On July 1, 1970, Jim Tausz started a one-person office in Eagle Grove, Iowa. The beginnings were humble as Jim worked in a 10 x 10-foot room. But it was spacious enough, he recalls...considering he had no clients.
Just one year later, the pace of business shifted enough that Jim moved the company to a rented space in Clarion, Iowa.
In 1975, the company was stable enough to move out of the rental and purchased the first building for the growing financial planning firm.
Why Clarion is Our Cornerstone
Owner Tausz said that over the 50 years of Bradford’s history, they’ve worked with clients across the nation. Having a national reach but Midwest presence always stirs up questions about “why Iowa?” and “why a town with a population of 2,700?”
The answer to that question has more to do with values and family than it does with longitude and latitude.
When Tausz graduated from college in South Dakota, he began his teaching career in Eagle Grove, Iowa.
“My wife and I lived in a trailer in nearby, Goldfield, Iowa. While I was teaching literature and grammar courses, I always knew I wanted to be in the financial industry,” said Jim, who made the switch and earned his master’s degree. “I had to start my new career in a place where people didn’t know me as ‘Jim Tausz, the teacher.’”
In those years, Jim traveled to Clarion, just nine miles from his trailer, to get his hair cut by Jerry Wolf… the only person he knew in the town. The location made perfect sense, but it also aligned with how he and his wife wanted to raise their children: in a small town with Midwest values.
Humble starts have grown Bradford Financial Center into a company threaded with small-town values and good people.
