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Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Stewart Welch
Stewart Welch
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Photo by Lexi Coon
Mayor-elect Stewart Welch, seen here with his wife Kathie, started his career as a life insurance agent before founding a financial advisory firm, The Welch Group LLC, in 1984. In discussing how his experience can benefit the city, he said, “I am not intimidated by looking at large numbers ... My hope is I’ll be able to use those skill sets, particularly around the businesses that are here in Mountain Brook.”
Stewart Welch never planned on being mayor.
In fact, when he was approached with the idea, both he and his wife didn’t want any part of it, but after speaking with current Mayor Terry Oden, he changed his mind.
Now, Welch is going to take the mayor’s office of Mountain Brook in November.
“Someone called me and asked if I would consider running,” he said. “And my first reaction was, ‘No.’”
He said Oden reassured him Mountain Brook politics were in no way similar to the “total mess” seen in national politics today.
“I literally sat down with Terry for a couple of hours, and he walked me through what it was like,” he said. “I thought about it and said, ‘You know, I would love an opportunity to give back to the community.’”
Welch admits he has no political experience but believes his past experiences in financial advising will help him the most.
He began his career in finance as a life insurance agent and soon learned he liked the bigger puzzles of people’s financial lives.
“The part I loved was not selling insurance but actually digging in deeper to a family’s personal finances and coming up with not an insurance answer, but a broad answer to solve wide-ranging financial issues,” Welch said. “That drove me to start a company, which back then was really unusual, and is this fee-only financial advisory firm.”
Welch’s business, The Welch Group LLC, formed in 1984 to aid people in smart investments. His company is a fee-only business, which means they aren’t trying to sell potential investors any type of product; they are simply there to give financial advice that is in the best interest of each client.
Looking back on his decision, Welch said, forming the business was a risk, but he knew that’s what he wanted to do.
“I had saved enough money to pay expenses for three years, and I figured in three years I would figure it out and make it go, or worst-case scenario, I could come back to the life insurance business,” he said.
Now, 32 years later, Welch owns not one, but two financial advisory firms and will be transitioning his abilities to take the Mountain Brook mayor’s seat in November.
“I’m nervous and excited,” he said. “I’ve always known that this is a special community, but I didn’t know how special it was until I did the due diligence in accepting the mayor’s position.”
While he said his wife was not thrilled with the idea of him running for the mayor’s office, Welch said she has come around.
“She’s going to be a great partner for me,” he said.
Since his election, Welch has been preparing for his new career by sitting in on recent City Council and budget meetings.
“I thought I would be bored to tears, but I found it really interesting,” Welch said of the budget meetings.
His experience with finances and marketing has helped him believe that many of the skills he uses as a financial adviser will carry over into being mayor.
“I am not intimidated by looking at large numbers, and I think that’s a big benefit,” he said. “My hope is I’ll be able to use those skill sets, particularly around the businesses that are here in Mountain Brook.”
Through working with local businesses, Welch wants to focus on the quality of life within the city.
“What are things that we could do to improve a community that really feels like it’s hitting on all cylinders?” he said.
The more success a community and its businesses have, the more people are drawn to it, Welch said. The more people who are drawn to it, the more the problems the city has with parking.
“We’re always trying to figure out ways to address that,” he said.
In addition to keeping the city successful and managing the parking problems, Welch said he wants the residents of Mountain Brook to have the ability to communicate with their government when they need to. He wants people to be more active, including those of the younger generations in Mountain Brook.
“I think it’d be really fun to connect with 12- to 14-year-olds, junior high, high school, really young people,” he said. “I would love to try to figure out how to connect with these various generations that would let them kind of constantly peep behind the curtain to see ‘Well, here’s what’s going on.’”
On Nov. 7, Welch will implement some of his ideas within Mountain Brook as he takes the mayor’s office.
“I’m nervous because Terry’s done such a good job,” Welch said, laughing. “My job is to not mess it up — that’s job No. 1. Job No. 2 is to do [my] very best.”
