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What do corporate executives have in common with professional athletes and movie stars? Thanks to Stewart Koesten, CFP, founder of Executive Agents Inc. in Overland Park, Kansas, they all can call a professional agent.
A financial planner and principal with Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree, also located in Overland Park, Koesten formed Executive Agents three years ago to help high-powered corporate executives negotiate compensation packages. Today, the firm also provides its clients with general career counseling and coaching. In addition to negotiating a job offer, the firm also might assist an executive with goals ranging from writing a book or starting a new company to shifting to a new industry or becoming a chief executive.
The Company
While the firm is totally separate from Koesten Hirschmann & Crabtree Inc., the idea for Executive Agents began with Koesten's financial planning clients. Koesten long had focused on the financial planning needs of corporate executives and their families. Recognizing the value of the career advice he offered them, his clients suggested that Koesten form a firm that would offer negotiation and counseling services to other corporate executives.
Koesten's experience told him that executives needed third-party representation. While he was able to help some of his clients with career decisions, there were others whom he saw making mistakes. "I'd see people who would pull the trigger too quickly and who didn't process decisions well. They'd get a call from a search firm, the firm would make an offer and they would accept, without really looking at all the angles involved in the process," Koesten explains.
"It takes a lot of financial acumen, objectivity and time to analyze a career opportunity," he continues. "While highpowered business executives typically have top-notch skills in their areas of specialization, they often lack the time or the objectivity to do the proper analysis to further their own career. Executive Agents' main focus is to provide career management and negotiation representation for corporate executives as its main focus."
Executive Agents is owned by six principals who provide the core of the firm's services. Explains Koesten, "My focus is finance and compensation and I am joined by sports psychologist Andrew Jacobs, who handles coaching of executives; Ronald Bronstein, a tax lawyer; Jason Meschke, our chief search person;...