Ray Dunlap Jr., CFP, AIF, has spent 41 years in the wealth management industry and is the founder and chief executive officer of Dunlap & Associates Wealth Management.
A Different Era
Mr. Dunlap’s vast experience of over four decades in the industry has shaped the way he interacts with his clientele, which he admits is very different from when he first started in the business.
“My first boss actually told me, ‘Don’t get too close to your clients.’ Back then, everything was just transactional. You call somebody up, and you fix them. It was not a relationship-focused business,” Mr. Dunlap explains.
It was this way for the first 15 years of Mr. Dunlap’s career, when he operated more as a salesperson. He found the process to be exhausting and unfulfilling, so he hired a business coach, which he found to be illuminating.
Mr. Dunlap’s coach instructed him that “What you want is to deepen the relationship… then you can get the money. You have a higher responsibility now because you have to make sure you’re doing the right thing for the client all the time, and the client knows that.”
Understanding a Client’s Life Goals
When Mr. Dunlap started his firm, his clients became his primary focus, not the transactions. He points out that the most successful financial advisers today are those who put their clients first and truly take the time to get to know them. By understanding what their clients hope to achieve in their lifetime, not only for themselves but their families and descendants. Financial planners like Mr. Dunlap can create a plan that will accomplish those objectives. This has been the primary objective for his financial firm, a stark departure from his early days in the industry.
“It has created the most success for us as a consequence. I think not enough financial advisers get that’s the most important thing that we do – build those very strong, deep, and lasting relationships that transcend what the stock market does. It’s like the golden rule. You treat people the way you would like to be treated,” Mr. Dunlap says.
Mr. Dunlap has also learned that his clientele’s needs and goals can be unpredictable.
“I can’t assume anything. I have to ask good questions. It is important that we understand what their unique goals, dreams and bucket list items are. The only way that we’re going to help them achieve those is if we know what we’re helping them to achieve,” Mr. Dunlap explains.
Mr. Dunlap’s accomplishments in financial services have been acknowledged by Marquis Who’s Who and Atlanta Magazine, who named him a Five-Star Wealth Manager in 2021.
A Life of Dedication
Outside of his professional career, Mr. Dunlap is a skilled pianist who has performed at various piano bars in Rochester, New York, and at more than 100 wedding receptions. His passion for music stems from a family legacy, as his mother was a professional singer, and his father was a talented pianist. At age 16, he performed at Carnegie Hall after winning a state piano competition. Beyond music, he is an active member of a men’s baseball league. An avid cook, he also dedicates time to charitable efforts, leading food bank donation drives that have made his firm the top contributor to a local charity for the last three years.
Dunlap & Associates Wealth Management is dedicated to the happiness and prosperity of its clients. Mr. Dunlap is passionate about ensuring that his clients understand their worth. For example, the firm has the phone numbers of all the cruise lines. If a client is going on a cruise, the firm will arrange to have a gift waiting for them in their cabin.
“We want them to know how much we’re thinking of them, and all that really does make a difference,” Mr. Dunlap says.
About Marquis Who’s Who®:
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who’s Who in America®, Marquis Who’s Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Who’s Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms worldwide. The suite of Marquis® publications can be viewed at the official Marquis Who’s Who® website, www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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