Susan Linkous remembers buying her first home in Arizona in 1990. During her home search, her agent laughed at her when she inquired about living in Paradise Valley.

“I was pre-qualified to buy my first home, but it had to come in under $90,000,” she said.

Her agent pointed her to a small town on the map on the outskirts of the city that met her budget but had the beauty of Paradise Valley.

“[My agent] said ‘the cheapest home that I have listed is in Fountain Hills, but I gotta warn you, you’re young and there’s really nothing to do out there,’” Linkous recalled.

Linkous is happy she made that decision and still lives on the same street she chose three decades ago.

Celebrating 30 years of business Linkous, president and founder of The Linkous Group, LTD, is a Registered Investment Advisor and an Accredited Investment Fiduciary who aims to help her clients create, grow and preserve their assets for multiple generations.

In its early days, The Linkous Group, LTD was originally established as a business insurance consultancy firm. Linkous would drive around the Valley offering insurance and investment strategies to businesses facing commercial risk.

As time went on, Linkous saw a need to help business owners with their retirement planning and protecting the wealth that they had built running a business.

“So many [business owners] are so vulnerable to that,” Linkous said. “They’re great at running their business. They put everything back into the business and for the employees and they don’t do hardly anything to care for their retirement.”

Linkous’ business took on a new shape, evolving into an investment advisory firm for individuals. To this day, her business specializes in advising individuals in the areas of retirement planning, wealth creation and income generation.

Her clientele are individuals who seek a personalized experience, one that large corporate investment managers may not be able to provide.

“When you get into a large corporate environment, something is lost,” Linkous said. “I am very adamant about needing to make the decisions myself with my clients. I don’t take the word ‘fiduciary’ lightly.”

The Linkous Group, LTD is in growth mode, carrying clients in 31 U.S. states. Linkous credits her nationwide growth to the beauty of Fountain Hills, as her clients travel far and wide telling their friends and family about their town and their boutique investment advisor.

During the pandemic, Linkous says her clients benefited from an up market.

“Between the raging bull market and everybody staying home, it was hard for me to find anything to do, in the sense that people didn’t want to talk about their investments…that was the only part of their life that was okay,” she said.

During lockdown, Linkous spent time reading, mentoring and thinking about her daughter, Sophia Rose, stranded in her dorm room at the University of Oregon in the throes of a pandemic.

Now Sophia Rose is home, finishing online at UO and, at times, steps into the office to help her mom.

“She used to be here every day. You know, she hasn’t ruled it out,” Linkous said of potentially passing on the torch to her daughter.

Outside of work, Linkous has focused more time on her philanthropic endeavors, supporting public television, public radio and the O’Connor Institute for Democracy. She enjoys giving to animal welfare programs and the local food bank while also setting time aside to mentor young folks looking to enter the field of investment management.

“Unlike when I started, I think it’s even harder today just because there’s almost too much information out there,” Linkous said.

In her early years working for large firms, Linkous credits one mentor in particular who gave of his time to teach her when she was young and inexperienced.

“He had to make really tough, ethical, moral types of decisions that weighed on him and he didn’t feel he was able to serve the clients in the way that he started off wanting to,” Linkous said. “The way they treated him as an older person preparing for retirement after 40 years, he wasn’t treated well.”

Witnessing her mentor’s poor experience at a large firm, Linkous and The Linkous Group, LTD seek to offer a tailor-made, unique experience for her clients.

“I grew up with a great curiosity about money because we didn’t have any,” she said. “It’s not hard to start a business when you have nothing to lose, and you grow with your clients and you protect them…because everything that hurts them, hurts me.”

The Linkous Group, LTD has won numerous awards including the National Association of Board Certified Advisory Practices (NABCAP) Premier Advisor award from 2011 to 2013, the 40 Under 40 award in 2003 and the Five Star Wealth Managers award which Linkous has won 10 years in a row since 2013.

When asked what she’s learned over the last three decades, Linkous spares no thought.

“Really, you have to be patient,” she said. “Don’t let things shake you. If you started your business or you started your wealth plan because you had a particular goal in mind, it’s seldom in life that those goals that we were so passionate about ever really change.

“What changes is we quit. We quit making sure that we are following the steps that we know we need to take to get there. Most people don’t need to be taught how to do it. They need to be reminded what the goal was.”

The Linkous Group LTD is located at 13225 N. Verde River Dr., Suite 203. For information about The Linkous Group, LTD and its services, visit linkousgroup.com or call Susan Linkous at 480-836-2326.