Andrew Dodds, CFP ®
The Beginning
Andrew Dodds tends to dispel the mythical stereotype of the analytical financial type. A graduate of Stanford University with a degree in economics, he also spent a one-year academic sabbatical in 1981 at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where he continued with his lifelong passion for painting. He is, in fact, something of a Renaissance man.
His skillful watercolors, seen around the offices of Dodds Wealth Management Group, capture mountain golf course themes, highlighting another favorite hobby: Andrew is an avid golfer and a member of the Castle Pines Country Club in Colorado. Yet, his life passion is helping others organize their finances to support their dreams as well as to bring balance to their lives.
The California Real Estate Days
After graduating from Stanford,
Andrew's interest in business and investing
led him to commercial real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield.
Large-scale real estate development shaped
his perspective on economic and stock analysis. The
way Andrew looks at a stock is the way a
real estate investor or appraiser views a
property.
He recalls watching the 1987-1990 decimation of technology-related real estate in Silicon Valley. Spawned by over-inflated tech sector investment and overbuilding, fueled in part by Reagan's Tax Reform Act, the region became a virtual ghost town of empty buildings, a memory remaining with Andrew to this day. He was also witness to the tremendous wealth created out of the despair of the real estate crash when the Resolution Trust Corporation liquidated buildings for pennies on the dollar.
The Move to Colorado
His oldest child was 18 months old at the time, and his wife was from Aspen and also had family living in Colorado. They both loved Colorado, so they sold their California home and "pioneered a move," Andrew says, "to the Rocky Mountains."
After the Cushman & Wakefield years, he would re-direct his business experience to helping individuals and families by working for American Express Financial Advisors where he started his financial advisory practice in 1991.
"When we moved to Denver in 1991," he recalls, "I was anxious to get into my true area of expertise: economic analysis, financial management and investment. I started from scratch, no clients, no money, but I knew it had to work. Denver was a rising star in its own right at the time."
Where They Are Today
Andrew grew with Colorado through the booming '90s. Yet he carefully cultivated the growth of Dodds Wealth Management Group, which now serves a highly select clientele.
In order to provide truly independent and unbiased investment advisory services the practice was moved to LPL Financial, the nation's largest independent broker/dealer* on Valentines Day, 2003 a very sweet day indeed!
Maintaining a financial advisory firm that is dedicated to personalized service is paramount to Andrew and his team. Andrew is also frequently called upon by LPL to speak about the firm's investment strategies, service excellence, and dynamic advisory team approach. Andrew recently qualified to join LPL's Chairman's Council which includes only the top 1% of financial advisors in the country**.
With an array of professional degrees and certificates, including the Certified Financial Planner designation, Andrew Dodds is well positioned in the financial field. He holds Series 7, 24, 63 and 65 securities licenses with LPL Financial, along with the aforementioned degree in economics from the Department of Economics at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
Andrew lives with his wife, two sons, one dog and a well-used set of golf clubs in Castle Pines Village, south of Denver.
Personally Speaking
*As reported in Financial
Planning magazine June 1996-2010, based on
total revenues.
** Ranking based on overall production, calculated
at year end 2009.