From an orchard to an algorithm
For nearly a decade, my family operated Robinson Family Farms — a commercial apple orchard in Upstate New York. We planted 70,000 trees, built irrigation systems from scratch, and learned every rhythm of the land. But what I remember most isn't the planting. It's the harvest.
My crew and I picked every apple by hand. Small action by small action, repeated thousands of times a day, until the barns were full and the season was complete. We eventually harvested over five million apples a year.
That experience shaped how I think about investing. Markets move every day — up, down, sideways, volatile. Most advisers tell their clients to ignore the movement and wait. I believe the movement itself is the opportunity. Small, systematic gains captured repeatedly — that's the harvest.
"The same discipline that fills a barn one apple at a time is what fills a retirement account one systematic trade at a time."
A career built on managing other people's money carefully
Before building the Active Harvest system, I spent nearly two decades managing public funds — the kind where precision and accountability aren't optional.
As Budget Director and Assistant Finance Director for a municipality in New York, I oversaw budgets covering infrastructure and public services. At the New York State Budget Division in the Governor's Office, I worked on large-scale economic development projects. Most recently as Agricultural Loan Director for the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, I managed lending programs supporting Hawaii's farming economy.
Public finance teaches you something private firms rarely do: every dollar belongs to someone else and your job is to protect it. That standard of care is the foundation of how I manage every client account.
What I learned at a large firm — and why I left
I spent time as a financial adviser at a major national firm. I went in genuinely curious about how professional investment management worked at scale. What I found was a system designed around products, not clients.
Clients paid a 1.5% advisory fee and received a pre-packaged portfolio of mutual funds they could have purchased themselves for a fraction of the cost. The best-case outcome, in most cases, was average returns with a professional wrapper.
I left because I believed technology had made something genuinely better possible for everyday investors — not just institutional funds. Fully automated, rules-based trading that executes without emotion, captures movement that passive strategies miss, and runs inside the retirement account structure most families already have. Legacy Investment Advisors is the result.
"I left because I believed families deserved an active strategy, not an expensive wrapper around something passive."
Why Hawaii — and why it matters
My family chose Hawaii intentionally. We're based in Ewa Beach on Oahu — close to Pearl Harbor, close to the communities I serve. Hawaii has a large population of military families approaching retirement, government workers with deferred compensation to manage, and professionals who've built real savings and want something smarter than a target-date fund.
This community is where I live, where my kids go to school, and where I intend to build something that matters for the long term. I meet with clients in person. Your money stays in your own Interactive Brokers account — I hold trading authority only, never custody. You can see every trade, every day, in real time.
That transparency isn't a feature. It's non-negotiable for me.