Mar. 26—Investing today for a comfortable and secure retirement might be intimidating for some.
"I just find there's a lot of people that it kind of scares them," financial advisor Kyle Poling said about words like "markets" and "risks."
But the confusion of creating the right plan for future financial needs can be lessened, Poling said, with proper explanation and guidance.
"A lot of advisors talk over their (clients') heads or they don't think they understand so they don't explain at all," he said. "You have to be somebody who wants to put it into a language that people can understand."
That's one of the reasons, he said, he made the decision to return to his hometown of Beckley to open Poling Wealth Management.
After receiving an undergraduate degree in business from Concord University, Poling traveled to Winston Salem, N.C., where he received a master's in accounting from Wake Forest.
Within a few months, he realized his goal of working in investment management when he was hired by the North Carolina-based BB&T, now known as Truist Wealth.
"I was a portfolio manager with what is now the biggest team in the country for Truist," he said.
In that role, Poling explained he worked with a team that managed more than $1 billion in assets.
"My role was to do equity or stock research, helping manage client portfolios and putting together client financial plans," he said.
But following the birth of his now 19-month-old daughter Olivia, he said he and his wife Courtney, a native of Wyoming County, began to reassess their lives.
"We just kind of sat back and said, 'Hey, what's the next step for us?'" he said. "And at the end of the day, we decided we wanted to be closer to family and, quite frankly, serve the community that gave me a lot."
"And at the end of the day, we decided we wanted to be closer to family and, quite frankly, serve the community that gave me a lot."
Though Poling said he enjoyed his time with Truist, he said he wanted the opportunity to make his own way in business while helping a larger segment of the financial population.
"Truist and most financial institutions are structured in a way that they don't really incentivize advisors to help people with smaller accounts," he said.
"They really aren't targeting people with under half a million dollars to invest."
That's why, Poling said, when he returned to his hometown, he decided to go the independent route.