A path of numbers and service: Wealth Management Solutions’ Brianne Brede in stride with her career

Oct. 31--What started out as a love for math classes in high school has blossomed into a rewarding and enjoyable career for Brianne Brede.

A financial advisor for Wealth Management Solutions in Austin, Brede has moved up the ranks while finding a wealth of fulfillment along the way.

"Every day is different," Brede said from her corner office above the Coffee House on Main. "It's not one of those jobs where you do the same job every day, over and over again. When we work with clients we develop really strong relationships with them."

Brede's career path started early on when she was looking for a career that could combine her love of math with her desire to work with people.

"So with the math background, the process of helping others and and the personal relations that can be built, were some of the more intriguing reasons to get into the business" Brede explained.

There was a time when she flirted with nursing, but that idea was quickly put to rest.

"I realized in my first anatomy and physiology class that it was not for me so I backtracked," Brede said.

Rather, financial planning was always on her radar, and so it was an easy thing for her to come back to, but it also had some bumps that made her question if this was the right path.

"At that point in time I didn't have the well-rounded understanding of everything that went into it," Brede said. "I kind of had that mindset that it was investment only. That was during the time of the stock market crash in the 2000s. The end of the tech bubble. Then I got a little bit hesitant with it. Is this what I want to do?"

Brede has worn a lot of hats in her 14 years of experience with a variety of areas she focuses on, but one thing she really enjoys is multi-general planning and being a guide for those people on the way to retirement.

It's an effort that requires her to be able to touch on all aspects during that transitional journey.

"Working with clients not only with accumulating wealth for retirement, but typically I find people that have done a really good job of saving and getting to that point where they really want to be, but they then don't like to take the time to spend the money on themselves," Brede said.

Brede takes her clients through things like estate planning and charitable giving. Often times, it can seem like her job is more mental wellbeing than financial advising.

That can be especially important when everything is so readily available in terms of the world around us. There was a time when financial news and those items that can sometimes affect finances came from the advisor, but now that information is splashed across screens in real time, which can make things more nerve-wracking than maybe is needed for clients.

"We often joke among ourselves, that sometimes we're counselors," Brede said. "You try to manage behaviors and sometimes that can be difficult for people when you turn on the news and the media. You have all the bad news out there. You see the blurbs that the market is crashing or whatever and there is some panic that can set in to people, just in general. Nobody likes to hear bad news."

Things can change so quickly, that often it can come at the drop of tweet.

"We often joke, we're one tweet away from the market going up and one tweet from the market going down," she explained. "And when those events occur, people just need somebody to reassure them and talk them through it."

Brede admits juggling the news she's receiving between meetings with her clients is an aspect of her job she needs to improve on.

And that's where the supporting nature of Wealth Management Solutions and Ameriprise, the umbrella company of WMS, becomes so important.

For those wishing to grow and become stronger in their jobs, employees are offered every opportunity to grow and become stronger as an advisor.

Brede admits it's been a challenging process since first getting into the business, but it's been made optimal because of the opportunities she's received.

"I started kind of at the bottom and worked my way up over the years and I have great appreciation for that," Brede said. "Now, when I have conversations with all of our other team members I can relate to the work I'm asking them to do and know all of it from the backend."

"It's been a nice transition," she added. "It's also been a rewarding transition."

That has come from the partners of WMS enthusiastic about ensuring their employees have the opportunities to grow.

"The managing partners of Wealth Management Solutions have always had -- and I think that's one of the reasons that's kept me with the team -- they've always had the mindset that regardless of what role you start at, there's no limit where you can go," she said.

There is another aspect of working where she is and doing the work that she does that has been particularly enjoyable for Brede.

Community outreach is something that both WMS and Ameriprise values and it's something Brede holds dear as well.

Not only do WMS employees make time for community service, but it's also a fundamental foundation of Ameriprise as well through National Day of Service.

It fits well with what Brede and WMS values.

"We in our office have always been community focused, especially in small town Austin," Brede said."We've always made it a point to do something like that, but Ameriprise has taken it to another level."

That level now includes two National Days of Service -- in the fall and spring.

All in all, this path Brede has walked has turned out to be everything that she hoped it would be.

"It's so much more," she said. "I can honestly say I enjoy coming to work every day. I can tell you. There's no day that's ever the same. It's fun, it's hard work, but it's fun and the relationships that we build with our clients are solid and strong. I consider the team here a work family."

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