Who are we to get in the way of your peace and calm? Your choices are yours. Don’t let anybody “should” all over you!
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Month: January 2025
The Last 30 Years and the Next 30 Years
Friends, a lot of things can happen in three decades. In December 2024, our President Mark Leibman celebrated 30 years of affiliation with LPL Financial. There is a lot of work a person can do in that amount of time, and Mark has chosen to spend a lot of it with you and on this enterprise we now share.
He still intends to work until age 92, and he is energized by the work. Mark’s the founder and he’s still in it for the long haul.
So what’s our story, we “next generation” advisors? All three of us may very well have more years in this industry left ahead of us than there are behind us. It behooves us to remember the importance of the long view.
Thirty years. Something about it just sounded so lovely, it got stuck in our brains.
Back in December, we also celebrated our system of longevity discounts. This is one of the ways that we at 228 Main try to walk the walk: we reward the commitment it takes to become an effective investor, so the program includes fee reductions at certain milestones.
Clients get a fee reduction after 5 continuous years with us and then again at 15 continuous years. Beneficiaries or descendants who come on board with us may also take advantage of their forebears’ start date. In this sense, the longevity discount becomes a “legacy” discount.
But this stuff is all contagious, so we couldn’t help ourselves. We told Mark that we needed to add another level: why not include a 30-year discount? Can you imagine the joy of getting to tell a client of 30 years that you would like them to start paying you less? We could. We’re hungry for it.
And we wanted to give Mark this chance. Another excuse to celebrate some of his oldest friends? Yes, please. Why not?
This is what it’s all about. Growing the buckets. For the long haul. As a team. We’re trying to put our money where our mouth is—which is to say, we’re trying to put our policies where our values are.
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Play the audio version of this post below
The Last 30 Years and the Next 30 – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services
This text can be found at https://www.228Main.com/.
The Hats We Wear
How do we get from where we are to where we’d like to be? Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how we’ll close the gaps. The good thing about the big stuff is that we can only get them done one step at a time. We might wear many hats in life, but along the way… we can only wear one hat at a time. 🙏
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Focusing on What Went Right
We can put a lot of energy into studying the tape, rolling back through our missteps and mistakes. But what about what went right? What do we have going for us?
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The Best of Both Worlds: Learning from the Past, Building for the Future
This time of year often invites some reflection. We’ve said goodbye to 2024 and are welcoming 2025. We’re thinking about beginnings, endings, and transitions.
In Roman mythology, Janus is the god of these things. He had two faces, one looking forward and another looking back. His purview included doors, archways, and gates.
It feels natural at this time to take stock of where we’ve been—and think about the best way forward. That’s what we’re doing at 228 Main.
When Mark founded this enterprise decades ago, it was just him at a kitchen table. In 2000, he moved the business to the digs at 228 Main Street in beautiful downtown Louisville. He knew that he was on to something, that he could keep building something special on a simple but powerful foundation: if he took care of his clients, their business would take care of him.
And the work kept growing. In those intermediate years, he hired staff to help him manage. Among their ranks were family and friends who provided administrative and service support.
Since 2020, the staff has continued to transform. Today, the team is both more specialized and more interwoven. The three of us “next-gen” advisors are co-owners with Mark, with three portions of 24.9% of the shares to his 25.3% portion.
Now we’re in transition, preparing for the decades ahead. There are six of us total on the LFS team, each one still growing and learning. But it takes all of us to make sure our three key activities can happen: 1) We talk with you to sort out what you are trying to do in life. 2) We research investment opportunities. 3) We manage your portfolios.
As we do these things, we’re planning a structure for the enterprise that is collaborative and collegial, where every generation and every teammate puts their gifts on the table for the benefit of all: the wisdom of experience, the energy of youth, and all the diversity of talents and interests we bring.
Many of you know from company lore—and your friendships with Mark—that he intends to work to age 92. (It’s a whole thing for him, a vision that he gleaned from some important mentors early in life. Ask him sometime.) We can’t know the future. And some of us may actually have more years ahead of us in this line of work than there are behind us.
But it’s fair to say that we are all indeed in this for the long haul. So how do we make this thing more sustainable?
We’re all committed to some important things: continuing to build on our strengths and what’s working and staying open to the future and all the opportunities ahead. We learn and grow from both perspectives.
Like the Roman god Janus, we’re looking back and we’re looking forward. Working with the foundation of our history and the road ahead—that’s the superpower of this team.
Want to talk about this or anything else? Call or write, anytime.
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Play the audio version of this post below:
Best of Both Worlds – 228Main.com Presents: The Best of Leibman Financial Services
This text is available at https://www.228Main.com/.
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