MEET ERIC, FOUNDER
ERIC COURAGE, CFA, CFP, CAIA
Founder / Wealth Strategy Advisor
Eric has over 15 years of experience, both in private wealth management and as an analyst building financial products.
He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). The CFA is “the gold standard” of finance worldwide, according to The Economist.
He is also a Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP™) and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA).
What does Eric mean to our firm?
Sara: “Eric helps everyone understand their true value, but he also isn’t afraid to gently (ha!) push someone outside their comfort zone; challenging others to be more authentically themselves.”
“And, I have never met anyone as true to their word as Eric is. If he says he’s going to get it done, he’s not joking!”
Outside of MARGIN
Eric has taught CFP™ investment courses at a Colorado University, and served on the Englewood, Colorado Firefighter Pension Board, and CFA Colorado Board.
His passions outside work include intense exercise, cooking wantabee Michelin star healthy cuisine, funk/hip-hop/jazz/reggae drumming, motorcycle rides around town, reading classical literature, and running his teenage daughter to gymnastics, basketball and track. Where she is nationally qualified for Junior Olympics in the 100 meter dash, and took 1st in Colorado for USATF Junior Olympics in 2022.
MY STORY
WHY I STARTED MARGIN
My perfectly timed career in finance began in 2008, working with clients at a private wealth management firm. When the recession hit, my curiosity about investment research became an obsession, leading me to work as a valuation analyst performing valuations on small and mid-sized healthcare transactions.
Then, after finishing the CFA program, I moved into working as a Product Analyst at Transamerica, where I analyzed the firm’s mutual fund landscape and eventually stumbled into leading their exploration into ETFs.
In short order, a promotion into Corporate Competitive Analysis led to daily deep dives into the complex inner workings of insurance and investment products. I found the work fascinating: our team’s research synthesized key industry developments, countless insurance and investment products, and competitor intelligence for our Fortune 500 C-Suite.
SOMETHING BETTER WAS MISSING…
But research and analysis kept me away from the deeply satisfying work of hand-crafting individual value for clients, and I returned to wealth management at a bank Private Client Group.
The role was NOT what I envisioned. Constant managerial “encouragement” pressured me to treat private clients like profit centers instead of patients entrusted into my care. So I did something about it.
I asked myself:
“What would I really want as a client?”
“What firm would I want my daughter to work with if I was gone?”