345 – Chris Hunter of Orlando, FL A Wealth Manager Who Serves The Disability Community

Transcript:

Tom Couch: Special thanks to Horizon Therapeutics for sponsoring the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. Working tirelessly to research, develop and bring forward medicines for people living with rare and rheumatic diseases. Discover more about Horizon Therapeutics mission at horizontherapeutics.com.

Chris Hunter: Everything good in my life has come to my wife. You notice a pattern here?

David Hirsch: It’s pretty clear to me. Yeah.

Chris Hunter: She was teaching autistic children to swim and she came to me and said, Chris, you have to find a way to help these people. These parents are on an island and they don’t know what to do. I don’t care what you do. If you do anything, do this for me. And that was almost 30 years ago.

Tom Couch: That’s the voice of our guest this week, Chris Hunter, who’s devoted his life to helping families with special needs plan their financial future. His is a story of compassion and care. And we’ll hear that story on this week’s special Father’s Network Dad to Dad Podcast. Now say hello to the founder of the Special Fathers Network and host of the Dad to Dad Podcast, David Hirsch.

David Hirsch: Hi and thanks for listening to the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast presented by the Special Fathers Network. A dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs. The Special Fathers Network Mastermind Group experience is the most comprehensive program the 21st Century Dads foundation offers. Dads raising children with special needs meet virtually on a weekly basis and form meaningful relationships while sharing weekly wins, discussing books and sharing heartfelt challenges. One of the highlights of the year is attending an in-person weekend retreat. We’re launching 10 new mastermind groups in 2024 with 10 dads per group. That means we’re only looking for 10 like-minded dads in each community. If you’re a dad raising a child with special needs, we hope you’ll join a local mastermind group and make the investment to become the best version of yourself. For more information, please see the show notes or simply go to 21stCenturyDads.org.

Tom Couch: Now let’s listen in to this conversation between Chris Hunter and David Hirsch.

David Hirsch: To be talking today with Chris Hunter of Orlando, Florida, who’s a financial advisor and vice president as well as investment officer at Wells Fargo Advisors and is also a father and grandfather. Chris, thank you for taking the time to do a podcast interview for the Special Fathers Network.

Chris Hunter: Well, thank you for having me.

David Hirsch: You and your wife Jane have been married for 40 years and are the proud parents of an adult daughter and four grandchildren. Let’s start with some background. Where did you grow up? Tell me something about your family.

Chris Hunter: So I grew up in, outside of Montreal, primarily in a little town called Chateauguay. What I would call a pretty average childhood. Played sports. My life revolved around sports. My dad was a business owner at the time. Had his own business, hydraulic distributor in the physical bank. So travel a lot. I’ve got some stories about, playing football and not knowing he was there. And then I’d be in the huddle and I’d hear this, Kill him, Chrissy. Kill him, Chrissy. And everybody in the huddle go, like, who is Christy? And I go, oh, that’s my dad coming. And he’d just show up. And he was the loudest voice in the sidelines. And he was always a major supporter of mine. And he was quite a character at the point. You know, I think like any teenage son, I had a, some stressful periods. He was always after me get a haircut. Growing up in the late 60s, early 70s, abs that, she remembers him running up, running up the street after with a pair of scissors, wanting me to get the hair. I’m run going. But he was a good dad. He taught me a lot of me with some amazing values. And, I’m very fortunate that, I had had him as a dad and I still have my mom with us. But he was a great role model. Very hardworking man. Put himself through college at night. And so, you know, I have a lot of admiration for him. Very fortunate that I had. We made sure that we had fun.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing. It sounds like, you learned a lot from your dad. He was a great role model. You did make reference to sports, but I don’t remember you saying anything about hockey. And the first thing that comes to mind when I think about people who grew up in Canada was that everybody plays hockey.

Chris Hunter: Absolutely. I did play hockey. I was never quite good enough to make the AAA team. I was mostly a double A player. A little side note, when I first met my wife Jane, my wife Jane was a figure skater. And I’m sitting there going, like, man, this girl skate. So a little bit of embarrassment to say that my wife’s a better ice skater than I am, but, no, hockey was a big part of my life, in the winters. The town I grew up with did not have an indoor arena, so we only played outdoor hockey. But it was fun. I remember freezing my feet on numerous occasions. One of the reasons why I moved to Florida was no longer enjoying winters.

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Chris Hunter: And so, you know, once my hockey playing days ended winters became a very long stretch.

David Hirsch: Yeah, well, thanks for sharing. We’re a big hockey family. All five of our kids skated. Both the boys played hockey through high school. Two of our daughters actually played hockey as well, in addition to their figure skating, so spent a lot of time in ice rinks. So, you mentioned that your dad was, in the, plumbing, distribution business. Pump distribution business. You know, he was a good role model for you. I wonder if there’s any other lessons learned from your dad that perhaps you’ve tried to incorporate into your own fathering.

Chris Hunter: One of the things that my dad taught me was that if you get enjoyment from something, it’s incumbent to give back. And it’s kind of been a. A mantra of mine throughout my life. You know, I remember I said earlier that I enjoyed playing soccer and I played youth soccer and played competitively. Had I not played college football, I probably would have played college soccer. But when I ended up graduating from college, the first thing I did was coach youth soccer for a number of years. And it was more of the fact that, hey, I enjoyed doing this and I have a skill set to give back and I should do that. It’s just something that my dad always instilled in me. Another example I’ll share with you is that every year when I was a teenager, he would take me down to an area of Montreal called Port St. Charles. And I asked my dad, I said, dad, why did you bring me down here? And he said, son, he says, you’re going to have opportunities that most people don’t have. You’re going to have a college education. You’re going to become an engineer, I hope. And it’s always incumbent upon you to give people a hand up. They’re just like you. And that’s why I bring you here, is to show you that these are good people. They just haven’t been as fortunate. And it’s important to you to always give back. I thought that was a really, really important life lesson.

David Hirsch: Yeah. And at an early age, too, if you were a teenager, right?

Chris Hunter: Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And understand back you’re a teenager and you’re in the rebellious stage of your life. Right. You want to spread your own wings. I always remember my dad coming down. I had a bedroom in the basement. My dad coming down to me and saying, son, you realize you’re going to go away to college, right? And I said, yeah, I plan on going to college. He goes, no, no, no. Opera of words are going away. I said, you kicking me out of the house. He goes, no. He said, I want you to grow up on your own. And I know you’re going to do things that your mom and I are going to be worried about and we’d rather you be away so that we don’t have to worry about you.

David Hirsch: That’s a great story. Thanks for sharing.

Chris Hunter: I met my wife then. London, Ontario. I’d been transferred there. We, she was playing tennis at the time, and I was playing squat. I saw her in the gym and immediately thought, this is a girl I wanted to meet. And thankfully for me, she tapped my shoulder that evening. And, we started up a conversation and we’ve been inseparable since. I mean, I love my father in law as much as I love my own dad, you know, as I got to know him through my marriage. And I always knew that he was an extraordinary human being in terms of how nice he was, as was my mother in law.

David Hirsch: So my recollection was that, you took an engineering degree, civil engineering degree, from the University of New Brunswick, and, you went into the field of engineering, and then you pivoted. And I’m wondering, what was the backstory on that?

Chris Hunter: Well, I loved what I did. My wife and I were scheduled to move to Paris, and, unfortunately, my father in law and mother in law both came down with cancer the summer that we were scheduled to move. And my wife asked me on a trip to Naples. We were at a convention from the National Flag association, which is a whole other backstory. But she said, she said to me, I, you know, I don’t really want to move to Paris because I don’t want to be away from my parents, that part of my parents. And I said, okay. I said, I understand why I don’t go to Paris. It’s probably going to be the end of my career, on the fast track. And she said, that’s okay. She says, we’ll think of something else. But three weeks later, she said to me, she said, I know what you’re going to do. That’s what’s actually go. You’re going to become a financial advisor. I looked at her, I said, where did this come from? She goes, well, I saw you tonight talk. We had just finished entertaining a couple of friends and their wives. And she says, I saw you talking to Brandy David. And he says, you were so animated. She says, I think you would love being an advisor. You know, she says, you’ve hired and promoted more people at Lahars than anybody else.

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Chris Hunter: You clearly love helping people. And she says, when you talk business, people are engaged by. He says, you should have seen the look of Dave and Randy when you were talking to them. I went, really? Are you kidding me? She goes, no, I think you would be really, really, really good at this. So I thought to myself, well, maybe I should find out more about it. So I went and interviewed some of the companies up in Canada, and they all said the same thing, which was really funny. One of the things I always tell people, or I always ask people, I’m sorry, if you were to do things differently, what would you do different in your life? And every single one of the people I talked to in Canada said I would go and work for Merrill Lynch.

David Hirsch: Oh.

Chris Hunter: And I looked at him and I said, really? Since. Oh, it is the Thundering Herd. They have the best training program. I’m telling you, if you get trained by Merrill Lynch, you are the best. Best of the best. And so I thought to myself, well, maybe I could do this in Florida. I actually. I always remember this. It was January 28, 1993. 94. I’m sorry. And I said to myself, I’m moving to Florida, and, I’m getting a job with Maryland. I drove home that evening, I said to Jane, let’s pack up the car. I’m going to take a week, and we’re going to Florida. I said, no, seriously, I’m going to get a job. I’m going to get hired by Merrill. As they say, rest is history. Right. Here I am.

David Hirsch: I love that story. And most of our listeners know that I’ve been a financial advisor. This is my 40th year. And, you had a much easier route to get in. Right. I remember, I applied to the 13 brokerage firms. This is the circa fall of 1984, the day after Thanksgiving, to be exact. And, I walked past into the offices of 13 different brokerage firms in downtown Chicago with my resume, thinking, it’s the day after Thanksgiving. It’s really a slow day, but the markets are open. People would have time to talk to me. I talked to zero people. I should take that back. I talked to 13 receptionists, but, you know, zero professionals, if you will. And, the first of my reject letters was in my mailbox 20 miles west of Chicago the very next day. And then I got 12 more rejection letters within a week. Right. Thank you very much for your interest, but we’re not interested. It was a very humbling experience, Chris. And, you know, not taking no, for an answer or, you know, getting a taste for what Rejection feels like I’m like, okay, I’m just gonna have to, figure out another way to get an interview, right? Because that, that process didn’t work. And I somehow some way resurrected, both Shearson, American Express and Merrill lynch and got job offers from each of them. And I thought, I’m going to work for Merrill Lynch, honestly, because I was at Price Waterhouse, suit and tie environment, you know, like blue suit, white shirt, red tie. I mean, sort of like IBM, you know, the culture was different back then. And, you know, Merrill lynch was like that, right? This is sort of like a button down environment. Unfortunately, the guy that, offered me the job at Merrill was a little bit different than the average manager at Merrill lynch, particularly in Chicago. And I remember he was wearing cowboy boots and a painted tie. And I’m thinking, I don’t know if this is the same personality, right? Because what people were telling me from outside the brokerage industry about something I should know about the brokerage industry is that, the manager has a lot to do with, you know, your success or failure. The personality of the manager, right. You better make sure you’re on the same page with the manager, right? Like he’s going to be like a role model, possibly a mentor to you.

Chris Hunter: Yeah.

David Hirsch: And it was for that simple reason that I thought, okay, both these firms have amazing training programs. They were each hiring like five or 600 people nationally. Right. To go through the training program back in the day. And, you know, I took a leap of faith, went to work for Shearson, and, you know, here we are 40 years later, same clients in most cases, you know, worked within three blocks of the same area now for three different firms. So anyway, thanks for sharing. Sorry for digressing a little bit.

Chris Hunter: I got a little lucky. I got a little lucky. But, I pretended I was an angry client to get through the receptionist.

David Hirsch: There you go. That, that, that’s one approach that I would not have thought about.

Chris Hunter: And, she was the sweet. I come to know her very well and she was the sweetest person. I felt so bad afterwards because I really made her nervous.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, let’s talk about special needs first on a personal basis and then I guess from a professional perspective. And I’m wondering, do you or Jane have any family or friend connections in the disability community?

Chris Hunter: Surprisingly, no. And, how I got into working with families in the, in the, you know, the disabled and, and special needs community was to my wife. Again, you know, everything good in my life has come to my wife. You notice a pattern here.

David Hirsch: Yeah. it’s pretty clear to me. Yeah. Right. I should probably be interviewing her, so.

Chris Hunter: Absolutely. But she came to me. She was teaching autistic children to swim, and she came to me and said, Chris, you have to find a way to help these people. These parents are on an island and they don’t know what to do. I don’t care what you do. If you do anything, do this for me. And that was almost 30 years ago. And, I started, one at a time. But it’s a lot more work as an advisor because you’re planning for multiple lies for 55, 60 years. It took me a long time to understand this. When your children are young, what’s the number one thing you tell them when they’re outdoors? Do not trust the stranger. If somebody approaches you run away. Do not trust them. Right. Well, when you have a special needs son or daughter, that message is into their 50. And so if you show up and they don’t know who they. Who you are, guess what? They don’t want to have anything to do with me because you’re a stranger. And so what things that I do in my practice, and I learned this very, very early, is you have to spend time in the family environment if the son or daughter enjoys going to. You know, we live in Florida, so there’s a lot of people we call halfbacks who go up to North Carolina for the summer. And if there’s a special needs son or daughter who are spending half the year or, you know, summer months in North Carolina, it’s incumbent that I go see them in that environment. You wouldn’t do that for a typical employee.

Tom Couch: We’ll be back with more of the conversation on the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast in just a few moments. But first, this quick message. Please help 21st Century Dads gather research on families raising children with special needs by having them complete the Special Fathers Network Early Intervention Parents survey. A link to the survey can be found in the show notes. As a token of our appreciation, each person, mom or dad, who completes the survey will receive a great dad coin. Thank you. Now back to the conversation.

Chris Hunter: Think of it right? The number one thing they want to do is protect their children. They’re now coming to the end of their lives, and they’re realizing that there’s more time around the corner, I should say. And they’re afraid. Not for themselves. They’re not afraid for themselves, but they’re afraid for their children. They all walk away grateful for having that conversation. And some will reach back out Some will not. And it’s all okay no matter what they do.

David Hirsch: Yeah. Well, I know that a lot of parents in the disability community have said that, you know, psychologically, they hope to live just one more day past their child’s life. Right. They don’t want to anticipate. They can’t imagine what it would be like for their child without them being there. But, you know, people are living longer. Right. With advances in medical technology and healthcare. And what I hear you saying is that you’re meeting an unmet need. Right. There’s a huge need of the disability community. There’s been a lack of planning. Not entirely, but, you know, to a great extent. And that, certain professionals are geared toward servicing the disability community, like within the field of law. It’s the Special Needs Alliance. Right. This group, small group of attorneys, there might be 150, 200 of them across the US which is to say not more than a handful per state on average, that have dedicated themselves 50% or more of their practice to serving the disability community. So it doesn’t make them better, but on average, they have more experience. And you’re going to get the type of information and answers more directly than just going to a general practitioner. And it’s not like you’re better than all the other advisors at Wells Fargo or Merrill, Lynch or UBS, but you are passionate about this, and I think it comes across. It’s certainly clear to me that, this is something that’s important to you, and it’s not about doing more business, but, doing good business and then doing something good as well. What’s the typical client look like?

Chris Hunter: So what I try to counsel people to do is whether it’s me, whether it’s somebody else, it doesn’t matter. But to create a team around yourselves so that when things happen, it becomes a seamless transaction. You and I have both had clients die. And I start off every seminar, every speaking engagement. I started off saying, ask everybody in the room. Does anybody in the room know what the mortality rate of our seminars? They all look around like, what are you talking? Well, it’s 100%. None of us today want it to be today, though. None of us want it to be today. But whatever you do, don’t die. Because it’s a pain in the butt that everybody around you. Right. I mean, you’ve had clients die, I’ve had clients die. And what both of our assistants, what do they say when somebody dies? Oh, no, they die. Right. Because the paperwork that they’ve got to go through in order to settle the mistake. And so what I try to do is I try to educate clients to say, the people that you’re going to leave behind, here’s what they’re going to go through and here’s the timeline in which they’re going to have to go through. So it’s incumbent upon you to build a team of people that will understand the commitment to settle your estate. You know, I always counsel them to separate the money from the caregiver that, I’m there for you no matter what. I’m that sounding board no matter what. I would do this for free if my wife allowed me and the regulators. Right. The key is, is to help people create that team to seamlessly transition for their son or daughter. And so a typical client, they are exceptionally nice people. Get in front of them. Who’s going to be there for their son or daughter? Who will our son or daughter come to and trust? We have a mutual friend who introduced us. I always make sure that their son is in the meeting with us when we sit down because it’s critical that he trusts me. The hardest thing he’s ever going to go through is losing his mom and dad. There’s nothing that’s going to be more difficult for him in this life. My hope that I’m there for, you know, I have another client. She’s kind of a little scatterbrained sometimes. She lost her husband about three years ago. So I just go and I sit and listen to her for two hours. She has a special needs daughter that her world revolves around and the daughter understands that, hey, mom’s not going to be here forever. Chris is listening to mom. I’ve got to be able to trust Chris. His mom is sharing everything with him. Well, that’s kind of my life.

David Hirsch: I love the commitment that you’re making. You know, we’re about the same age and I’m wondering if people are asking, you know, what happens when you decide to retire? You know, you’ve been doing this for 30 plus years. You know, you’re the long term plan, right. Once the parents aren’t here, that could be three, five, ten years down the road or more. And I’m wondering how you address that question.

Chris Hunter: Well, two ways I do it. And I jokingly say, you know, during COVID Jane informed me that my being home was bordering on spousal abuse and that there was. I think my wife knows me better than anybody and she knows that my personality is one, is that I have to have purpose. And without purpose, I Would wither and die. Right. I expect to retire in somewhere in the next eight to ten years. Health. Willing. Right. Mental health, physical health. And so it’s something that I was very cognizant of, when back in 2015, 16, where I started thinking, hey, I want to make this the, you know, kind of the swan song of my career. And so I approached somebody about a year and a half ago about joining A team. He’s 20 years younger than I am, and he has a special needs daughter. And so he loves doing things that I don’t like doing. Fortunately, we’re in the 21st century. We have Zoom, and we do a lot of meetings together with clients over Zoom. And then I try to get in front of everybody at least once a quarter, face to face. And so I travel a lot. I’m on the road, you know, one or two days a week where I’m in other parts of Florida.

David Hirsch: Thanks for sharing. I really, admire your dedication not only to your own family, but to, ah, the service of others through the knowledge that you’ve, you know, gained, you know, over your 30 plus years. There’s a quote in the Bible, it’s Luke, you know, 1248, to whom much is given, much is required. And, you

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David Hirsch: know, I think that you’re sort of living that out.

Chris Hunter: That’s right.

David Hirsch: Yeah. I’m thinking about advice now and I’m wondering, what advice would you share with parents? maybe more specifically dads, not necessarily financial advice, that’s what we’ve been talking about, but just, you know, overall advice that you, you might want to share.

Chris Hunter: Thinking of my special needs and, you know, disabled clients, I think number one thing that dads need to do is communicate a love letter about their children. Moms are very good at it, dads struggle with it. Right. But I really think it’s important for your special needs son or daughter to have something to fall back on that others can lean. What you feel is important, what is it that you love about your son and daughter? What are the things that you struggle for? If you were to aspire something for your son or daughter in terms of a pinnacle of their ability, what would that be? You certainly want family involved, but you also want to have professionals around that can read a piece of you and say, oh, I get it. And that, I think, is singularly one of the most important things that fathers could do because we have a tendency not to be emotional. Create a love letter. Let the world know. Express how you feel about your son and daughter in writing. That others will feel your passion.

David Hirsch: I love the idea. And, you know, we as men on average don’t communicate in the same way as women. And, you know, I think putting it in writing, not just saying the words, but having something like you said, you know, as a permanent remembrance because we’re not going to be here, right, for eternity. But that letter, you know, will go a long way. So. And you could even take it a next step and you could do a video, right, if you want to do, do something a little bit, you know, more comprehensive. But that, that might be a step beyond, you know, for a lot of people to turn the camera on themselves. And, but, you know, I think your, your thought is a really solid one, right? To, engage in a way maybe get outside your comfort zone, because that’s what it would take for most guys.

Chris Hunter: And again, I emphasize it to father mothers. They get it as soon as you mention it to them. And within a week or two, I get a letter from them. fathers might take a year or two, but enough in a special needs situation where you have a son or daughter being who may not themselves understand or appreciate what you’re trying to communicate because of their physical or mental incapability. Right. Those who are going to come and be part of their lives need to know how. I just think it’s critical.

David Hirsch: Yeah, very important. Thank you again for sharing. Is there anything else you’d like to say before we wrap up?

Chris Hunter: I’ve enjoyed the conversation. I mean, you know, you’ve made me bare my soul. I appreciate that.

David Hirsch: Let’s give a special shout out to Special Fathers Network mentor father Dr. Rich Gathro, who’s Special Fathers Network Data dad podcast episode number 54, which aired in April 2019. For helping connect us.

Chris Hunter: Thank you.

David Hirsch: I appreciate it.

Chris Hunter: I really do appreciate having this connection.

David Hirsch: If somebody wants to learn more about your work at a contact you, Chris, what’s the best way to do that?

Chris Hunter: Well, I’m, on LinkedIn at Chris Hunter, Orlando, as you found out inadvertently. And I have a website, Christopher-Hunter.com www.christopher-hunter.com always happy to have a conversation to help people make great decisions.

David Hirsch: I’ll be sure to include that information in the show notes so it’ll make it as easy as possible for somebody to reach you. Chris, thank you for your time and many insights. As a reminder, Chris is just one of the dads who’s part of the Special Fathers Network, a mentoring program for fathers raising a child with special needs. If you’d like to be a mentor father or are seeking advice from a mentor father with a similar situation to your own, please go to 21stCenturyDads.org thank you for listening to the the latest episode of the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. As you probably know, 21st Century Dad’s foundation is a 501c3 not for profit organization, which means we need your help to keep our content free to all concern. Would you please consider making a tax actable contribution? I would really appreciate your support. Chris, thanks again.

Chris Hunter: Thank you.

Tom Couch: And thank you for listening to the Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast. The Special Fathers Network is a dad to dad mentoring program for fathers raising children with special needs.

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Tom Couch: Through our personalized matching process, new fathers with special needs children match up with mentor fathers in a similar situation. It’s a great way for dads to support other dads. To find out more, go to 21stCenturydads.Org.

David Hirsch: And if you’re a dad looking for help or would like to offer help, we would be honored to have you join our closed Facebook group. Please go to Facebook group facebook.com groups and search dad to dad. Lastly, we’re always looking to share interesting stories. If you’d like to share your story or know of a compelling story, please send an email to david@21stcenturydads.org.

Tom Couch: The Special Fathers Network Dad to Dad Podcast was produced by me, Tom Couch. Thanks again to Horizon Therapeutics who believe that science and compassion must work together to transform lives. That’s why they work tirelessly to research, develop and bring forward medicines for people living with rare and rheumatic diseases. Discover more about Horizon Therapeutics at horizontherapeutics.com.

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