1819 Wealth Advisors lean on Lindner, Cincinnati roots for success

1819’s name is a reference to both the year of UC’s founding and the year of incorporation for the City of Cincinnati. Furthermore, one of the team members, David Rodrigo, Bus ’94, ’06, has created a scholarship fund to benefit Business Fellows studying accounting and finance.

The six members of 1819 Wealth Advisors recently visited Lindner Hall to discuss 1819’s origin, their experiences studying business at UC, the importance of co-op and more.

David Rodrigo, CPA, PFS, CFP, MBA, MSBA, First Vice President, Investments: It was probably a long time coming. We’d been in the same office. Jason (Goldberg) and I came over from Wells Fargo to Raymond James in November of 2013. We saw a lot of similarities and similar practice procedures that we had been following. There came a time when Jason and I were looking to make a change in how we did business in Raymond James. And these guys were looking to make a similar change.

Mire Jonovski, AAMS, First Vice President, Investments: We’d already been collaborating on the way we run our practices. And we decided that formally bringing the two teams together was going to be beneficial for both us and our clients.

Dustin Martin, CFP, CEPA, Financial Advisor: The practices had both been growing. As two separate teams, we had our own operations, and we were able to streamline those. There’s six of us, but there’s also four other team members that support us. We were able to bring that all together.

Geoff Ziegler, A&S ’07, CECH ’12, AAMS, Financial Advisor: We also enjoy each other. All six of us are always joking — we were joking about what to wear today. It’s a friendship as much as it is a business partnership, too.

Dan Snow, CFP, AAMS, CRPS, Branch Director and Financial Advisor: The way this industry is going, you have to get a more comprehensive view of your clients. You can’t just manage the investments anymore. You have to continue offering value and financial planning, from tax planning to estate planning. It’s really difficult to do that on your own. So, having a team where you’ve got different areas of expertise and different experience really makes things more efficient. You can do more for a client.

Rodrigo: I would definitely say that. We live, work and are involved in this community.

Martin: It shaped the business. You [Rodrigo] graduated from UC. Dan worked with [Jonovski] as a co-op. I worked with [Jonovski and Snow] as a co-op and rejoined the team five years after I graduated. That program helped shape the team that we have. It’s not just a coincidence. A lot of the networking we do now is UC-based. I went to the alumni event at FC Cincinnati’s stadium. We go to Lindner’s business awards. If we’re trying to think of events to get involved with, it’s almost always UC-related.

Jonovski: I graduated in ’77. I was the first in my family to graduate from college. My parents and I immigrated from Macedonia. At the time, I was going to school, working in my family’s restaurant business and working a number of part-time jobs. I made some great connections.

Jason E. Goldberg, CFP, First Vice President, Investments: I didn’t go to UC, but there’s not a better-connected school than UC.

Snow: I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. My older sister’s experiences led me to the business college. I finished my co-op program at JC Bradford (where Mire was at the time). So, I did co-op for the quarter, and then when the school was in session, I’d go to class and then was part-time at his office.

Martin: I traveled across the country to attend UC, all the way down from Middletown, Ohio [laughs]. I worked in Lindner’s academic advising office while I was here. I got a finance degree, participated in the Johnson Investment Counsel’s student-managed fund. A lot of clients that I have are from UC, so some of those connections I made have played a pretty integral part in my career.

Ziegler: When I left high school, I wanted to go out and do my own thing, so I ended up at Bowling Green (State University). I worked as a paramedic for a few years before I decided I needed to go back to school. I ended up at UC. I got my degree and taught high school for years. I decided to get my master’s. I don’t ever regret making a decision to come back to school at UC.

Rodrigo: If you had asked me in the second grade, I would have told you I was going to UC. A lot of people I met at the business college I’m still friends with and work with every day. I’m probably on the phone with C Kevin Armstrong every day. When I went to do my master’s in tax and financial planning, I came back to UC. You saw the true value and access to resources that we had.

Martin: I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. I interviewed for other finance co-ops, but realized from that short period of time working with [Jonovski and Snow] that I wanted to do this. The most important experience I had while I was here was the co-op program. It taught me how to be a professional. These guys worked for a big company, but it’s kind of a small business. I’m grateful for the experience I was able to pick up in that short amount of time, and it made me want to do this job.

Snow: Yeah, I see both sides of it because I was a co-op and then we hired Dustin as a co-op. As a co-op, I learned what I didn’t want to do. I think that’s the best outcome. As someone now in a position to hire and train a co-op and oversee their work, it’s kind of a teaching position. It makes you better as an employer when you have to sit down and train somebody who doesn’t know anything about the industry.

Goldberg: You learn a lot as the employer.

Jonovski: Dan was my original co-op. The co-op program at UC was a great resource for us. Dan did become a full-time hire, as did Dustin. If you’re looking to grow your team or practice — I don’t care if it’s co-ops from Lindner or from the engineering school — it’s just a great way to see people and what their potential is from the get-go.

Goldberg: The younger advisors that come through co-op are bringing just as much to the table as those of us with 25 and 40 years of experience. Their knowledge of technology and aspects not just within financial services, but outside the financial services, is invaluable. They’re adding as much to that intellectual capital menu as much as those with decades of experience.

Rodrigo: When I was at Arthur Anderson, most of our hiring was done through the co-op program. They got to see how you worked and you got to see how they worked. When you’re learning things in school, it’s much different than actually doing it. The co-op is not only important for the student. It’s important for the employer to see and decide, ’Hey, is this going to work?’

In March, Rodrigo and Amy Corbin created Pedro Rodrigo's American Dream Scholarship Fund, named after Rodrigo's father. The fund will support Business Fellows majoring in accounting or finance once it reaches its endowment.

Pedro Rodrigo immigrated to Cincinnati from Spain, facing hardships upon arriving in America but wound up having a long career as a surgical nurse. Rodrigo’s son, Nick, also went through the Business Fellows program.

“Creating a scholarship is putting your money where the mouth is, right? The old phrase, give a person a fish, they eat for a day. Teach a person to fish ... right?” Rodrigo said. “It’s the same thing with accounting and finance, and that’s why we’re focusing on that.”

Featured image at top: The 1819 Wealth Advisors of Raymond James team (from left): David Rodrigo, Bus ’94, ’06, CPA, PFS, CFP, MBA, MSBA, First Vice President, Investments; Dan Snow, Bus ’01, CFP, AAMS, CRPS, Branch Director and Financial Advisor; Jason E. Goldberg, CFP, First Vice President, Investments; Mire Jonovski, Bus ’77, AAMS, First Vice President, Investments; Geoff Ziegler, A&S ’07, CECH ’12, AAMS, Financial Advisor; and Dustin Martin, Bus ’14, CFP, CEPA, Financial Advisor. All photos by Danielle Lawrence.

Opinions expressed in the above article are those of interviewees and are not necessarily those of Raymond James. Raymond James is not affiliated with the Carl H. Lindner College of Business or the University of Cincinnati.