Since he was 14-years old, Karsten Jacobson had a passion for numbers and investing, even researching financial investments on his own as a high school student in Springfield, Missouri.
During a freshman-year business class, his teacher told the students to close their eyes and imagine where they would be in the future—their careers and who they would work for.
Jacobson imagined he was a financial advisor for Edward Jones, because that’s who his parents had as their advisor, and that’s who he invested with.
He also imagined the car he would drive and the clothes he would wear, and later drew a picture of himself living in Florida with a wife and three kids and a dog.
He had never been to Florida, but today Jacobson said he has realized most of his dream.
He and his wife, Daysi, live in Ponte Vedra Beach, with “four kids, zero dogs and one cat.”
He is a financial advisor for Edward Jones.
And Daysi Jacobson is an accountant, with an office a few doors down from Karsten’s, on the second floor of the Park Place building in Sawgrass Village.
Going beyond what he dared dream as a teen, Karsten’s career meshes perfectly with Daysi’s, because they are in compatible, collaborative careers.
Their jobs require different but overlapping areas of expertise in the financial services industry. Which means what they can do together, for each other and their clients, adds up to more than the sum of each part.
Especially “this time of year, when we are extremely busy, it works out really well,” Karsten said one recent day in Daysi’s office. “When she has clients who have questions that are more my wheelhouse, I can come down and answer them.”
Daysi agreed. “When they start asking questions about investments, retirements, social security benefits and financial planning, I answer—and then they start asking more in depth questions, and I’d rather they ask Karsten. I leave that to him.”
Karsten and Daysi met as students at the University of North Florida in 2015. She was majoring in accounting and finance and he was a financial services and finance major. They met during a study abroad class, while touring the wine industry in Portugal.
Karsten had come to Jacksonville with the U.S. Navy and after getting out of the service, was furthering his education to pursue his childhood dream.
Daysi, who grew up in Ecuador, came to the United States at age 21, not knowing any English but bringing along a lifelong love of numbers. She had been doing accounting since age 14 and had gone to college in her native country and majored in it.
In the U.S., she enrolled in English classes at Florida State College at Jacksonville and then set a goal to work for the Internal Revenue Service, spurred on by a friend who worked for the agency. As soon as she gained American citizenship, she applied and was accepted and ended up working for them for 10 years as a revenue agent in Jacksonville.
“I really enjoyed working for them,” Daysi said. “The tax world is fascinating, really interesting,” and to further her education, “the IRS gave me the flexibility to go to school full time.”
They married in April 2017. Both had been married before and had children, so they created a blended family with three children, and then added a fourth.
“We always had a connection working together,” Daysi said of her and Karsten. “For me, it was important to help people. When I worked for the IRS, I worked with people who were getting audited and ripped off by their accountants. They were not being advised and that’s why they were in trouble. They were scared, but there was not much I could do; I was working for the government.”
Working in his Edward Jones office in Sawgrass Village, Karsten talked to Daysi about opening her own accounting business. They talked about how wonderful it would be to have offices together—one with an expresso machine.
One day, Daysi saw a nice expresso machine at the mall and Karsten insisted on buying it, even though they didn’t have their joint office yet.
“Then everything started happening,” Daysi said. A certified public accountant a few doors down from Karsten, who had been in business for 30 years, died during tax season. His wife sought Karsten’s advice regarding his retirement accountants and asked him if he knew anyone who wanted to take over a CPA business.
It was perfect for Daysi, who specializes in tax returns, preparation and advice and tax planning for individuals and businesses.
“All of that is so intertwined,” Karsten said. “All investments have tax issues,” which he said he is knowledgeable about, “but I don’t have the knowledge of a former IRS agent. That is not my expertise, but that’s Daysi’s.”
When Karsten’s clients have questions more in depth about taxes than he can answer, he brings them to her.
“A lot of our clients say this is amazing,” Karsten said of the couple’s collaboration. For him, life with his accountant wife is literally a dream come true.
And for Daysi as well.
“It’s not about the money. It’s about educating and helping people succeed financially,” Daysi said. “It’s always nice that we had this vision.”
Photo by Maggie FitzRoy
