About Us

Jeanne Forrey: In her own words

Serendipity has led much of my life. I feel blessed when I review my life path and see how it weaves to such good things.

I was born and raised in a small farming community in south central Minnesota. I had four brothers and three sisters. And mine was medium sized family in the area! As most families were large, we counted close to 100 kids within four square blocks. It was quite easy to get a softball game going after “supper”. My childhood was the wonderful 60’s kind. It was filled with Girls Scouts, teaching swimming, camping, student counsel, class officer roles and operettas, playing the lead in “Anne Frank”, teaching catechism and being on the honor role. When you are in a small town, you get to do lots of different things.

I have sought out that full community involvement throughout my life. My career has been very fulfilling. My first adult job was with L’eggs Pantyhose when they launched the product in the 70’s. It was a rocket ride of increasing responsibilities. L’eggs was a huge success and provided amazing career opportunities. I was a single parent of one son and we were transferred throughout the Midwest – three times in thirteen months when he was in kindergarten and first grade. We were truly fortunate to be transferred to Seattle in 1979. We fell in love with the green and blue of Seattle before the plane landed, having been in brown and white Omaha for two years.

Because we loved the area so much and I had committed to my then adolescent son that we wouldn’t move through his high school years, I started turning down promotions. This lead to needing to leave the company if I was to stay professionally challenged. What I knew by this time was that I needed a higher level of stress than some to stay “alive”. I joined a contact lens firm, Valley Contax, and went back to college fulltime to finish my business degree (which I did with President’s Honors). Then, I was recruited into the dental industry where I was the Vice President of the Western region for a national dental lab company. The challenge was that some of the labs that they purchased in a group were losing money. My job was to make them profitable or get them ready to sell. The Washington labs were made profitable, the Oakland lab was sold and the Denver lab was stabilized. While I enjoyed the business side of the dental industry, the product left me”numb”…so to speak. Helping companies make money is good as it produces jobs for people but I felt there had to be more that I could contribute in life.

Here is where the big turn happened. I examined and studied what I liked, what I was good at and what I would like to grow old doing for a living. I knew I was good at making companies money and planning and strategy. I wanted to do that for individuals. It was logical to become a Financial Advisor. Initially, I joined a large firm which gave me excellent training, experience and grounding in many areas. I believe in educating oneself in their expertise and attained my CFP® and CRPC® which helps me serve my clients better. Through and because of the current unprecedented ground shift in the financial world, I left the “Big Firm” and joined Robinswood Financial. I am very clear that Robinswood Financial provides the client with the best of all worlds; commitment to client first, superior advice, lower costs and long term relationship goals. I intend to be there for my clients through the years as this is one “job” that is deeply meaningful, keeps one stimulated, and you only get better at it with age!

Personally, I am very happy to say that I am no longer a single parent. My son is grown with a family of his own; an amazing wife and two sweet girls (my lovely granddaughters!). On Valentine’s Day 2009, I was married to Jeff who also was a longtime single parent (with two now-grown children). He is an optometrist who believes in giving back as do I. With him in the lead, I have participated in some of his VOSH trips that go to third world countries to bring eye care and glasses to those that can’t get it or can’t afford it. To find out more about this organization visit www.vosh.org. It is a wonderful program with which I am thrilled to volunteer my time and energy.

So here I am and I can say that time flies by each day when I am working with my colleagues and on my client’s portfolios and financial plans.

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