The Founders
Having been successful real estate investors in the early 1990s and 2000s, business partners David Nilssen and Jeremy Ames began looking for innovative ways to help others reach their financial goals. That desire, coupled with the uncertainly of the stock market, inspired the two to seek out ways in which investors could achieve a more secure and lucrative future. Their quest lead them to the Employee Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which, along with other legal codes, allows individuals to “self-direct” their retirement funds into a vast number of investment opportunities, including real estate, tax liens, hard money lending – and even the purchasing of a business or franchise.
Excited about the purchasing potential these “self-directed IRAs” offered, Ames and Nilssen began helping investors with their IRA-financed transactions. They soon discovered the process was long and complicated, and the documents, legal assistance and knowledge required were almost non-existent.
The Birth of a Business
Nilssen and Ames saw a need for competent support and education in the field of self-directed IRAs. Determined to meet that need, they pulled together a team of experts that would enable them to make self-directed investing simple to understand and easy to implement.
In 2003, they founded Guidant Financial Group. Together, with the assistance of CPAs, tax attorneys, real estate experts and retirement plan specialists, they perfected an account structure – the Auriga™ program – that would provide retirement account holders with checkbook-controlled self-directed IRAs. The process was streamlined, creating a unique “one-stop-shopping” service available for one flat fee. The company was an immediate success. Not only were clients able to purchase real estate with their retirement funds by simply writing a check, but profits from rental income or real estate sales could be funneled tax-deferred back into their retirement accounts. Soon clients were using the Auriga program to purchase tax liens and notes, make hard-money loans, provide private lending and to invest in everything from shrimp boats in Louisiana to forest land in New Zealand.
Audeo™ is Born
After successfully introducing the Auriga, Nilssen and Ames noticed another opportunity in the retirement account industry: accessing retirement funds to finance an entrepreneur’s business endeavors. In 2004, Ames and Nilssen developed the Audeo™ program, an account structure that enables IRA holders to invest their retirement money directly into their own businesses without early withdrawal penalties or distribution taxes. This program has become particularly popular among franchise buyers, entrepreneurs and those seeking job security through self-employment.
Together, the Auriga and Audeo have provided thousands of retirement account holders the means to access their hard-earned retirement funds for business or franchise purchases and to grow their retirement accounts quickly and securely. Whether using the Auriga to truly diversify their portfolios and secure better returns on their investments, or using the Audeo to buy the business of their dreams, Guidant clients are given the means and the freedom to make their retirement funds work for them.
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