Company History
In October 2003, we opened RDA Financial Advisors, the first 100% full fiduciary fee-only Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) in the state of North Dakota. Our peers in the industry thought we were crazy to start a “fee-based” company from scratch with zero clients. Passing up on product sales charges and commissions meant that we wouldn’t see any significant periodic bumps in revenue that would carry us to the next sale. Truth be told, building a business on only revenue derived from assets under management was a rigorous grind!
There were lots of personal sacrifices made to ensure the future success of our business. Family trips, home ownership, personal savings, and every non-essential household expense were put on hold until the company made it through the first five years. Then, the housing and financial crisis of 2008 knocked us back on our heels, yet we maintained resolve in our business model. Despite a significant setback to our company revenue, our company experienced a surge in new clients through that Black Swan event. This was the point in time we knew the full fiduciary approach was resonating with people in the communities we served.
We credit our perseverance during that difficult time to our clients who stuck with us because they believed in what we were building. Most of those early clients are still with us today, and we are forever grateful to them for maintaining trust in us during a time that was unnerving for everyone. When I’m asked why we changed our name a decade ago to Future Bright and not Bright Future, I always say, “because we all want a bright future, but sometimes it doesn’t present itself in the order we want it.” That is the case with our company. We encountered unexpected, adversarial events, but we persevered with the support of wonderful clients.
Over the 20+ years we’ve been in business, we’ve added additional investment advisor representatives and have introduced new investment opportunities to our clients.
The financial advisor industry continues to evolve and innovate. It is our goal to be at the cutting edge of it to ensure that our clients receive the best advice and service in an ever-changing landscape.
