Meet the Team: Jack Petras
In June 2019, Yeske Buie welcomed our sixth class of Financial Planning Residents. One member of this new class is Jack Petras, a recent graduate from the University of Illinois who comes to the team with internship experience from Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo and leadership experience as the Vice President of his program’s Financial Planning Club. Through his collection of experiences, Jack has developed a passion for financial planning and focuses on actively listening to a Client’s unique personal financial story to help them achieve their goals. In the following interview, we learn more about Jack’s goals as a Financial Planning Resident and how he hopes to add value during his three-year term at Yeske Buie.
In your role as Financial Planning Resident, how do you assist Yeske Buie’s Clients?
My primary focus as a new Financial Planning Resident is to listen. I feel it is very important to be an active listener to be able to understand someone’s questions and goals. As I grow into my role, I hope to become a resource for our Clients and someone who they are confident will address all their questions, concerns, and goals in a professional and reliable manner.
What aspect of financial planning intrigues you the most and why?
The part of financial planning that intrigues me the most is the personal relationships that form through the planning process. Every planning situation is uniquely different and specific to each Client and while that can be challenging, I find that to be the most interesting. For example, the dimension of estate planning can be incredibly difficult because it involves emotions – death and money are hard to talk about – and at the same time, it’s an honor to be a part of someone’s life in that way to try to help them through the difficult time.
What impact do you hope to make at Yeske Buie and in the financial planning profession?
I’ll start my answer from a more micro-level perspective and then expand to the profession as a whole. Here at Yeske Buie, I hope to learn from the leading people in the profession and soak up all aspects of the financial planning process, done the right way, the Yeske Buie way, and then perform in a way that aligns with this philosophy. I hope this leads Clients to feel like they always have someone who they can count on, regardless whether that be for a personal or financial matter. My hope, then, is that this work-ethic leads me to be well-respected within the profession as someone who is always acting with high integrity and doing the right thing for Clients.
What is your first memory of financial planning?
My first money memory is not one specific event, but rather a phrase that my dad repeated constantly – “money doesn’t grow on trees” – and you could say that the apple doesn’t fall from the tree as my Dad is also a Financial Planner. He included me in his business from a young age; I used to attend baseball games with him and his Clients and their children which I feel was my first real exposure to the financial planning profession.
What Yeske Buie worldview aligns with you most and why?
The Yeske Buie worldview that aligns with me most is Give Big. I believe this worldview holds a space for both adversity and gratitude, which are some of the most important qualities a person can have, in my opinion. I personally embody Give Big by being thankful for what I have, being content with what is in front of me, and always pursuing greatness and pushing to move the bar forward.
What do you enjoy doing what you aren’t working?
The things I enjoy doing most when I’m not at work are, watching sports, exercising, reading books and listening to podcasts. Related to sports and exercising, one of my Live Big goals is to run a triathlon during my time in San Francisco.