Our History
Our founder, Linda Laborde Deane, began her career in financial services in 1973 as a traditional stockbroker in New Orleans. Soon after, she realized that the commission-based financial world of that time wasn’t the best fit for the client-first business model she envisioned, and she began to develop the business model that she would devote her career to.
Linda took the initial steps towards her ultimate client service vision in 1981 by becoming the first IRA specialist in New Orleans and the 100th Certified Financial Planner (CFP) in the country. Linda recognized the value that highly personalized retirement planning would bring to her clients decades before the mainstream financial industry.
In 1993, Linda left the old Wall Street commission-based brokerage world behind and established Deane Retirement Strategies, Inc. Her vision of fully integrating financial and estate planning with portfolio management in a fee-based and commission-free way was completed in 1998. Linda knew that removing commissions would more perfectly align the client’s best interest with that of the firm and provide the best foundation for superior client service.
Further enhancements to Deane Retirement Strategies occurred in 2002 when portfolio management was centralized internally without the use of third-party managers or mutual funds. That year Todd Tillery joined our firm as portfolio manager to more fully customize the portfolio process for our clients.
In 2010, as the firm expanded, Keith Deane came on board as a second Certified Financial Planner, contributing his extensive knowledge of financial plan construction and taxation.
Today, Todd and Keith co-own the firm and work together to build on Linda’s vision for integrated financial planning and portfolio management that is custom tailored for each client.
