Sitting in the waiting room for an appointment with your financial planner can make you feel like you are a number: just one more on a long list of names, an appointment after a previous appointment and before the next. Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and entrepreneur Jude Boudreaux opened his financial planning firm, Upperline Financial Planning, to provide those seeking monetary and investment advice an alternative to large-scale, impersonal financial service corporations.
At Upperline Financial Planning, founded in September 2010, Boudreaux creates tailored financial plans unique to individual client needs, based on his client’s particular goals, dreams, and lifestyle patterns. He makes it his mission to place his clients’ “goals at the center of the planning process, instead of [their] money.” Placing value on money based on its capacity to allow his clients to follow in the direction of their dreams rather than valuing the numerical amount in their bank accounts sets him apart from the rest. For Boudreaux, financial advising means much more than money; it is a life planning process that utilizes “financial planning [as] the vehicle with which [clients] can create the future they want.”
Born in Lockport, Louisiana and resident of New Orleans for nearly fifteen years, Boudreaux moved to the city to attend Loyola University, receiving his degree in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance in 2000. Since then, he has amassed a wealth of experience within the financial sector working at Janus Mutual Funds, Mass Mutual, and Bellingrath Wealth Management, and is incorporating the knowledge he has gained into an informational book about basic financial planning.
Boudreaux is clear about his own personal goals for establishing Upperline Financial Planning: to be an accessible resource that helps others achieve their dreams. “Assumptions hold people back from things that are important to them,” he states. Boudreaux considers himself lucky that he possesses the tools to help “give people permission to dream,” by teaching clients how to assess (and consequentially budget, track, and invest) based on their specific monetary needs, both present and future.
Boudreaux models Upperline Financial Planning around his clients, and he doesn’t discriminate based on the size of their portfolios. He hopes to provide clarity to all who come looking for financial guidance to pursue their true passions, whether they are the young professional with few assets and copious college debts, or near-retirees looking towards the next phase of their lives without work-related paychecks.
Boudreaux, confident that there is a way for each person to manage their money to achieve the life they hope to lead, is realistic and firm in his guidance, stating that people must “say a lot of small ‘No’s’ to achieve a really big ‘Yes.’” He works to educate his clients that “‘No’ does not mean depriving themselves of things they like, but instead enables them” to work toward their own far grander “Yes.” Finding each individual’s personal “Yes” is where Boudreaux thrives and many other financial planners fail.
Looking toward his own financial future, his professional and personal dreams are straightforward. He aims to keep Upperline Financial Planning an intimate business inspired by individuals. Boudreaux hopes to build his company to about “120 clients living their life purposes with [his] financial guidance, as well as providing [his] family the opportunity to experience life together.”
As a Stay Local! member, Boudreaux is proud to support something that “is important in making New Orleans unique- taking an active role in supporting local businesses.” Keeping his own business local, Boudreaux creates an atmosphere more “Cheers” than chore at Upperline Financial Planning: where the client walking in for informed financial advice doesn’t feel like another number on an advisor’s appointment sheet, but a friend welcomed back to a place where everybody knows his or her name.
Upperline Financial Planning (www.upperlinefinancial.com) is located at 3000 St. Charles Avenue #411. To schedule a free financial consultation, contact Beatle-lover Jude Boudreaux at (504) 610-5833 or email him at jude@upperlinefinancial.com.
