Member of the Month - Driven to Learn...and to Teach.

Some people love to learn. Others love to teach. And some—like Robert Arnold—love to do both. This explains Arnold’s success as an estate planner with Dottenwhy Financial Group, LLC, in Wausau, Wisconsin—and tells you a lot about the man.

Arnold’s passion for learning and teaching is obvious as he explains how he transitioned from a product development career in manufacturing to his current career helping seniors protect their retirement assets.

Arnold grew up in Orrville, Ohio, a small farming community that was home to the J.M. Smucker Company (maker of jellies, jams, and preserves). Because his cousin and he were born 12 days apart, his father and uncle (who was in the military) decided to raise the two boys as brothers. As a result, Arnold spent a lot of time visiting military bases in other states—and learning a lot about America, as well.

Pack Your Bags

When he graduated from Orrville High School, his father, a Westinghouse vice president, gave him a stark choice: either pack your bags and get a job or go to college. Arnold took the second option, eventually earning two associate’s degrees (one in electronics technology, the other in mechanical technology) from Akron University.

After earning those degrees, Arnold found a sales job with a British company that made injection-molding equipment. His sales territory encompassed all of North and South America. But he always found time to return to Akron, where he eventually met his future wife, Karen.

After he married, Arnold realized that traveling and being a newlywed weren’t compatible activities. So he returned to Ohio and went to work for Exxon. When Exxon bought Reliance Electric, Arnold got assigned to acquisitions and doing application engineering, which allowed him to use both his mechanical engineering and electrical engineering expertise.

While with Reliance Electric, Arnold met the firm’s vice president of research, who encouraged him to learn more about business. So Arnold started taking courses at Lake Erie College in Ohio, eventually earning a B.A. in marketing, accounting, and finance in 1994. “During this period, I spent almost every evening in school,” says Arnold.

Arnold had a great 20-year run with Exxon, Reliance, and Rockwell (which acquired Reliance), before leaving to do product development with Regal-Beloit Corp., a manufacturer of electrical and mechanical motion control products, in Beloit, Wisconsin. Why the move to Wisconsin? “I love the outdoor life and I eventually wanted to retire back to nature. So making the move up to the North Woods made a lot of sense,” Arnold explains.

It also opened up a whole new learning path. In Wisconsin, Arnold met Kevin Dottenwhy, whose father established Dottenwhy and Associates in 1963. Arnold started doing marketing projects on the side for Kevin—designing marketing brochures and bouncing ideas off each other—and eventually was recruited into the firm.

Absorbing Wisdom

Arnold’s first step: absorb the collective wisdom of the Richard Dottenwhy, the firm’s founder and Richard’s two sons, Kevin and Wayne. Then, after deciding to focus on estate planning, Arnold earned his Master of Estate Preservation (MEP) designation from The Abts Institute for Estate Preservation and the Certified Estate Planner designation from the National Institute of Certified Estate Planners.

Now Arnold was ready to teach clients about how to accumulate, preserve, and distribute an estate. “I see my job as helping clients preserve their assets for the rest of their lives and then to pass those assets on in the most loving, caring, and cost-efficient way possible,” Arnold says. “We spend a huge amount of time teaching people about the pros and cons of every strategy we recommend. But ultimately they have to decide which solution or product is best for them.”

“There is no one strategy or product that’s perfect for everyone,” he adds. What he does stress with everyone is the importance of allocating money into appropriate risk buckets so they don’t make foolish bets on the market and lose money they can’t afford to lose.

In addition to teaching clients about risk, Arnold brings a strong commitment to ethics. “I have to treat the client as I want to be treated,” Arnold says. “I have to respect his money, his assets, and his needs and concerns as if they were my own. I feel that way with every client.”

Not surprisingly, Arnold decided to join the National Ethics Bureau because NEB promotes ethical professional conduct. “I believe I’m 100% ethical and trustworthy, and I wanted to support an organization that shared my beliefs. Plus, I like the way NEB holds advisors accountable to a standard that their clients can verify.”

“I believe all advisors out there can benefit from becoming a member of the National Ethics Bureau.”

Is your commitment to ethics and excellence noteworthy? And are you maximizing your NEB membership to grow your business? If you would like to be featured in our newsletter, click here. The National Ethics Bureau welcomes your input. Send your comments to: hlew@ethicscheck.com