David B. Armstrong, CFA

President & Co-Founder

“Change almost never fails because it’s too early, but because it may be too late.”
—Seth Godin

Dave got into the industry when he discovered his passion for finance in his mid-20’s. He’s a combat veteran and served as an officer in the United States Marines Corps on both active duty and in the reserves, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. While serving on active duty, Dave was unable to spend money on deployments, so he became a self-taught investor. Along with a few bucks cash as a bouncer, his investing performance grew to be good enough to pay for an MBA, a new car and two years of living expenses. He was proud of that, so after returning home for an MBA at his alma mater, the University of South Carolina, Dave became a CFA Charterholder (because, he says, “What could possibly be more fun than spending an additional three years earning the CFA Charter? Turns out, a lot of things,” but he’s glad he got it.) and worked for large Wall Street firms.

The reason Dave co-founded Monument is because it became abundantly clear to him that the financial services industry was drowning in a sea of sameness. Real wealth planning either didn’t exist or was nothing more than a mechanism to generate an asset allocation and sell products. Creativity was nonexistent, culture was focused on shareholder profits, and advisors were accountable to sales managers, not their clients. He was unimpressed—and very, very bored. So, in May of 2008, Dave co-founded Monument Wealth Management, experiencing a very real-life example of the difficulty in market timing. Dave can name a number of reasons why someone would want to hire Monument, but he says what really stands out about us is that our razor-sharp Team has a renegade spirit and a passion for what we do–-and it shows every single day.

Dave’s military experience has a strong leadership component to it, and that has given him a great perspective on being a business owner and entrepreneur. When you’re a business owner like your clients, it makes the relationship so much more deep and meaningful. He understands when a client says he or she is worried about a cash flow situation. Or when they say they have to take money out of their account for something that is going to make more revenue for them down the road. Dave’s been there and lives that every single day just like they do.

Other than continuing to build and grow his business, Dave’s passions are spending time with his wife Sara and their dogs, cheering on the USC Gamecocks and scoring under 100 on the golf course. He’s got a whole collection of 80’s movies quotes up his sleeve ready for any situation, as well as a never-ending supply of stories about jumping out of airplanes and directing artillery strikes. When asked what areas of the world he was sent for active duty, he loves to reply, “Everywhere you’d never spend your own money to see.” His latest adventure has been section-hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, of which he recently completed over 200 miles through the California Sierra Mountains. However, he admits this interest could end at any moment, because it was “kinda hard.”