I built it for them.
Now I build it for mine.
I climbed to Managing Director, North America at an international planning firm I'm proud of — alongside people I'd stand next to anywhere. This week I'm opening a new front: one for me and the people I love, where I get to be Joshua, loudly. Here's the why.
Joshua Herrington is an Air Force veteran turned coordinator of risk planning and introducer of specialists — writer and builder. He is not a financial advisor: he coordinates the guarantees and brings the right experts to the family's table, the "hive" he writes about. He rose to Managing Director, North America at an international financial-planning firm serving ultra-high-net-worth families across borders — where he led distribution, ran a university internship program, and led global study groups on AI for financial advisors — then left to build his own front: IMUA. That front is three things made in public: The Values Project, a book written in real time; working tools that demonstrate his methodology; and risk planning built on guarantees for the middle class, the mass affluent, and the next-door millionaire. He sits on the NAIFA National AI Task Force and is an MDRT Court of the Table member (2026) and MDRT EDGE 2026 invited speaker. A check, not a maybe. Imua — forward.
From the missile field to the Court of the Table
I left home at twelve and have been building myself ever since — a ranch, the United States Air Force, a kitchen, a sales floor. The Air Force gave me a standard and a set of men who held it. The rest I earned the hard way.
I tasted the world — Japan, Europe, Canada — and came home to serve the people who build this country. What I do now is move people, money, and systems forward, and I write it all down as it happens. Not the polished retrospective. The field notes of someone still in it.
What I built
As Managing Director, North America, I lead distribution for an international financial-planning firm that serves ultra-high-net-worth families whose lives and wealth cross borders — work that reaches across Europe, the Gulf, and Korea. I advise the advisors who serve some of the most internationally connected families in the world.
I lead a team of six and a year-round program of twenty interns drawn from USC, Cal Poly, and UCLA. I qualified MDRT and reached Court of the Table. I build the tools my advisors plan and sell with, and I coach the conversations that win the business. By every external measure, I made it.
A hero of two worlds
Lafayette was a rich kid, orphaned young, who sailed to a country that wasn't his and gave it everything — money, partnerships, years in the field — to help it be born. Then, when he'd gathered all he needed and become a tested man, he went home and did it for his own.
That's the move I'm making. I climbed to the top of a firm I believe in, with people I'd follow anywhere, and I learned how to move people, money, and systems forward at the highest level. I'm grateful for every mile of it — it's the climb that made me ready.
Now it's time for a new front. One for me and the people I love. I carry the one rule I've never bent — do what you say, say what you'll do, maybe more, never less — onto ground I finally get to define myself.
He gave a country its birth — then went home and did it for his. New front, buddy.
What's next
I'm building it on me. A book — IMUA, written as it happens. A set of working tools that show exactly how I operate as a sales executive. A site that says plainly who I am and what I stand for. This is that — and it's only the beginning.
Press & Media
If you want the story in my own voice, start with the podcast. The rest is where my work shows up in the field.
“Leveraging Military Fortitude in Financial Services”
In someone else's words
Joshua is the epitome of the word humble — a reliable, helpful, and humble servant leader.
I looked up the definition of humble, and in my experience working with Joshua, he is the epitome of the word. Joshua has always been available, always been knowledgeable, and guided me with assisting clients better.
He has often shared how proud he is of his family, his friends, and his coworkers. He often speaks to how he wants to help the people in his life prevail in their own lives. I have often been surprised at many of Joshua's personal and professional accomplishments, as he humbly does not share them unless asked. He chooses to focus on how he can assist others.
Many of you may know that Joshua is a veteran and served in the U.S. Air Force. The armed forces teach the concept of servant leadership — a philosophy where a leader's primary goal is to serve and empower others, rather than accumulate personal power.
With my own background in the U.S. Army, as a public-safety member and in financial services, I have been careful who I recommend. In my entire career this is only the 3rd recommendation I have written — and each I requested to provide. Joshua did not ask me; I asked him if I could. I believe Joshua has proven himself to be a reliable, helpful, and humble servant leader.
What it's for
I have a blended family and a narrow window to be present for it — a little girl who's started calling me dad, two dogs, and a lot of road. I figured out what matters in time to still spend it where it matters.
The debt stops here — for my kids, and for me.
Guided by five values: Mahalo · Aloha · Ohana · Pono · Imua.