First-generation clients drive Lampados founder Chukwudi Uraih

Chukwudi Uraih opened Lampados Financial Group, a registered investment adviser in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2021. He works primarily with first-generation professionals and immigrants seeking financial planning after rising incomes.

Uraih is 43 and formed the firm after careers in engineering, the Army Reserve and consulting. He holds an engineering degree from the University of Virginia and a master’s in mechanical engineering from Drexel University. He served in the Army Reserve and was deployed to Iraq.

Early roles included work on helicopters at Fort Eustis and work on submarines in a government role near Bethesda. He later returned to the University of Virginia for an MBA and worked on data science projects in Washington, D.C. He invested in real estate, buying a multimillion-dollar duplex in Dallas, and relocated after the pandemic.

Uraih passed the Series 65 the same year he began practicing as an adviser and launched Lampados.

Raised by Nigerian immigrant parents, he recalled learning personal finance by trial and error. “I learned about finances from making mistakes,” Uraih recalled.

He focuses on clients who are earning well but lack a clear plan for long-term finances and who often carry family responsibilities that standard advice does not address.

Lampados provides planning on retirement accounts, investment strategy and family financial matters. Uraih applies engineering modeling and systems thinking and uses a disciplined process shaped by his military service to build financial plans.

Ray Henderson, a wealth adviser who mentors Uraih, praised his ability to simplify complex topics and to combine MBA training, engineering modeling and real estate experience in client planning.

Uraih aims to grow Lampados to more than 100 clients with portfolios of at least $1 million each and to advise entrepreneurs and high earners who did not receive formal financial education at home.