AWord From Katie Buck of E.A. Buck
If you are reading this article, you’re likely aware that Ann Vanderslice’s amazing, federal employee-focused retirement planning firm is merging with E.A. Buck. As the CEO of E.A. Buck, I wanted to write a brief letter of my own to all of Ann’s clients so that you can better get to know me and the firm that will be helping add value to your relationship with Ann. I’m very excited about this merger, and I know that Ann is as well. We’ve worked a bit with Ann’s team in the past, and something that always struck me was how similar her approach was to our own. Like us, Ann is all about education and empowerment — and in this field, I can’t stress enough how different that is. Some advisors would rather have clients hand over their money and not ask questions about how that money is being invested and safeguarded. As you know, that “let the professionals handle it” attitude is simply not Ann — and it’s not E.A. Buck, either. Our company was founded back in 1980 by my father-in-law, Ed Buck, a Hawaii schoolteacher with a knack for numbers. Ed found that he could walk knowledge from the classroom to the financial services space, and as a lifelong believer in the power of education, Ed wanted to use his knowledge and abilities to help people get access to the kind of financial planning services that, at the time, only seemed available to the wealthy. As a result, and like Ann’s own company, E.A. Buck was born as a “generalist” firm. We handle a wide variety of financial services for a wide variety of people, but it’s all built on educating as many people as possible about financial planning. I remember the first time I sat in on one of Ed’s education sessions, over 20 years ago now. Ed had an honest-to-goodness chalkboard, and the room was full of teachers and nurses. The questions ranged widely. I saw that these weren’t people who could afford a different
financial advisor for every aspect of their lives, and I saw the benefit of Ed’s approach.
I also saw the relief Ed offered people. I grew up in a family that didn’t buy Nike stock, because we had to spend money on the actual shoes, so I understood immediately how wonderful Ed’s brand of education really was. In the four decades and counting that E.A. Buck has been helping people plan, we’ve assisted over 25,000 families using the same principles Ed set out for us back in 1980. We educate people on those principles with simple, innovative methods (like our color-coded tax savings tool), and we’ve grown in smart ways so that we can better help people here in Hawaii and on the mainland as well. Ann’s firm joining our family is the latest stage in that growth, but in practice, it just means you’ll have access to more — more advisors, in more places, so that more of your questions can be answered. We’re not here to shake things up, but to build on what’s already here.
And I believe strongly in Ann’s approach, because it’s our approach as well.
–Katie Buck
2 | 303-922-4304
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