A family asset
How Kelly Rindock has made her own way in the family business
With a master’s degree in psychology, Kelly Rindock started her career as a family therapist. But she soon realized she had a hard time separating her work and personal life. She enjoyed helping people, but brought the emotions of crisis situations home at night. Her dad helped her find a new path: the family business.
“He said to me, ‘You’d be great at my job. You should give it a shot. If you don’t like it you can move on, but I think you’d do really well as an advisor,’” Kelly recalls. “Now I can say, it was the best leap of faith I could have taken. And I actually use my counseling skills every day.”
The prior generation
Rindock has since made her own way in the business, and now manages Steel Valley Wealth Strategies, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Raymond James’ Allentown branch.
“I worked for my dad for a long time. And now he works for me, which is a fun transition,” Rindock says, laughing. “And my uncle worked for me too, up until his recent retirement.”
She’s had the interesting experience of going through two different styles of succession plans. The agreement with her father is based on informal and ongoing conversations and recalibration. He works a couple of days a week and doesn’t have a retirement date in mind quite yet. (He’s nearing 40 years in the industry.) With her uncle, there was a formal buyout agreement. He joined Raymond James with the intention of transitioning his book of business to Rindock prior to retirement.
“The nice thing with Raymond James is we can make these plans to suit whatever we need,” Rindock says. “You can treat the business like a family asset if you want it to be. Other firms have very prescriptive ways of buying a business, but at Raymond James, we have this open architecture to really craft something genuine. They’ll support you and give you guidance, but at the end of the day, it’s between the buyer and the seller.”
The next generation
Recently, Rindock turned her attention to being a mentor for women advisors – both in her own branch in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and across the northeast. She is concerned the percentage of advisors who are women has stagnated compared to other careers in finance.
“Some of that can be related to women who have personal commitments, whether that’s motherhood or extended family care situations, and have chosen to not be an advisor in full production,” Rindock says. “But we’ve been hosting women’s events in the region to help develop women interested in those roles – and show them the possibilities.”
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get something out of it too,” she adds.
It’s important for Rindock to feel like she’s giving back. She has an abundance of gratitude for colleagues and friends at Raymond James who have helped her succeed. From mentorship to resources, the support others have provided her has helped her thrive.
“My motivation is to pay that kindness forward and lift others up too.”
Even on busy days, when she is going from advisory work with clients to managerial work in the branch – with a mentee call in-between – Rindock loves her work.
“It gives me purpose and it’s exciting to have the people you’re interacting with equally love their job,” she says. “Every day I wake up and I am happy I get to go to work.”
This piece was featured in Aspire Magazine, a biannual publication from the Women Financial Advisors Network. View the latest.
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