Aaron M Bongard

I'm sure that I'm not alone in experiencing a big impact from a seemingly little thing at the time. And I don't recall how my Mom came upon this financial book, but I noticed a copy of the Millionaire Next Door on the bookshelf just 5 months prior to finishing my engineering and business degrees at Michigan State.

Reading those stories of how families built wealth over time was eye-opening and became the fork in my road from engineering to the financial world.

It has been over 17 years since taking the other path from engineering, but I still get to do one of my favorite things – solve problems. And the "problems" we help clients solve today are even more fulfilling because of the relationships and the importance (sell a business, deciding to retire, a spouse passing and the like).

We work hand in hand with their tax and legal professionals to develop financial strategies for those who can benefit from more complex planning. As such we have fewer clients than many advisors.

If I had to put it into a sentence, what I love doing the most is helping families find the smartest path from Point A to Point B.

On the personal side. My wife, Janelle, is also a financial advisor with Edward Jones. We live in Lafayette with our two young children, Micah and Zoe. We enjoy seeing the world with our little travelers. And because they've done it enough now, so do our fellow passengers.