Our “Why I’m a Beacon” blog series introduces Beacon Wealth staff members, highlighting why they are working at Beacon Wealth and how they see God working through their role at the company.

In this introductory post we sat down with Director of Financial Planning, Jake Preston!

David Black:  Great to sit down with you Jake, I’m excited to get to know you better and how you view your work here at Beacon Wealth. Maybe to start off, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself.

Jake Preston: I am married to my wife Victoria. We met and started dating in high school, and we were at Liberty together for three years and then got married. We’ve been married for five years in May of this year. We don’t have any children, but we do have a cat, Stella, who we love and who’s our pride and joy. Stella’s the best.

I’m from Salem, a suburb of Roanoke, where I’ve lived here my entire life. I attend Fellowship Community Church where I serve as an elder. I’m on our preaching and teaching team and also lead the Institute, which is our ministry for biblical and theological education.

When I was at Liberty, I really developed a passion to bring theological education into the church. I think sometimes theological education kind of gets separated and it’s at school, you know, in a place like Liberty or even at seminary, but we all need to know the basics of what we believe and I think that’s really important. So that’s kind of how the Institute came about. So I’m really passionate about that part of it.

I do enjoy playing pickleball and golf and I like to play when I can.

 

David: That’s fantastic, thanks for sharing a little bit about yourself. To transition to talking about work, to start off can you tell me a little bit about your history working at the company?

Jake: I will have worked here full-time for six years in May. Before that, though, I interned for two summers. So I’ve been around Beacon since 2018.

David: I don’t think I’ve ever heard how you even found out about Beacon as an intern?

Jake: It was either the second semester of my freshman year at Liberty, or it may have been first semester of my sophomore year, I was taking a financial planning class and Professor Cornfield asked, “Is there anyone here who is interested in an internship in Roanoke?”

And I was the only one in class that raised my hand. No one else wanted to go to Roanoke. No one else was from Roanoke. And so I thought, well, yeah, I’d be interested in an internship.

And so from there, he connected me with Rick and Cassie, and I interviewed with them. Then after my sophomore year, I started with Beacon and haven’t looked back since. So, it all just started with my professor knowing Rick and Cassie and knowing they had an internship opportunity available.

David: That’s great. So becoming an intern was really just by chance, but what attracted you about coming back as an intern a second time and then, ultimately, working full-time at Beacon Wealth?

Jake: I felt a bit of a pull in early college of wanting to pursue vocational church ministry and become a pastor. So I actually started out as a double major in financial planning and pastoral leadership, which is kind of a funny combo. And I really had a crisis moment at one point, I remember calling my mom from school and saying, I can’t do this anymore, I can’t do financial planning. I don’t have an interest in it. I think that God is calling me to go into vocational church ministry.

But I decided to keep the conversation going with Rick and Cassie because I was drawn to Beacon in the sense that it was an explicitly Christian company. I didn’t know a lot about faith-based investing i, but I did know that Beacon was planning focused and focused on implementing their Christian values and helping clients steward their resources. So I decided to go ahead with the internship and that kind of changed everything for me.

It’s amazing working with values aligned team members towards a vision and a mission that we all feel like we’re part of and so that attracted me to Beacon at first and those same things have been what have kept me here. I do feel like we as a team and me in particular as the Director of Financial Planning and also working directly with clients feel like it is a ministry in some sense. You know we have greater access to people’s lives than even their pastors and that was really eye-opening for me and kind of changed everything, not just from a career perspective, but even in theology and how I think of work. Meeting Rick and Cassie and coming here has really changed my life.

David: That’s amazing, so you have been able to work in ministry, in a sense, after all. Can you expand a little on that?

Jake: Sure, so recognizing that the level of access that we’re given with clients I think is a big responsibility and opportunity to have impact. I also think about kind of the magnitude of being able to help people. And the hundreds of millions of dollars that we’re able to influence through faith-based investing where we’re redeeming money for the Kingdom. And on top of that, we’re also helping clients to give lots of money away towards charitable causes, helping to build up the church and just being able to help people steward the resources that God has called them to. I think it’s a very sacred responsibility.

You know, there really is no sacred secular divide. Many don’t recognize that actually every single dollar they’ve been entrusted with can be used to further the Kingdom and we have a unique opportunity, especially when it comes to faith-based investing, to help people actually make a tangible difference that goes above and beyond the money that they’re giving away, but that we’re helping people advance the cause of the gospel and the Kingdom through the types of companies that they’re investing in.

David: Has anything surprised you or impacted you personally through your work?

Jake: I’m continually surprised by how generous people are with their money. So many of our clients are laser focused on being able to grow their money not just so that they can live comfortably, but also be able to give money away, whether it’s to family or to the church or to other charitable causes that are important to them.

The clients that we work with are very, very generous and that has been something that has not only surprised me, but also just really impacted me personally, and challenged me to look at my own life and be sure that I have a mindset of generosity and not just working towards abundance for myself and my family.

David: Wow, it’s really encouraging, when you see people’s generosity and it inspires you to do that same. How does how does your faith shape your decision making in a practical way at work?

Jake: One example, on our investment committee we have conversations that are sometimes theological and ethical in nature where we’re debating or discussing whether or not we want to include a certain company or a certain fund in our portfolios and thinking through the theological implications of business and investing.

For each and every one of us who work here, our faith comes into play every single day, no matter what our role is, whether we’re doing marketing or advising, advising clients or doing due diligence on a on a new fund, our faith is playing into every single thing that we do and it’s the bedrock of our company’s mission and I think that very much plays itself out in in in every single thing that happens.

David: What advice would you give to a Christian who wants to become a better steward and is considering faith-based investing?

Jake: One of the biggest challenges that we’re navigating is trying to expand people’s understanding of stewardship. I think that the Christian financial advice industry has in some ways reduced stewardship to purely giving and generosity. And I don’t think we should lessen the importance of giving and generosity. But we don’t want to reduce stewardship to that, it’s much grander. So if we take investing, it can be one of the means of stewardship and giving can be one of the ends. And God cares just as much about the means as he does the ends.

God cares about how we are generating a return and how we are growing our investment portfolio. So I think we as Christians together can expand our vision for stewardship to not just include generosity but also to think about the impact that your investments can make.

I think the biggest piece of advice I would give to a Christian who’s considering faith-based investing is to read the biblical story and to see the bigger vision for stewardship that God has given us that rises far above, certainly inclusive of giving and generosity, but it doesn’t stop there.

David: That is so true, great advice! Do you have any advice for a young person who’s interested in a career in financial planning?

Jake: For someone who’s interested in pursuing a career in financial planning, I think one of the best things to do, this is what Professor Cornfield told us at Liberty, is contact as many financial advisors as you possibly can and ask them to share two things: 1) Ask them to share their story of how they got into financial advising and what they enjoy most about it. And 2) ask them what advice they would have for a young person in that position.

Maybe spend a day with an advisor if you can so you actually know what it’s like to be an advisor on a day-by-day basis.

Also, I think that stewardship over your own personal resources, no matter how young you are, also in a sense prepares you for a potential career as a financial planner.

David: Thank you so much for taking time to chat with me and share Why You’re a Beacon, Jake. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to share?

Jake: I think that it’s a real honor that people trust us with their finances and investments and the access that we have to pretty much every part of their lives. The impact I hope I have is being able to be a steady and trusted guide through all that life might bring to them.

You know, there are lots of things that clients don’t anticipate happening in their lives, and having a relationship that you’ve built over a long period of time with an advisor and being able navigate those times together is the most rewarding thing for me personally.

I hope that the most impactful thing that I can do for a client is not only helping them invest in companies that are doing great things and helping them give more of their money away, but I also want to be that consistent and steady partner with them in whatever it is that life brings, whether chosen or not chosen, and it’s a real honor to be able to do that.

David: Amen! Thanks again for talking with me and thank you for all the amazing work you do, you are a blessing to our whole team and to our clients as well.

Jake: Thanks, my pleasure.