Despite what one may read in newspaper headlines or see on nightly television news shows, the business of providing financial advice is an honorable one — no less honorable than teaching children, taking care of the sick or keeping criminals off the street.
In fact, a person who becomes a financial adviser isn't making a career choice; he or she is answering a calling. And even though many financial advisers earn enough to buy nice things, I firmly believe that they enter the profession because they're called to serve others.
Why else would anyone willingly take on the enormous responsibility of helping perfect strangers build and protect wealth — wealth that allows them to pay for their children's college education or live comfortably in retirement?
Practitioners of any vocation also must take care of one another. I see this in my brother, who has been a police officer in Everett, Mass., for 20 years. He always refers to fellow officers as “brothers and sisters” and travels great distances on his days off to attend the funerals of other officers — strangers to whom his only connection is their calling.
Financial advisers also are bound together by a calling and, therefore, have a responsibility to support the profession and each other.
I'm thinking of a particular adviser who has devoted most of his adult life to helping strangers and now needs help from his fellow advisers. His name is John Hyland and he is a founding partner of
Private Advisor Group in Morristown, N.J.
DEDICATED
I met John in 2010, the year he received the Community Service Award from the Invest in Others Charitable Foundation, which sponsors the annual Community Leadership Awards.
You see, in the early 1990s, soon after the death of his aunt from
acute myeloid leukemia, John dedicated himself to raising funds for research and awareness about the disease. He raised millions for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of New Jersey.
John wasn't at the awards ceremony in 2010, because he was undergoing a rigorous round of chemotherapy for AML. In the months before the ceremony, he had been diagnosed with the same cancer he had been crusading against for years. If that does not make a person sit back and question the sanity of the universe, nothing will.
John was able to beat back the AML — for almost the next five years. But last fall, he learned it had returned. Chemo wasn't enough this time, and his recovery now hinges on a successful bone marrow transplant. Sadly, no one in his family is a suitable match. So we're waiting for the universe to return John's years of generosity of mind and spirit by bringing forth a donor. That could be you.
I'm urging all of you — John's brothers and sisters in the business of providing financial advice — to consider joining the registry of potential bone marrow donors. You can learn more about the registry and other ways you can help John at
privateadvisorgroup.com/swabforlife.
Once registered, you'll be sent a kit for taking a swab of the inside of your mouth. You then return it. It's that simple.
If you're into Twitter, make sure to share a “selfie” as you swab your mouth using the hashtag #swabforjohn.
I'm going to do it, and I hope you will too.
