Our Team
Jason Parker, CFP®
Jason is a Fiduciary Financial Adviser, and has over 18 years’ experience in investments and financial services. He served as an in-house financial planner for faculty and staff of UGA in the Financial Management & Education Center in Human Resources for over 5 years. As a Senior Executive Consultant, he provided confidential personal financial consultations to individual employees taking a holistic view of finances, as well as employee benefits. During his employment by UGA, he met with over 1000 employees, served as plan administrator on retirement plans and employee benefits, and became extremely well versed in the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia and the Regents Optional Retirement Plan. Jason’s specialty is higher education and public employers. He carries the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation, as well as Series 63 and 66 licenses in addition to his Georgia Life, Health and Variable products license.
Jason graduated from the University of Georgia with a BBA in Risk Management & Insurance in 1996. Jason is married to Shelly Parker, a public primary school teacher in Oconee County, and they have three boys; Jackson, Chase and Luke.
Investment Philosophy
“I am a firm believer in financial planning. Individuals and families are typically going to have their own unique situations. I work closely with clients to define goals, needs, and interests. These are then further broken down to short term, intermediate and long term. This allows a collaborative effort to be put forth in conceiving a financial plan. Then, of course, life happens. To me, life is about change, and a financial plan should be a living document that can change with you. Once goals are set, and the financial plan is created, my investment philosophy is simple -maintain a portfolio that can provide the returns required to reach your goals while carrying the least amount of risk. Continuous monitoring and open communication with clients are an invaluable piece of the process. I have developed a 360° process that consists of planning not only the financial side of life, but also in maximizing the benefits your employer offers you to meet your present needs and achieve your retirement goals. All things considered, we are then able to track progress and make changes when life calls for change. My ideal experience with prospective clients is to do significantly more listening than speaking. The more information I can gather about a situation, the more useful I can be as a financial planner. With existing clients, I spend more time reviewing and monitoring progress. Marriage, divorce, births, career changes, buying a home...all can change your budget, investment, insurance and savings needs. I want to know what is changing for clients as time passes so we can be prepared for anything life throws at us.”
James Buckner
James Buckner draws upon a 25-year career in the financial services industry where he has maintained his dedication to helping clients achieve their financial goals. He formed University Planning Partners with Jason B Parker following stints at B Riley Wealth Management (formerly Wunderlich Securities), Wells Fargo Advisors and Synovus Securities. He welcomes the opportunity to help each client plan for a financial future in a way that best meets his or her goals. James graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Arts in history. He immediately followed with completion of his master’s degree from Indiana University. The son of a highly respected Investment Counselor in Atlanta, James became a commercial lender with SunTrust Bank and United Americas Bank in Atlanta. More recently, he worked at Athens First Bank in Athens, also as a commercial lender.
An active member of the Athens and Atlanta communities, James previously served as a member of the American Heart Association Board in both cities as well as on the advisory board for the Better Business Bureau of Metro Atlanta and Northeast Georgia. James and his wife, Katherine, live in Athens and are parents to daughter, Lucy, and son, Clarke.
INVESTMENT PHILOSOPHY
“Throughout my career, I have served my clients and their families with the understanding that an informed engaged investor is a confident investor. So, I’ll work closely with each client to create customized financial strategies using a top-down approach: we will explore the “big picture” of each client’s situation: goals, both financial and life, risk tolerance, income and expenses, and then consider market and economic conditions. I firmly believe that market advances are permanent while market declines are temporary. Therefore, taking the client’s situation and goals into account, I want to build portfolios that are broadly diversified across all sectors of the market and which match the client’s risk tolerance and goals.”