History & Qualifications

A Life Spent Investing

A love of investment strategy came early to Patrick, starting at 16 when he began picking stocks with his dad. At 18, he started his own portfolio, learning the basics of investing the hard way, and solidifying his passion to work harder to truly understand the ins and outs of investing. His pursuit led him to Bellarmine University as a double major in Accounting and Economics, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2004.

He went on to earn his Master’s and Ph.D. in Finance at Mississippi State by May of 2008. His passion extended to his first full-time teaching position at Eastern Illinois University in June of 2008, just as the financial crisis began to hit.

After the crisis hit, friends and family whose portfolios were suffering began to solicit his advice, looking for guidance after their brokers stopped taking their calls. Spending nights after class poring over the portfolios of friends whose so-called ‘investment advisers’ had abandoned them, Patrick became disillusioned with what he came to see as a fundamental conflict of interest between brokers and investors, and realized that his calling lay in a business model where the investor and adviser’s goals and priorities were aligned, not running against each other. Patrick was also stunned to see that many brokers were not implementing the findings of the academic community that he learned about in graduate school.

In his time as an educator, Patrick has continued to excel. He is a 5-time recipient of teaching awards for performance in the classroom at both Mississippi State and Eastern Illinois, and has continued his research into investment theory, publishing six peer-reviewed studies and presenting them at a number of peer-reviewed academic conferences and major universities. He has also been sourced to provide specialist materials for textbooks on finance and act as a reviewer for work in a number of academic journals. In 2014, he was granted tenure at Eastern Illinois University and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor of Finance. Patrick returned home to Louisville full-time in August of 2017, joining his undergraduate alma mater, Bellarmine University as an Associate Professor of Finance. He joined the faculty at Indiana University Southeast in August 2019 and currently works there as an Assistant Professor of Finance. Patrick also is a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal as a “WSJ Wealth Expert.” You can view his articles from The Wall Street Journal here.

Current Responsibilities

In 2011, Patrick founded Lach Financial in Louisville, Kentucky, with the hope of providing objective advice based on the principles of peer-reviewed academic research. In pursuit of this goal, Patrick has received his Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter, his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certificate, joined the Financial Planning Association and is proud to offer clients access to Dimensional Fund Advisors.