What leads to exemplary client care? It begins with planning: Defining goals, building processes, documenting procedures. Then there’s the action: Owning all the nitty-gritty details that are every bit as essential as the more showy services. For that, we’re delighted to announce that our team has grown again, with the addition of Jared Machen as our new client service associate.

We knew we’d found a good match when we asked Jared why he was interested in transitioning from the world of active investing (where he’d been a wealth strategist for another firm in Fayetteville, Arkansas) to our evidence-based environment. He’d been reading up on the subject in his free time, and realized it was time for a change – for his own career satisfaction, as well as to contribute more meaningfully to other people’s financial lives.

In addition to several years of financial planning, investment management and client service experience, Jared holds a bachelor’s degree in finance. He also shares our passion for establishing enduring, “long view” relationships with clients.

Jared reports to me (John Reagan). We spent a lot of time looking for just the right person to join the HIG family and continue building on our client experience. Even after the short while he has been with us, I’m already confident we’ve found that fit. I am thrilled to welcome Jared to Hill Investment Group.

Diversification isn’t just for investing. Discovering interesting perspectives from diverse sources strikes us a wise strategy as well.

John Jennings’ “Interesting Facts of the Day” or IFOD blog is one such source several of us at Hill Investment Group have been enjoying; we think you might too. We’re familiar with John’s firm, the St. Louis Trust Company, because it’s just a few floors up from our St. Louis offices.

John was originally inspired to launch IFOD based on the far-reaching facts he was hunting down to engage his young children (now teenagers). He discovered we grownups enjoyed IFODs as well, such as his recent post on the late Hyman Minsky’s Financial Instability Hypothesis. Minsky (who also has St. Louis connections as a long-time professor of economics at Washington University) proposed that financial stability has a way of sowing the seeds of its own, destabilizing destruction. His theory may go a long way toward explaining why markets can so rapidly swing from boom to bust … which circles us back to our ongoing advice on maintaining a globally diversified portfolio in markets fair and foul.

Interesting stuff. We encourage you to subscribe to IFOD if you’d like to consider just about every subject under the sun (including this one on the sun itself).

“Dreamy.” “Breathtaking.” “Unforgettable.” Those are a few of the words that come to mind as I try to capture the spirit of Nell Swanson Schiffer’s November 25th wedding to her beloved Walter Schiffer. If ever there were an event for us to be thankful for here at Hill Investment Group, this was it!

While we only just welcomed Nell to our Houston office last May, it’s amazing how quickly she has become a good friend and an essential member of our professional team. Henry and I, plus our spouses, were happily on hand to witness and celebrate her nuptials, as were Matt and his wife Lisa, who joined us from St. Louis.

If it’s not obvious from our smiles, we couldn’t be happier for our newlyweds. Please join us in wishing Walter and Nell a long life of wedded bliss!

Pssst. Want to check out more HIG wedding shots? You’ll find our marriage montage on Instagram.