Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
People aren’t going to give things to you. You have to get them yourself. That’s the main lesson that Richard Brown says he learned from his parents.
“Step to the plate,” was the way his mother put it. Judith Brown is the founder of JNBA Financial Advisors in Bloomington, the financial planning and wealth management firm that Richard Brown took over about five years ago.
Brown had been negotiating for Jacobs Trading, one of Irwin Jacobs’ companies. Before that he ran Canterbury Downs. But with his only sister and his father ill, the family turned to him when it was time for Judith Brown to scale back.
Brown says he was surprised at how well the transition went. “I’m surprised in the confidence in my ideas and the willingness to change that she showed,” says Brown, who’s CEO. “Within 30 to 60 days, I hired new people. Within a year I formed our own broker/dealer” organization.
“We took the firm from a one-woman show and spread it through several teams,” Brown says. Now they have 15 employees. He says he started beefing up his staff right after the stock market crash, because he figured people would need more advice in investing, not less.
Judith Brown retains the title of president and founder at JNBA. “My mother will live and breathe the investment world her whole life,” he says. “She lives in Florida, they’re an hour ahead of us. By the time we start here she’s read every newspaper and had two pots of coffee, and she’s ready to go.”
At the firm, he boils down her advice this way: “You always do the right thing for the client, always,” he says.
“We deal with people’s lives, and we’ve seen in the last five years that people’s lives in an instant can be turned upside down. It’s important that they’re not devastated financially.”
Judith Brown, JNBA Financial Advisors: 612.875.2910; ju**********@**ba.com; www.jnba.com Richard Brown, JNBA Financial Advisors: 952.844.0995; ri***********@**ba.com; www.jnba.com
