My name is Patrick Smith. I have been a Financial Advisor for 50 years now. My college degree is in Forestry. I was recruited into the financial industry by my Forestry Manager’s Financial Planner after he did a beginners plan for a 23 yr old. I spent the first 8 yrs of my career with IDS, Investors Diversified Services, They were a 78 yr old company when I joined, today they are part of Ameriprise Financial.

In 1980, I was recruited by E. F. Hutton. They were the most innovative Broker Dealer in the industry at the time. I was hired to be the Estate Planning and Life Inurance specialist for 25 stock brokers when E F Hutton created Universal Life in 1980. I spent 6 yrs at Hutton. In 1986 I founded my own company, Bering Financial which I operate today. My practise is a specialized Retirement Planning philosophy that does`nt depend on or correlate to the stock and bond markets. We educate our clients on  how to build their portfolios to maximize income and growth while minimizing taxes and moving toward an ultimate goal of as much as is possible to a tax free retirement. Most of our clients are astonished at the products and tools that are available  to them to create such portfolios compared to only the 60/40  market plans they are aware of.