Fast 15: Joshua Montanez

Josh Montanez wants to make an impact.

As a financial adviser, he helps his clients make some of the “most important decisions of their lives.”

Growing up in Little Rock, he liked the idea of owning his own business as he observed friends’ parents who were business leaders. “The ability to control your own destiny was really interesting to me,” he said.

Montanez studied small business management at the University of Arkansas. Through a summer internship with Northwestern Mutual in Nashville, Tenn., an established financial planning firm, he was able to “test drive” owning a financial practice. He realized he could make an impact on people’s lives by “helping people plan for college, plan for retirement, pay off student loans, manage cash flow, and build plans around life insurance planning.”

Graduating in 2013, he decided to stay in Northwest Arkansas and join the Northwestern Mutual office in Fayetteville. “Owning a practice gave me the ability to build my own future, my own legacy,” he said.

From 2016 to 2019 he also served as director of Northwestern Mutual’s college internship program, one of the top 10 in finance in the country.

In 2017, Montanez’ wife, Caroline, left her marketing career and joined him. The highlight of his career, he said, “is working with my wife.” Together they are doing what they are passionate about — helping people.

In 2018 and 2019, Montanez’ team set records for most new clients among all Northwestern Mutual financial advisers in Oklahoma and the Northwest Arkansas region. In 2019, he was No. 1 in the region for all time lives policies written (life, disability and long term care insurance put in force).

Montanez, who also holds the chartered financial consultant (ChFC) designation, takes a methodical approach to each client’s financial plan. He considers different strategies, with the goal of offering a high level client experience. Whether refinancing a student loan, helping with budgets, building emergency funds, or helping connect with attorneys to get will and estate planning done, “our goal is to become the center of our client’s lives, so when they have questions, they feel comfortable reaching out to us,” he said.

The Montanezes’ impact extends to the Arkansas Children’s Northwest. They brought the nonprofit “Beads of Courage” to the hospital’s patients and began a toy drive for the children.