Teen Who Lost Both Parents Now Financial Advisor For Millennials

CHICAGO, IL — Growing up in the city's Avalon Park neighborhood in the 1990s and early-to-mid 2000s, Cortlon Cofield didn't have the clearest path to success as the owner of his own financial planning business that targets a significantly underserved demographic in the market. Losing his mother at age 14 and father two years later only made the challenges more steep for him.

But now, just a decade later and before his 27th birthday, Cofield is coming up on celebrating the one-year anniversary of Cofield Advisors, a financial planning firm that specializes in providing financial planning and expertise for millennials.

Cofield's journey has taken him from a crowded house on the South Side to a space on the 28th floor of a South Loop-high rise.

"There were a lot of us in that house," Cofield said of his time living in Avalon Park, from when he was very young to the end of elementary school. "There was me, my mom, my aunt, her two kids, my grandma and two siblings."

He says that while everyone who lived on his block was tight and looked out for each other, the neighborhood itself was far from the easiest place to find success.

"There was not a lot of motivation or people to have set good examples," he said. "There was violence. It was tough."

Cofield moved out of the neighborhood, and the city, after eighth grade as he lived with his dad in Calumet City and attended Thornwood High School.

But shortly after, his mom died of a stroke and two years after that he lost his dad to bronchitis. That left Cofield as a 16-year-old without any parents.

“I get my smarts from my mom, but my father’s death was tougher to take,” Cofield said. “I had never lived with him until I moved in with him, and he always worked so hard, and he showed me that hard work paid off.

"So when he died, instead of working hard with my body, I was working hard with my mind."

Losing one's parents at such a young age could be devastating to some who already face the regular struggles of growing up and getting through their teenage years, but those challenges didn't stop Cofield from scoring a 27 on the math part of the ACT and getting accepted to the University of Illinois, where he would eventually earn a master's degree in accounting.

"It was back-to-back blows, but both the best and worst things that have happened to me," Cofield said of losing his parents. "It gave me a lot of perspective and forced me to grow up years faster than my peers."

After working for other accounting firms for four years post-graduation, Cofield decided to start his own business. And approach it from a non-traditional way in the industry.

"I noticed that millennials are an underserved market in financial planning, and my thought process is that these younger professionals can amass wealth if they have someone to help them in this stage of their life."

At his previous jobs in the financial world, Cofield was surprised to see how some of his co-workers who earned lucrative salaries were still finding themselves in debt.

"Some of them had no idea what a 401K was," Cofield said. "And if these people who are in the financial industry have this lack of knowledge, there must be an even lower set of basic financial knowledge for those who aren't in the field."

In just one year, Cofield Advisors has amassed 22 clients from several states who have hired him year-round. Anyone interested in Cofield's services can go to his website and schedule a free virtual consultation.

Photo by Normandie Esco