LD Holt LD Holt& Associates A Trail

LD Holt with LD Holt & Associates has always seemed to be a trailblazer. He’s left behind memorable paths for others to remember if perhaps not follow.

Born in 1948, LD grew up in Lovington, New Mexico, and first made a name for himself traversing the southwest, with the support of his parents, as a 13-year-old evangelist in the early 1960s.

This was somewhat unheard of at the time. “I felt a very strong impression that I needed to be involved in Christian ministry.

We were Assembly of God, and five days after my 13th birthday, I preached my first message in my home church. Two days later, I preached a message at another Church of God in Lea County, the southeasternmost county of New Mexico. I was well received by people from the ages of 15 to the age of 85.” Holt said.

Making a lasting impression, LD recently met a man from Bay Minette whose father, as a youngster, had heard many of those sermons from over six decades prior.

“One pastor in Eunice, New Mexico would invite me to his church twice a year. I recently met a man who told me that his dad, as a youngster, was taken to one of my sermons and was part of my congregation.” Holt explained.

After graduating high school, Holt attended Lee College in Cleveland, Tennessee, considered one of the premium schools in the country for Christian studies.

“Between my first and second year in college, I got married. After the second year, I was invited by a supervisory pastor, while I was on staff with another church and attending college, to start a new church in the Chattanooga Valley area just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee. So, at the age of 19, I started doing the groundwork for the Chattanooga Valley Church of God and went on to set up the church property and build the church building.” LD said.

He went on to say that, at the time, church employment was a bi-vocational position and had to pick up other work to supplement their income.

“Pastors then, and still today, oftentimes will have other jobs. They made their living secularly while at the same time pastoring a church as well as being aided financially by other churches. Around this time, I got a license and began to sell life insurance.” Holt said.

“Following four years at Chattanooga Valley, I took a church called Swilly Hill Church of God just south of Valdosta. And from that point on, I pastored several churches, built a couple of churches and over the next 20 years, set up a pastoral career throughout the years of upbringing for my children, two daughters named Lisa and LaRie.” Holt said.

After roughly 31 years of evangelical involvement, initially as a teenage crusader and later as a full-time head pastor at numerous churches in Tennessee and Georgia, LD pivoted due to circumstances, carving out new and a notably different trail.

“For reasons I couldn’t explain, I just had a very strong sense that life was beginning to make some changes. After a year of meditating on it, in January of 1992 I resigned from the pastorate.” Holt said.

“At that time, I did not expect what was going to happen after we had left the pastorate and I conducted my insurance business. My first wife left me, and I had to start my life again at the age of 44. I moved from Thomasville to Valdosta, Georgia, and graduated from Valdosta State with a Political Science degree in 1994 while also running my insurance company.”

After remarrying, in January of 1994, Holt promptly moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, and enrolled in Stetson University’s College to Law pursue a degree. LD earned his J.D. in 1998.

“We decided to go to Baldwin County, Alabama where my wife’s brother was chief of police in Bay Minette, and it was not too far from my daughter’s and grandchildren’s. After getting my Alabama license I met local attorney Steven Tunstall and he agreed to mentor me and show me how to open and run a law practice.”

Holt’s very first local office was near the former Mobile Press Register building in downtown Mobile. A few years later, he moved his office to Baldwin County due to his mother moving to the area.

“I wanted my office near my mother in case she needed help. We opened in Bay Minette in 2002 and were there until 2017 when we moved to our current location in Spanish Fort.” LD said.

Holt’s law practice taps heavily into his insurance background, and he has become a highly valuable local resource in real estate.

“Because of my experience in insurance, we help estates, planning, management and probate. It became natural to oversee work in probate and estate planning. When people build businesses, they often must eventually pass them along to family members. We help the preservation of assets today and for the legacy of tomorrow.” Holt said.

“Our second office, Legacy Law Firm, serves strictly as a fiduciary for trusts and estates. If somebody needs a third party that they can trust to manage their estate, and their family can’t or isn’t available, we can manage the estate until it is distributed,” he added.

Holt said that his practice is still growing. “We are bringing on more people and interviewing other younger lawyers. I have an appointment to take a week off in June of 2038. That’s the same month my birth certificate turns 90. By then I may slow down and let some well-trained young bucks continue to help people.”

When asked how he could have two robust, yet seemingly opposite, careers in one lifetime, Holt’s response reflected his razor-sharp mind.

“I simply tell them it’s the same business. I would stand up for them in court as a pastor and, when they needed, I will pray for them as an attorney.”