A Partner on Life’s Financial Journey with Leah West

Life has its strange ways of throwing challenges at people. Leah West wants to navigate those challenges with her clients by serving as their financial director.

West is the founder of Rivertown Financial, a wealth management firm in Stockton, N.J., that she established 17 years ago. With more than three decades in financial services, she is now serving multiple generations of high net worth clients.

 “I have a couple of families I work with now that I started working with the grandparent,” she said. “And then I’ve gone all the way down through three or four generations. I normally wouldn’t take on younger adults as clients because they’re just starting to learn about money. But as my clients’ children, I know they will come into a legacy, and I want them to understand that we have to build their financial house from the ground up.”

West said that helping build that financial house for clients is about more than knowing the best fund in which to invest. “It’s about understanding the full picture,” she said. 

“I like to say that I work as my clients’ financial director so that when things come up — whether the water heater blew up or you need a new car or you’re changing jobs — whatever it is, you need to call me. We need to communicate about how that will affect you.”

West believes that proactive planning is the foundation of building each client’s financial house. 

“Having a written plan is the start of it. But life changes, things come up. That plan is never written in concrete. It will always be modified or molded in a different way. So we start with that written plan. We also want to make sure that we go back to the basics. Do you have an emergency fund? Do you have the proper insurances? Do you have a trust? What happens if you become disabled?”

Proactive planning is making sure a client’s lifestyle will be protected, no matter what life throws their way, she said.

The goal for her clients, she said, is “to make sure that their lifestyle doesn’t change when their life changes.”

“I want them to understand and know and grow to make sure that their lifestyle will always be there  whether it’s now or later. Life changes but we don’t want our lifestyle to change. We only want it to improve.”

A life-changing accident leads to a new career

West knows something about how quickly life can change.

When she was 28 years old, she was enjoying a Valentine’s Day motorcycle ride on a rain-soaked California road. She accelerated a little too quickly on that wet road and nearly drove off a cliff.

The resulting accident left her with a broken knee and fibula, requiring several surgeries and a year of physical therapy to repair the damage. During that time, she was unable to work at her job as an oral surgery assistant and was rapidly depleting her savings.

West turned to a financial advisor for help in getting back on track. She found a new career.

“When I was disabled for more than a year, I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she said. “My advisor said, ‘Why don’t you consider coming into financial services and become a registered representative, and I’ll be here to support you.’ That was more than 31 years ago, and I haven’t looked back. It was a tough time, but it changed the trajectory of my life.” 

Starting a new career “was exciting but scary,” West recalled. “But it also made a lot of sense because my advisor told me it was an opportunity for me to rebuild. So here I am.”

Mentorship is the key

West credits mentorship for her success in a career that can be challenging to launch.

“For me, mentors are the key,” she said. “I still work with people who you can share with and learn from and aspire to be.” 

Not only was it challenging to begin a new career, West said, but she was also one of only two women in an office of 25 men. 

“I don’t know how seriously the guys took us, but I had a couple of really strong mentors who took me under their wing and showed me the ropes,” she said. “But it was still hard. It took a few years to get the ball rolling.”

In the early days of her career, West began working with house accounts and then began prospecting and finding her own clients. At that time, she connected with another advisor who became her mentor and the two of them began to build a kind of business partnership.

“I was doing a lot of work,” she recalled. “I was starting at 6:30, 7 in the morning, and we would go down the New Jersey shore, we would go to New York, we would go to upstate New Jersey — all over the place. But it taught me a lot.”

West said she always was passionate about the belief that life happens, and that guided her interactions with clients and prospects.

“I was trying to understand more than the spreadsheets. I was trying to understand the people we met with — who they are and what they want to do. That’s what you do first — make that connection with people — and then you start looking at spreadsheets and investments and things like that.”

West’s mentor and collaborative partner had been in the business for 50 years. “He taught me a lot,” she said.

Eventually, West began to build her own book of business and opened Rivertown Financial.

“It was a lot of hard work in the beginning, and it’s still hard work,” she said. “But it’s different now because I can choose who I work with. I don’t have to work with people who aren’t a good fit for my firm, and I really want to work with people who are willing to collaborate and share their full story because I want to make sure everybody is protected. I want to take what I learned from my experience and use it to help everybody.”

Taking time to relax

When she isn’t working, West enjoys getting away “down the shore” for some boating.

“I love boating because it’s just so relaxing and free, and there’s nothing else to think about except being in the boat and relaxing,” she said.

She also enjoys gardening and attending concerts, and she recently made her first visit to the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Looking at the future of her practice, West said she is at a crossroads.

“I am considering whether I want to be a part of another group,” she said. “But I really like my independence, and I like Rivertown Financial and all it represents. I’m in a state of flux right now, but I know it’s a growth trajectory wherever I go. To me, growth looks like not only growing our assets under management but limiting the number of clients I see so that I can ensure everybody is getting the services and the time I promise them right from the beginning.”

Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at susan.rupe@innfeedback.com.