Ray Lent
Founder
Registered Investment Advisor
Chartered Life Underwriter

The year was 1930, eight months after the Mohawk iron workers drove home the last rivet at 40 Wall Street, then the world’s tallest building. Ray’s grandfather was busy leasing the two million square feet of office space just created. Years later, Ray’s uncle was traveling the country as a federal bank examiner, later to become the president of a regional chain of commercial banks. It’s not a stretch to say that Ray was born into a family engaged in finance. Fast forward a couple of decades. Right out of college, like family members before him, Ray began to carve his own path in the investment world. Starting as a risk management trainee for America’s oldest mutual life insurer, Ray moved to San Francisco, with the hereditary instinct of one day starting his own firm.

Within a decade, Ray’s career was prospering. He earned the Chartered Life Underwriter’s (CLU) designation from the American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, by successfully completing the 10-part CLU curriculum (Social Security law, pension and retirement planning, portfolio analysis, economics, stock option strategies, estate and gift tax, income taxation, business insurance, and life and health insurance). With his entertaining style of speech and his credentials firmly established, Ray soon became a sought-after public speaker. The time was now ripe for Ray to fulfill the dream of establishing his own firm. The Putney Financial Group, a Registered Investment Advisory firm, was then founded to provide an environment where the collaborative financial planning process engaging both advisor and client flourished. The process retains objectivity while providing clients with unbiased advice, tailored to their individual needs.

Ray Lent on KRON-4 TV

The question is often raised, “Where did the name Putney come from?” The Putney Financial Group takes its name from the small pre-revolutionary war town of Putney, Vermont. Ray has often said, “It’s where I learned early in life the importance of self-reliance, thrift and dependability.”