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Dorothy Lewis ’70

Professional Achievement (Lifetime)

Dorothy Lewis ’70 made her name as a financial planner by jumping into the field with almost no plan at all. Lewis’ first career was as a high school business teacher by day and college business teacher at night. She also had a tax prep side hustle, which became a conversation starter. “I had lots of people asking about taxes and what they should do with their money,” Lewis says. Those discussions led Lewis to develop a course called Financial Insights that she delivered at Seattle Pacific University beginning in 1980. The practical, rather than theoretical, class covered economic cycles, mutual funds, retirement planning, estate planning, and tax planning, enrolling 2,500 people in two years. Lewis saw a need, so she quit her day job, withdrew the $1,000 in her teacher retirement account, bought a Sharp calculator, an IBM Selectric typewriter, and a used file cabinet, and began what is now Financial Insights Wealth Management in Tacoma. She had 50 clients and charged $25 per hour in her first year. “I was not motivated by money,” she explains, “but I backdoored into a business that’s about money.” In the early 1980s, the kind of wealth management Lewis provided wasn’t typical. Big financial management firms sold individual stocks, insurance policies, and other investment vehicles. Lewis aimed to help people discover how best to save, use, and grow their money over the long term. “I always worked with financial plans: How much do you make? What are your goals?” she says. “It had nothing to do with selling products.” Her approach worked. Financial Insights grew from one employee—Lewis—to 15, and now manages almost $700 million in assets. Lewis has won accolades for her success, including this year’s Lifetime Professional Achievement Award at Puget Sound. The title of the award is appropriate, because Lewis intends to spend her lifetime in her profession. “I can’t sit still,” she says. “My mind’s always going a million miles a minute.”