ABOVE: Jacob Hartke stands before the billboard for his new business, Triple H Financial Services with his children, Haevyn, Henlee and Holt.

FAIRMONT– Jacob Hartke strives to help people with their financial planning through his new business, Triple H Financial Services. The Fairmont native started the business in the last two months and is accepting clients from around the area.

Hartke is a 2012 graduate of Fairmont High School. Following graduation, Hartke went to Gustavus Adolphus College where he studied financial economics.

“Something between money and numbers really hit home for me. I come from a background of a business family and money was never really talked about until it was, and then it carried a negative connotation,” Hartke explained. “So I wanted to help people. Originally I considered becoming an attorney but determined it wasn’t for me so I thought what better way to help people than with their finances and providing for their families.”

Right out of college, Hartke started working at Sweet Financial, where he spent nearly 10 years, most recently as a Wealth Advisor.

Starting his own business was also intriguing to Hartke and he said in the last few years he found himself in a unique position.

“I have 30-plus years of my working career left and if you take a step back and look at the financial industry over those next 30 years, there’s going to be some changes in the next few for sure as you see the typical wealth advisor at the point where they’re aging out. I thought it was a good time to take that jump and build my brand out before that happens,” Hartke said.

Being from the area and having an investment in the community, Hartke also identified the number of people locally who could benefit from his services and he wanted to be a resource for them.

He said that Triple H is the one-stop shop for financial planning and that they do most everything right now except for taxes and legal financials.

“I believe every client deserves to have an individualized, custom-tailored financial plan to their needs,” Hartke said.

He stressed that that is the approach he’s taking in his business and that at the end of the day, he thinks it’s more of a relationship business than anything else.

Speaking to why he thinks a professional is needed to help people with their finances, Hartke said, “Emotions get in the way and if you don’t have a sounding board, your emotions win 10 times out of 10 and that’s when you make the bad decisions based out of emotions. You need a sounding board and someone to talk you through it.”

At the end of last year was when Hartke really started thinking about starting something himself. However, as he and his wife, Sierra, became closer to welcoming the arrival of their third child, he put the plans on hold.

“It’s not a decision that happened overnight by any means,” Hartke said. “There was a lot of late nights of planning and doing my homework.”

He admitted that finding office space was a difficult task as many places were either too big for what he was looking for or not in a layout he desired.

However, once former law firm, Krahmer, Shaffer and Edmundson moved out of the Victoria State Crossing building on a merge, Hartke swooped in to claim the space.

“It was the perfect timing,” he said.

Since taking over the space, Hartke has been making some updates including putting in new flooring and painting the walls. He also plans to add a coffee bar to the lobby.

To start it’s just him and Melanie Van Egdom, who brings with her over 20 years of experience as a client service associate. Triple H is also teamed up with another local Minnesota firm called Elevation Point which provides back end office support. In addition the business has a partnership with Raymond James.

As of now Hartke is unsure if he will add another employee as he said he’s used to handling about 300 clients on his own and can take up to that many again.

“We definitely have the space in the office and the thought of growth, but no answer right now to what that looks like,” Hartke said.

Triple H is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and after hours for appointments as needed.

On Oct. 23, the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors will hold a ribbon cutting at his new office and after that it will role into business after hours from 4:30 to 6:30 which the Fairmont Area Chamber of Commerce is promoting. The event also serves as an open house and is open to anyone in the community.

In closing, Hartke wanted to share that the business is named after his three children, Haevyn, Henlee and Holt, which symbolizes the connection he strives to build with clients and treat as part of the family.

“I am committed to helping clients protect and grow their wealth to benefit their families,” he said.