Financial Planner Search

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Bill Davis, founder of Stance Capital, makes the case that values-aligned investing isn't a sacrifice trade — and anyone who tells you otherwise is doing "performative theater." Two-thirds of his career had nothing to do with financial services: he built a database marketing company in his mid-twenties, ran a venture-backed renewable energy firm for seven years, and only stumbled into finance in 2010 when a college friend asked for help launching an asset management firm. That outside-in path shaped his conviction that every business runs on the same drivers — hire good people, build something you stand behind, deliver it consistently at a fair price, treat clients well.

Bill gets into why the next generation of investors is fundamentally different from their parents, why the old stat that advisors lose two-thirds of clients at generational wealth transfer could become 95% for advisors who can't speak to values-aligned investing, and how Stance measures what companies actually do rather than what they say in sustainability reports. He also walks through the Section 351 exchange — a way advisors can move concentrated single-stock positions into a diversified ETF without triggering a taxable event — and why a boutique manager's hardest fight is simply competing against scale.

Takeaways

* Values-aligned investing doesn't require sacrificing performance — the trade-off is a myth

* The next generation of clients wants to personalize their investments, and it transcends politics

* "Measure what companies do, not what they say" — getting to ground truth on greenwashing

* The Section 351 exchange: solving concentrated position risk without a taxable event

* A boutique's hardest fight is competing against scale, not against ideas

Chapters

* 00:00 Stance Capital and values-aligned investing

* 01:12 From database marketing to renewable energy to finance

* 06:41 The same drivers run every business

* 07:20 The next generation of investors is different

* 09:51 The 2/3-to-95% generational wealth transfer problem

* 12:27 Who's a great fit to work with Stance

* 14:45 When off-the-shelf solutions stop being enough

* 18:14 Fear of losing clients and fear of not winning them

* 20:06 How advisors find Stance

* 22:09 ESG under attack — and why assets still quadrupled

* 23:03 "Measure what companies do, not what they say"

* 26:39 What happens when a company doesn't fit the criteria

* 28:44 The challenge of competing against scale

* 30:08 The 30-minute first conversation and what comes after

* 35:20 The Section 351 exchange: solving concentrated position risk

* 37:31 Values-based investing isn't going away

You can find them at: https://www.stancecap.com

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #ESG #valuesinvesting #sustainableinvesting

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, David Wiedmeyer, founder of KLD Wealth and a CFP based in Lebanon, Ohio, shares how a five-dollar Arby's deal shaped his entire career. After his dad — an over-the-road trucker — was in an accident and money got tight, his mom brought home five roast beef sandwiches and doled them out among three kids. The feeling of trying to give one back to her, and her refusing, became the moment he decided no one's kids should ever feel that way again — and it's the engine behind a fee-only RIA built for people the big wirehouses tend to ignore.

David gets into why he specializes in millennials and Gen X, the subscription "validator" model versus the AUM "delegator" model, and how his team's blue-collar roots help them connect with federal employees near Wright-Patterson and Fort Knox. He walks through the KLD Total Wealth Process — from a 20-minute intro call to a "sleep on it" meeting to seasonal reviews that cover cash flow, tax returns, risk management, and year-end tax planning — and shares two recent tax-planning wins: a ChatGPT-prompted cleanup of botched backdoor Roth conversions, and a couple of engineers under 30 who were starving themselves of "life credits" by over-funding Roth.

Takeaways

* Why the advice is needed younger, not older — and how a subscription model serves that

* Validators vs. delegators: two client mindsets, one onboarding process

* Blue-collar and federal-employee niches built on shared background, not just geography

* Tax planning as the entry point: backdoor Roth fixes and the three-buckets conversation

* A seasonal cadence (winter, spring, summer, fall) that keeps planning proactive instead of reactive

Chapters

* 00:00 The Arby's five-for-five origin story

* 04:28 From Mass Mutual and Merrill to launching KLD Wealth

* 07:07 "Money Squirrel" and meeting clients where they are

* 10:03 Validators vs. delegators

* 11:30 Why blue-collar workers and federal employees

* 15:13 What keeps clients up at night: retirement and taxes

* 16:44 Two tax-planning wins: the ChatGPT client and the engineer couple

* 21:46 Who David won't work with — and the website filters that made it stick

* 27:18 Vision: 150 households and a capped advisor bench

* 30:04 Shout-outs: Hazel (Altruist) and Right Capital

* 31:48 The KLD Total Wealth Process and seasonal reviews

* 37:10 Where to start: KLDwealth.com

You can find them at: https://kldwealth.com

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #taxplanning #feeonly #bluecollar

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Melissa Yano, a CFP at Capital Wealth Planner, talks with business owners whose companies are already working and who still do not have an answer for what happens if they are suddenly gone.

She works with closely held businesses, often a solo owner or a couple, usually up to about $15 million in revenue. People come to her when cash is piling up, a colleague has just sold, or last year's tax bill made them choke. A CPA can tell them what already happened. Melissa looks at what is next: how they pay themselves, whether the business could stand without them, and what they are actually moving toward if they ever step away. She will also say it plainly. If you die and nothing is set up, there may be nothing left for your family, your business, or your employees. Her husband cringes. She says it anyway.

If you are married, she wants the spouse who is not the money person in the room. She grew up without much money or financial literacy, and she does not think a CFP designation makes her the only one allowed to understand the picture.

Takeaways

Why "the business is fine" and "I still don't know the next step" show up in the same first meeting

What changes when someone looks forward instead of waiting for the tax return

The surprise of a bigger net worth than the owner thought, and cash they still do not know what to do with

Why she says the quiet part out loud: if you die, there may be nothing left

What you are moving toward after a sale, so you do not spend the first year bored and hard on the people at home

Chapters

00:00 From larger family wealth to smaller business owners

02:15 Who shows up, and what they ask first

03:46 What a CPA already did, and what is still open

05:56 Cash, an advisor they have not talked to, and a bigger net worth than they thought

07:39 How an owner knows it is time

10:06 Direct, and the spouse stays in the conversation

11:46 "If you die, there is nothing left here"

13:58 Putting the pieces of the puzzle together

16:30 What you are moving toward after you sell

20:37 Where to find her

You can find them at: https://capitalwealthplanner.com

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #businessowners #smallbusiness

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Gary Preisser, Managing Partner of Stonebriar Wealth Advisors, explains what he calls functional wealth. Most of his clients are retirees, or close to it, and he spends a lot of time reminding them that every dollar they have is going to be spent by somebody. It might as well be them.

Gary came up through tax preparation and small-business consulting, where the useful question was always cash flow. He was surprised, once he entered this industry, to find the first conversation was a sheet of questions about feelings and risk. His process runs the other direction. Start with why the money exists. That tells you when it is needed. The investments follow the timing. Money needed in six months does not belong in the market, and it does not belong in a 12-month CD that will not be there when the bill shows up.

He also walks through what a "good" return actually means. A 7% year sounds fine until someone took half the market's volatility in a year the market was up 20%. His business partner Shay compares that to paying for a dozen eggs and opening the carton to find nine. Later he talks about the widow's tax trap, the ants in Aesop's fable who saved the food so they could eat it, and a 96-year-old client he keeps telling to spend more. His longer aim is to get other advisors to start with purpose before they ever talk about a product.

Takeaways

Every dollar already has a job, and the job is not to sit on a statement

A conservative return can still be a bad year if it lagged what that level of risk should have earned

The useful tax question is when to pay, while the lower brackets are still open

Saving for decades does not finish the plan. Someone still has to use the money

Purpose, then timing, then the portfolio

Chapters

00:00 Wealth is a tool, not a trophy

01:48 The $10,000 refund that was a loan to the government

04:11 Start with why, then decide when the money is needed

08:22 The real worry is not running out

13:45 Nine eggs instead of twelve

16:27 The widow's tax trap

21:32 The ants were supposed to eat the food

27:31 Clients who say "just take care of it"

32:28 The surgeon, the scalpels, and a backwards industry

37:38 The first appointment, and what a quarterly meeting is actually for

You can find them at: https://www.stonebriarwealthadvisors.com/

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #retirement #taxes

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Donny Stewart, CFP and partner at Swan Wealth Management, discusses what people are really asking when they say, "Am I okay?"

He and his partners, TJ Bruce and Mike Mahalich, met on the Regis University golf team, spent years on the institutional side, and later bought a book in Edina full of retirees and people close to it. Every client and every dollar at Swan is split three ways. You meet all three. You end up calling the one you click with, and you still reach an owner. Donny's problem with a 94% "probability of success" is that nobody knows what the other 6% is. He puts it as a chance of eating cat food. He would rather show a monthly amount you can spend, with guardrails if things run hot or cold. The younger households look different and sound the same. Late thirties, kids, a full calendar, wondering if they are saving the right amount in the right place. Sometimes the sign it's working is a call about how to pay the nanny.

The other half of the job starts when the paycheck stops. Donny calls it the psychology of retirement. For six to eighteen months it can feel like every day is Saturday. Give that stretch a purpose, or the feeling fades. Purpose, he says, is power.

Takeaways

• "Am I okay?" gets a monthly number, not a probability
• Three owners on every client, and you call the one you actually like
• A 94% success score still doesn't say what you can spend
• The first year off work fades if there's nothing to get up for
• If the question has a dollar sign on it, they want the call

Chapters

• 00:00 Three college teammates, one firm
• 07:12 You always reach an owner
• 18:16 Two kinds of people, one question
• 20:20 The 6% that sounds like cat food
• 26:21 A nanny, and a man who could stop next year
• 32:35 Purpose is power
• 44:11 A chatbot in a scuba suit
• 49:32 Sleep well at night
• 55:22 How to reach Swan

You can find them at: https://swanwm.com/

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #retirement #purpose

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Bridget Grimes, founder of Wealth Choice, talks about the women who make the money, carry the family, and still do not have five minutes for a plan. The firm is about to turn ten.

Bridget was a hedge-fund trader, then a pastry chef for a decade. During her divorce, her house in San Diego burned down. Her two closest friends, a hand surgeon and a woman running a media company, lost their houses in the same stretch and were going through divorces too. None of them had a plan. Bridget had let her husband pay the bills. In the divorce she split debt she did not know existed. Her surgeon friend had the water turned off more than once, because there was no time to pay it between the operating room and her son. That is who Wealth Choice is for. Bridget calls them breadwinner women: executives, law-firm partners, founders, and women in tech. They may have a spouse. The weight still sits with them.

She will not take someone on until she has spent unpaid time on the numbers and on what that woman actually wants her life to look like. A recent client retired at 51 with the money sitting in two companies and no idea where to start. A CEO who had built her company for 25 years got an offer during COVID. Bridget told her to walk away. It was a lot of money. It was not enough, and it would have sold her out of her own identity. Six months later a better offer came. Two years on, she is almost through the earnout, and it took that long to feel okay. Another couple, 71 and 65, could have stopped years ago. They retired in July. The next Monday he missed their meeting because he forgot it was Monday. Bridget’s line is that the question is not “can I afford to retire?” It is “can I retire?”

Takeaways

• Why a divorce and a house fire sent her back to serve women who look like her
• What it looks like when a successful woman has the money and nowhere to start
• Why she told a CEO to turn down a sale that was still a lot of money
• The gap between being able to afford to stop and being okay with stopping
• Who she refers out: people who want to keep doing it their own way

Chapters

• 00:00 Breadwinner Women
• 01:04 The Fire, the Divorce, and No Plan
• 05:46 Retired at 51, Money in Two Stocks
• 08:29 She Will Not Say Yes on the First Call
• 15:03 How She Gets Paid, and Who She Serves
• 18:05 Walk Away From the Offer
• 23:17 He Forgot It Was Monday
• 26:07 Who She Will Not Take
• 28:36 Marnie and Rising Professionals
• 32:27 The Best, Not the Biggest

Chapter labels follow the transcript. No Riverside chapter sheet was provided.

You can find them at: https://www.wealthchoice.com/

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #breadwinnerwomen #womeninbusiness

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, JD Ramirez, who leads RAM Capital Group, talks about what changes when a business owner stops running the company by default.

JD grew up in his family’s wine business in Colombia. By eight or nine he was around the vineyard. He was not tasting the wine. He was watching his parents turn grapes into something people wanted, then put the money back into the company, the employees, and the next season. That is still his standard. If he says he will do something, he treats it like a signed contract, and he expects his team to leave a client better than they found them. His phrase for the work is live by design, not by default.

Most of the people who come to him already own the business. Restaurants, stores, healthcare practices, law firms, companies they have been building for five or ten years. They usually show up with a structure in place. The first pass is a hard look at what is actually there. His favorite recent conversation was a couple in Atlanta who had spent 45 years building a manufacturing company after moving from Mexico with three children. Nobody had asked what they wanted to happen to the company, how it would move to the next generation, or how they might share some of it with the executives they already treat like family. Another company in South Florida went from about 10 employees to about 680 after a reward program that went past salary and a bonus: performance measures, a path toward equity, schooling, and even a daycare at the workplace so parents could have lunch with their kids. He will not take an owner who will not be coached. If the advice sits unused, he would rather walk away.

Takeaways

- What a childhood in a family wine business still requires of his word

- Why “live by design, not by default” starts with questions the owner has not been asked

- How a 45-year company opened up once someone asked about the next generation and the people they treat like family

- What kept employees at a South Florida company as it grew from about 10 people to about 680

- Who he turns away: owners who will not act on the coaching

Chapters

00:00 A Family Wine Business in Colombia

04:37 Your Word Is the Contract

06:48 Live by Design, Not by Default

09:40 Forty-Five Years, and Nobody Asked

15:02 Taxes, If I’m Gone, and Getting My Time Back

17:38 Past Salary and a 401(k)

24:04 If You Are Not Coachable

28:24 Seven to Ten Offices

37:46 The First Year

39:57 Where to Find JD

You can find them at: https://www.ramcapitalgroup.com/

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #businessowners #succession

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, James Roberts, founder of Intentional, talks about what is left after the title and the income are already there.

He entered the business in 2007 because he wanted to get rich. Within three years his brother was diagnosed with cancer, he nearly died in a car accident, and his third son was the 46th child born with a rare genetic syndrome. The work he had been doing, telling people whether they could hit a retirement age and handing them a plan that looked like everyone else's, stopped feeling honest. He noticed that clients who were unhappy while they worked were still unhappy once they got there. Intentional exists to connect purpose to wealth in a way you can actually see in the accounts.

The doorway is a 30-minute Wealth Identity Assessment. It reads 190 points and, before James asks a question, describes how someone feels about earning, saving, spending, and growing money. He also learns whether they think, feel, or act first, and the advice follows that order. A widow who inherited money and only wanted her husband back started in municipal bonds she could understand. A year of teaching later, she held stocks and private equity because she understood them. An HVAC owner in Maryland was ready to sell the company he had been given at 23 so three children could inherit evenly. His 50-year-old son was already running it. James asked what would change if the father said so out loud. The son took the company, later tripled it, and still tells James the gift was his father's confidence. James's line on that story: an extra 3% a year would not have changed those four lives.

Takeaways

- Why three personal crises ended the "know your number" version of his practice

- How a 30-minute assessment describes your relationship with money before you answer a question

- What changes when he knows whether you think, feel, or act first

- A succession where the lasting gift was a father's confidence

- Who he turns away: closed to looking at themselves, and only interested in this year's return

Chapters

00:00 Three Years That Changed the Practice

03:10 The Wealth Identity Assessment

04:15 Bonds She Could Understand

08:43 Think, Feel, or Act First

13:26 The One-Drink Rule

14:59 Who He Will Not Take

18:39 The HVAC Owner and His Son

23:41 Training the Next Advisors

27:12 Mentors and the Causes That Shaped Him

29:01 The First Month with Lily

You can find them at: https://www.i10wealth.com/

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #wealthidentity #legacy

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Peter Culver, co-founder of Wealth Thrive, talks about using taxes as the front door to something bigger: a life rich beyond money. He and his partner work with entrepreneurs, typically people earning around a million a year, or sitting on a liquidity event of that size, who already feel the tax bill in their gut and sense their CPA is only adding up the numbers, not showing them a better way.

Peter did not start here. He spent 12 years as a lawyer, then walked across the street from a firm with a library and fancy furniture to run a startup from a card table. The work flipped his week: less paper, more people. That same instinct shows up with clients heading into a sale. The easy part, he says, is the math. The harder part is what happens when the “CEO” sign comes off your forehead, like the Arizona client who sold for eight figures and then said he was depressed, because nobody at Walmart knew who he was. Wealth Thrive’s process is Discover, Design, Deploy: a short questionnaire and a first tax projection, then a handful of ideas ranked by dollars, time, complexity, and comfort, then they walk the client through implementation. In the right case, they can even go back in time and recover taxes already paid.

Takeaways

Taxes as the front door to a richer life, not the whole story

Why a silent CPA leaves successful owners guessing

Who you are after you sell the business

Discover, Design, Deploy — from first numbers to implementation

Going back in time for refunds of taxes already paid

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Wealth Thrive

01:23 From the law firm to the card table

04:44 The entrepreneurs they work with

07:36 What keeps clients up at night

14:30 Life after you sell the business

19:49 Discover, Design, Deploy

29:45 How to get in touch

You can find them at: http://www.wealthrive.com/

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #entrepreneurs #businessexit

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Frank Legan, a financial advisor with 26 years in the business and founder of his own independent practice, discusses his "humanity-driven" approach to financial planning and why he believes you can't build a meaningful plan from a spreadsheet alone.

Frank started his career at a wirehouse and a bank, where he learned that human nature is "undefeated" during difficult markets. The lure of independence was the chance to build something in his own image to communicate, write, and plan with clients the way he believed served them best. Today, his practice is built around the conversations that happen at the kitchen table: how a family's resources can be aligned with their hopes and dreams, not just their returns. He shares the question he asks every prospective client, borrowed from his mentor Dan Sullivan, that reveals whether someone is truly ready to do the work, and walks through his "1242" cadence for keeping clients seen and heard all year long.

Takeaways

* A humanity-driven approach puts who you are ahead of what you own

* The "three years from now" question reveals who's ready to plan

* The 1242 cadence: monthly check-ins, quarterly reports, twice-yearly in-person meetings

* Most clients leave advisors over communication, not performance

* Building a "Unique Ability Team" so everyone spends 80% of their time doing what energizes them

Chapters

* 00:00 Introduction & "Skipping Into the Office"

* 02:04 How Frank Fell Into Finance

* 04:35 The Humanity-Driven Approach

* 07:03 Who Frank Serves Best

* 09:37 What Keeps Clients Up at 2 a.m.

* 12:02 The Three-Years-From-Now Question

* 15:43 Writing for Kiplinger & The Humanity Factor Book

* 17:02 Vision: Building a Unique Ability Team

* 22:47 The Onboarding Experience

* 26:45 The 1242 Client Cadence

* 28:46 Where to Find Frank

You can find them at: https://franklegan.com

If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/

#financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #humanitydriven #clientrelationships