Joe Taylor is a fee-only financial advisor at Oak Street Advisors, located in Myrtle Beach, SC.

I began my career in financial services in 1989, working for the biggest name on Wall Street. I have no complaints about this former employer- their training was excellent.  I learned about a wide variety of financial products because I was expected to sell a wide variety of financial products.  This was in the days before there was an internet, and the proprietary technology of the Wall Street behemoths was unparalleled. In 1999 a competitor offered me a fairly large sum of money to walk across the street.  I took the check and settled in with another big Wall Street firm.
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Then came the dot-com boom. Money was printed every week as IPO after IPO hit the market. Life was good…until it all fell apart.  Bloodied by the fall of the markets, my employer decided it was time to shutter operations in smaller markets like Myrtle Beach.  Once again, the wire-houses came calling with their checkbooks open.

But this time things were different. The internet had been born and with it came discount brokers, access to more research options, financial planning platforms, and a whole new option.

With 16 years of experience, I had seen firsthand the shortcomings of the Wall Street model. Sales contests, product pushing, research that revolved around getting a company’s investment banking business.  I knew clients did not come to me to find the products my firm sold, they came looking for advice and now I had a chance, and the tools, I needed to provide the advice they were searching for.
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I had learned about a business model that put me on the same side of the table as my clients.  I had heard about a group of advisors who only charged fees for their services rather than receiving a commission for making a sale. And so, I said no to more of the same. Rather than accept another check to move myself and my clients into the arms of another big Wall Street firm, I took a leap of faith and opened Oak Street Advisors as a fee only, independent, registered investment advisory firm.

I was fortunate to have some of the best clients in the world.  They believed in me and they bought into my dream.  It wasn’t easy and it was very scary, but together we made it work.

Over the years I have been lucky to meet others who understood the value of advice and knew they wanted a relationship with an advisor who would put their interest first and foremost. They knew they needed advice and counsel, not a product or the stock of the week.
My business grew and in 2016 I was thrilled to be able to hire my son, Bryan, to work with me.  We have opened a small satellite office in Mt. Pleasant where we bring our passion for fairness and diligent to those in the Charleston, SC market.

Bryan had always had an interest in joining the family business, but fresh out of college I told him no.  I wanted him to experience the struggles every young adult must face to learn some hard lessons and make some mistakes.  I wanted him to know just how hard it was to save a dollar, so he would appreciate the hard work and sacrifice our clients must make to build the nest eggs they entrust to us to manage and grow.  I also wanted Bryan to experience life as an employee of someone other than dad.  If he didn’t have some point of reference, I would always be the bad guy. 

In my free time I enjoy playing golf, bike riding, and traveling. I have a daughter, Madison, who lives in Denver, CO who always gives me an excuse to travel West, and another son, Bradley who resides in Myrtle Beach.  My wife, Patricia, is my travel partner and we have been happily married for 41 years.