Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb Christian.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started my career in finance with Northwestern Mutual (NWM) in 2015. I am the son of a football coach, and the grandson of a pastor – so working with people and being strategic with their vision has always been on my heart, and of course the opportunity to be a valued part of people’s lives in this capacity is extremely rewarding on so many levels. I was blessed to be in the top 10% of NWM every year for the primary business measurables: new clients, investments, insurance, and most importantly, the number of referrals received as a result of doing a lot of good things for so many people. About 5 years into my career at NWM, I attended a men’s ministry event, where I was fortunate enough to meet Brian Sak, the managing partner of an RIA (Registered Investment Advisor), Granite Harbor Advisors (GHA). We got along great to say the least, and 2 years after meeting Brian, we decided to merge my team from NWM with the existing team over at GHA – which at that point, GHA had just crossed over their 25-year mark in the business, so it was a significant acceleration in my career timeline on so many fronts: expertise, longevity, team infrastructure, and credibility when working with other fiduciary professionals alongside client’s needs (think Attorneys, CPAs, etc). The merge was fantastic for everyone, but mainly for my clients. Shortly after the merge, I passed the final exams to obtain my professional designations: CFP®, CLU®, and ChFC®. Both the move to Granite Harbor – an independent, client-first organization – and accomplishing these designations, have been significant milestones in my career. I am very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to accomplish both feats before my decade mark in the profession, which I am so grateful for.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Getting started in any entrepreneurial effort is always taxing. I call it ‘The 4 S’s’: Start-up, Survival, Success, and Significance. But sooner or later you learn that just being authentic is credible in and of itself, especially if you have faith that the Lord has your clients and team members picked out for you to work with, and that your job is simply to be faithful in your steps finding out who they are, and in what ways you are called to help them.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Granite Harbor Advisors?
Granite Harbor Advisors is a world-class organization, headquartered in Houston, Texas, that works best solving problems for clients generally in the high net-worth spaces. This is due to the complexity and stress that significant assets, income, and businesses can bring to someone’s life, often in unexpected ways. We want families to enjoy being families, and if we can deliver on making their financial world one of peace and enthusiasm, then that will allow them to have more time, less stress, and be more of what I call ‘Passionately Present’. Our client deliverable is truly boutique as we have world-class solutions for every potential engagement with a client: Investment management services in both public and private sectors; whereas most groups claim to offer ‘private’ solutions but in reality it is 3 to 5 layers away from the opportunity itself, getting our clients as close to the deal as possible for private solutions is truly unique. We provide sophisticated life insurance and annuity solutions, as we broker the entire marketplace on behalf of the client – this not only includes the entire market of insurance providers, but also gives us capacity to implement private placement life insurance, premium financing, and step/skip premium designs for funding estate planning solutions. We also do fee-based planning engagements for those who want things to be organized and leave no stone unturned for their “global portfolio.” We work hand-in-hand with Attorneys, CPAs, and other professionals all over the nation on behalf of our clients. Our level of asset location, strategic ownership and gifting knowledge, being white-glove-level available for our clients, along with having an extremely high standard for any client-facing professional in our firm (7 CFP® certificants on staff), allow us to be unique as an organization compared with the others in the marketplace.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
So many to choose from – growing up as a ballboy on the sidelines of my dad’s football teams over the years was fun. Taught me a lot about life, effort, responsibility, and the power of attitude. Being outside and adventurous, often in the community, seemed to be the nature of my childhood and something I cherished. Being raised in a home that answers to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior was very powerful – living in the truth, giving and receiving grace and forgiveness, serving others, travelling and spending devoted time helping make an impact in different parts of the US and the world were all incredibly special.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://graniteharbor.com/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@graniteharboradvisors7862
- Other: https://graniteharbor.com/podcast
Image Credits
Granite Harbor Advisors websites. Personal Photos.
