Photo courtesy of Christy Raines

At 9, Christy Raines was Red Cross certified and babysat every kid in the neighborhood, watching her piggy bank grow. At 17, she went to the University of Notre Dame and studied accounting. Now at 32, she has been named an InvestmentNews magazine Top 40 Under 40 Financial Advisor.

For six years, the Stapleton resident has owned her practice, Azimuth Wealth Management, currently located at 2372 Central Park Blvd. Due to her husband’s career in the Air Force, she’s relocated four times, which surprisingly hasn’t hurt the business. She believes the quality of her relationship with clients is more important than distance.

According to Raines, being a great investment advisor boils down to three things: asking great questions, truly listening to the answers, and being completely transparent with advice. Raines takes a comprehensive approach, looking at every piece that may affect a person’s financial life. She mostly works with “do-it-yourselfers,” who have accumulated a substantial amount of money and want to plan for the next phase of life.

“It’s hard to find a financial advisor who you really trust and enjoy doing business with. You need someone with whom you can sit down and discuss some of the most confidential things in your life,” she says.

Raines states she exhaustively researches each client’s individual situation, so she only has a limited number of clients. She and her clients select each other from a mutual interview process. “It’s a relationship I see going on for decades and I want them to know what’s expected of them as well,” she says.

Raines lives in Stapleton with her husband, who she met at the Kentucky Derby, and their two daughters Hannah, 2, and Kelly Grace, 3 months.