The management team of Independent Financial Group began with a simple premise: Transfer their years of successful financial service experience into a solid broker–dealer framework dedicated to superior services for the independent registered representative.
12671 High Bluff Drive, Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92130
(800) 269-1903 toll-free
(858) 436-3180 phone
(858) 481-9033 fax
Scott Heising has worked in the financial services industry since 1991. In March of 2003, Scott founded Independent Financial Group with the help of a small group of dedicated employees who had worked with him throughout his career. He was the Chief Financial Officer of Sentra Securities and Spelman & Co. from 1997 to 2002 and the Chief Financial Officer of SunAmerica Securities Corporation from 2000 to 2002. In addition to founding Independent Financial Group, he has started and managed an accounting practice focusing on “S” corporations.
Scott attended San Diego State University where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and in 1998, earned his CPA Certificate. He is responsible for strategic planning, financial reporting, and the operations of the organization. Scott is a Registered Financial and Operations Principal and an Investment Advisor holding FINRA series 7, 24, 27, and 65 licenses.
David Fischer has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. In that time, he has worked in a multitude of roles including wholesaling, recruiting, marketing, business development and senior management at companies such as LPL, Putnam Companies and AIG SunAmerica.
In his current role, David is responsible for all recruiting activities, branch development, corporate communications, conferences and marketing for the company.
Prior to joining Independent Financial Group as a partner, he served as Senior Vice President of National Recruiting at AIG Advisor Group, where he was responsible for directing recruiting at all six of their networked independent broker dealers. David graduated from Pepperdine University with a Bachelors Degree in Organizational Communications.
A three-month opportunity with Pershing after law school has turned into an over 20-year career in the financial services industry. With experience such as helping form Pershing Trading Company and developing the advisory platform, Sarah went to work for SunAmerica Securities, focusing on customer complaints and legal and regulatory inquiries. She then managed advertising, registration, and surveillance. Her final role there was handling the litigation docket and acting as the corporate representative during mediation and arbitration. Prior to IFG, she spent 10½ years in compliance at E*TRADE including running the regulatory inquiries group and as the Chief Compliance Officer.
Sarah graduated with a BA in Art History from Emory University and received her law degree from Seton Hall. Sarah holds FINRA series 7, 24, and 63 licenses.
Chad is a seasoned industry professional who has the knowledge and the drive we’ve been looking for to take our advisors’ business to the next level and we’re excited to see what the future holds.Chad comes to IFG after serving 29 years at Putnam Investments as Managing Director and West Regional Director. He is a proven sales and marketing leader that has hired, mentored, trained, and developed a sales team that has resulted in one of the top-performing regions for 14 consecutive years. He has a B.S. from Boston University in International Management and Finance, is a Certified Investment Management Analyst and has obtained Series 24, 7, 65, 6 and 63 licenses.
Lauren Goettsche is IFG’s Vice President of Operations. With IFG since May 2019, Lauren has been instrumental in streamlining processes related to account opening, maintenance, and closing. She has worked diligently alongside Branch Supervision in driving the adoption of Straight Through Processing and was able to launch IFG’s remote cashiering platform.
Lauren earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Iowa State University. She started her career in financial services working for Genworth Financial. Prior to working for IFG, Lauren worked as the Operations Manager of Advisory Billing and Reporting for Cetera Financial in Segundo, CA. While at Cetera, she also spent time on the Transitions team and as Supervisor of the Cashiering team.
Though newer to the broker-dealer industry, Scott Davis comes to us from Acadia Healthcare where he was CFO of their Comprehensive Treatment Division. Prior to that he was Controller of Technology & IT for YP (formerly AT&T Interactive) and held various financial leadership roles at Discovery Communications.
Scott holds an MBA in Finance from American University and is an active California CPA. He enjoys spending time with his family, playing guitar, running and cycling.
Travis Hicks joined IFG in 2007 as a Due Diligence Analyst before steadily advancing to the role of Senior Due Diligence Analyst and, by 2014, to the role of Vice President of Alternative Investments. In his role as Vice President of Alternative Investments, Travis is responsible for overseeing IFG’s alternative investments platform, including the firm’s due diligence efforts. He also works closely with the firm’s representatives in enhancing their knowledge of the products on the platform.
Richard Mireles joined Independent Financial Group as a Compliance Analyst in 2010. Later he was promoted to Supervisory Principal in the Branch Supervision Department. Prior to IFG, Mr. Mireles’s experience in Financial Services included the position of Client Planning Manager at Millennium Wealth Management under the umbrella of WFP Securities, a local San Diego Broker-Dealer in addition to sales as a Registered Representative/Investment Advisor Representative.
Richard has Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Cal State Long Beach and completed the Personal Financial Planner Program at UCLA. He holds Series 7, 66, & 24, California Life & Health, California Real Estate licenses and is certified by the California Tax Education Council for tax preparation (CRTP).
Marco Fuentes is serving as our new Corporate Director in Compliance. Marco has specialized in corporate compliance for over 27 years, and has extensive experience with independent broker-dealers. He has held compliance-related roles at J.W. Cole Advisors & J.W. Cole Financial Services, Centaurus Financial, Inc., AAA, Next Financial, First Allied Securities, and the XCU Capital Corporation. Marco graduated from Cornell University with a BA in Economics, and holds the FINRA Series 4, 7, 8, 24, 53, 63, 65, and 99 licenses, and California Life & Health Insurance license. He enjoys baking, tennis, swimming, and surfing.
Paul Larrabee is the Director of Insurance and Annuities at Independent Financial Group, LLC. Prior to joining IFG, Paul spent 21 years with Crump Life Insurance Services, Inc. He has been providing consultative services to financial advisors since 1997.
Paul’s insurance career started with Inter-Mark Financial providing point-of-sale solutions. In addition, he has also held positions at Transamerica Financial and Railroad Employees Insurance Group.
Paul holds FINRA series 6 and 63 licenses and earned his BS in Business Administration from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah.
