Meet the Team: Aubrey Klearman

Aubrey Klearman has joined the Yeske Buie team as an Associate Financial Planner in our San Francisco office and we’re very excited to have her engaged, radiant, and curious presence on our team. Aubrey relocated to San Francisco from The University of Colorado at Boulder where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance. Combined with her professional experience from various internships, Aubrey is excited to use her knowledge and skills to connect with our Clients, help them through difficult times, and work to make a positive difference in their lives.

In this edition of Meet the Team, we learn more about Aubrey’s professional and personal life journey to date, and how she hopes to serve you in her role with the team. Welcome to the team, Aubrey!

Yeske Buie: Thank you for connecting with us, Aubrey – we’re glad you’re on our team! Let’s get to know you a bit more. Tell us about yourself…

Aubrey: I’m so glad to be here! Let’s see, where should I start? I’ll skip over anything you could read in my bio and begin with sharing some experiences I had growing up that helped push me out of my comfort zone, learn important money lessons, and inspired my commitment to acts of service.

Growing up, I had three service-focused travel opportunities with an organization called Rustic Pathways whose mission is to empower students to positively impact lives and communities around the world. My first trip was to Fiji – my first time out of the country or traveling without my family! – where we did community service work in small villages. My second year I went to Morocco, and we stayed in a remote area and got really embedded in their community. We were welcomed into the home of a local woman, and we built a bus stop and worked on gardening projects. In my third year, I went to Peru for three weeks and helped build a water line in one of the villages in the mountains. This trip was primarily community service, but we did have the chance to go to Machu Picchu which was incredible!

Beyond being amazing travel experiences, these trips pushed me outside of my comfort zone. I didn’t know anyone in the group until we traveled together, and this inspired my love for meeting and learning about new people. Moving away from home for college, or to San Francisco this year, didn’t make me nervous and I attribute that to having had these experiences. They also forced me to learn about saving money. I worked as a server during the school year and would save my money to go on these trips. I’m proud that I prioritized that to make it happen. These lessons continued with me as I made big financial decisions like choosing which school to go to, what student loans to take out, and moving to San Francisco.

Wow, those seem like life-changing experiences! Fast forward a bit and tell us about why you chose to join the Yeske Buie team.

When I was applying for jobs, I knew I wanted to work for a small company. I’ve worked for several large companies and didn’t feel the connection with Clients or with my co-workers when I was there. I craved that and I felt I would get that at Yeske Buie. I could tell – just from the website! – that Yeske Buie was different. When you look at many wealth management firm sites, you see a lot of stock images and similar color-schemes that, while professional, have the same look and feel. The Yeske Buie website feels more personal – more like a family. I got the sense that this team genuinely wants to help their Clients, vs. feeling like someone is getting paid to give someone advice. I was hooked!

And all of my interactions with the team have confirmed these feelings. I love the culture and how everyone from Clients to team members has interacted with me and treated me. I feel special and validated for the work that I’m getting done here and I really appreciate that.

We love to hear that. Talking about the Yeske Buie culture, which firm worldview or core value resonates most with you?

It’s hard to choose just one! Hopefully it’s not too cliché to say that Live Big resonates most with me. I have always wanted to be on a path toward financial freedom and living that journey myself inspires me to want to do that for other people. I believe everyone should have the ability to do what they want to do simply because they want to do it without having restrictions in place that they don’t know how to get past. I have a passion for helping people meet the life goals they always wanted to meet but didn’t think they would. And I think the Live Big philosophy perfectly aligns with this passion.

It’s our tagline for a reason! Live Big is at the core of everything we do and it’s great that it feels so resonant to you. Can you talk more about your passion for helping people and how that aligns with financial planning and your role as Associate Financial Planner? Is this passion what gets you out of bed in the morning?

What gets me out of bed in the morning is my cat, Momo, who’s constantly scratching at the door – haha! But yes, honestly, what gets me out of bed in the morning are the opportunities to interact with and spend time with people. I love hearing about others’ life experiences and learning something new. I also find the psychology behind financial planning to be fascinating. Everyone has different experiences with money and it has such an impact in our relationships and in our lives. I think it’s so important for a financial planner to uncover how people think and feel about their finances, help them identify those money scripts, and see if we can find another way to look at things. Starting out as an Associate Financial Planner, I look forward to opportunities to meet with Clients and help them navigate this journey. In my role, I think it’s very important for me to stay organized so that I can help our Clients feel like their financial lives are organized, too. That’s something I’ve been focusing on in my first few months with the team.

Well, we look forward to seeing you in action and having your presence in more and more Client meetings. Before we wrap up, we have one more (hopefully) fun question for you. What might someone be surprised to know about you?

That is a fun one! Hmm, let me think. Well…

• I was a manager at a pizza place when I was 17 years old. What I learned from that is that you should not let a 17 year old manage a restaurant!

• I owned a pet hedgehog when I was 13.

• I played soccer competitively from when I was 4 until I was 15.

• You may have seen this on the Our Team page of our website, but I had to have my appendix removed while abroad in Spain. I woke up in the middle of the night with stomach pains and when it didn’t go away, I decided to go to the ER. Thank goodness I did! I spent four days in the hospital.

• And lastly, I’ll share that something special my Mom and I do is take road trips to different National Parks. One year we drove from Oklahoma (my home state) to Hilton Head and went through every National Park we could. And when touring colleges, we drove from Oklahoma to California and again made it our goal to visit as many Nationals Parks as possible. We’re hoping to have the opportunity to make it to the Pacific Northwest and check out the parks up there.

How fun – those sound like very special memories. Well thank you for everything you’ve shared with us, Aubrey! It’s been a true joy getting to learn more about you. We look forward to getting to know you more and having our Clients get to know you more as your career at Yeske Buie unfolds.