In Business: Local Prudential Advisor in Bemidji Aims to Help Others Plan Ahead

By Zy’Riah Simmons

Based at True North Financial Group’s offices in Bemidji, Samantha Pond is one of four Prudential professionals in the region helping with life insurance, long-term care planning, and college planning.

“My goal is basically, number one in my business is educate people in the community, my clients to help them be financially secure,” said Pond. “We like to offer workshops to people in the community to talk about Social Security planning, Medicare planning, just kind of retirement planning. A lot of people don’t know what that means, so my goal is to get in front of more people and to help them so they know kind of have to have a successful retirement.”

Starting under her parents’ guidance is what pushed her to create her own business.

“My parents and I moved here about 20 years ago and they started in the financial industry and I started with them about 15 years ago as their assistant, and [I] love what they did and so wanted to kind of branch out and have my own business,” explained Pond.

Working for Prudential has even motivated Marketing Assistant Siri Vasend to plan ahead financially with Pond’s assistance.

“[I] learned how to manage my own money by looking at all of my budgeting and everything, like that, I’ve learned how to do that here in the office,” said Vasend. “And I also started my first retirement here, and Sam was very, very great at explaining on how all of that works. Like, discussing all the different products for retirement and which product would be best for me.”

For Pond, she wants her clients to be prepared when it comes to any form of insurance.

“[We sometimes] forget about planning for insurance. You know, everybody knows about life insurance, disability. But they [shouldn’t] forget about the long-term care plan. And so I’m certified in long-term care planning, and that is a very important part of my job because whether it’s the insurance or just the plan, I really try to encourage my clients to have some type of plan.”