FLORIDA WEALTH ADVISORS, LLC
GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA

Knowing what to expect, from yourself, and from your advisor, is critical to your peace of mind. As a financial professional, our job is about making sure our clients achieve their financial goals. We don‘t just manage your money; we help manage your behavior, your expectations and goals. If this sound presumptious, please read on. For another, financial risks are typically risks we are not trained to evaluate. So it boils down to having money or losing it. Which is not a good thing. The role played by financial advisors like us is to ask lots of questions, about who you are, about what you want to do with the rest of your life, and what kind of help you think you need. Then we help you understand and evaluate the various risks you face with your money as your life moves forward, and manage those risks appropriately. Your knowledge about money and the role it plays in your life is critical to our understanding of what your expectations are about us, or whomever is advising you. If your expectations are unrealistic, either in terms of what we as your advisor can help you achieve, or what return on investment you need to make you happy, then we may have a problem. After three or four months in Peoria, CAT moved us to India. There I attended a mission school for two years in the mountains of southern India, a town called Kodaikanal. It was an idyllic setting around a lake in the mountains and I have strong memories of the place. It was also where I learned to play golf, on a beautiful but hilly, 18 hole course carved out in the mountains in 1895. It was run by an elderly Scotsman named E.O.King. I can vividly recall being alone on the course one day, armed with three golf clubs, and finding fresh tiger tracks in a sand trap. I picked up my ball and hurried back to the clubhouse! Returning to the States in 1952, we stayed in Peoria for 18 months. My father came home one day and announced that we were moving to what was then the Belgian Congo in Africa. My mother said “No, we are not moving to Africa”. My father subsequently resigned from CAT and instead we moved in 1954 to Jacksonville, Florida. Three years later, we moved again, this time to Chattanooga, Tennessee. I graduated from Chattanooga City High School in 1959, and, surprise, my parents decided to move again, this time to Clearwater, Florida. I entered the University of Florida as a freshman and was able to graduate four years later with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, having majored in Marketing and Economics. Those four years, here in Gainesville, were the longest I had ever lived in one place. This was when the Alligator became an independent, off-campus publication, and I believe I was instrumental in it surviving as a viable business enterprise. During my tenure at the Alligator, it grew to have the largest circulation of any truly independent university newspaper in the country. Today, I own my own financial services business, Florida Wealth Advisors, LLC, which until recently was a Registered Investment Adviser firm. Regardless of the technical requirements, I assume a fiduciary responsibility toward my clients. I consider myself legally, morally and ethically obligated to put my clients interests first, a responsibility I embrace. My efforts are focused on wealth management services for my clients, estate planning and insurance strategies. Helping medical professionals protect themselves against existential risks that could compromise their ability to practice medicine and provide for themselves and their families. These risks include cyber threats, billing and coding errors, licensure defense and asset protection in general. I‘ve been active within the Gainesville community for many years. My activities have included being Chairman of the Alachua County Bicentennial Commission in the 1970‘s to a founding board member and Secretary of the Community Foundation of North Central Florida. Also Chairman of the Advisory Board to the Academy of Finance and the Academy of Entrepreneurship, magnet programs in the Alachua County School System, Chapter President of the North Florida Estate Planning Council, and have taught retirement planning at Santa Fe College. I have been the president of The Alachua Press, a not-for-profit publishing house focused on the history of Alachua County and the surrounding area. There have been numerous other activities and board tenures over the years, including a year as President of the Gainesville Country Club, a private club with some 750 members. The nexus of my social life was the Caving Club, or more officially, the Florida Speleological Society. When not in class or working part time, it was my identity. Fortunately I’m still in touch with some of these people, though many have now passed. We enjoyed a communal experience, complete with good times, and sometimes tragedy. I have strong memories of the people and places and our activities together. This effort is to help us recall the good times we had together and to allow me to relive the past. After three or four months in Peoria, CAT moved us to India. There I attended a mission school for two years in the mountains of southern India, a town called Kodaikanal. It was an idyllic setting around a lake in the mountains and I have strong memories of the place. It was also where I learned to play golf, on a beautiful but hilly, 18 hole course carved out in the mountains in 1895. It was run by an elderly Scotsman named E.O.King. I can vividly recall being alone on the course one day, armed with three golf clubs, and finding fresh tiger tracks in a sand trap. I picked up my ball and hurried back to the clubhouse! Returning to the States in 1952, we stayed in Peoria for 18 months. My father came home one day and announced that we were moving to what was then the Belgian Congo in Africa. My mother said “No, we are not moving to Africa”. My father subsequently resigned from CAT and instead we moved in 1954 to Jacksonville, Florida. Three years later, we moved again, this time to Chattanooga, Tennessee.