I'm Mark Lund

I can trace how I got started in this business to a single commercial I saw on TV. 

When I was in my early 20s, I thought I wanted to go into hotel management. Since the best school for that field was UNLV, I moved to Las Vegas and took a great job at the Monte Carlo Hotel as a bellman to pay for college.

While living there, I realized I didn’t want to go into hotel management. I was putting all my tips in the bank but knew there had to be a better way to save money—that was always on my mind. That is why one day a particular TV commercial jumped out at me. It was about how to make your child a millionaire. I called the TV station, found out what company put the commercial out, tracked down their number, and scheduled an appointment to meet with them. While talking with them, I realized that they were doing what I wanted to do—helping people with their investments and retirement plans. With the encouragement of a good friend, I decided to follow my interest and give up the hotel business and pursue a career in wealth management.

To make the story short, I moved back to Utah where my family was, went back to college, married my sweetheart, and was hired on with The Principle Financial Group, a financial planning firm in 1999. At the end of my first year I received the Rookie Of The Year Award. I thought that was so cool at the time. I still have that award on my bookshelf today. After two years there, I decided to leave and see if the grass was greener somewhere else (I would soon learn that all broker-dealers are basically the same, just different names).

When I left, I joined an independent broker-dealer by the name of Walnut Street Securities. Eventually that led to a company by the name of Sammons Securities. I earned one of their highest honorary awards and status, called Chairmans Club. I received the Certified Retirement Financial Advisor designation, started courses with the American College of Financial Planning out of Denver, Colorado to work toward the Accredited Wealth Management Advisor designation, and became Master Certified with the H.S. Dent Foundation to become the exclusive advisor for the Salt Lake City territory.

From the very beginning, I was introduced to many money managers, investment strategists, investment firms, and so forth, who all said they had it figured out—that their strategy to invest would beat the market. Many of them made a lot of sense, but when what they thought would happen didn’t, I was always told something to the effect, “We were not able to foresee that terrorist attack or that credit crisis or this housing collapse. If these things wouldn’t have happened the way they did, we would have been just fine.” Well, hello! Isn’t the unknown the very nature of the future?

I felt like we were just being used and I saw us as victims, along with our clients. I knew there had to be a better way. I needed answers, my clients needed answers, and you need answers to some very important questions: 

How can we be successful at investing and planning for retirement without using speculative methods? And, how can we have peace of mind with our investments?

The answers came in 2008. I made one of the best decisions of my life (I didn’t know it at the time). I went to an industry conference that was not sponsored by the industry broker-dealers. It was there that I was introduced to the other side of the industry. I began to learn the secrets that broker-dealers don’t want us to know.

It became evident that there was a better way to invest, a way that we can invest without speculation, that would give us peace of mind.

After the first day, I went back to my hotel room, called my wife and said to her that I needed to leave the broker-dealer world and go out on my own.

Long story short, I left the broker-dealer world and founded Stonecreek Wealth Advisors as a fee-only fiduciary firm. This way there would be absolutely no influence from the broker-dealers and we could focus purely on what’s best for the client. It was one of the best things I have ever done.

In 2010 I published my first book, The Effective Investor. I wrote this book as a way to share the answers I have been able to get to those important questions. The answers (insights) are what I refer to in my book as the Twenty Secrets To Be An Effective Investor.

The good news is you don’t need to use their speculative ways of investing to be a prosperous investor. This is one of the secrets in the investment industry that they don’t want you to know. With proper strategies and information, you can achieve a level of confidence and peace with your investments and retirement plans that you never knew was possible.

The Network of Advisors is made up of financial, tax and legal professionals who have their own firms and specialty. This network allows for coordination of financial, tax, legal and personal issues to help you have peace of mind with your investments and retirement plans.

Yes, Stonecreek Wealth Advisors is a fiduciary. A fiduciary standard is a higher standard than the typical suitability standard found in the industry. In addition, Stonecreek Wealth Advisors follows the Uniform Prudent Investor Act (UPIA). UPIA is a legal document that was published by the American Law Institute in 1992, which outlines what is means to be a prudent fiduciary.

Stonecreek Wealth Advisors is a fee-only, investment advisory firm. The better you do the better the firm does. This fee in some cases is tax deductible. With this compensation arrangement, you know that the advisor is just as interested in your account growing as you are. In most circumstances, you will be provided with investments that cost less than the investments you might choose on your own, through a bank, brokerage house, or other advisors. In most cases, even after paying the advisor fee, you’re saving money, almost as though you’re getting professional services for free.

With so much conflicting information out there, the key to evidence-based investing lies in adhering strictly to academic standards of research. It’s the easiest way to separate truth from fiction.

Stock-picking and market-timing enthusiasts tend to argue their cases by turning to articulate analyses, smart charts, and convincing corporate briefs. They use these props to try and explain the late-breaking news, and recommend what you should supposedly be doing about it.

There’s nothing wrong with facts and figures. The critical difference is how we apply them as evidence-based investors. In this special webinar you will learn:

• Exactly what evidence-based investing is and why it matters!
• How evidence based investors build and manage their portfolio based on what is expected to enhance
  future returns and /or dampen related risk exposure, according to the most robust evidence available.
• How to know what evidence to heed.
• The evidence-based silver bullet.
• Two things to do, to get 1 million dollars.

CLICK PLAY TO WATCH THE LAST WEBINAR!

Yes, we do have audited returns from a company called Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS).

When it comes to performance, make sure that the portfolios you are looking at have been audited by a third-party professional. Many money managers, financial advisors, stockbrokers, and planners claim consistent, superior performance, but do not provide independently-validated evidence of that performance from a firm like GIPS. It’s always in your best interest to ask for a GIPS audit report. For more information about GIPS, visit their website at gipsstandards.org.

I am the oldest of four and grew up in Sandy, Utah. I was blessed with a great family who taught me values, honesty, and hard work. I have many great memories spending time with my three siblings, building forts, camping, and playing basketball. When I was in high school, I had a goal to make 100 free throws in a row. I would practice for hours. The best I ever got was 81 in a row and 97 out of 100, twice.

As a young man I had the opportunity to live in West Virginia for a couple of years. This was a great experience and taught me a lot about people and hard work. 

When I first met my “future” wife she was heading off to Atlanta, Georgia. Our story is a little different than most. Usually you hear about a girl waiting for a guy. With us, it was me waiting for her. We wrote every week while she was gone. As soon as she returned home, we got engaged. We’ve been married now for over 27 years, and have been blessed with two kids, Trevor and Brook.

Trevor loves golf, and played on the Loan Peak High School golf team, and loves to hang out with his friends. I think the first words out of his mouth were, “Can I play with a friend?” He’s graduated now, but still loves golf.

Brook loves to snowboard and hang out with friends. She is a sweet girl and a joy to have in our home.

My wife is my best friend. I can’t say enough about her. She has the most integrity of any person I have ever known. She is a great support and loving mother.

In my spare time I enjoy reading, mountain biking, going on trips with my wife and kids, and walks with my wife.