Before we go further, here’s how I got here.
I’ve been a CPA since 1997. I earned my accounting degree in 1989 and I spent most of my career on the financial side of nonprofits and government. Chief financial officer at four different nonprofit agencies. Six or seven years working for the state. I finished my W-2 career as the controller of a charter school group, doing taxes on the side the whole way through.
The moment I knew I needed something different came after I’d been laid off as a CFO. Funding had been pulled and the organization was looking at cuts. I told them to keep my staff and let me go instead. I wasn’t going to put anyone out who didn’t need to be. But I walked out of there knowing I never wanted to be in that position again — where someone else got to decide whether I had an income.
I started looking more closely at financial services. The idea of building something where I controlled my own time and could share what I’d learned with other people — that pulled me in. I passed my Series 6, 63, and 65 exams, got my life and health licenses, and started in the business in 2012.
The first couple of years were learning years. I was sitting at the feet of the masters here at Capital Choice — asking questions, watching how they worked, figuring out how to do this well. Now I get to be that person for the people coming up behind me, which is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
The moment this stopped being a career and became my life happened on October 29, 2021. I was in a meeting with a client when I got the kind of phone call that rearranges your priorities. Pam had been in an accident. She broke her arm in three or four places and damaged the radial nerve. She was in surgery for hours.
What I’ll remember forever is that I didn’t have to think twice. I didn’t have to count vacation days or call a boss. I closed up what I was doing and I went to her. That’s when I understood what this work was actually for.
Pam, by the way, is doing great. She still doesn’t have full use of her arm and she probably won’t get all of it back. So what did she do? She designed her own physical therapy. She’s teaching herself guitar to redevelop the radial nerve. She’s the toughest person I know
Day-to-day, I sit down with new clients and walk them through their options. I teach them about how investments work. I teach them how those investments interact with their taxes — that’s where the CPA background comes in handy. I help them think through how their future income will affect their lifestyle, how it might affect their taxes in retirement, even how it can affect things like Medicare premiums. Then we set goals, build a plan, and I make recommendations. The decisions are theirs. My job is to make sure they have the information to make them.
My clients are everywhere from teens to people in their nineties. The youngest investor I ever took on came to me at 17, and her dad made her wait until she turned 18 to officially get started. Most of my clients are in Arizona — I’ve been in Gilbert and the East Valley for over 20 years — but I’m licensed in around 15 states and I work with families across the country.
Here’s what I wish more people understood. Most people are waiting for the perfect moment to get started. There isn’t one. The best time to invest was 20 years ago. The next best time is today. Even $50 or $100 a month into something with growth potential can change the trajectory of a life. You don’t need a fortune to start. You just need to start.
I’ll tell you something else. A lot of advisors won’t take you on unless you’re showing up with $500,000 or a million dollars. I’ve fought against that since the day I got into this business. When I started with Dave Ramsey, his team asked me if I had a minimum. I told them I’m an equal-opportunity guy. Fifty bucks or fifty million, I’ll treat the relationship the same way and I’ll give the best guidance I can for the situation in front of me. That hasn’t changed.
On the credentials side — I’m a CPA, I hold the Series 6, 63, and 65, and I’m life and health licensed. The CPA and Series 65 combination means I can look at someone’s whole picture — taxes, investments, retirement income, the way it all interacts — under one roof.
I’m a simple guy. Pam and I have been married 42 years. We have five kids and eight grandchildren, with more grandkids likely on the way. We live in Gilbert. I drive an older Toyota and I’ll drive it into the ground before I buy another older Toyota. We don’t spend money on cars because we’d rather spend it traveling.
I was born in Vernal, Utah. My dad was Air Force, so I was a base brat by six weeks old. Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois, then Japan, back to Chanute, and finally Phoenix at age 11 when my dad was stationed at Luke. Two weeks after we got here I met Pam — she was my sister’s friend. Eleven years later we were married.
Our kids and grandkids are everything. Our youngest son Max is a swimmer who has competed twice on the national stage with Special Olympics. He took gold in the butterfly at the King County Aquatic Center in Washington in June 2018, and he did it again in Orlando in June 2022. The Orlando one — his closest competitor was five seconds behind him. Watching him stand on that podium, twice, is the favorite memory of my life. The 2018 trip also got us close to our daughter and her family in Washington, which made the whole thing even better.
A normal weekend is whatever Pam tells me we’re doing. Happy wife, good life. Usually it’s yard work, a Costco run, and dinner with friends we’ve made through Special Olympics over the years.
When I’m not with family I’m at church helping out, walking Coda — our three-year-old Yorkie — usually with Pam, or smoking pork ribs in the backyard.
I’ll tell you what really crystallized this work for me. I watched two completely different retirements growing up. My dad spent 27 years in the Air Force. He was on a ship headed to Japan when the bombs dropped that ended World War II. He lived comfortably off his military pension until he passed in August 2010. My mom lived off that same pension until she passed in August 2022, at 90. They left a real legacy for their kids.
My in-laws, same generation, same era, lived off Social Security — what I like to call social in-security. If they had a couple of nickels left at the end of the month they considered it a good month. They were happy people. They lived a happy life. I just wish more had been left over for them at the end. That contrast is part of why I do this. The kind of legacy my parents left is the kind I want to help my clients build for the people they love.
The thing I’m most grateful for is that the clients who refer me to their friends say one word — trustworthy. I work hard for that one. It’s the thing.
I try to live by the Golden Rule. Treat people the way you want to be treated, and then go a step further and actually help them.
I’m Trent Reynolds. If anything you’ve read sounds like where you are or where you’re trying to go, let’s talk.
