When I went back to my home town of Tacoma, Washington, my goal was to find a career path that would support me and take me back to Europe. I majored in International Studies at Pacific Lutheran University during which time I was not lazy, working a full time job with a global logistics company so they would subsidize my university fees.
I moved up through the company ranks, selling ice to Eskimos in Alaska – not literally, it was actually groceries to convenience stores, but we did sell ice. Through these business trips I met my wife, Michelle, so there’s proof even good can come from working in management of the evil empire ͞Walmart͟.
An opportunity became available for me to join my father in his financial services business, and in September 1997 I joined Edward Jones Investments.
In Tacoma, I built a highly successful financial advisory business, which did not go unnoticed by the partners at Edward Jones. When they expanded into Europe I was offered the chance to come over and be a part of the expansion, that was in 2002 and Michelle and I haven’t looked back.
Edward Jones decided not to continue expansion into Europe and sold its UK business in 2009, but as I had built up yet another amazing business from scratch, through the very hard tactic of door-knocking, we decided to stay.
Now I have the freedom to build my financial services firm AND work with business owners in the UK and the USA to build and sell their businesses for more than they thought possible.
So….let me tell you about the mistake… the huge…£1.2 million mistake:
In 2011, one of my top clients was planning on selling the family business. They were going to gain 5 million pounds. This was the Lottery ticket they had worked for their whole lives. Choosing the winning numbers each decade of toil. Guess what? With one year worth of tweaking it would have sold for 7.2 million.
Now it was time to sell and I had given them suggestions of who to use for their tax, and legal, and financing. They ignored almost all of my recommendations BECAUSE my advice was given for free and not valued. The tax bill was going to be £1.2 million. Working with my known tax advisers we had built a plan where redistribution of a few shares to a cousin would have mitigated all tax.
As a wealth manager, that £1.2 million pound ERROR made the difference of £50,000 in annual income for the family and, this will make you cry, a sizable amount of fees for Taurus Wealth, my Wealth Management Practice.
These mistakes by my clients, and the numerous mistakes other clients have made, has given me valuable insight on what not to do and also many fantastic successes along the way. Let me tell you a little more about me:
Immediately after High School I spent a year in Spain on an International Exchange Programme, then went back home to complete my degree in International Business. I followed in my father’s footsteps and joined global financial services firm, Edward Jones, in 1997.After building my office in Tacoma, Washington, I was asked by the senior partners to come to Birmingham UK to build another. In 2010, I launched my own wealth management firm, Taurus Wealth, with my friend and business partner, Robert North. I firmly believe families with wealth deserve a team of professionals that design, implement and guide a strategy to protect wealth for generations to come. From this basis I launched Bart Dalton Consulting (BDC) to bring together entrepreneurs and business owners/directors with the right kind of advice, mentoring and support to articulate their version of success, and achieve it.
Will you allow me to help you with some success tips from my life as a Lazy Over-Achiever?
