The future of financial advising belongs to the young people entering the industry today. That’s why L.M. Kohn has made it a priority to recruit the best and brightest talent to join our team- not only to add potential for how we can support our reps now, but to help advisors plan for their succession in the years down the road. An excellent example of this is in one of our newest recruits, Matt Ruffolo.
Matt is a Dayton, Ohio native who from a young age decided to make a plan for his future and stick with it. Researching his options and knowing that a career in finance could take him somewhere right out of school, he applied to the University of Kentucky and began to pursue his finance degree. Matt also had a goal of being a collegiate athlete, and likewise earned his spot as a placekicker on the prestigious UK football team by trying out as a walk on during his freshmen year. He stuck with his studies and collegiate athletics, and by his third year Matt received the opportunity to be a starting player on the team along with a scholarship for his continued studies. This led to a fifth and (because of COVID in 2020) sixth year at UK, which gave Matt the chance to earn his MBA and a Master of Finance degrees under his football scholarship.
During his postgraduate studies, Matt had the opportunity to participate in several internships including a position for Central Bank where he helped launch a peer-to-peer money transfer app for the bank’s customers, as well as marketing and supply chain positions with UK Healthcare where he came close to pursuing a full-time position with the company. But working these temporary positions and speaking with the executives at each company confirmed Matt’s wish to stick with his plan and find a position where he could excel quickly and become his own boss. The internships taught him that a career in healthcare or in a large corporate environment wouldn’t come with the fast pace that he wanted where he could establish himself quickly.
Matt was introduced to L.M. Kohn when COO Tim Chon visited UK on a recruiting call in December 2022. Impressed with his skills, Tim invited Matt to the L.M. Kohn home office to learn more about Tim’s plan to bring in young, promising recruits to work in the back office familiarizing themselves with the processes while passing their required exams, and potentially connect with established L.M. Kohn reps to plan for their succession down the road. From what he had learned through his graduate school colleagues and their experiences with the culture in the large wirehouses, Matt immediately appreciated the family environment at L.M. Kohn along with the potential to quickly advance to a position where he could be his own boss.
In June 2023, Matt accepted a position at L.M. Kohn as a Trading and Operations Analyst. In his current role, he helps L.M. Kohn reps research and place trades, process distributions and open new accounts. While fulfilling his duties, Matt is also using the opportunity to familiarize himself with the details of back-office processes. He has also passed his SIE and Series 7 exams.
“L.M. Kohn is the only firm I could find that offers the kind of mentorship I’ve experienced while working with them,” said Matt. “I’m learning everything I need to know to become my own individual rep in my own business. Hopefully within 2 or 3 years, I’ll be paired with another rep who wants a succession plan and I can start learning from them, taking on clients and eventually running the business myself.”
To learn more about Matt’s story or how you can plan for succession with L.M. Kohn, contact us.
