A little over a decade ago, in late fall of 2014, I walked down the hallway at Northwestern Mutual in Lakewood, Colorado, to ask my friend and colleague, Jacob Ray, if he'd join me for happy hour at Old Chicago—just the two of us. He had a hunch about what was coming, but when I asked, “Are you coming with me?” it marked the start of something transformative for both our lives and many others.
I call it our “Jerry Maguire moment”—not the “show me the money!” line, but the quieter one where Jerry, after pouring his heart into a manifesto about an industry gone shallow, gets fired and simply asks, “Who’s coming with me?” Like him, I was exhausted by the commission-driven quotas and product-focused culture of a giant firm. I wanted true fiduciary work: holistic, client-centered financial planning. Jacob felt the same, and our proven partnership made the question feel natural.
Flash forward to early 2016. After a valuable (if eye-opening) year at a small Denver firm—our crash course in what to do (and not do) when running abusiness—we were ready to dive in. With nothing but a lucky GoDaddy search that snagged ColoradoWealthGroup.com, we launched Colorado Wealth Group in spring 2016. The adventure began: building a brand, a culture, and a firm dedicated to genuine creativity, productivity, and life-changing client results.
I can hardly believe it's been 10 years. The journey has been full of gratitude, growth, and a few perfect ironies. Here are the moments that standout most:
- Humble beginnings: For our first few months, we ran the firm from shared cubicles in the Denver Tech Center. We designed our logo using a free online tool and got incredibly lucky. It's still the one we use today.
- Our first real home: Mid-2016, we moved into a furnished office in Denver's vibrant LoHi neighborhood. We added personal touches, and it became our headquarters for four wonderful years. (Fun fact: the building now houses one of Denver's top restaurants, El Five—highly recommend it!)
- LoHi perks: Proximity to great restaurants meant frequent team happy hours and lunches, plus easy walks across the Highland Bridge for daytime Rockies games as team-building outings.
- A pivotal trip: Also in mid-2016, Jacob and I headed to Nashville. We enjoyed our share of Broadway honky-tonking, but the real magic came from learning from top financial planning minds. That experience shaped our fee-based, comprehensive service model.
- Owning our space: Facing rising rents and new ownership, we bought and renovated our current building at 1345 S Broadway. We moved in early 2020, just in time for COVID lockdowns. Life's timing can be hilariously ironic.
- The hockey-stick turn: Our true inflection point came in summer 2020 when we went fully independent, leaving a large corporate RIA affiliation. With about $50 million in assets under management at the time, we bet on ourselves. Since then, we've grown more than 6x—now serving 300+ clients with roughly $300 million entrusted to us as their go-to advisors for financial planning, investments, estate strategy, and tax expertise.
- Building the team: From 2020 onward, we've welcomed key talent like Emily Murtaugh, Bruce Larsen, Carter Hench, Matthew Conley, and, most recently in 2025, CPA Ian Snedden, who launched our in-house Tax Division. Recruiting, training, and retaining great people remains the hardest and most rewarding part of my role. We're not just growing a firm; we're positively impacting our team's lives, and that fills me with pride.
- Looking ahead: The future is bright. We're relentlessly pursuing progress, not perfection, through initiatives like a new private client division, in-house legal support for sophisticated estate planning, and smarter technology to empower both our team and clients.
What a ride it's been. I'm deeply thankful for our incredible clients who trust us with their futures, for the talented colleagues who make every day rewarding, and especially for Jacob, who said yes to that happy-hour invite. “Are you coming with me?” turned out to be one of the best questions I've ever asked.
Here's to the next decade and to always following our instincts.
