HOPE Financial Services

At H.O.P.E. Financial, You're the A-list Client

Most financial advisors will tell you they care about their clients. Evan Cole will sit across from you and prove it.

Cole is the founder of H.O.P.E. Financial Services in Albuquerque, where H.O.P.E. stands for Helping Other People Everywhere. It's not a catchy acronym he just slapped on a business card, it's the operating philosophy that led him to walk away from a corner office and the executive track entirely, because none of it fed his soul the way a one-on-one conversation and truly helping a real person does.

From the Governor's Office to the Kitchen Table

Cole's path into financial services was anything but direct. He earned a bachelor of science degree and, upon graduating, took an exit survey from his university. The results: he was suited for either sales or politics. He went with politics first.

He began working for the Governor of New Hampshire, where he spent three and a half years learning the inner workings of public office. "I found out very quickly that politics wasn't where I wanted to be," he says.

He pivoted to sales, and the rest fell into place almost by accident. He met the woman who would become his wife in Oregon, and her brother happened to work for an annuity and life insurance company. Cole didn't want to sell life insurance, but he heard out the pitch, took the job working with annuities, and discovered something he hadn't expected: a genuine passion for the financial sector. He got his securities and life and health licenses, and he's never looked back.

"I retired when I took that job," he says, "because I love what I do, and I love helping my clients achieve their goals."

The Problem with most Financial "Firms"

After years in the industry, Cole had climbed all the way to the executive level, and the boardroom table was nothing like the kitchen table he'd started at.

He'd sat in the meetings and heard the conversations about how to "segment clients by net worth": your A clients at the top, B in the middle, and your C clients at the bottom. The C clients are the ones with a little bit of money who call you more often, and in too many firms, that's considered a problem. Cole didn't agree with that direction, choosing to follow his own moral compass and breaking off to establish HOPE Financial instead.

"Every client, whether you have $20,000 or $200,000, deserves equal time, consideration and respect," he says.

He makes no apologies about who he's designed his practice for. If you have five million or more in assets, he'll be the first to tell you that you'd be better served by an advisor who specializes in that tier of clientele. But he'll also warn you that even those high-net-worth clients eventually get bumped down someone's priority list as their advisor chases the next bigger account.

At H.O.P.E. Financial Services, there is no "tiered" list. There's just YOU.

The Event That Shaped Everything

Cole is the father of four children. In 2008, outside his home in California, his second oldest son was tragically killed. It was a loss that could have broken anyone. Instead, in the aftermath, Cole's youngest son and his classmates worked to get Jared's Law passed in the California legislature, a piece of legislation born directly from the tragedy.

Cole doesn't share this often, but when he does reflect on it, what comes through isn't bitterness. It's clarity.

"Children should never pre-decease their parents," he says. "But as much as it has been a tragic event in my life, it has been an incredibly valuable lesson in how I guide my morals, my ethics, my integrity, my principles of life: I couldn't have asked for a more meaningful event to shape who I am today."

Expanding Services

Exciting news this year: a former colleague of Evan's, Kayla Hebb, is coming back. After leaving finance for insurance, building then selling her own insurance business, Kayla is rejoining Cole's practice. Together, they'll offer a more complete picture for clients, covering not just investments and financial planning but the insurance and Medicare side as well.

60 Miles a Week and Counting

Away from the office, Cole stays busy on two wheels. He's a dedicated cyclist who tries to log 60 miles a week, usually broken into three 20-mile rides or a handful of shorter ones. He pairs the cycling with weight training: the cycling for aerobic conditioning and VO2 max, the weights for keeping his mitochondria healthy and strong.

He says it with the casual confidence of someone who has clearly thought about this a lot more than your average person. Which, given everything else about Evan Cole, makes perfect sense.

Work with a Financial Advisor Who's Invested in YOUR Success

H.O.P.E. Financial Services is built for the average American who has money to protect and goals worth pursuing, and who deserves a financial partner that treats them like it. Reach out to Evan Cole and his team at H.O.P.E. Financial Services to start building your financial future today.