what's in a name

For us, Steward has a tangible and biblical application. The biblical doctrine of steward identifies God as the creator and owner of everything and man as manager. God makes man His co-worker in administering all aspects of our life. The apostle Paul explains it best by saying, “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9). Starting with this concept, we are then able to accurately view and correctly value not only our possessions, but, more importantly, human life itself. 

Within that framework, we see ourselves as managers of all that our clients have entrusted in us. In fact, the dictionary defines steward as: “a person who manages another's property or financial affairs.” By understanding and adhering to these two core believes, we have built a model of client centered management and eternal perspective.

Great name, EVEN better story

We were passionate about the name Steward from the onset of the firm's creation. However, upon filing the name with the state comptroller, we were informed that name was already being used by another firm. We were convinced it was the name for our firm so we engaged an outside attorney to plead our case to the current owners of the Steward name. He declined the case sighting no one would willingly allow someone to share their name. It is a worthless pursuit.

We didn't agree and took it upon ourselves to reach out to the owners through written correspondence. We followed up with a phone call and to our surprise, she took our call and asked why we wanted to use the name. After a brief summary of our conviction of the biblical and earthly view of steward, the lady paused. She then stated, "wow, that's really good." Assuming she had the same conviction about the name, we replied, "well why did you choose the name Steward." In an almost shameful surprise she uttered, "That's my business partners last name." She had never been presented a biblical or earthly definition of the name. Within 24 hours she had delivered to us written release to use the name Steward!

A few years later we were at a gathering of other investment advisors. An advisor approached us after seeing our firm name on our name badge. He stated, "you know you can't use that name.  A lady in California owns it. I have tried for years to obtain it but she won't release it." To his surprise we told him the story of our journey and the release of the name.