Mike Nakashima established Innovate Financial, Inc. in 2007. Mike is from Iowa where he graduated from of the University of Iowa (Go Hawks) His Father, Jim, was a special education teacher and his mom Dianne, raised him and his two siblings while working in retail part-time. Mike has sixteen years of financial services experience including working for TD Ameritrade, Jackson National Life and JA Counter & Associates. When Mike was 24 his father passed away. The one financial advantage of being a teacher is the pension you receive at retirement. His father was never able to experience his pension and it opened Mike's eyes to the importance of incorporating valuable employee benefits with financial planning strategies. 

When he started the firm in 2007 he studied the federal employee benefits system (FERS) and with a team of other financial planners, he helped develop strategies for using the federal employee benefits most effectively. Mike earned his Certified Financial Planner CFP^TM designation and his ChFEBC Chartered Federal Employee Benefits Consultants.