WHERE ARE THEY NOW?R
40 under 40 KIRSTIN RICKETTS, VICE PRESIDENT, VINTAGE FINANCIAL GROUP
Paying Dividends
KIRSTIN RICKETS GROWS, EVOLVES INTO NEW VENTURES There was a time when Kirstin Ricketts was sure she’d found her true calling in life. A year after graduating from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the then20-something- year old took on the heavily male-dominated financial planning world by co-founding her own firm, Vintage Financial Group. In so doing, she introduced a humanistic approach to clients in the financial planning space. “The reason why we started Vintage Financial Group is because we wanted to help people talk about and plan for their dreams,” she said. “Financial planning is a unique industry where you can talk to someone about their biggest fears and the things they would anticipate or hope for most. Then you can actually do something about it. You can help them build towards that. “It’s a great privilege to get to talk to someone about the things that maybe someone will only whisper about, where they say, ‘I’m working towards this, but what I really want is that.’ Getting to help them build towards that is just the greatest privilege.” The founders’ instincts proved correct and Vintage Financial Group thrived, catapulting to the upper echelon of financial planning companies thanks to a client-centric approach that Ricketts continues to hone as vice president. Her
success in the industry doesn’t surprise her former boss in the least. “One thing I admire greatly about her, she approached her professional career from a very servant perspective,” said Cliff Karthauser, now an executive coach and public speaker. “That’s pretty rare when you find someone in their 20s, which is when I first connected with her. She put the relationship of the people that she was working with and the financial decisions that she had to make on their behalf ahead of everything. “She never even clearly understood how she was paid for a long period of time. She said, ‘Cliff, I don’t want to know. That doesn’t matter to me. I know that if I do the right things and I take care of my clients and I build advocacy, that part will take care of itself.’ It allowed her to open up a tremendous referral network because she took care of people and they fell in love with her.”
Seeing Results Ricketts’ professional responsibilities have changed to a more consultative role. Today she’s mainly focused on fund trends and keeping eyes on what clients need to prepare for as their needs have changed over time.
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