Theresa Dilatush

Theresa will tell you that the book, “Becoming Your Own Banker” by Nelson Match, completely changed her life. After avidly reading it, Theresa tried to find a local firm to help her parents, who were small business owners, with the innovative financial strategies the book outlined. Coming up empty-handed, she summoned her courage and called Nelson himself, who suggested that maybe she should “be that expert” who would bring his strategies to Arkansas and the surrounding states.

The rest is history. She got her insurance license and incorporated New Course Financial—and Nelson became Theresa’s personal mentor.

As she built her firm and demonstrated success after success, Theresa was invited to speak each spring in Birmingham, Alabama at an elite event called “Infinite Banking Concepts (IBC) Think Tank & Symposium” which at the time was attended by some of the finest economic minds, statisticians, and tax experts in the nation. Although she no longer has ties to the group—Nelson Match passed away in 2019 at the age of 92—she still uses the strategies to help clients to this day, one of the few firms in the entire nation to do so.

Theresa Dilatush didn’t set out to become an entrepreneur. In fact, she attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville on a music scholarship, intending to get a teaching degree. A pianist from a young age, she began performing at her church at age 14 when the piano player retired. At the University of Arkansas, on scholarship she performed as part of the marching band’s color guard, and played in both the university’s jazz band and its symphony.

Though at the time she left college she said, “Teaching isn’t for me;” in fact, Theresa has been a teacher all her life. After leaving college and working in a couple of sales positions at communications firms, she met the love of her life, Andy, and they immediately fell in love, married, and eventually had five children that she home-schooled to her great delight. (Andy and Theresa just celebrated their 33rd anniversary.) It was when their youngest was old enough for kindergarten that Theresa read “Becoming Your Own Banker,” founded her own firm, started helping business owners, and began speaking annually in front of many of the nation’s economic leaders.

After working with clients of her new firm for several years—primarily small business owners—she soon realized that they needed comprehensive planning along with insurance and retirement, so Theresa began to specialize in specific areas of the financial industry that would secure the futures of her clients and their families. New Course Financial continues to leverage strategic partnerships from multiple disciplines so that they can help business owners with nearly everything. “We utilize strategic partnerships from around the nation to help business owners, families, and people with high net-worth, including tax, insurance and legal experts who work as a concierge team to set up specific trusts, tax and/or charitable strategies. We even have an IT partner,” Theresa says. “We provide absolutely everything we can to help business owners and families build and protect wealth.”

A few years ago, Theresa met Mika McFadden entirely by chance through mutual friends and the two quickly found they had similar approaches to helping clients, parallel careers, and they had even attended the same university. Ever since Mika came on board in 2019 as vice president, they have continued to grow the firm and have become a powerful professional team with complementary strengths.

In her free time, Theresa is involved with two charities that she is passionate about. The Marion Bright Foundation helps rescue human trafficking victims, providing them with housing, expenses, and help with finding jobs to get them back into mainstream society. “Human trafficking is going on everywhere, we even had a case right in our hometown,” she says. She’s also involved with the local Community Services Department which helps police keep young children and teens from disadvantaged families out of the system. “We help kids with food, counseling, tutoring—whatever they need to stay in school, graduate, and become functioning adults. When police get called out the very first time, we want to help them stay out of juvenile courts, off drugs, and off the streets,” Theresa says.

On the personal front, Theresa and “Andy from Mississippi,” as she affectionately refers to her husband, love spending time with their grown children and their spouses, as well as their first grandson, Roland, who is 5. “He is the best person in the universe. I’m pretty sure that Andy knows he’s no longer number one with me,” Theresa laughs. “I am now called ‘Gigi’ and Roland is the star of the show.”