4 minute read
WHERE ARE THEY NOW Andrew Hunt
ANDREW HUNT, CO-OWNER/PARTNER, HILEY HUNT
Financial Partner
ANDREW HUNT ENJOYS LASTING CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS
To understand just how immediate Andrew Hunt’s impact in the
financial services industry was, consider he was recognized as a Midlands Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree in 2012 and nearly a decade later, he’s still well under the age cap for that award.
But for as much of a 20-something-year old whiz as he was back then, cutting his teeth for Guiderock Capital Management, time has only ripened his expertise and effectiveness in his chosen field. Now a partner in his own firm, Hiley Hunt Wealth Management, he leverages that tenure into an ever-lengthening list of new and existing clients alike.
Out of Happenstance
Not bad for a guy whose Plan A fizzled out mightily at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
“I kind of fell into this industry,” Hunt said. “I was a chemistry major in college and was going to flunk out of chemistry, so I switched majors to accounting. My roommate’s dad was an accountant and I thought well, he seems to be successful.
“I went down the path of accounting and tax and took my first job working down at Gallup as a staff accountant. I had the opportunity there to start serving Gallup associates and their family members with their financial planning needs, really just out of happenstance. It was fortuitous how it got started because I really did fall in love with it.”
Hunt’s unique mix of experience and youth – he’s currently 35 – makes him something of an industry unicorn. Long-time savers like his street cred, while younger (but no less-knowledgeable) clients relate to him generationally. His wellproven approach appeals to all comers.
“When I first got into the business, it was a culture that financial planners were the knowledge gatekeepers,” he said. “With the rise in the internet, that’s no longer the case. The planner’s not the gatekeeper of knowledge and we’re not the gatekeeper of products anymore.
- ANDREW HUNT, CO-OWNER/PARTNER, HILEY HUNT
Young Savers
Appealing to younger savers in particular holds other advantages. While all investors had to resort to technology during the early days of COVID-19, many of Hunt’s clients have made no bones about their preference for such gadgets going forward. This has forced a pivot into a dramatically different working environment, Hunt said.
“In 2012, I was serving individuals and families all over the country and we still do that today at our current firm. We serve clients in 30 states,” he said. “But I was spending a lot more time on airplanes and in airports and hotels than I do today. We still get on the airplane and go visit people, but it seems to be that the job demands a lot less of that, and that’s of course been accelerated since the pandemic.
Community Connection
Hunt keeps his finger on the pulse on various aspects of the community through his service activities, primary of which are Omaha Street School, Lifegate Church and UNO’s Scholars Academy through which he has mentored college students for six years.
“I think that one of the biggest things is he’s very approachable and he really does make time for the students to ask him questions,” said Bethany Hughes, director of the CBA Scholars Academy. “The students who’ve been paired with Andrew consistently talk about how wonderful their meetings are, how beneficial they are and how they will continue to stay in contact with him even after they complete the program. In that sense, he’s ideally what a mentor should be, approachable but also with a lot of good information, a lot of good experience.”
Hunt meets each mentee where they are, although secretly he’d love to preach the merits of a career in financial planning, seeing unprecedented opportunity in the gigantic turnover of wealth from baby boomers that continues to unfold. He said while Hiley Hunt is and shall remain a boutique firm, this opportunity makes staffing a primary challenge for the future.
“We are a talent-based business, so we’re only as good as the talent that works here,” he said. “We’re not out there hiring a hundred people a year, which makes the talent thing that much more important because we are a small team.
“Being a financial planner is the greatest job in the world. I am shocked that more people don’t do it, because it’s incredibly fulfilling. You can make a great living; if you have an entrepreneurial spirit, you can be an entrepreneur. And you get to help people every single day with some of the most important decisions they’ll make in their lives. I love what I do.”
MBJ
402-504-9347 • 9850 NICHOLAS ST., #315, OMAHA 68114 • WWW.HILEYHUNT.COM
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