Military members turned financial advisors reveal the skills that serve them best

May is Military Appreciation Month, making it the perfect time to salute all the financial advisors who served their country before serving their clients.

And as it turns out, spending time in uniform defending the United States of America instills a lot of the skills that make for a successful wealth manager.

Chet Bennetts, department chair and associate provost of academics at The American College of Financial Services, for example, says the Marine Corps taught him that discipline isn't necessarily rigidity for rigidity's sake. It's doing the right thing repeatedly when no one's watching, especially when conditions are bad. In his view, that maps almost perfectly onto financial planning, where the value he delivers is rarely the brilliant insight in a single meeting.

“It's the consistent execution of a plan over months, years, decades, through markets and life events that test every assumption,” Bennetts said.

Bennetts adds that he came into wealth management - and stayed - because it sat at the intersection of two things he cared about: helping people make decisions that genuinely mattered to their lives, and the intellectual challenge of doing it well.

“Financial planning is fundamentally a discipline of trade-offs under uncertainty which is familiar territory for anyone who's planned or been part of a military operation,” Bennetts said.

William Rabbitt, financial advisor and owner of WP Financial, a Private Advisor Group Affiliate, says military members often don’t realize they are learning discipline, focus and the ability to work under pressure while it is happening. And while he admits financial planners are not faced with the same life or death pressure as soldiers, he does say that the repetition and discipline he learned in uniform not only improved his planning skills, but also gives his clients confidence. 

“The military showed me I should continually drill so that I would be competent and confident when time to deliver came. It is no different in any field and certainly not in our field,” Rabbitt said. 

Elsewhere, Jessica Chominski, financial advisor and director of institutional marketing at Aquinas Wealth Advisors, agrees that military experience gives an edge to those in the financial industry, partly because of the extensive training they received in complex problem solving and decision making.

“Much of our leadership formation is centered around considering each option, the consequences, second and third order effects of each, and how to adjust to rapid change. We are taught and trained to use time tested frameworks along with creative conceptual thinking in order to rapidly, but prudently respond to all types of often unforeseen circumstances, similar to comprehensive financial planning,” Chominski said.

Chominski also believes that the mentorship framework that is integral to the leadership formation in the military is the template that should be followed by many professions with specialization.

“You don’t know what you don’t know, and the right person taking you under their wing can make all the difference in the world to increase your confidence and competence early on,” Chominski said.

Meanwhile, Adam Weiner, managing partner at Artemis Wealth Advisors, a Private Advisor Group affiliate, says his time in the military gave him the discipline to thoughtfully design a process unique to his business and the discipline to consistently execute that process. 

“Mission focus in the military shapes the plan. As a financial advisor, my mission is to educate my clients on a comprehensive financial plan. During client reviews, my focus is ensuring clients understand their plan. Peace of mind comes from an understanding, while fear comes from the unknown. I want my clients to understand so they sleep well at night about their finances,” Weiner said.

Finally, Paul Sarama, wealth manager at The Baker Sarama Wealth Management Group at Steward Partners, says the Marine Corps doesn't just teach you discipline, it “rewires how you think.”

“People depend on you to make the right call under pressure, with incomplete information and real consequences. That's not entirely different from what a client faces when markets are volatile, a business is being sold, or a family is navigating an unexpected financial crisis,” Sarama said.

As for a distinct edge, Sarama thinks the military trains its members to subordinate their egos to the mission. In wealth management, however, he says the mission is always the client's outcome.

“You check your personal agenda at the door and focus entirely on what's best for the person sitting across from you. That mindset isn't universal in this industry, and I think clients feel the difference,” Sarama said.