The Wells County Chamber of Commerce staff and Ambassadors welcomed Navigator Financial with a ribbon cutting celebrating its new location at 917 N. Main St. in Bluffton. Navigator Financial merged services with Garton Pate Financial in January 2021 and opened an office locally.
Cameron Collier, owner of Navigator Financial, has a long line of family working in the financial service industry in the communities of Adams and Wells counties. Collier’s grandfather, Doyle Collier, established Collier Insurance in 1964. Doyle Collier was a schoolteacher and built the agency hiring additional educators, which provided individuals with a supplemental income.
Doyle Collier’s son, David, joined his father in the business in 1971 and served as the face of Collier Insurance for four decades. After 45 years of practice, David Collier died in July 2016.
Cameron Collier, David’s son, said, “After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy, I served in the Navy for nearly 10 years and returned home in 2010 to work out of the same building in downtown Decatur. My goal was to join in the financial service industry, with an emphasis of planning. My father was very encouraging and suggested that if asset management and planning were my interests, I needed to sit at the feet of those who do it well and learn.”
Cameron Collier started working for a successful financial planning firm located in Fort Wayne, learning and growing the business. In 2016, Cameron, now a certified financial planner practitioner and certified kingdom advisor, took on the full responsibility of leading the family business after his father’s death.
“Over the next few years, I worked to fully integrate and transition the focus of the family business and rebranded in 2020 to Navigator Financial,” explained Cameron Collier. “Our goal is to be about values-based planning and investing. The financial decisions we make and our approach to investing should be directed by our values.”
Last year, Navigator Financial grew through a merger with Garton Pate Financial Advisors already located in Bluffton.
“We had been looking several years for a business similar in scope and size to team up with. Their approach was very similar to how we work with clients, so it seemed a natural fit and opportunity for us to help ensure the Garton Pate clients would be well taken care of for years to come. We moved to the Villa North location this past February,” stated Cameron Collier.
Navigator Financial serves clients in 22 states with offices in Bluffton, Decatur, and Fort Wayne.
“We currently have two advisors between the offices and Josh (Smith) is working towards his licenses to serve as a third,” said Cameron Collier. “Our desire is to grow to a minimum of two advisors in each of our locations.”
“At Navigator Financial we primarily serve individuals by offering asset management, financial planning, and risk management. We work with a client by walking them through a multi-step process designed to piece together a personalized values-based plan and put it into action,” said Cameron Collier.
“I am passionate about helping clients develop a purposeful plan. The basis is an understanding of the four uses of money: we can spend it, give it away, pay debt and taxes, or grow it for the future. Live, give, owe, and grow. Those are our options,” he said. “We should manage what we owe, and if are to grow something, it should be done purposefully. If we mange owe and grow well, there is a great deal of freedom to live and give. And while it is absolutely appropriate to plan for the future, we are not promised tomorrow. Enjoying and allowing others to enjoy or be blessed by what we’ve been entrusted with are equally important. We want to help our clients succeed in each area.”
