Lindsey Kent

I was hanging on every word… It was a beautiful spring day in Palo Alto in 1996. My Modern Portfolio Theory professor – Nobel laureate Bill Sharpe – was explaining the “illusion of stock picking skill” and the idea that stock pickers as a group lose big to the stock market as a whole. I remember closing my eyes and taking it all in. Was it possible that a several hundred billion dollar industry was just harming investors? That the whole thing was built on an illusion? Even a lie? I was just entranced. (It turns out I caught a brief glimpse of my true calling that day, but it would be another 17 years before I actually took concrete steps to become a financial advisor.) But then the class ended, and I went back to the business of graduating from Stanford Business School. I headed back to consulting for a couple years, and then co-founded a dot com. But in 2003, I ended up in awkward position. An awkward position that ultimately lead me to my true calling. I had accepted the position of Publisher & Chief Marketing Officer at The Motley Fool, the personal finance website. I loved the people, and rocked the job. But something was wrong. You see, one of my responsibilities was to convince millions of investors that we had superior stock picking skills. There was just one problem with this – I didn’t believe it. Beliefs are a funny thing. I came to believe back in 1996 that stock picking skills are an illusion, and that belief had just stuck. And I couldn’t unstick it. I eventually left The Fool with mixed feelings. I was proud of our commercial success, and my role in that. But I also felt like I had betrayed my beliefs. It wasn’t a good feeling. I tried jobs in other industries, but something kept pulling me back to investing and personal finance. And then it finally hit me. I knew what I was meant to do, and I set out to form my financial advisory firm, Clark Asset Management, LLC. Now I get to help people directly, and do it in a way that’s 100% consistent with my beliefs. I get to leverage a career’s worth of skills in financial planning and analysis, problem solving and client communication. And I get to do my part to help transform an often shady industry into a helping profession. It’s awesome. …if you’d like to learn more, I encourage you to download one of my complimentary guides or schedule a complimentary phone consultation.

Christy Tryder is a Benefits & Planning Consultant within the Executive Services division. She works closely with clients to develop comprehensive financial plans that align with their individual personal and financial goals. Christy focuses on empowering clients and supporting them through significant life transitions to build lasting financial confidence. She has been with Fidelity Investments since 2021, progressing from Customer Relationship Advocate to High Net Worth Service Associate, and then to Planning Consultant before assuming her current role. Christy graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder. Outside of work, she enjoys biking, music, photography, sailing, skiing, and spending time with her pets.

John Darbyshire is a Wealth Management Planning Consultant at Fidelity Investments. In this role, he is part of a team that focuses on delivering personalized service and building lifelong client relationships. The team assists families in creating comprehensive wealth planning strategies aimed at growing, preserving, and transferring wealth. John has been with Fidelity Investments since 2015, holding various roles including Financial Service Associate, High Net Worth Service Associate, High Net Worth Service Associate II, and currently as a Wealth Management Planning Consultant. His experience at Fidelity spans several years, providing him with a background in serving high net worth clients and wealth management planning.