Martin Durbin, CPA/PFS, AIF, CGMA

The first financial firm I worked for hired me as a CPA, and I spent my days reconciling numbers that other people had already decided what to do with. The advisors down the hall were the ones helping families shape their futures, and I wanted in on that side of the conversation. So I learned how. I have done both ever since, the tax discipline of an accountant and the planning of an advisor, because I have never believed the two belong in separate offices.

All these years in, what still pulls me is the untangling. Taxes, investments, risk, and what a family wants its money to do for the people who come after them all tangle together, and there is real satisfaction in pulling the threads apart and weaving something that actually holds. The math is rarely the hard part. People arrive with a spreadsheet's worth of questions and a lifetime of feelings wrapped around them, and the feelings usually win. Sound advice means sitting with both. I try to be the person you can think out loud with, ask the question you are a little embarrassed to ask, and walk away understanding your own situation better than when you sat down.

Since 1985, my work has carried me through public accounting, investment advisory, and the executive side of running financial firms, and once well beyond Texas. When my wife, a family practice physician, was finishing an Army scholarship, her commitment took us to Germany for three years, where I advised U.S. military officers on the financial lives they were building a long way from home. The clients changed, but the job never did. I was there to help someone make a confident decision with good information in front of them.

When I am not with clients or staff, you can usually assume I am outside. Home is a working game ranch in the country past Fort Worth, far enough out that I cannot see a neighbor and close enough to reach town in a few minutes when I need to. I grew up between Texas and Colorado on camping trips, hunting, fishing, and Boy Scouts, which taught me more about focus and follow-through than any classroom did. My wife and I raised three children who grew into a small fleet of physicians and one professional photographer, and they have since handed us a crowd of grandchildren. Somewhere along the way, I decided what my work was really about. I want to help other people build abundant lives while I build my own, and that is my mission.

Credentials

• Certified Public Accountant / Personal Financial Specialist (CPA/PFS^®)
• Accredited Investment Fiduciary (AIF^®)
• Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA^®)
• MBA in Finance, University of Texas at Arlington
• BA in Accounting, University of Texas at Arlington