Let's navigate the road to your financial goals together.
John F McLaughlin III
Wealth Management Advisor|CFP®, CLU®, ChFC®
Protect & provide for the people you care about the most.
Personal
John has a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Northeastern University. He volunteers and serves on the board of the Boys & Girls Club. He also serves on the foundation board of the Pittsfield Rotary Club. He is married to the former Jacqueline Duquette, and they live in Dalton with two of their four children. John is a lifelong fan of basketball - watching, playing and coaching, and also enjoys playing golf as a reliable way to cultivate humility. Jackie is a math teacher at Wahconah Regional High School, and when they're not working or volunteering, they both enjoy attending their children's sporting events, discovering new restaurants and spending time with family and friends.
Doing What I Love & Loving What I Do
”May good luck be with you Wherever you go, and your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow. May your days be many and your troubles be few, May all God's blessings descend upon you, May peace be within you, May your heart be strong, May you find what you're seeking wherever you roam.”
Sometimes, you’re lucky enough to find what you’re seeking when you roam back to the place you were born and raised.
I had moved back to the Berkshires after graduating college in Boston. My dad, a local attorney, was working with a local Northwestern Mutual advisor, and he mentioned my interest in the financial services industry. After being introduced to my dad’s advisor, I started at Northwestern Mutual in 1997. At the time, Northwestern was only offering insurance and annuities, and the investment side of the business was just getting started. The timing, for me, was perfect.
I had done internships in college where I discovered my love for investing, and my aversion to sitting in front of a screen all day at a trading desk. Becoming a financial services advisor was the perfect way to combine my desire to work with people with investing. This career gave me the perfect opportunity to combine both passions into making a positive impact while helping people manage their finances to live their best lives.
An important part of my job is to help people avoid making emotional decisions about their investments. The toughest part of my job is helping people deal with the inevitable down markets that any successful investor endures. Some days, human nature gets in the way of good decision making, especially when it comes to money. Every situation and every person is unique, which makes everyday new and different. I’ve never had a boring day at the office and people surprise me all the time. My favorite clients are the ones who are engaged and want to learn. I enjoy helping people understand the world of finance and helping them articulate and achieve their goals.
I believe the value I bring to my clients is not only my expertise in the field, but my ongoing ability and eagerness to learn more every day.
When I first started in the business, I was young and single. I met the love of my life shortly after my parents were introduced to her. Technically, they fell in love with her first, but I was lucky enough to marry her in April 2004. I not only gained a bride, but a daughter and a son.
I became a dad for the first time on October 24, 2005. A few days before my son was born, I had opened the largest investment of my career. My client wrote a check to open the account. On the day my son was born, my manager’s office left a message for me to call them immediately. I was expecting congratulations but was told I submitted a check without the client’s signature, and I had to get another one. I called the client, apologized to my bride a million times, and hopped into my car. Everything was taken care of in about an hour and my wife forgave me. Three years later, in the middle of the banking credit crisis, I became a dad for the second time, and this client’s account had lost a third of its value. She understood market fluctuation, and she stuck with me and our plan. She’s still a client and so is her daughter and her daughter’s family. That initial check has more than doubled, while helping make several real estate investments and pay for a grandson’s college education. And my bride still likes me (most days) and sometimes my teenagers still like to spend time with me.
The flexibility of this profession, notwithstanding the unsigned check issue, allows me to spend quality time with my family and volunteer in my community, and even get a golf game in now and then. I’m able to do what I love, and I love what I do. It's a great profession, but it’s not easy. I’ve been lucky enough to work for a company I respect with mentors I admire, and I’m fortunate to work with a great group of people and clients. I hope to continue working at Northwestern for a very long time – or until all my children are doing laundry in their own homes – so maybe forever.
Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.
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Professional
John has been with Northwestern Mutual since February 1997.
- Bachelor’s Degree in Finance from Northeastern University
- Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) American College
- Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®) American College
- Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®) American College
- Wealth Management Advisor Northwestern Mutual
Lending a hand in my community.
As a parent and a business owner, giving back to my community is a responsibility I take seriously. I'm happy to be able to help support our amazing local Boys & Girls Club and to be a member of the Pittsfield branch of Rotary International. And as part of Northwestern Mutual, I'm proud to help accelerate the search for better childhood cancer treatments while supporting families undergoing treatment, and survivors from late effects. Links to these worthy organizations:
Boys & Girls Club of the Berkshires
The mission of the Boys & Girls Club of the Berkshires, Inc., is to enhance the quality of life for youth as participating members of a richly diverse society. With emphasis on being socially and economically inclusive, the Boys & Girls Club of the Berkshires, Inc. helps youth to help themselves to realize their potential for growth, development, and leadership.
Rotary Club - Pittsfield, MA
Rotary is a global network of 1.4 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer (ALSF)
ALSF funds cancer research, raises awareness, and supports the families of children with cancer. Since 2012, Northwestern Mutual, its employees, and financial professionals like me have donated more than $20 million to support ALSF and fund over 400,000 research hours.
Beads of Courage
Beads of Courage is an art-in-medicine program that helps kids with cancer tell their unique treatment story through colorful beads that are symbols of their courage.
Here are my areas of expertise
Financial Planning
Insurance Protection Strategies
Life Insurance Strategies
Retirement Planning & Income Strategies
Education Planning & Funding
Disability Planning
Multigenerational Planning
Estate Planning
How Northwestern Mutual helps you live the life you want.
When people feel better about their money, good things happen—they become more confident and feel more secure. For more than 160 years, Northwestern Mutual has helped people achieve the financial flexibility they need to live more and worry less.
Being a mutual company means Northwestern Mutual reports to its clients, not Wall Street. They don't believe in chasing fads or taking undue risk for short-term gains. Instead, they take a long-term approach—both in the way we help people plan to reach their goals, and in the way they do business. This has served their clients (and mine) well through all kinds of economic ups and downs, including wars, recessions, even the recent pandemic.
It's why I'm happy to be part of a company that's in it for the long-haul and prioritizes clients over profit.
