Brooklyn Brock

Professional

My first job after university was working at my family’s Ameriprise office. I worked my way from scanning client documents full-time to serving as an Associate Advisor. I supported several hundred client relationships and serviced a few dozen retirement plans. I also served on the Tulsa Board of the Financial Planning Association (FPA) for 5 years, including President for 1 year.

While with the family business, I assisted with 2 business transitions. First, an older advisor on the team, David, had a stroke and never returned to work. I supported my dad in transitioning the 100 households, and after one year, we celebrated a client retention rate of over 95%. Second, my grandad successfully transitioned client relationships and business management responsibilities to my dad and uncle. However, on the personal side, he fought against every step on the long path toward an eventually unfulfilling retirement.

As a 3rd generation CFP, I wanted to challenge myself with new experiences and left the family firm to provide professional paraplanning for fee-only advisors. I attended my first XYPN Live conference, where Michael Kitces (and some soul-searching on my part!) inspired my niche.

Ellevate officially launched in 2020, and I continue to do some part-time paraplanning, now through Delegated Planning. Currently, I’m a member of Nazrudin, the FPA, NAPFA, Kingdom Advisors, and XYPN. I volunteer to lead a monthly Solo Advisor Continuity Planning Group open to all fee-only advisors. As we hire more amazing team members, my role is shifting toward focusing on meetings with clients, strategic business decisions, and speaking on podcasts and at conferences.

Inspiration for Ellevate

My personal story and experience working at my family’s firm continues to shape our two primary services:

Financial Planning for Advisors - At Ellevate, we provide financial planning for advisors themselves, exclusively. From personal experience, working with our own advisor means knowing we can afford to build Ellevate in a way that supports our ideal life, and it’s a life my spouse and I love because we have healthy money conversations. That's what I love doing for my clients. Also, as a 3rd generation CFP, I watched my grandad struggle to retire and be happy. Normalizing “advisors hiring their own advisor” means someday my clients and I will have a better chance at being happy in retirement than my grandad. Our BHAG is to make it an industry standard that every advisor hires their own advisor. The advisors in our profession will become vulnerable, growth-minded, and better stewards of our lives and businesses.

Continuity Planning for Advisors - Most advisory firms, my family’s included, don’t offer parental leave. A few years ago, we delayed starting a family because we couldn’t afford to do that and continue to run Ellevate. Many advisors haven’t taken a real vacation since launching their firms, which I don’t believe is healthy. It’s only after launching my own solo RIA that I realized what a gift I’d been given, in working through David’s continuity plan with such a high client retention rate. I volunteer a lot of my time, and now we’ve launched a service to help advisors create custom, real Continuity Plans, which they can trigger to take leave from their RIA as needed. This is my way of building the advisory profession I, and other women like me, want and need.

Education

My formal education includes a Bachelor of Science in International Business and Economics, a minor in Marketing, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in French, all from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

While working in my family’s Ameriprise practice, I maintained the 7, 66, and OK Insurance licenses, although I’ve let them all lapse since becoming fee-only. I also obtained and still hold the following credentials:

CFP® - Certified Financial Planner, through the CFP Board (education on the pillars of financial planning)

CEPA® - Certified Exit Planning Advisor, through the Exit Planning Institute (education on the mindset of sellers, the mechanics of business transactions, and how to lead an exit planning team)

ChFC® - Chartered Financial Consultant, through the American College of Financial Services (further education on the pillars of financial planning)

CKA® - Certified Kingdom Advisor, through Kingdom Advisors (education on what the Bible says about money and how to communicate with financial planning clients about living according to religious values)