PDS Employee Spotlight – Jimmy Rogers, CFP®
As Wealth Manager for PDS Planning, Jimmy Rogers is both a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®), who works to help clients streamline their finances and make informed decisions by providing objective advice and ongoing communication. “By helping to simplify our clients’ financial lives,” he says, “they can spend more time on what is truly important and meaningful.”
Growing up in Columbus, Jimmy graduated from Upper Arlington High School and went on to earn his A.B. in Psychology from Princeton University. “I studied economics in college knowing I would get into finance,” but explains “I majored in psychology when I found it to be embedded in everything we do. I am fascinated by how we think and why we do the things we do.”
While at Princeton, Jimmy also played football and says, “I believe the lessons I learned being part of a team have served me well in all areas of life.” He still loves to play sports and be part of a team, and enjoys spending time with family and friends, traveling, and staying active.
At PDS, we are proud to have a team of forward-thinking leaders and to count Jimmy among them. Learn more about Jimmy’s role with PDS, as well as about how he spends his time away from work.
What personal qualities do you have that help you to be successful in your role at PDS?
First of all, PDS has a great culture that makes it easy for everyone to be themselves. I started my career working in the insurance industry with a culture of sales and feeling like I had to ‘look the part.’ I then worked for firms with more traditional, buttoned-up cultures before landing at PDS Planning.
Our leadership team, Rita, Jamie and Kurt, make employees and clients feel welcomed and create an atmosphere of genuine wholesomeness, which is important to my family and me. After a dinner with the leadership team, my wife and I knew PDS was a great fit and I started with PDS Planning shortly thereafter. At the end of the day, I want people to know I care, I’m being myself, I do what I say I am going to do, and will do it to the best of my ability.
How do you think PDS is different from other financial planning firms?
I believe we deliver a more personalized and consultative financial plan focused on truly objective advice. Most other firms say they do comprehensive planning, but tend to be overly focused on gathering assets under management, sometimes at the expense of providing advice in the best interest of their clients.
We start by helping clients build a plan to create a framework that serves as a guide to making informed decisions. We emphasize tax and fee efficiency to add tangible value, while trying to remove human error to maintain a disciplined and diversified approach to investment management. Our flat, fixed-fee compensation structure is designed so our clients know our recommendations are based only on what we believe is best for them.
What is your favorite aspect of working at PDS
I love helping people identify the problems they need help with and in doing so, earning their trust. What’s great about PDS is that I have the opportunity to help people alongside a team of high character individuals always willing to do the right thing and improve together.
Personally and/or professionally, what are some lessons learned during the pandemic?
Personally, the silver lining of the pandemic was being able to spend so much time with my kids who were 3, 1, and a month old at the time. People always talk about how fast kids grow up and so the time spent at home with my family was magic. Professionally we realized we can still help clients virtually, but nothing beats face-to-face interaction.
Do you see anything new on the horizon of the financial planning industry?
Being an independent firm is something I love about PDS because we can be proactive and nimble to make adjustments in this constantly changing industry. When new approaches or technology should be considered or when regulations or tax laws change, we have a team at PDS full of young, curious, and smart people who know we can always improve and not be held back by what the industry has always done.
Tell us about your family.
I am married to my beautiful wife Cookie who I met right after she graduated from Denison over 15 years ago and we have 3 kids. Our oldest son Mac is almost 5 and loves Hot Wheels, Ghostbusters, and building things. Our daughter Bailey just turned 3 and has a smile that melts my heart and lights up any room she is in. And our youngest son James is obsessed with his mom and throwing things around the house. We also have a Westie named Buckley.
When you are not working, how do you like to spend your free time?
Most of my free time is spent with family and friends. We love having people over for dinner, to cheer on our favorite teams, or to simply catch up. We enjoy staying active and I used to golf a lot more before having kids.
What are you reading/watching/listening to?
Lately, I have been reading a lot of sports biographies. I find it interesting to learn about how teams and individuals become great. It’s also inspiring to discover the challenges they had to overcome to achieve greatness while making it look easy. Also, this summer we had family vacations to Maine and Michigan and the podcast SmartLess made long car rides with 3 kids much funnier.
What are your words to live by?
It’s hard to pick just a few, but I recently found a quote I always liked from Tiger Woods who said, and I’ll paraphrase: “The greatest thing about tomorrow is, I will be better than I am today.” And that’s how I look at my life. I will be a better husband, I will be better as a father, I will be better as a friend, and I will be better as a person. That’s the beauty of tomorrow. There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better.
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