and technology are important, she believes the real benefit is having a network of advisors willing to share their experiences and help one another solve real problems. “I've reached out and asked, do you know any advisors who are doing this? And SFA Partners has connected me with someone who has experience in that area. So that's been really helpful to know where to turn.”

The piece Gustafson says she's grown into appreciating most over the course of her career is compliance. What once felt like an obstacle now serves as an important safeguard for both her business and the clients she serves. “You want to make sure you're playing by the rules, but you don't have to learn the rules all the time. So, to have a compliance team that can help provide that information is great.”

Not every advisor's story starts with a frustrating exit. Kathryn Gustafson has been with SFA Partners since 2012, and her story is about staying and growing into the firm for more than a decade. She built her business at Keen & Pocock on her own terms, present for her family, and grew into the SFA Partners community when the time was right. She leaned on the peer network and advisory council when she needed guidance, and came to see compliance not as a constraint, but as a guide.

“It's much more enjoyable to work with people you know than always getting a stranger when you make a phone call.” More than a decade in, she's still running her book of business her way, backed by people she knows and trusts.