Fred Arbusto is an active presence in the Rhode Island business community who heads South County Financial (part of Raymond James). He assists clients by constructing portfolios that include equities, fixed income, alternative instruments as well as health and life insurance. Fred Arbusto’s personalized approach involves close communication with clients developing custom strategies to help meet their retirement needs.
Frederick Arbusto excels in examining market and macroeconomic outlooks and constructing risk managed portfolios to help withstand market downturns. With equities, he closely examines earnings growth, dividends, valuation and competitive advantage metrics. With fixed income holdings such as bonds, Frederick Arbusto’s emphasis is on duration, yield, credit quality, as well as taxable and tax-free options.
He is a regular hiker and golfer, who enjoys activities at home centered on caring for a young and growing family. An avid sports fan who regularly attends soccer matches & is a season ticket holder with the New York Giants.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
My typical day begins early in the day at 4 am, starting off with a morning coffee, replying to emails, and reading financial reports. I set a structured schedule for the day with a checklist and make sure by the end of the day I have completed all the items that I have set out to accomplish. My typical day is spent with a small handful of face-to-face meetings with clients. Towards the end of the day, I value desk time to ensure everyone is called or emailed back. After work, I spend time on the treadmill to maintain my physical and mental health.
How do you bring ideas to life?
Brining ideas to life all starts out with having a vision and confidence in myself. I test ideas over periods of time, and when I see success, I embrace a definable, repeatable process. If ideas need to be changed or improved upon, then I go back to the table to refine. Reading and keeping up with trends also helps with ideas.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Sticking to the basics of investing is important. Focusing on long-term term investing to seek long-term results will always be our focus. Technology excites me to better help manage client relationships. Advanced technology allows us to deepen our service level to better articulate our long-term planning process with clients. Reporting and research improve as technology improves.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
One habit that helps me stay productive is going to bed early and waking up early. If I can start off the day with a rested mind and body, then everything falls into place from there. Getting out of the house and into the office early is a routine that helps me maintain a high service level and higher standard for clients. At the end of the day, my main goal is to provide the best investment service with highest standards. We have created a positive work culture that inspires me to wake up every day to help others.
What advice would you give your younger self?
A strategy that has been instrumental throughout my career is networking within our community. Starting out with any career, we need to remind ourselves that we must surround ourselves with the right people. Community and charitable involvement starts as a solid foundation. Meeting people, whether it be at a coffee shop or a local charity, creates more opportunities. Building genuine relationships and doing whatever I can do to help others is always the main goal. This has allowed me to leverage collective knowledge and resources to drive business growth and personal development.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
I believe that managing a smaller clientele delivers more success. Success for me is driving client delight and not about my own wealth status and personal achievements. Working with a manageable number of clients helps me deliver better results in helping our clients reach their financial goals. Some models believe in large numbers of clients, but like a doctor’s office, nobody likes to see an overcrowded waiting area. The greatest thing about being an entrepreneur is having the ability to run your own business based upon your own passions and beliefs.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Self confidence is an integral part of success both in life and in business. When speaking to others, I always show my confidence in them and try to motivate others to be the best that they can possibly be. Don’t compare yourself to others, but rather reach your highest potential as an individual. Self-confidence, along with sound work ethic, is what drives me as a person.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Overcoming being overwhelmed or unfocused is a matter of keeping focus and maintaining a positive outlook on life. Focusing on the positives and small successes keeps me motivated and keeps me driven. One of the most important things I always remind myself is to surround myself with positive, successful people. Always being open to learning and improving. Having a positive inner circle of people is vital to my mental success.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
Networking and having effective communication with the people is an integral part of my practice. Being transparent and explaining thing to individuals in a clear, understandable, relatable way is important. Nobody likes when people talk over their head or when people talk too fast. Being an effective communicator helps me grow my practice. When comfort level is established, a true partnership is set up for the long term.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
Earlier in my career, a failure that I had was losing confidence at times. What we all need to remind ourselves is that Rome wasn’t built in a day. With any career, we all start at the bottom and have to find ways to grown just a little bit every single day. If we can wake up every morning knowing that we are more knowledgeable than the day before, then we know we are growing and gaining experience. Being proud of yourself and how we treat others is what creates self-fulfillment. As a result, small successes come along the way.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Task managers are important. Salesforce, Outlook, or any software that you utilize to help your practice become more organized and productive. Management tolls are used everyday and when people are organized, they tend to run a smoother business practice.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court. I met UCLA Coach John Wooden in 2001 and has been an inspiration to me throughout my life. Mr. Wooden emphasizes reaching your own highest potential. Not someone else’s potential, but your own. Mr. Wooden quote: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
Moana. I have a 9-month-old baby girl. Prioritizing my family is very satisfying. We have also introduced our daughter to woman’s basketball, and she is a big UConn women’s basketball fan.
Key learnings
- Establish a productive daily routine.
- Have self-confidence.
- Rather than focusing on outshining others, learn to reach your own full potential.
- Build strong relationships and network.
- Learn from failures and grow from our failures.