Walker Holloway, CFP®

Vice President and Financial Advisor, Hazlett, Burt & Watson, Inc.

By Kevin Duvall

“Never, never, never give up.”

For Walker Holloway, vice president and financial advisor at Hazlett, Burt & Watson, Inc. in Wheeling, WV, this timeless quote has renewed meaning every day. He was first introduced to this empowering message as a student at The Linsly School, and since then it has become a mantra.

Growing up in Wheeling, Holloway was intrigued by the ins and outs of financial advising from watching his father, Pete, a financial advisor for Hazlett, Burt & Watson. At an early age, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“I could see how much respect people had for him and how down to earth he seemed knowing that,” he says of his father’s career.

After high school, Holloway enrolled at Rollins College in Winter Park, FL, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 2011. He then accepted a position at AXA Advisors in Orlando as one of its youngest advisors.

“It was intimidating,” he says. “I think most people associate an older person with a financial advisor and not a 22 year old. I had to build trust with prospects to get them to work with me.”

During a visit home in 2012, he had the opportunity to meet the key owners of Hazlett, Burt & Watson, who then convinced his father to allow them to recruit him. With his father’s blessing, the company made Holloway an offer he couldn’t refuse, and in 2013, he moved home to Wheeling.

“When people ask me how I like working with my dad, I tell them I learned more from him in two weeks than I did in two years on my own,” he says. “We don’t always agree, but I think it is good to work with opposing perspectives.”

Holloway places high importance on finding new solutions to financial planning based on the bigger picture of economic changes.

“I love that my job forces me to learn constantly,” he says. “There is a cause and effect for pretty much anything that happens in the government or private sector. I truly enjoy reading the news and then working through the impact it will have on the markets and our clients.”

Similar to his work in financial planning, Holloway approaches community service with a mentality of creativity and variety. He serves to promote programs in arts, nature and historical preservation as a board member of the Oglebay Institute and Wheeling Heritage and participates in local fundraisers as a member of the Rotary Club of Wheeling.

Health care is also a focus of Holloway’s community service. He is a board member of Ohio Valley Medical Center Auxiliary, a nonprofit that holds health-centered events in the Ohio Valley, and vice president of the board for St. John’s Home for Children, a temporary home for abused and neglected boys in West Virginia.

In keeping with his personal values of determination and creativity, Holloway has not been afraid to step outside his comfort zone for charity events. Every year, he plays in a charity basketball game for Bethlehem Apostolic Temple that pits the local celebrity team against a Harlem Globetrotters-style act. In 2015, he was a contestant in the Augusta Levy Learning Center’s Dancing with the Ohio Valley Stars fundraiser, which led to a new-found interest in ballroom dancing and subsequent dance lessons. Now he participates in the event as an instructor, choreographing, teaching and performing with an event star.

“I want this area to do well, which means we must put in more effort,” he says. “It’s more than donating money—it’s rewarding to see how the time and effort spent on a project help our community.”

Fortunately for his clients, this Wheeling native who once dreamed of being a professional wrestler says his physique was built more for the financial realm. His office is the wrestling ring and every challenge a new opponent.

“I am a competitive person, and I love working with people,” he says. “Every client is unique in some way, and I enjoy guiding them to financial success.”