Kim McDaniels’ childhood passion for Monopoly unexpectedly transformed into her career when everything aligned perfectly.

“In hindsight, I think financial planning was a career path, but in the moment, I didn’t realize it until things just fell into place,” McDaniels said. 

Today, after 12 years of working in the financial industry, McDaniels has been recognized by Forbes Magazine as a top next-generation wealth adviser for Washington state.

“I didn’t really believe it at first,” McDaniels said, remembering the moment she received an email from Forbes that said she had been selected. “It was a really cool surprise.”

McDaniels — co-owner and adviser at Krivoshein-McDaniels Financial — is a Walla Walla High School alum who graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. She started working as a financial adviser at Krivoshein Financial in 2012.

Out of 42,108 nominations 1,464 individuals, including McDaniels, were selected for the Next-Gen ranking.

McDaniels said she specializes in a variety of financial advising including businesses and high net worth families to prepare for retirement. She said she has also worked with divorcees and has helped to financially guide them.

“One thing about being in this industry and in our community is that you have to be prepared for anything,” she said. “In doing this job for as long as I have, I have seen a lot of different scenarios.”

McDaniels said what made her stand out among the other 40,000 nominees was that Krivoshein-McDaniels Financial is not based in bigger concentrated markets such as New York and San Francisco, but rather the Walla Walla Valley.

“I think that a lot of the advisers that made the cut and were not in those large wealthy cities made the cut because they have a local presence,” she said. “They focus on consistency and holding tight with the assets under management.”

Methodology

The Forbes Next-Gen Wealth Advisors rankings are a list of financial advisers who are considered to be good at what they do. In order to even be considered for this list, advisers must have at least four years of experience and be born in 1984 or later.

Portfolio performance is not considered in the ranking as different clients have different goals. There is not always official data to check how well investments are doing. 

This list is put together by an independent and objective research company called SHOOK Research. SHOOK is funded through conferences, publications, and research partners. SHOOK decides who makes it on this list using a computer program that looks at two types of information: qualitative criteria and quantitative data.

Qualitative criteria, meaning advisers were interviewed either on the phone, through video calls or in person, was used to learn more about how they work and what their clients think of them. Every adviser who has been recognized on the Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisors, Best in State list was interviewed either in person or virtually.

In terms of quantitative data, hard numbers, such as how much money the advisers manage, their income trends, their experience in the financial industry and whether they follow the rules was taken into account.

McDaniels said she had been interviewed off and on for a year and a half.

“It was really cool to see the list, but it also kind of ignited something in me,” she said. “I saw all of the other people from across the country who were listed on there as well. They had some pretty great numbers there that motivated me to keep growing.”