Business Address: 10 E. Doty St., Suite 800, Madison, WI 53703
Phone: 608-827-6755
Email: info@michaeldubis.com
Website: www.michaeldubis.com
Board Membership: Natural Heritage Land Trust Board, past treasurer and investment chair
Organizations: NHLT, NAPFA, faculty lecturer at Graaskamp Center for Real Estate
Education: B.B.A., UW-Madison Graaskamp Center for Real Estate; CFP
Mike, how long ago did you start the business, and what are your day-to-day responsibilities?
Ten years. President, client service, financial planner, investment manager, professional nagger, outsourcer of worry, trade-off optimizer. I am also a part-time lecturer at the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the UW business school. I teach two different capital markets classes.
Who would you say has influenced your career the most, and in what way?
My wife. There’s no such thing as a “self-made” man. No one gets anywhere in life without the support of others. I am where I am because of other people, the first and most important being my wife.
Also, my peer group. I founded a nine-member peer group made up of respective presidents of various planning firms around the country. We are each other’s coaches, support, resources, and friends. As a group, they are a cornerstone.
What was a career high point?
Finding my voice in the profession. I was lucky to be relatively young and very clear about who I wanted to serve, where I wanted to be in the profession, and where I wanted my firm positioned. I chaired a national conference for fiduciary financial planners, presided over the local Financial Planning Association, and subsequently took my company to the next level.
I have a wonderfully balanced life with great clients because of that focus and voice.
What is a long-range goal that you’d like to achieve before leaving your company or industry?
You’re asking someone who is in his 30s what he’d like to do before leaving the industry? I have no plans on going anywhere.
Since I don’t compartmentalize my business from my personal life, my long-range goal is to enjoy every moment of raising my kids. I hope they become God-loving, economically and socially independent adults. I hope to grow my marriage along the way.
I have a great personal life because I have a great business and clients. That great business allows me to achieve my goals of raising a strong family and having fun along the way.
My long-range goal isn’t as much a goal as a process. I simply wish to always pursue and encourage intellectual honesty. Promoting the fiduciary way and being an advocate for the consumer and my clients was the original inspiration for me to do what I do and still lights that fire today. Further, I continue to strive to serve my clients as best I can to help them reach their goals. This sounds cliché, but it’s the honest truth.
Doing so in this environment is not going to be easy, though. Gone is the gravy train 25-year stock and bond bull market where anyone could “manage” someone’s buy-and-hold finances. Real work now has to be done and only a committed and reality-based approach to planning is going to help clients get there.
Finally, I intend to continue to publish, speak, and advance the profession. For example, I am currently working on research that could advance the profession’s advice on improving one’s ability to sustain a higher level of spending in retirement.
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Let’s go back to the beginning, starting out in the world. When you were in high school, what were your career aspirations?
Money management … not kidding. I was strange. I still am.
How did that translate when you had your own money to manage? Let’s revisit your very first paycheck: From where, how much, and what did you do with it?
Baseball card shop, about $30; I bought more baseball cards. I learned about what supply and demand and bubbles mean at a young age.
So, you are consistent in your business life. What do you do “beyond the office” that brings you happiness or relaxation?
Spend time with my wife and kids. I’m soaking every minute up because the time goes so fast. It’s the greatest thing we (wife and I) have ever or will ever do in our lives. Only through our children can we live forever.
When time allows and I need personal time, I’m pretty committed to the art of fly-fishing. I love all types of fly-fishing: trout, saltwater, anything where a fish might bite. I enjoy tying flies as well.
Where is your favorite place to travel and why?
Montana, Wyoming. I’ve never felt my soul as restored as I do in the mountains. I don’t even need a fly rod in my hand, but it helps.
Do you read for pleasure? If so, what is a recent title that might give us the flavor of what you like to read?
Yes. The Longest Silence by Tom McGuane. No surprise it’s about fly-fishing. I’m also slowly getting through Great Expectations by Dickens, since I remembered liking it as a kid but forgot most of the story.
Is there a character in a book or movie you’d care to be identified with?
Respectfully, I really have no interest in being identified with any character. I’m comfortable with who I am. But … [tongue-in-cheek] I see a close resemblance to James Bond – Daniel Craig of course – because, well, look at me: I’m incredibly sexy, love a good scotch, and am blinded by my devotion to serve. Hah!
Okay, Mike, you were asked in advance to supply three words that best describe you, and discounting sexy, scotch-drinker, and blinded, what have you got for us as a closing pitch?
I don’t answer questions like this very well, so I asked my wife, my 3-year-old daughter, and my best friend. In order, this is what they said: “loving,” “Daddy,” “contemplative.”
Very fine, and thanks for being our spotlight guest this week. Continued success with your business and happy holidays to you and the Dubis family!
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