Meridian Blog

I saw a quote the other day from Donald Miller that went something like this: “Your customer doesn’t care about your awards or how long you’ve been in business.  They care about whether you understand their problem and can help solve it.”   This got me thinking about my own customer experience as a Meridian client and I took a humble tumble back in time.  

Last year was a huge milestone for us – yes, I started working for Meridian, but also, later in 2025, we celebrated our 10th anniversary as Meridian clients.  

A simple online search will tell you why you should start to work with a financial advisor – and most of those things are true for us – today, I’d like to share our personal experience and why we stayed.  

Our journey was probably a lot like many folks – when we were raising our kids, we didn’t have much to invest outside our 401Ks – daycare, living our life, and travel ball took up a majority of our expenses in the beginning.  Those early conversations with Sarah looked a lot like those boring money conversations you have with your parents – save more money, get life insurance, do you have a will?  Check, check, check! We had those things. 

As time went on, the conversations changed – working with her helped us identify our goals, and gave us a plan – and luckily, as we got older, we started to earn more money (and let’s face it, the kids cost us less), pay down debt, and find more to save.  

Throughout my own career, I have always subscribed heavily to the theory of “hire good people and let them do their job” – generally speaking this has meant hire people who are smart at what they do, and don’t micromanage them.  I love this as it applies to working with Meridian – Dale and I never saw working with a financial advisor as giving up control, but more so as a partnership with a team that has expertise we did not have (nor were we inclined to go get it).  Working with an advisor gives Dale and me perspective – often our concerns are about the minute-to-minute, but the shift in perspective and zooming out to the big picture are often very calming and reassuring.  What we think is a big deal, may not be.  

And sometimes, the conversations are a big deal.  In 2020, like many folks, we were rocked by the realities of COVID when the pandemic shut the entire world down.  We had very real conversations with her around the possible need to pull from our investments in the event we lost our jobs. 

As we got older, our priorities and problems shifted.  As my mother’s caregiver, and power of attorney, I found myself coordinating with different institutions around funding her care – I found out first-hand how much different Meridian is.  So often, I would have such confusing conversations, I would call Sarah to ask her to translate what I was being told.  This is the power of working with a trusted partner.  

And now, as we head into the last few months before Dale retires, our conversations are different still – we talk about dreams more and how we’d like to enjoy the years to come.  There’s still a lot of very real fear about what the future holds, but we are getting on board with the “enjoy the journey” part.  

As I’m out and about, I often hear stories from clients that mirror my own experience – stories about one of our advisors going above and beyond – and what the seemingly tiniest gestures have meant to them.  As a professional whose career has included leading teams of exceptional service providers, being both a client and employee of a firm that strives for excellence in service is a true honor.  

Disclosure: Liz is a current client, who is also an employee of Meridian.  She was not paid for this testimonial directly but receives compensation as an employee. Because of this dual relationship, a conflict of interest may exist, as she may have an incentive to provide a favorable endorsement of the firm and its services.