Hard Work: A Lesson Learned and Taught

By Carolanne Roberts

Photo by Russ Houston

During his MSU years, as Jerry Toney looked forward at life’s possibilities, he knew a couple of things: he wouldn’t wear a tie or work at a bank. Now, he does both – most successfully – as Senior Wealth Advisor for Cadence Investment Services, Mississippi President of Cadence Bank and Program Manager for Investment/Financial Planning for Cadence’s five-state footprint.

“I was the typical student who didn’t know what I wanted to do,” says the Grenada, MS, native who majored in real estate, finance and economics. “And I probably wasn’t the best student, but I say this all the time: I’d rather be a C student who works hard than an A student who feels entitled.”

Toney, the first in his family to attend college, was hardly entitled, and he definitely worked hard, both in classes and in outside jobs needed to pay tuition. As a senior, Toney volunteered to intern without salary at a local bank to explore that world.

“I approached them and said, ‘Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it,’” he recalls.

Then, as the first stop out of college, he joined Cadence Bank’s trust division. After two and a half years came the opportunity to start the bank’s first financial planning division, and the stage was set.

This is the moment where Toney’s voice slightly changes, taking on layers of excitement and pride. The new Cadence division quickly clicked into place.

“I am excited,” he says. “The financial planning program is unique. First, it’s relationship oriented, creating long-term relationships with our clients, which adds value at every step. We’ve done a phenomenal job of understanding our clients at a very deep level, helping them get where they’re wanting to go.”

He continues, “Most of us plan everything in our lives – vacations, careers, children, education – but people don’t sit down and make financial plans. As we say, the best time to plant a tree was 50 years ago; the second-best time is today. It’s never too early or too late. We excel because we help our clients look at the whole picture – the tax analysis, the estate analysis, health and disability insurance and basically a comprehensive view of everything.”

With 20 distinguished years at Cadence behind him, Toney has got plenty to share. And though he sits on 14 boards and committees – “good for community involvement,” he says – he finds time each fall to teach a financial planning class in the College of Business.

“I think the value I bring is real world experience,” says the Adjunct Lecturer, who began teaching in the fall of 2013. “I put a favorite quote from Derek Jeter on my syllabus: ‘There may be people who have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.’”

In addition to adding practice to theory, Toney hones in on the hard-work ethic. And he expects performance.

“It’s my job to deliver the material and their job to receive it,” he states. “In the real world that’s what will be expected. Your boss will give you a project, then get out of your way to see how you handle it.”

He understands expectation first-hand.

“My parents were determined that I would go to college,” Toney says. “Once when I expressed doubts, my father got me a job climbing up telephone poles to install cable, and I quickly decided college was a good idea. I had determination and drive, and I believed that if you worked hard enough you could do anything.”

As a lecturer, he can assess today’s students in that same light.

“The students are responsible, they want to learn and they ask a lot of questions,” he says of the upper level course. “It’s more engaging than I thought it would be, more a conversation than a lecture. Sometimes at the end of a semester I’ll get an email saying now they know what they’re going to do career-wise. Some stay in contact.”

The students understand that they are learning from the best, from an MSU graduate who cares about his customers, about the Golden Triangle community and its economic development and about their own futures. Most notable are Toney’s recognitions by Bank Investment Consultant, a leading financial services industry magazine. In 2015 it ranked the senior wealth advisor No. 28 of the top 50 bank advisors in the country, and in 2016, he was No. 31 among the top 100 bank advisors.

“They used my name and photo, but it’s the group behind me at the bank that deserves credit as well,” he says. “I would not have been there without them.”

Likewise, he credits his four years at State for grounding him for success.

“Mississippi State made me. I shudder to think where I would be if it weren’t for the opportunities the College of Business offered me. Not only did I receive a solid understanding of business, but as a first generation college student I also got to see a lot of things I’d never seen before.”

Today Toney lives in Starkville with wife Christan, a speech-language pathologist at Mississippi State’s T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability. They are parents of daughter Leala and son Parker. Toney, who has served as the University’s Alumni Association President, also sits on a number of community and campus boards and committees, including the Department of Finance & Economics Advisory Board and as an adjunct member of the Executive Advisory Board for the College of Business.

He returns to thoughts of those days when the world and the future were spread out before him, like a mystery waiting to be solved.

“I knew at the time that I was in college for more than a degree. I realized it would take me forward,” Toney says. “I had no idea exactly what I wanted to do, but I also knew, whatever it turned out to be, that I wanted to be the best I could possibly be at it. The hard work could get me almost anywhere as long as I put in the hours to do it.”