Evan Harp sat down with Fortune Financial Group’s Cris Kalivas to discuss her second career in finance, how she started her practice from scratch, and why planning and behavioral finance are more important than portfolio construction.
Evan Harp: When and how did your practice begin?
Cris Kalivas: This is a second career for me. I was a bond trader, bond underwriter for the first season of my career, and after being successful in that career, I decided that wasn’t for me anymore.
I decided to take a little break. I stayed at home for a while. I have four children, and as I was at home with my children, I decided that a lot of people were asking me financial questions because they knew my background. So I decided to pursue the flip side of the financial career, and get into helping people with their finances and helping them create better lives. I went back and got my certifications, my licenses, my CFP, etc., and then started getting clients.
Kalivas on Goals
Harp: That’s an excellent answer. My next question is, what is your investment philosophy?
Kalivas: High level, I’m a planner; I’m always going to go with goals. First, what are each individual investor’s goals, or client’s goals? Then we’re going to put a plan around those goals, and build the portfolio.
It’s always goal- and plan-based, and the portfolio is last consideration. I always tell my clients when they ask me why they might be performing underneath the S&P, I say, “Well, you are not the S&P. The S&P does not want to retire in three years. You do.”
Starting From Negative
Harp: That’s such a smart way to put it. What’s the biggest obstacle you had to overcome, and how did you do it?
Kalivas: I think the biggest obstacle as a planner is the way I started. I started at negative. I started at zero. Negative income. I had no clients at first, and I had expenses. I had to get clients [so I could] make money myself. It is hard to start a 100% commission job. How did I overcome it? I worked really hard just calling people, telling friends and even neighbors what I was doing. I think they understood that, since it was a second career, I was doing this out of a passion to help people and to improve financial literacy and outcomes. And it paid off.
Kalivas on What Financial Advisors Need to Remember
Harp: What’s something happening in the market right now that not enough people are paying attention to?
Kalivas: I’m going to lean towards more the market of financial advice than the stock market. I find that people are not paying enough attention to the goals and the plan part of the portfolio. So many advisors are really pushing towards the portfolio, the stock market, and returns — and that’s not what Jane and Joe want. Jane and Joe want to retire on time and Jane and Joe want peace of mind. I just feel like there’s so many advisors and so many conferences that lean towards diversification in the portfolio, returns on the portfolio, getting the next hot stock or hot ETF, and we’re ignoring Jane and Joe.
Inspirations and Closing Advice
Harp: I think that’s really smart and useful for people to hear too. My final question for you is, who is another advisor that inspires you, and why?
Kalivas: Well, I’m going to lean towards — and this is not going to be a surprise — the behavioral advisors that are out there. You’ve got Daniel Crosby and Brandon Frazier. They’re doing podcasts, and they’re really trying to get to the humans, the clients behind the money and find out what’s important for the client — not necessarily the portfolio and the returns that they’re doing. Those are the names I’d pick. It’s really the folks that are understanding money is 90% behavioral and asking, how can we address that more?
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