VIENNA — Zac Schoene left Vienna more than a decade ago to pursue an education and career in finance, but his small-town values have helped him reach the pinnacle of his career so far when Wallstreet Group Advisors announced in January that he became a partner with the firm.

Schoene, 33, is a 2010 Vienna High School graduate. He attended Missouri State University in Springfield and received a double-major degree in Insurance Risk Management and Financial Planning. He worked as an intern at Wallstreet Group Advisors for three years before joining the agency as a financial advisor upon his college graduation in 2015. That year he also obtained Series 7, Series 66 and Missouri Life and Health Insurance licensing to do business and manage his own practice.

“What a financial advisor can assist you with is helping you achieve your financial and your retirement goals,” Schoene said. “No matter if that’s retirement planning, if that’s saving for a short-term or a mid-term goal, if that’s budgeting, if that’s debt reduction, if that’s estate planning or if that’s legacy planning, everyone has a need for a financial advisor.”

Schoene said one of the biggest misconceptions about his profession is that individuals need to have a certain amount of money to meet with a financial advisor.

“That is not the case,” he said. “I don’t care if you have $1 to invest or you have millions of dollars to invest. Your money means a lot to you, and you have your own needs and your own goals, and we can help you get to where you need to go.”

Wallstreet Group began in 1987 as a startup insurance company. Over time, the agency has become a leader in the mid-Missouri insurance and financial fields. Schoene cited founders and current partners Lee Wilbers and Randy Lueckenotte as two of his biggest professional mentors.

“They care about their company, their employees and more importantly being good stewards to the local community,” he said. “Lee and Randy are who I strive to be like every day when I walk into the office.”

Schoene’s journey into the finance industry took inspiration from his mother Penny, who has worked as a certified public accountant for 39 years. Her experience in the industry helped him get an interview for a summer internship with the Wallstreet Group in 2012 while he was still working on his degree.

When Schoene began his internship, he was focused on the insurance side of the business as that was his major.

“The last week of my first summer internship, I had the opportunity to sit in on a client financial planning meeting with financial advisor John Ruth,” he said. “After seeing the financial planning and investment side of the business and how positively you can impact people’s lives, I immediately fell in love.”

During the next semester of college, Schoene enrolled in a financial planning course, after excelling in the class, he added his financial planning major and made his post-graduation to become a financial advisor at Wallstreet Group.

Schoene credited coworkers and other financial advisors for mentoring him through the early years of his career. Along with Ruth, he said Eric Davis, Travis Ford, Jamie Wilbers and Christy Siebeneck, “Took me under their wings and taught me how the business works, how to manage my time and my practice and most importantly, how to always act in the client’s best interest.”

As Schoene became more familiar with his role and how to operate his practice, he received advice from Gary Wilbers and Gritt Business Coaching on how to elevate his business. He created a customer resource management (CRM) program technology tool to help him cultivate a better experience for his clients.

“A big issue with the industry I think is that other advisors don’t meet with their clients regularly,” Schoene said. “People’s lives change on a daily basis, on a yearly basis, and we have to be more proactive with our approach instead of reactive.”

Although Schoene has reached partnership status with Wallstreet Group, it was not always his career goal. In fact, there was no possibility for that type of promotion until 2018, when Michigan-based Acrisure acquired the Wallstreet Group Insurance side of the business.

“At the time, uncertainty was looming because Acrisure did not want to purchase our financial department,” Schoene said. “I thought I may be out of a job. It was really kind of a gloomy period.”

The financial side of the firm split off into Wallstreet Group Advisors following the sale. Four partners owned and operated the agency, and a path to partnership opened for Schoene.

“After meeting with the partners, they really educated us that if we work hard, we produce, and if we’re loyal to the firm, we can be an owner,” he said. “This totally escalated my motivation.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic caused people to quarantine beginning in March 2020, Schoene used the downtime to develop his CRM. Around that time, he realized he could become a partner with the way his client list continued to grow.

“I am very proud to say the CRM system that I built in 2020 is now integrated throughout the entire Wallstreet Group Advisors department,” Schoene said. “We all use it daily in our practices, and it has enhanced our firm’s growth over the last four years.”

Schoene also credited his assistant Julie Erwin for helping him become a partner.

“Julie joined the firm in 2019, and she has been the Robin to my Batman since,” he said. “She has always been willing to jump in feet-first to all my projects and assist me in my day-to-day so I can focus less on administrative work and more on meeting with my clients to help them achieve their goals.”

Schoene recalled some of the people and experiences he had growing up in Vienna that helped him achieve throughout his career. In addition to his mother, who helped lead him to a career in finance, he said his father Todd’s 35 years of experience in the automotive industry as the owner of Midway Pro Auto Body north of Vienna taught him about work ethic.

“My mom and dad were always my biggest supporters, and I couldn’t ask for better role models,” he said. “They are the best people and the hardest workers I know.”

In addition to the lessons Schoene learned from his parents, he also learned the value of teamwork while competing in baseball, basketball, cross-country and track as a VHS Eagle. Others in the community helped him acquire valuable skills from immersion in small-town culture.

“My experience growing up in Vienna was irreplaceable,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Being from Vienna is like a big family. You know everybody. Everyone has your back and is willing to help each other out. Being raised in a small town taught me to treat others how you want to be treated, to always help others and it instilled a hard work ethic in me. It also taught me that you can achieve anything if you work hard at it and be good to others.”

Schoene recalled his high school years when he worked at Vienna Quik Spot and the mentorship owner Jason Kampeter provided to him.

“Throughout my time at VQS, I learned how you can run a business the right way and still make a positive impact on others’ lives and in the community,” he said. “Jason also gave me the confidence that even if I am from a small town, I still have the same opportunity to succeed in my own way if I work hard and treat people right.”

When Schoene was 19 years old, he was back home in Vienna for the summer working two jobs. After a long day of working at both, he fell asleep at the wheel and collided head-on with two vehicles.

“Thank the Lord no one was seriously injured or killed,” he said. “I was liable. Fortunately, I had adequate insurance, and it covered all the costs of my wreck and the individuals I hit. I should’ve died that day. From that point on, I thought God spared me for some reason and that I owed my life to the insurance and financial industry and helping others.”

Over the years, Schoene has honed a skill set to help him reach his status as a partner. He credits his organization, time management and communication skills along with his passion, commitment and genuine nature as reasons for his success as a financial advisor.

“Throughout my career, I have never deviated from who I am and the small-town core values that I was raised on,” he said. “Wallstreet Group has always allowed me to be me and not to change who I am, and for that, I am forever grateful.”

As a partner with Wallstreet Group, Schoene is now a part owner in the firm. He has the opportunity to assist in decision-making and personnel, as well as in integrating and adopting new technologies. As the youngest partner, he plans to bring new ideas to continue advancing the agency’s goals.

“I am also very excited to transition into more of a mentor role for some of our younger advisors to help them not only grow their practices the right way but to serve their clients the Wallstreet way.”

Schoene currently resides in Columbia with his girlfriend Sara Jackson. Together, they travel and spend as much time as they can outdoors.

“We are very excited for the opportunities that this partnership will have on our lives and our future family’s lives,” he said. “We are just getting started.”

*Securities and Advisory Services offered through Creative One Securities, LLC. Member FINRA/SIPC and an Investment Advisor. Wallstreet Group Advisors and Creative One Securities, LLC are not affiliated.