About
Equity Design has always had a paradoxical nature to it. Spiritual pilgrimage within the mortgage industry, teaching financial health in light of economic justice, this Anglican alongside Unitarian team has pushed the envelope for what it means to engage a community and make a living.
Officially launched in early 2007, conceptually born in 2003, founded on friendship and philosophy dating to 2001. Tony and Jared met at Reed College - Tony a chaplain and Jared a graduate student, both part of a diverse and organic community wrestling with spiritual truth and personal congruence. Coincidences mounted and soon Tony and Jared realized they could bring a fresh perspective to the reputedly base mortgage industry. Their evolution brought them to Mortgage Trust and provided them with first hand experience of how people relate to money, housing and community and the systems of economic injustice prevalent in our society. Equity Design arose as the expression of the many contradictions and parallels woven among life’s variables.
Equity Design operates within a holistic paradigm, realizing that finances relate to all areas of our lives, just as spirituality, our physical, mental and emotional selves, and our relationships do. With passions to understand and fully embrace our culture and driven to change the stories by which we live, Tony and Jared’s mission has been to build communities of resilience, empowering people in self-actualization. Necessarily so, the work of Equity Design transcends the mortgage and financial services industries, seeking to serve our community with an integrated approach.
After many years in the mortgage industry, including one of the rockiest periods of real estate in our nation’s history, Tony and Jared are still aligned with
Mortgage Trust. Our personal and professional evolution has led us to much more of a partnering business model that allows us to better care for our clients, drawing upon the tremendous resources of our colleagues and the staff of Mortgage Trust. For any mortgage needs, visit our
mortgage page or
contact us. In addition to mortgage services through Mortgage Trust, the financial services of Equity Design include seminars, financial health consultations, and financial coaching and accountability.
Tony and Jared lead busy and diverse lives. As their passions extend well beyond the financial arena, so does the community they desire to build. This site is part experiment, part forum for exploring what makes our communities resilient. We hope you will join our community and partner with us in changing the story!
Tony Kriz
Relationships are at the heart of Tony’s life philosophy. Whether Tony is coaching a client through major financial decisions or building non-traditional holistic communities, Tony is able to connect on a deep level and empower others to realize their fullest potential.
Tony has been a financial coach since 2003, licensed as a mortgage banker and credentialed as a Certified Mortgage Planning Specialist. Before that he worked for 12 years in education and non-profits. Tony’s non-profit work took him around the world where he served in some of the world’s poorest and war-torn countries. As an educator Tony has taught everything from graduate classes in intercultural studies to advanced investment planning.
Tony has a B.S. in communications from Oregon State University, a M.Div. from Multnomah Bible Seminary, and is a candidate in the doctoral program at George Fox Seminary. Tony is a frequent speaker at retreats, churches, and college campuses across the country. He is also a Founding Fellow of The Institute for the Theology of Culture: New Wine, New Wineskins. Tony was recently featured in the film, Lord Save Us From Your Followers (theatrical debut Fall, 2009).
Tony lives with his wife Aimee and their three sons (Malachi, Hudson and Tristan) in Portland, Oregon. Together they have been foundational participants of several spiritual communities which serve the disillusioned, artistic and dramatically post-Christian population of East Portland, including working with Churches for the Sake of Others, an initiative of the Anglican Mission in the Americas.
Jared Gardner
Making connections, relationally and philosophically is Jared’s strong suit. Through exploring values and motivations he loves helping people make congruent financial decisions and determine their next steps in life. His passions extend to the community, our relationships to the businesses we solicit, the financial institutions we choose, and how to live according to our values.
Linguistics and International Studies at the University of Oregon led Jared through dozens of countries on five continents and formed the foundation for a social justice perspective. While obtaining a masters degree in liberal studies at Reed College, Jared managed the properties of an international foundation before entering the mortgage profession.
From his experiences in financial consulting and investing in real estate plus working with economic justice non-profits and community organizations Jared has tremendous respect for the parallels, differences and tensions between financial wealth and real wealth. He currently co-chairs the Real Wealth of Portland and the Economic Justice Action Group of the First Unitarian Church of Portland.
Jared lives with his wife Hilary and daughters Kestrel and Genevieve and son Dillon. Together they seek to live examined and congruent lives, participating in a holistic and sustainability-minded small community. His hobbies include biking, pilates, yoga, qigong, sculpting, reading, NLP, travel, and creating memories with his family.
