By: Michelle Pawelski
Photos: Bailey Sadowsky
In his early twenties, Nate Starkey’s life took a dramatic turn. While applying to be a medic in the military, he discovered he was color blind – a condition he had been unaware of until that moment.
“I didn’t have the money to pay for medical school, so I thought I would join the military to help, but after I took my military testing, they said I couldn’t be a medic in the field because I was color blind. It was the first time I had heard that.”
His aspirations of working in medicine had to pivot, but his desire to help people did not; it simply found a new form. Today, Nate is a wealth advisor and partner at BMS Financial Advisors, where he guides clients toward their financial goals with the personalized attention he once hoped to bring to medicine.
Nate spent much of his childhood traveling the world as his father’s career of designing oil drill bits took the family from Louisiana to California and Texas to Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Australia. However, it was in Colorado where they found a permanent home and where Nate eventually met his wife, Liz.
In 2008, he began searching for a new career path and started working in the mailroom for a Denver insurance company, quickly advancing. In less than three years, Nate rose to one of the company’s youngest vice presidents and was asked to join a team launching a new office in Nashville.
No stranger to new beginnings, Nate and Liz moved to Tennessee, where Nate continued to thrive. Five years later, their desire to start a family brought them closer to home. After a brief time in Colorado, they settled in Minneapolis, where Nate consulted with financial advisors nationwide, helping them build portfolios and strengthen their client relationships. His work with hedge funds and major firms revealed a common gap: many advisors lacked the genuine client connection he valued most.
Nate began searching for an independent firm that shared his vision. After interviewing more than 1,200 firms around the United States (over the course of a few years) and narrowing that list down to five, he chose to pursue BMS Financial Advisors in Rapid City to be part of the firm.
“I liked the way the other partners approached financial planning, worked with clients and their process in understanding their needs and addressing solutions,” he said. “When people come in, we can find any solution that we need for them. Unlike many offices, we are not prescribed specific products to sell, and that is the only way to do it. We ask everyone, ‘What matters to you? What does your life look like, what do you want it to look like, and what things can we control to get you there?’”
Every day for Nate is different, like solving a big puzzle.
“We can handle just about everything here, and that is what is exciting for us,” Nate said. “Everyone has a different goal in life. No two clients are the same, so no two solutions are the same; that is the benefit of our being here. We have complete autonomy to do whatever we need to help people out.”
Nate encourages everyone to start thinking about saving as early as possible. He is part of the Junior Achievement Program, where he talks money and economics to students at Stevens High School and gives seminars at South Dakota Mines. “When I am in those classes. I try to throw out statistics to wrap their head around how money works and how to amass it,” he said, adding that the average Social Security check for someone 65 is $1,600 a month. “That probably won’t satisfy cash flow needs, so you have to take it into your own hands to build a nest egg for yourself that you will have later.”
It’s like long-term resolutions.
“People need to paint a pretty clear picture of what a work-optional lifestyle looks like and then figure out realistically what it is going to cost to do that,” Nate said.
That is where a financial advisor comes in.
“It’s hard to do that by yourself and it takes a team,” said Nate, who has a background in behavioral finance. “Even I, doing what I do, don’t manage my own money because it is emotional. It’s important to put something away in the right buckets; it doesn’t matter how much at first. Then let time, the markets and small adjustments do the heavy lifting. Each time someone comes in here, we go back to our process at BMS to make sure they are optimizing every aspect of their financial life.”
Nate is no longer supporting multibillion-dollar companies. He primarily supports successful professionals, small business owners and retirees across the United States, and that’s far more rewarding.
“I can actually see and measure the impact in their lives, and that is what I enjoy.”
While he is not following his original plan of working in medicine, Nate is helping people by empowering them to build the life they envision, not through quick fixes or fleeting resolutions, but through steady habits, thoughtful planning and genuine connection.
Original Article available in the December edition of Elevate Magazine
