Chapter 2

Scott continued to do the fishing this day which so far had been unproductive along with him still having thoughts of incidents that had occurred in his life.

After he received his yearly bonus he gave his notice of resignation. He received the usual “sorry to see you go” types of comments. Most of the people wished him luck and success. He did stop for a few drinks with some of his fellow employees after his last day of work.

He gave Beth a credit card for the business and also the information on the business bank account along with the ID and password access to it. She had ordered supplies and knew where to purchase refurbished laptop computers for the office along with a laser printer.

The ball was now in Scott’s court as he needed to find clients. With Beth’s help, they contacted various associations and organizations in the area making the offer for Scott to speak to their members or groups on investing. Scott’s availability as a financial advisor was advertised on the local radio station. All of these efforts resulted in establishing a small client base.

It wasn’t until a few clients who had considerable amounts in their investment accounts wanted Scott to manage them that caused Scott to think he had turned the corner on the business being a success. His fee for managing these accounts was close to fifty percent less than what these clients had been paying to their present advisor. He could charge this fee because of his low overhead. All these fees totaled up to a sufficient amount of money to operate the business.

The clients said they liked the monthly email reports Scott was sending out in that he was keeping it simple and understandable. The favorable comments they made to their friends about how they liked Scott as their advisor and his low fees resulted in Scott’s acquiring additional clients.

Scott verbally and in his monthly newsletter mentioned that his philosophy of investing was to invest in solid and established companies for growth and dividend income. He said he was the buy-and-hold type of investor and all of the recommendations he made were in investments that he had in his account. He stated that he would immediately sell an investment if some irregularities became known such as playing fast and loose with accounting rules. If a recommended investment became too pricey he wouldn’t sell it immediately but would protect the profit by putting in a trailing stop-loss order.

Investing for income in a low-interest environment was a challenge, but high dividend stocks, REITs, and preferred stock ETFs were his current choices to do this. There could be some capital gains taxes on investments that were sold but the bottom line he told his clients was that they were making money when they had to pay these taxes.

With the business now being a success, he contacted Sadie to tell her he was looking to purchase a house and the type he was looking for. He had been living with his parents and it was time for him to find a place to live.

Sadie showed him several houses that were generally what he was looking for. He purchased a three-bedroom all-brick house with a two-car garage that was located on two acres of land. The house was just outside the town’s limits. Sadie pointed out to him a house that was about half a mile away that she said was owned by Paul Conners the opinion columnist and news broadcaster.

Establishing his business and living with his parents had put somewhat of a damper on Scott’s social life. It wasn’t that he hadn’t bedded any women during this time, he had, but now having his own house would give him the place to bed more.

Transitioning now to the present time he thought establishing his business all started three years ago and here he was in his boat being a somewhat successful businessman living the good life. He still was single since he hadn’t yet met the right woman he wanted for a life companion. He couldn’t help but wonder at times if that would ever happen. He would admit that he wasn’t looking that hard to find her.

He stopped his reminiscing and was brought back to the present time by the straightening of one of his fishing rods and then seeing the bending of the rod told him he had a hit. Taking the rod out of its holder he noted the water temperature of where his downrigger weight was as he played and reeled in a five-pound hybrid striper. He decided to keep it and would drop it off at his parent’s home as it was a good-tasting fish. Before he could reset this rod on the downrigger he had a hit on his other rod. This time he reeled in another five-pound hybrid and he would keep it for his dinner.

Putting the fish in the cooler, the rods were reset on the downriggers but that was the extent of the action. At noon he decided to call it a day and headed in. After retrieving the boat onto the trailer he fileted the two stripers. The boat he parked at his home in the garage. He washed up and dropped the fish off at his parent’s home before he headed to the office.

Beth told him she had received a phone call from Amber Driscoll, a potential client who three months ago had become a widow with the loss of her husband. Her husband Tom, was managing their investment accounts, and with his passing that responsibility was now Amber’s. She said she wanted Scott to do the managing and the amount of the account qualified her for Scott to do that. Since all of the information necessary on the accounts was at her home, Amber asked if Scott could come to her home. Amber said she gets home from the elementary school where she is the Principal after three-thirty. Beth made an appointment for the following day, a Friday for Scott.

Scott spent the remainder of the day surfing the net looking at the business news and the business news services he subscribed to. There was nothing he saw that required any action on his investments but one stock that he owned was getting a little pricey and he would need to keep his eye on it.

The next day at the agreed time Scott pressed the doorbell button at the Driscoll home. He hadn’t met Amber and when she opened the door he introduced himself. Amber who had the jacket off of her dark gray business suit greeted him and invited him inside. His initial impression of Amber who appeared to be in her mid or late forties was that she was attractive and she had a nice manner to herself.

Pointing to some folders on the table Amber said, “Tom handled all the investing. It’s beyond me and my son who is a musician and my daughter who is a med-tech how to invest. They said when they were here that I should get a financial advisor to do this. Tom had mentioned your name with you now being in town doing this sort of thing so I thought of you.”

Scott took a seat and reviewed the folders which were on a trust account and the IRAs. He could see that Tom had invested in a few of the stocks Scott was invested in. Tom was selecting stocks mainly for growth and had a proper investment allocation.

Putting the folders aside he said, “Tom was a good investor and he has some stocks that I also own. I can take over and do the investing for an annual fee based on the value of the accounts. For me to do that I will need for you to download a power of attorney form from this discount broker you need to complete for each account and give it to them which gives me the power to invest on your behalf in these accounts. You should also in sending in that form also enclose a copy of Tom’s death certificate and ask that they roll over his IRA into your IRA since you are the stated primary beneficiary.”

“I see where the ID and password to these accounts are written on the inside of this folder. I will use them when I make any changes to these accounts. The discount broker will send you notice of any changes that I make in the accounts. Take the time to read those notifications you receive and read the monthly email I will send. Remember, this is your money and you need to care the most for it even though I am managing it. Now, do you need any money from these accounts monthly deposited to a bank account?”