From Harvard Law to High-Net-Worth Advisor

For older clients, Hamilton's focus is on wealth protection and ensuring the clients arrange for tax-efficient retirement income and estate plan strategies. It's challenging work, given the near-constant fluctuations in tax laws, but it's also rewarding to see these retirement and legacy plans come to fruition.

Changing Family Trees

Hamilton says his approach to advising continues to be informed by his earlier work as a sports agent, where he encountered and worked with many highly successful young people who did not have a family history of intergenerational wealth.

"I think one of the distinguishing factors about my approach is that, during those first initial conversations that I have with a potential client, I'm talking with them about their background and their family," Hamilton explains. "I ask them, what does your immediate family look like? What siblings do you have and what kind of a relationship do you have with them? What lessons did you learn from your family about money?"

In a lot of cases, the goal of building intergenerational wealth is a main ambition for these prospects, and Hamilton leans into that.

"Many clients aren't just thinking about what they can do for themselves. They want to know, how can they set up their kids and their grandchildren for success?" Hamilton says. "When we are dealing with clients who are the first in their family to generate major wealth, they realize they have the opportunity to really change the direction for their family. You learn what motivates them, what drives them. Those are the conversations I enjoy having the most."

Hamilton's tip for other advisors who encounter such prospects is to not jump to conclusions about a highly successful young person's wealth goals.

"Whenever I meet someone in this situation, I never assume anything about them," Hamilton says. "I have to learn about them. The key is asking questions — not telling them where their finances should go."

A Force for Change

Hamilton says he is also motivated to be a part of a change that has to happen in the financial advisory industry. Simply put, the profession is nowhere near achieving adequate representation for Black people, Latinos and other minority groups in the United States. It is also overwhelmingly male.

"The industry has to change," Hamilton says. "Getting the industry to be more representative is so critical for the future success of this profession. When I was growing up, I didn't know any financial advisors, and I didn't think about it as a career path. It wasn't something I had exposure to. I want to help change that."

Hamilton says advisors are getting the message, and he is encouraged to see efforts unfolding in the industry aimed at elevating knowledge of and accessibility to the profession.

"We have to show more people what this career path is all about, and how you can have a big impact on your community by being a good financial advisor," Hamilton says. "In the end, I think the industry will become more diverse, because it just has to. Clients are craving people who have experiences that resonate with their own."

Pictured: David Hamilton