LaGRANGE- After a combined 25 years of experience in finance and advising, Summer Deal, Aaron Mabon and Brandi Kennedy branched out to form their own company called True North Investments, located at 405 Ridley Avenue. The business opened on Aug. 25.

Summer Deal and Aaron Mabon serve as the co-owners and financial advisors, while Brandi Kennedy is the office manager.

True North Investments is an independent financial services, wealth management and consulting firm. As an independent financial service, True North Investments focuses on providing clients with the proper advice and insight by helping them develop a financial plan and lay out investment strategies that would be beneficial to them and their family.

“We work with retirees and small business owners in the greater LaGrange area, West Georgia and East Alabama,” said Mabon. “We focus on families and we have a strategy where it is client-focused and we help put together a framework that helps guide them towards their financial destination. If that’s retirement planning, legacy planning, or college planning, we provide insurance solutions that will take care of the roadblocks that might derail them from their financial goals.”

“Most of our clients, I would say the average range is 50-plus – we have younger clients too – but most of them are 50-plus,” said Deal. “There either in retirement or near retirement and they need help with the money they’ve saved so far. They need to make a plan moving forward so hopefully that money will last them their entire life. That’s what our goal is.”

True North Investments provide services in areas like investment management, education planning, post-retirement planning, insurance planning, business succession strategies and many more. Deal and Mabon will hold regular meetings with clients to help look over their investments and will advise them to open up an account that might be useful for them when it comes to investing their finances.

“What we like to focus on with a client is to help them get out of debt, put together a plan, and have them follow up with that plan,” said Mabon.

When it comes to suggesting long-term investments to their clients, both financial advisors make an effort to meet with the clients’ attorney and accountant to make sure everyone in the group is on the same page.

“We not only invest but were here to help protect our client’s assets too,” said Deal.

As far as challenges that comes with their career as advisors, they both point to different elements of the job.

“Navigating the stock market can be difficult,” said Deal. “We don’t know exactly what the stock market is going to do but our goal is to put our clients in the best plan possible. The market right now is doing fantastic and sometimes it’s not. We want to make sure our clients have the right mix of investments, so if the market does have a bad year they will not be impacted as much.”

“Keeping a client on path can be challenging,” said Mabon. “They might want that new boat or that new car but they need to follow the plan. If the client says they want to follow the plan, it’s our responsibility to hold them accountable to keep them on track.”

When it comes to what they value the most and enjoy about working with their clients, what stands out is the ability to serve them in any capacity they need.

“I love working with people,” said Deal. “I want to get to know them as much as possible.  With a lot of our clients they feel more like family. You really get to become a part of their extended family. When you’re working with someone’s money, that’s very close to their heart. I love giving them advice that has greatly helped their future or the future of their family. It’s a good feeling.”

“I like to look back and be able to say I helped them reach their goal,” said Mabon. “Maybe it was to retire early or maybe to put a grandchild through college. To see that it could transform a family tree by helping them make a plan, I get enjoyment knowing that I played a small part in helping them reach their goal.”

 

Shirttail- Reach James Simpson II at 706-884-7311, ext. 2155, or by email at james.simpson@lagrangenews.com