Dear Yeske Buie Community,

The past year serving as Chief Operating Officer – and, really, my entire career – has been an exciting, humbling, and challenging journey. When discussing the promotion last year, the leadership team agreed that accepting the role of COO means that I am in charge of running the business. It’s as big an honor as it is a responsibility, and I’ve been grateful for the unwavering support and guidance from Elissa and Dave as well as my next-generation partners, Yusuf and Lauren.

When I joined the team in 2012, one of my first nicknames was “The Octopus” because I had my hands in a number of projects and departments across the firm. As Chief Operating Officer, I’ve found that this analogy remains true, though Chief Operating Octopus doesn’t have quite the same ring.

While my role doesn’t provide as many direct relationship building opportunities with our Clients, my behind-the-scenes work impacts nearly the entire Yeske Buie community. So, I’d like to begin by using this space to shine some light on how I’m working to serve you now, and how I hope to continue to add value to your Yeske Buie experience going forward.

TheLiveBigWay^® Digest

Serving as the editor and manager of our bi-weekly newsletter, TheLiveBigWay^® Digest, is one of my favorite ways to connect with the Yeske Buie community. All of our content is drafted in-house by our team and me, and my goal is to produce and share articles that are engaging and informative for our readers. I hope to continue to elevate the quality and variety of our content with each Digest by refreshing the design, generating content in other mediums, and sharing more special edition Digests to offer deeper dives into topics that are relevant to our readers.

Webinars and Events

Building relationships is at the heart of what matters to us at Yeske Buie, making any opportunity to connect with our Clients and our community a special privilege. As such, I aim to plan and execute virtual and in-person events that are unique, engaging, and memorable. Looking ahead, my hope is to present content in exciting new ways with the help of technology, feature new expert presenters to promote variety and high-intellect conversations, expand our reach to connect with even more guests, and host additional events for groups of all sizes to create indelible memories within our relationships.

Client Private Pages

Involvement with our Client Private Page^® has been a constant part of my job description, though the work has evolved from updating content on your pages, to assisting with posting our monthly and quarterly reports, to redesigning the pages, and now overseeing these responsibilities. For those who have watched our walk-though video explaining how to navigate your page, it’s my voice on the other side of the screen! Though we’ve recently redesigned these pages, I hope to continue to improve their functionality for our Clients and offer additional ways for Clients to engage with and learn more about us, including an app and an improved version of our user’s manual.

Client Experience

We want Clients to feel really good about working with the Yeske Buie team every step of the way in their relationship with us and we feel that to achieve this goal, we must be intentional about every detail of your experience with us. I was part of the original group of creators of our internal new client onboarding process, and I’ve been passionate about ensuring we provide exceptional value and service ever since. Some of the initiatives that I’ve been a part of brainstorming and executing include our Financial Literacy program, our Live Big glass photo gallery, the Hope Chronicles, and our family tree sharing and collection. Looking ahead, I am excited to assist with the refresh of our onboarding process to ensure it remains reflective of our desired experience for new clients and to continue to brainstorm new ways to add value in your lives.

Culture and Team Building

Yeske Buie’s culture is an aspect of the firm that we hear from Clients and team members is one that is incredibly unique and refreshing, and it’s something that we’re very proud of. Our core values, communication agreements, and leadership principles guide our decisions and our actions, and we believe that the stronger we are as a team, the better we can serve you. I’ve always enjoyed this type of culture and team building work and earned a Master of Science in Organizational Development and Knowledge Management in 2018 to expand my knowledge about group dynamics and sharing knowledge. I apply the skills I learned in this program nearly every day from my communication with team members to co-planning and co-leading our annual staff retreats and other strategic exercises with the team.

Compliance

While it’s certainly not the most romantic work, ensuring that the firm remains compliant with the rules of our regulators is imperative to our ability to continue working for you. Our compliance team includes our Chief Compliance Officer, Elissa Buie, and our Director of Compliance and Technology, Cristin Etheredge, and myself and together, we keep abreast of current and pending regulations to keep the firm running smoothly. The rules can feel tedious at times, but we understand that the goal of our regulators is to protect you, our Clients, from advisors who wouldn’t have your best interests at heart. And we find that having this mindset makes all the difference.

Business Management, Human Resources, Legal, and Accounting

Lastly, in preparing to eventually succeed Elissa’s role within the firm, I have been learning from her for years the behind-the-scenes workings of running a business. We feel that having a non-Financial Planner partner on the team to run the business can be an asset as it opens up space for our Financial Planners to focus on YOU, especially considering I continue to be deeply engrained and invested in meeting our standard of excellence in our work with our Clients.

Shifting gears, and in light of my commitment to being deeply engrained in our client experience processes, I thought I’d engage in an exercise that we ask of our Clients: discovery. Just as we ask Clients to vulnerably share their personal lives with us, I thought I’d share a bit about my life outside of Yeske Buie before closing this memo.

• I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA and, despite living in the DC area for most of my adult life, I still bleed black and gold when it comes to sports. Hockey is my favorite – let’s go Pens! – stemming from cherished childhood memories of attending dozens of games with my Dad.

• I married my high school sweetheart, Eli, in 2016. We’re both high achievers within our careers, and it’s our family that helps keep us motivated. We welcomed our daughter, Aria, in 2022, and our son, Cameron, this fall. Aria and Cameron are the lights of our lives!

• I currently live outside of Denver, CO, and love exploring all of the amazing outdoor parks and activities that the area has to offer. I find the daily view of the Rocky Mountains to be grounding and watching them transform throughout the seasons has been inspiring – the way the sun makes the mountains glow in late-August and September is nothing short of magical.

I hope this message has offered a glimpse into the ways I’m working to continue serving you to our standard of excellence and to bring new ideas and new energy to your relationship and experience with Yeske Buie. My role as COO allows me to shape the systems that make it possible for our planners to focus on what matters most: empowering you to pursue your Live Big^® life. While I may not always be the face you see, every decision I make is in line with our values and is aimed at elevating your experience with us.

Thank you for trusting Yeske Buie to be a part of your life and financial journey. It is an honor and a responsibility that I don’t take for granted.

Sincerely,