Lance has been part of the Ashton Thomas family since 2018. He leads the firm’s Summerlin/Las Vegas, Nevada, office and has been chair of the firm’s internal Advisor Council since 2019.
Prior to joining the firm, Lance managed his own practice at Capital Insight Partners. Earlier in his career, he was with Merrill Lynch in Las Vegas as a financial advisor.
Lance is a native of the Salt Lake City metro area. His mother had roots in Edmonton, Alberta and his father hailed from California. Because the family owned a recognized commercial electrical contracting company in Utah, Lance grew up learning the value of hard work and entrepreneurship first-hand.
A former commercial banker and participant in numerous business sales and mergers over the years, Lance possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience in the small and family-owned business space, with a particular emphasis on construction, real estate, engineering, and light industrial operations. Today, Lance applies that knowledge to C-suite clients who are transitioning from one phase of life to another, monetizing their life’s work, and carefully planning for the effective deployment of their capital. Lance is particularly adept at bringing together capable teams of allied professionals to assist his entrepreneurial clients with valuation, transaction structuring, funding, and related advisory needs leading up to and through the business sale transaction. He is equally capable on the other side of the transaction in putting together the resources needed for a client’s investment portfolio, tax mitigation, and estate and philanthropic needs, as well.
“My clients have complex needs before they sell their business and afterward,” says Lance. “My goal is to purposefully understand each client’s situation and make sure we have the right people in the right seats at the table at the right time. No business sale ever goes completely according to plan, but so many potential pitfalls can be avoiding through experience and attention to detail. I am their eyes and ears through the whole process.”
Lance has been privileged to serve on the board of directors of St. Jude’s Ranch for Children in Nevada since 2016. He is currently chairman of the board for this vital nonprofit organization focused on proactively helping at-risk children. “St. Judes is doing such massively importantly work in the lives of children who have gone overlooked by much of society,” states Lance. “I’m so fortunate to work alongside these wonderful people who care so much and work so hard for these kids. Everyone deserves a chance at a life of love and happiness.”
An avid Golden Knights fan, much of Lance’s life has been built around the sport of ice hockey. He played junior hockey in high school and then spent time on a semi-professional team in Sweden in lieu of playing USHL Junior A hockey. “Not a bad tradeoff,” he states, recalling his time in Europe as a teen. Lance attended the University of Arizona where he played club hockey and was captain of the team, but received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Northern Arizona University. Although he did not go on to play professional hockey after graduating, his love of hockey would translate into a lifetime of dedication to the sport as a youth coach, mentor, and sponsor of clubs and players throughout the western half of the U.S., including his two sons.
In addition to his love of ice hockey, Lance is an avid outdoorsman who currently splits his time between Las Vegas and Scottsdale, Arizona. He is been married to Tara, a former cheerleader for the UofA ice hockey team and former interior designer. They have three children together, one of whom is currently employed by Ashton Thomas in the firm’s Scottsdale headquarters.
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