It doesn’t come as any surprise that the financial markets have undergone rapid evolution given the advancements and innovations in various sectors, wealth management being a significant one. Fuelled by an explosive growth in mutual funds, investment management, insurance planning, financial planning, and more, wealth management has seen drastic transformation and is paving the way for all. Many new players have entered the market with state-of-the-art financial solutions. Behind these, there are ingenious minds who are driving the change in the industry.
Additionally, the wealth management industry has been a historically male-dominated industry, which isn’t the case anymore. It is evident that women can offer a unique approach to working with clients and managing their wealth. Women have always worked to empower others to take control of their finances, and this aptitude is helping shape a new way to think of wealth management.
Amongst those women, one such trailblazer is Lisa Ladds Doche, who has significantly contributed to the wealth management industry by helping individuals, families and businesses make personalized financial decisions about their future. Lisa serves as a Managing Director at the Doche Financial Consulting Group with Baird Private Wealth Management. As a comprehensive wealth advisor, she provides an experienced approach to investments and the planning process. She brings 39 years of experience in financial services to the table.
We, at Insights Success, caught up with Lisa to unveil her entrepreneurial journey, her viewpoint towards the wealth management industry, and her role as founding partner of the Doche Financial Consulting Group
A Road to Becoming Finance Advisor
Lisa needed a job to get herself through college, and there was a six month wait to be a bank teller in Lubbock, TX! As a result, she ended up with a job at a regional brokerage firm called Schneider, Burnett & Hickman as the assistant to the branch manager. Because it was a smaller firm, she was able to get great exposure to the operations and services of the financial industry. Meanwhile, she studied and passed the FINRA series 7, her senior year at Texas Tech University, and headed to Anchorage, AK to work in the Sears store with Dean Witter Reynolds training program in 1984. She was a young, professional woman on the Alaska Frontier. She has also attended the Renaissance Charitable Giving Institute in Indiana to deepen her client guidance in estate planning and charitable giving.
Providing an Active Approach to Investments and Planning Process
Lisa formed the Doche Financial Consulting Group with Ron Demers and Maggie Loe. She believes that the key to a long-term successful relationship is keeping the client involved in this cycle of planning, implementation, and monitoring. Recently, the Doche Financial Consulting Group joined Baird, a privately held, international financial services firm with offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia and more than $300 billion in client assets. For more than 100 years, Baird has helped families, individuals, publicly funded entities, corporations, and institutional clients achieve their financial goals across generations and changing market environments.
As comprehensive advisors, the Doche Financial Consulting Group provides an active approach to investments and the planning process. Its practice focuses on both the client’s financial position today, as well as on their future financial expectations and obligations.
The team develops solutions and explains them with understanding and transparency utilizing all the resources of Baird. The group helps build, manage, preserve, and transition wealth using the Four Cornerstones of Wealth Management: Investments, Liability Management, Risk Management, and Estate Planning Strategies.
Founding Principles
Lisa’s idea of impactful leadership lies in King Solomon’s Philosophy in Wisdom and Wealth: “You are only as smart as the people you surround yourself.” Supported by an employee-owned firm, she has created a unique culture at Doche Financial Consulting Group built on its founding principles of integrity, transparency, teamwork and always keeping clients first.
A Learning Approach
If you are a part of the wealth management industry, gaining experience and constant learning are paramount. Lisa asserts, “Working with families and business through life stages provides invaluable experience to carry into other similar experiences. At the same time, history does not repeat itself. You must stay on top of trends and products that are constantly evolving globally. The markets are more than just the United States. You must develop solutions with this in mind and explain them with understanding and transparency.”
Talking about Robert Kiyosake’s “Powerful Presentations” seminar, she says that it taught her communication skills that have paved the way for her success. “This is a people business, and you must be able to communicate and listen effectively,” she adds.
Leveraging the Support and Culture of Baird
A company’s culture defines all the aspects of its business. Stating the importance of positive work culture, Lisa says “We cannot go it alone, even independents need firm affiliations to execute their trade. With better execution comes better outcomes. So, to thrive, and have your clients thrive, choose your firm platform carefully.” At Baird, she finds a culture that helps her and her team thrive. Moreover, Baird’s commitment to being a great place to work helps Lisa and her team attract and retain exceptional people from across their industry, ensuring the quality and continuity of their advice and service for their clients.
Constantly Being Responsive to the Clients’ Needs
Sharing her views on the pandemic situation, Lisa opines that the pandemic forced families to reassess what was important to them both personally and financially. According to her, these shifts in priorities will drive the new developments within the wealth management industry. She is not convinced that virtual meetings will ever replace direct dealings with clients, as work involved is personal. But there is a technology and AI revolution that was thrown to the forefront with the pandemic. She believes that the firms that are the most responsive to their client’s needs will thrive, and those out-of-touch will struggle to deliver meaningfully.
Giving Back to the Family, to the Profession, and to the Community
In Line with Baird’s own philosophy, Lisa believes that people need to give back to their family, to their profession, and to their community.
For decades, Lisa served on Boards such as Rotary, Big Brother, Big Sisters, United Way, Cave Creek Unified #93 School Board, and so forth. It was invaluable, because it takes this kind of service to understand what goes into “making a community”.
She took some time away to focus on getting her kids transitioned to college and on their own, which she also thinks was important as a working Mom. “There is service to family and there are times this needs to be a priority,” she feels.
Professionally, Lisa believes if you find yourself at the top, you have a moral obligation to work with those following to be successful. Now she tends to focus more on “project” service as opposed to board service because she has more control on work-life balance.
A Take on the Change Affecting Younger Investors
Lisa is of the opinion that in the coming years many of our younger investors will be left behind! She mentions that with the recent Client Relationship and Regulation Best Interest legislation, most wire-houses are taking the position that they cannot afford to work with smaller (up and coming) households in a full advisory capacity. This generation will likely experience flatter markets due to globalization of the industry, along with lower interest rates for longer.
Paired with stymied wage growth in the U.S., these younger investors need advice more than ever to effectively navigate their financial paths. In Lisa’s opinion, they are being forced into robo-advice, as an unintended consequence of the legislation. Their investment success is hanging on 6-7 questions per account with no coordination to their overarching goals as a family or business, and their lives will be dictated by the performance of those random accounts. As opposed to having a plan, and then investing to drive the success of that plan with purpose. Having more access to professional advice could make a difference in their outcomes.
A Strong Voice for Women in Finance
In her advice to the upcoming women entrepreneurs aspiring to enter the financial services industry, she says, “Women make the best financial advisors because we are natural caregivers. But you must do it within business protocols to be successful. You need to be able to look people in the face, as opposed to deflecting your eyes downward which is more natural for women. Pick your head up, chest out, march in, and do business… and business will come to you.”
Shaping the Direction of the Industry
The Doche Financial Consulting Group, has close to 69 years of collective experience. This does not include the extensive support and resources it has through the internal experts and wealth management specialists within Baird. Because Baird is employee owned, everyone shares a personal stake in the successes Lisa and her team help create for their clients. Being privately held, Baird lets them plan and act in their clients’ long-term interests without the distractions that can come with outside shareholders.
Lisa strongly believes that she and her team are growing to meet the demands for the kind of comprehensive services and wealth management advice they provide for the individuals, multigenerational families and businesses they serve. They will continue to add expertise to the team, and Baird’s counter-cyclical mix of core businesses broadens their capabilities for clients and diversifies their sources of revenue, providing financial strength and stability across market environments.
“Together, we will have a hand in shaping the direction of our industry,” Lisa concludes.
Lisa Ladds Doche, Financial Advisor and Managing Director, The Doche Financial Consulting Group of Baird
