Paul Garnett, AAMS®, CPFA®

Paul Garnett has spent his career helping individuals, families and business owners understand the financial decisions in front of them. His work is grounded in experience, careful analysis and a belief that people make better decisions when they understand their choices.

As an Investment Adviser Representative with Garnett Investment Strategies in Beatrice, Nebraska, Paul works with individuals, families, farmers, business owners and retirement-plan sponsors in Beatrice, Lincoln and communities throughout southeastern Nebraska and across the US. His work includes investment management, retirement planning and employer-sponsored retirement plans.

His background is broader than financial services alone. Paul has owned businesses, participated in agricultural operations and worked with organizations at different stages of growth. That perspective helps him understand that financial decisions rarely stand by themselves. They often connect to a family, a farm, a business, employees or a transition that has taken years to build.

More Than Five Decades in Financial Services

Paul began his financial-services career in 1975. He spent 38 years building an advisory practice and taking on leadership responsibilities for Edward Jones. His work extended beyond his own practice and included recruiting financial professionals across a six-state region and participating in formal mentoring and coaching programs.

Those years gave Paul experience through changing markets, economic cycles and major developments in the financial-services industry. They also reinforced the importance of staying focused on the decisions a client can control, including planning, saving, diversification, risk management and regular review.

In 2013, Paul and his daughter, Traci Garnett-Froscheiser, formed Garnett Investment Strategies in Beatrice. Their goal was to build a firm centered on personal attention, financial education and advice tailored to each client's circumstances.

Primary Wealth Management, LLC, d/b/a Garnett Investment Strategies, was organized in 2015 and became a Registered Investment Adviser in 2016. When Paul provides investment advice through the firm, the fiduciary obligations of the advisory relationship apply. Insurance products and services are offered separately from investment advisory services.

Experience With Farmers and Business Owners

Paul grew up on a family farm. Over the course of his career, he has remained involved in agriculture, including grain, egg, poultry and swine production. He has also participated in privately owned businesses across agriculture, technology, health care and other industries.

That experience gives Paul a practical understanding of the issues farmers and business owners face. Income can vary. Wealth can be concentrated in land, equipment or a closely held company. Family and business relationships can overlap. A decision about retirement can also become a decision about succession, employees, taxes and the next generation.

Paul helps clients organize those decisions, understand their options and coordinate with attorneys, accountants and other professionals when the situation calls for additional expertise. His role is to connect the investment and retirement plan to the client's broader financial picture without losing sight of the people affected by it.

Retirement Plans and Fiduciary Education

Paul also works with businesses and retirement-plan sponsors on 401(k)s and other employer-sponsored retirement plans. His work includes evaluating plan investments and service providers, helping plan sponsors understand their responsibilities, and supporting financial education for plan participants. The firm's services and fiduciary role are defined in each client or plan-sponsor agreement.

He holds the Accredited Asset Management Specialist℠ (AAMS®) and Certified Plan Fiduciary Advisor (CPFA®) designations. These areas of professional education complement his work in investment management and employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Paul approaches retirement-plan work with the same principles he brings to individual client relationships. Understand the responsibility. Review the available choices. Explain the tradeoffs clearly. Then build a process that can be revisited as the business, workforce and regulatory environment change.

Financial Guidance Shaped by Experience

Paul has worked with people whose circumstances, resources and goals differ widely. Some are preparing to retire after decades in a business or profession. Others are managing a farm, building a company, overseeing a retirement plan or organizing investments for the next generation.

His work often includes reviewing investment allocations, planning how retirement income will be drawn, evaluating decisions involving retirement-plan assets, and coordinating investment decisions with a client's accountant and attorney. His approach remains consistent: listen carefully, identify the decisions that matter most, explain the choices in practical terms and review the plan as life, markets and priorities change.

Paul views financial planning as an ongoing relationship rather than a single recommendation. Experience provides perspective, but each client still deserves advice built around the facts of that client's life, responsibilities and goals.

Invested in Beatrice and Nebraska

Paul's connection to Beatrice extends well beyond his work at Garnett Investment Strategies. He served on the Gage County Economic Development Corporation for 33 years, including 24 years as chairman. His community service has also included local business, civic, educational, athletic and nonprofit organizations.

For his work in economic development, Paul received the Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska honorary title from then Governor Bob Kerrey. He has remained involved with his alma mater, Truman State University, through university and foundation service.

Community involvement has given Paul another view of the financial decisions that shape southeastern Nebraska. Healthy families, durable businesses and strong local institutions all depend on people who plan carefully and take responsibility for the years ahead.

Education and Family

Paul earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from Truman State University in 1973, where he played varsity basketball and baseball.

Paul and his wife, Alicia, live in Beatrice. Their family includes their daughter, Traci, who works alongside Paul at Garnett Investment Strategies, and their son, T.J. Paul is also a grandfather to Traci and her husband David's three daughters.

Paul's work brings together the perspectives of a financial advisor, farmer, business owner, mentor and community leader. He uses that experience to help clients understand their options and make informed financial decisions for the people and responsibilities that matter to them.

Have an investment, retirement-planning or retirement-plan question? Start a conversation with Paul to learn about the firm's approach and determine whether Garnett Investment Strategies is the right fit.