Derek Kennedy, CFP®

Derek Kennedy, CFP®

“The ability to go to my fellow Network members to get feedback on specific and often technical planning questions, or just to discuss various ongoing trends and concerns in the industry, is really helpful.”

Derek Kennedy, CFP® is the founder and president of Kennedy Wealth Management, a Fee-Only financial planning and investment management firm in Knoxville, Tennessee. Derek has over 15 years of experience, is a contributor to Investing in an Uncertain Economy For Dummies®, has been featured in AARP The Magazine, and has been quoted on CNN.com, Bankrate.com, Oprah.com and in New York Daily News and The Wall Street Journal. Derek is a graduate of the University of Virginia and holds a BA in Philosophy. He began his career as an institutional broker with the investment bank of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in New York, NY, and became a Vice President of Institutional Equities, in their Investment Management Group.

We recently interviewed Derek regarding his experiences as a Fee-Only financial planner and Garrett member since March 2006.

Why did you decide to offer planning services on an hourly, as-needed basis and why did you decide to join the Network?

I felt like it was really important that quality financial planning be accessible to everyone, no matter what phase of life they are in. I started Kennedy Wealth Management as a Fee-Only financial planning firm because the product sales people really came out of the woodwork when my father was getting ready to retire. I experienced firsthand that people really do need a straightforward source for objective financial advice. I’m a bit different than many Garrett Planning Network members in that my background was institutional equities on the investment banking side prior to starting my firm. So I initially set up a wealth management shop that offered comprehensive financial planning and ongoing investment management for a fee that was based on assets under management. Later it started becoming more and more apparent how much many of my clients would have benefited from having had even a limited amount of quality financial planning in the early years of their career. At the same time it became obvious that an asset-based fee structure would make those services nearly impossible for most younger people to afford. I had been aware of Sheryl Garrett and the Network through some of my other professional organizations for some time, but didn’t think much about it. But once I decided that hourly was the way to go in order to be accessible, Garrett became the easiest and most efficient way to make sure that I did it right. I’ve been learning more from the Network ever since.

What are the top 3 reasons that you remain a member of the Garrett Planning Network today?

There is hands down one single reason that I remain a member of the Network – the quality of the interactions with my fellow planners. When you pull together a group of people that is so strongly committed to being not only the highest quality and most objective financial planners that they can be, but with the added twist of really wanting to be a beneficial resource for the main street consumer, you get a special kind of connection. The ability to go to my fellow Network members to get feedback on specific and often technical planning questions, or just to discuss various ongoing trends and concerns in the industry, is really helpful. I have made some very good friends over the years and there is a very real sense of community in the Network. Other reasons that I remain a member are the ongoing continuing education webinars and the Garrett Annual Retreat.

Do you have staff or outsource anything?

I outsource absolutely everything that I can. I have a virtual assistant in Texas who does most of my back office tasks, which allows me to focus on client work and client interaction. I also sub-contract out the database management of my portfolio management software to Krisan Marotta of Krisan’s BackOffice in Charlottesville, Virginia.

What are your current business challenges and how are you overcoming them?

I’m about to do a much needed overhaul of my website, and want to make it more social media friendly. This is actually another example of where the Network can come in so handy. There has already been a great deal of back and forth idea sharing on the discussion boards about this as well as a full scale webinar or two (thanks Justin!). So while it is definitely hard to find the time to work on every business project that you want to work on, it is possible to come at it later with the confidence that many of your own concerns and challenges have already been addressed (or at least are in the process of being addressed) by someone in the Network. We have a group of people who thrive on both leadership and sharing, so even if you feel like you are coming late to the party on a certain topic, your friends in the Network have probably already been hard at work on it.

What was your favorite session at the Garrett Retreat?

This year at Retreat it was less about any particular financial planning topic for me and more about my interaction with some of the sponsors. We tend to have very close relationships to our sponsors because the ones that are committed to serving planners in the Network do so because they really do share our values. While there are too many to mention, I really appreciated the interactions that I had with Keith and Judith Maurer of Low Load Insurance Services, Paul King and Mary Harris-King of Comprehensive Securities Compliance Solutions and Brian Davis, the Director of Advisor Services at Scottrade. I work with them all and really appreciate the opportunity for the personal interaction and relationship building that Retreat provides.

Derek is a member of the masters swim team, he supports the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, travels whenever possible (especially snowboarding trips), and enjoys taking his 10 year old black lab Clyde for walks and swims.