Durham and Chapel Hill, North Carolina
James Ustby
Certified Financial Planner. Two‑time Ironman. Catholic. I spend my life helping people turn what they have built into something that outlasts them.
Portrait of James · 4:5 · the one photograph that carries the whole site
- CFP®Certified Financial Planner. The designation took years, and most people who start it do not finish.
- 2 & 2Two full Ironman finishes, Lake Placid and California. Two halves, North Carolina and Boulder.
- 7 yearsOrganising a charity golf tournament, every year, without missing one.
- AnnualOne Misogi a year. One deliberately hard thing, chosen on purpose.
What I actually believe
Most money is managed. Almost none of it is stewarded.
Managing money is a solved problem. Anyone can buy the market for a few basis points, and most of what gets sold on top of that is noise with a fee attached.
Stewardship is a different question, and a harder one. What is this for. Who is it for after you. What happens to the people who inherit it, and to the character of the people who inherit it.
That question is the reason I do this work at all, and it is why the conversation starts somewhere other than performance.
More about me
The story
Where it started, what I have built, what it cost, and what I am still chasing.
Read →Ironman
Two full distances, two halves, and an annual Misogi. What endurance actually teaches.
Read →Faith and service
Parish finance council, a charity tournament in its seventh year, and helping nonprofits get funded.
Read →How I help people
The work that has nothing to do with my job.
For seven years running I have organised a charity golf tournament. Not sponsored one. Organised it, every year, including the years it would have been easier not to.
I also help nonprofits get resources they do not know exist. The Google Ad Grant gives qualifying nonprofits ten thousand dollars a month in free search advertising, and most of them have never heard of it. I have walked organisations through getting approved, and built websites for them so they had something worth sending the traffic to.
None of that is billable. It is the part of the work I would keep doing if the rest of it went away.
The charity golf tournament · 4:5 or 16:9 · you with the group, or the trophy, or the course
If any of this sounds like your kind of person, say hello.
Not a form and not a calendar link. Just write to me.