Drew Erickson, owner of Solid Rock Financial, was a presenter at the January 5, 2021 TREK. He talked about his growing up years in Thief River Falls, and the secure, stable home that his mother and father provided.
“Not only did they provide for me,” Drew said, “but, they were always at my events. That is my definition of success: not only to provide for my family but also to ‘be there’ for them.”
Drew went to school at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities where he studied economics. “I actually went to school and didn’t know what I wanted to study. I chose the school before I chose what I wanted to do. I just knew that I loved Gopher sports and my sister went to the U.”
He spent about two years trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life and ended up landing on economics. In the summer before his senior year, he started an internship in financial planning and the work continued through his senior year. “The more I learned about what we do and why we do it, the more I fell in love with it,” Drew said.
Part of the reason the profession really resonated with him went back to the impact of seeing his aunt and uncle experience devastating medical issues.
In the early 2000’s, his aunt was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She had group health benefits, but they didn’t provide adequate coverage. His aunt and uncle found out that they couldn’t afford in-home care or assisted living out of the home. That meant that his uncle had to work more. It also meant that Drew’s two cousins (about the same age as Drew) had to go to school and then come straight home from school and help with taking care of their mom.
“While I had the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do, my cousins had to go home and take care of their mother while her health deteriorated over a ten-year period.”
After ten years of battling the illness, his aunt passed away. Less than a year later, his uncle was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a terminal cancer of the blood.
Seeing family members go through health problems of that magnitude really impacted Drew. It birthed a passion to help people understand how they can protect themselves and their loved ones.
“Most people don’t have a clue of what they have in place and how it can help them in a worst-case scenario,” Drew said.
Now, as a financial planner, he enjoys helping his clients protect their assets and plan for the future, even in a worst-case-scenario like that of his aunt and uncle.
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