David Dunn, CFP®, ChFC®, CLU®, FLMI/M

What do you enjoy most about your profession?
Providing clarity and value realization. This can occur in many forms, but the most enjoyable for me is when a client brings a lot of seemingly disparate financial pieces (i.e., investments, tax, legal, risk management), we break it down and fuse it into an integrated solution that is elegant, actionable, and demonstrates a command-level understanding of a path to success.

What do you love most about being part of Hightower Austin?
Client above all else; Fiduciary standard of care. The assumption no single person contains all the experience and intellectual capital necessary to provide a high-quality solution for our clients is a key tenant. We collaborate, agree, disagree, have spirited debates as a team — all in the interest of the client.

What qualities of yours makes you well suited for your role at Hightower Austin?
In a nutshell, all the financial ‘stuff’ that most people find mind-numbingly uninteresting, I find extraordinarily interesting. As my loving wife of 30+ years would say ‘David, you cannot make other people like what you do as much as you do, no matter how awesome you think the subject matter is’.

What hobbies or interests do you have outside of work?
Pretty much any kind of home improvement that requires significant power tools such as room additions, tiling, plumbing, electrical, networking, and the like. I also like to write software that enables our firm to provide better service and/or solutions to our clients.

If you had to choose another career what would you do and why?
Biomedical research. I believe there is a tremendous opportunity to leverage ‘big data’ together with biomedical experts for the advancement and discovery of targeted/tailored treatments for various diseases/conditions. Being part of something that could potentially help so many people would be extremely rewarding.

What’s one experience you wish you could do all over again?
My family is everything and I have been fortunate; meeting my wife my freshman year in college and having 2 wonderful daughters. I suppose if I could do it all over again, I would want to do that again. Nothing different really, just do it again.

If you could live anywhere besides Austin, where would you live and why?
I lived in Oslo, Norway for 2 years and the experience was incredible. My current pick would be Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Big city, seaport, access to the mountains and a relatively diverse population. Seems like you could be happy reading a book watching the seaport, exploring the city, skiing, fishing, being able to plant something and actually having it grow and experiencing the seasonal changes.

Education and Accreditations:

• B.A. in Management Information Systems, University of Texas at Austin
• B.A. in Finance, University of Texas at Austin
• CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER TM Professional-Certified Financial Planning Board of Standards Inc.
• Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®) – The American College
• Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®) – The American College
• Fellow of Life Management Institute (FLMI) – Life Office Management Assoc.
• Master, Fellow of Life Management Institute (FLMI/M) – Life Office Management Assoc.
• Series 7 – General Securities Representative License
• Series 66 – Uniform Combined State Law License
• Series 24 – General Securities Principal License

Full Bio:

David Dunn has been providing investment and wealth advisory services to high net worth families and business owners since 2003. Prior to 2003, David spent 14 years in the software industry managing teams of engineers developing enterprise class solutions for the financial services sector.

David received a Bachelor of Business Administration with a double major in Management Information Systems and Finance from the University of Texas at Austin in 1988. David holds the industry professional designations of ChFC®, CLU®, CFP®, and FLMI. He is currently securities licensed in 27 states and holds the Series 7, 66, and 24. Since 2009, David has been recognized as a Texas Monthly Five Star Wealth Manager*.

David and his wife Debbie have 2 daughters, Sydney and Abbie, and a large rescue dog named Ellie.