Larn’s been kicking around financial services for more than 20 years now, so it’s fair to say he’s seen a few things.
Born and bred in Taupō, he headed off to Massey University after school before starting his career with ASB Bank in Auckland. That’s also where he met Tim. A few years, a few beers and probably a few questionable ideas later, Zest Brokers was born.
The idea behind Zest was pretty simple — give people good advice, don’t overcomplicate it, and make dealing with financial stuff a whole lot less painful.
That still sums up how Larn approaches things today.
He’s a Financial Adviser across insurance, KiwiSaver and investments, with a couple of decades of lending experience still tucked away for when it’s needed. He’s also lucky enough to lead a great bunch of advisers and support people at Zest, spending plenty of his time mentoring the team, working through the curly stuff and figuring out how Zest can keep getting better.
For Larn, financial advice isn’t really about products. It’s about understanding what someone’s trying to achieve and asking one pretty simple question:
How can we help you get there?
His style is straightforward — skip the jargon, understand what matters, come up with a plan and get on with it.
Outside of work, Larn is Dad to three boys, so there’s not a lot of sitting around. He helps coach their football, loves skiing, mountain biking, getting out on Lake Taupō and disappearing on his motorbike when he gets the chance.
The basketball boots have finally been hung up. These days he’d much rather be on the sideline coaching, up the mountain, out on the lake and having adventures with his boys.
