Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Looking ahead: Hoover Financial marks 10 years
‘I’m amazed at my success,’ says founder of planning company
EAST WHITELAND >> Pete Hoover’s roots in Chester County go deep.
Growing up just outside of West Chester in the Roslyn development in West Goshen, Hoover’s first job was delivering the Daily Local News.
Instead of doing what many paperboys of the late 1960s and early 1970s, did – throw the newspaper on customer lawns while barely slowing their bikes down – Hoover would hand deliver the newspaper to his customers.
“You got better tips that way,” Hoover, now 55, a father of four and living in Phoenixville, recalled last week.
Hoover is still looking for tips but now the stakes are much higher, at least they are for the customers of Hoover Financial Advisors, which is celebrating its 10th year in business this year.
Services include wealth management, cash flow management, estate planning, retirement planning, financial forecasting, plan preparation and implementation, income tax strategies and insurance solutions.
“In my business, you get a great deal of satisfaction in helping clients reach their objectives,” said Hoover, whose wife Beth and daughter Kelly work at the company’s Moores Road offices. “Whether it’s sending kids to college, being able to retire when you want to, passing assets along to the next generation – that’s what excites me, helping them reach those goals.”
A graduate of Shippensburg University, Hoover started in the financial planning business in 1981 when it was, in his words, “just a baby industry.”
He received his Certified Financial Planner designation in 1987 when it was a six-step process, and “bounced around with a couple of different firms.”
In 2005, Hoover started his own company, which has enjoyed
steady growth. Some of the accomplishments Hoover said the firm was celebrating in May when it entertained 120 customers for its anniversary at the Malvern area offices:
• When the Hoover Financial Advisors was started in 2005, it had $93.4 million in assets under management; as of June 30, assets under management were $486 million.
• In 2005, the company had 244 clients; today it has around 400. Most of those, about two-thirds, come from the Delaware Valley and most are referred to the company by clients, Hoover said.
• There were seven employees at the beginning; now there are 15, including three Certified Financial Planners and a number of others with advanced degrees.
• The company changed its asset custodian to Charles Schwab & Co. and went from being a non-discretionary firm to a discretionary one, giving it the opportunity to offer a greater variety of mutual funds and exchange traded funds to its customers.
• Hoover Financial Advisors was selected the 2012 Small Business of the Year by the Chester County Chamber of Business & In- dustry.
• Pete Hoover was chosen multiple times as a Five Star Wealth Manager, a recognition given to less that 7 percent of the area’s financial advisors.
That is not to say Hoover hasn’t seen his share of dark times in his 34 years as a financial planner: the stock market crash of 1987, the down years of 20012002, and the financial meltdown in 2008-09.
“Awful, ugly,” were the words Hoover used to describe the atmosphere as the last financial crisis came to light in 2008. “We educated our clients and held a lot of hands. We didn’t let our clients make any stupid mistakes.”
As a result, Hoover said, the company lost only two or three clients.
Still, the anxiety caused by the crisis remains with Hoover seven years later.
“Anybody in the business at the time has vivid memories of that,” he said as CNBC flashed across the television screen in his office — another of the changes he has seen during his career, the 24-hour financial news networks.
Hoover said he has no plans to retire in the foreseeable future.
“I’m having too much fun,” he said.
Instead, he’s planning for more growth for his company.
“I’m amazed at my success,” Hoover said. “I started this (career) with no income, no clients and built it into this. It amazes me every day that I am where I’m at.
“Money affects everyone,” he added. “I’m so proud of what I’ve accomplished, what we’ve accomplished as a company. The team is really the key.”
“I started this (career) with no income, no clients and built it into this. It amazes me every day that I am where I’m at.”
— Pete Hoover of Hoover Financial Advisors PC