Financial Planner Search

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Eli Mikel, founder of Clockwise Capital, discusses why every person is on a path to becoming a business owner, whether they know it or not.

Built in 2017 around the idea that every season is not created equal, Clockwise pairs business owners with an AI named Kronos and a curated network of independent financial advisors who stress-test both their portfolios and their business plans against the cycles ahead.

Eli walks through the shift he sees happening as AI disrupts labor: the work that used to take a generation to absorb now happens in two years, and the people who come out ahead are the ones who reorient themselves from selling their time to owning capital. He shares the Clockwise onboarding process, the "time portfolios" built to be cycle-aware instead of cycle-agnostic, and the personal reason he's aiming to convert one million business owners by 2035.

Takeaways

* Why AI disruption is an invitation to become an owner, not a threat to your job

* How Kronos AI and a human advisor work together inside one operating system

* Stress-testing portfolios against 2000, 2008, 2022, and 1929 scenarios

* Turning portfolios into paychecks across public, private, and operating businesses

* Building community as the single most important thing you can do right now

Chapters

* 00:00 Introduction to Clockwise Capital

* 02:15 The Origin Story — Cycles, Seasons, and the 2008 Crash

* 05:22 Who Clockwise Serves — Business Owners

* 08:40 Why Everyone Will Become a Business Owner

* 11:00 What's Keeping Clients Up at Night

* 16:23 Inside Kronos — Eli as His Own Client

* 18:29 The Cashier and the Kiosk

* 20:14 Vision — One Million Business Owners by 2035

* 26:34 The Clockwise Onboarding Process

* 33:30 Embracing the Most Impressive Moment to Be Alive

You can find them at: https://clockwisecapital.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 #AI #cashflow

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Bill Bloom, founder of Bloom Financial, shares his "Retire as You Desire" philosophy, helping clients plan for their money to last to age 100 while rediscovering purpose before they stop working.

Bill's path started with childhood money scarcity and a college professor who pulled up in a Cadillac Escalade in West Virginia, a sign that he could figure this out too. He launched Bloom Financial at 28 after six years at Prudential, lost every client to a non-compete, and rebuilt from $24,000 in net revenue his first year.

That scrappy beginning shaped a practice built on family-first relationships, tough conversations, and planning that goes far past the numbers into the soul of retirement. Bill walks through the four phases of retirement, the free Retire with Purpose course he built to help people avoid the "lost" phase, and why he tells clients to plan for 100 even when no one in their family has lived past 75.

Takeaways

* Plan for your money to last to age 100 and let your beliefs catch up to the math

* Retirement has four phases; purpose (not the portfolio) is what falls apart in phase two

* A family-first approach means tough conversations, not fluff

* The Retire with Purpose course helps couples map time, health, and meaning before they retire

Chapters

* 00:00 Retire as You Desire

* 02:31 The Cadillac in West Virginia, origin story

* 04:24 Prudential in 2008, and leaping into Bloom Financial

* 06:47 Who finds Bloom Financial, the family-first approach

* 09:32 Herman Miller, and learning from the veterans at lunch

* 11:36 First meetings, childhood money stories and the "why"

* 13:45 A tough conversation with a widow and two houses

* 16:41 Giving retirees "pay raises" and planning for inflation

* 18:02 The four-meeting client experience

* 23:00 Plan to 100, and the vision for $1B AUM

* 26:34 Shout-outs, Ozaic, Dan Sullivan, and the people who shaped the practice

* 29:04 The Retire with Purpose course, the four phases of retirement

* 33:10 How to reach Bill Bloom

You can find them at: https://www.bloomfinancialco.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 #retirementplanning #retireasyoudesire #financialplannersearch

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Leah Hadley, founder of Intentional Wealth Partners and Intentional Divorce Solutions, discusses her work supporting people through divorce and the financial transitions that come with suddenly being on your own.

Leah never planned on a career in finance. She was a burnt-out teacher drowning in student loans when she took a temp job on a trading floor and discovered there was an entire language around building and protecting wealth that nobody had ever taught her.

That humbling moment set her on a path from equity research analyst to founding her own firms in 2016. Today she helps people, most of them newly single, widowed, or freshly divorced, who are responsible for their finances for the first time and waking up at night worrying about money. Having been through her own divorce, Leah brings a rare empathy to the work, and her philosophy is simple: no two divorces are the same, so meet people where they are, give them grace and space, and remember it's their plan, not hers.

Takeaways

* Divorce financial planning is "financial planning on steroids"

* Clarity starts with getting money worries out of your head and onto paper

* A settlement is only as good as the plan behind it

* Confidence to spend matters as much as confidence to invest

* It's okay to get support — you don't have to figure it out alone

Chapters

* 00:00 Meet Leah Hadley & Her Two Companies

* 01:07 From Burnt-Out Teacher to Equity Research Analyst

* 05:50 Why Leah Specializes in Divorce

* 08:03 Who Comes to Leah for Help

* 12:36 The Woman With the Million-Dollar Settlement

* 17:45 First Steps to Get Centered

* 21:12 The Vision: It's Okay to Get Support

* 25:38 What Onboarding Looks Like

You can find them at: https://www.intentionalwealthpartners.co

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 #divorce #womenandmoney #lifetransitions

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Josh Ackerman, financial planner and second-generation owner of Context Financial in Lexington, Kentucky, discusses how he helps successful people translate a lifetime of savings into a retirement they can actually understand.

Josh's father started the firm in 2000 with a simple conviction: don't sell product, sell advice. That idea shaped everything — including a piece of coaching Josh still carries today: "two numbers and a story that connects them." It's the difference between handing a client a balance sheet and handing them something their brain knows how to process.

Josh walks through what happens when "the switch flips" and a prospective client realizes retirement is going to happen to them, why the question keeping them up at night is almost always "how do I turn this into a paycheck?", and how a post-it note on a client's refrigerator became one of his favorite planning tools.

Takeaways

• The "switch flips" when retirement stops being abstract and becomes real
• Two numbers and a story beats a balance sheet every time
• Turn a big number into a paycheck-sized number clients can actually understand
• The value of a plan is in the planning — the conversations, not the document
• Speak English, not financial
  

Chapters

• 00:00 Meet Josh Ackerman & Context Financial
• 03:29 Two Numbers and a Story: Lessons from Dad
• 07:52 Who Josh Serves — When "The Switch Flips"
• 10:23 The Question Keeping Clients Up at Night
• 13:05 Turning a Big Number Into a Paycheck
• 17:52 Where Clients Come From: Referrals
• 19:57 Vision: From 60 to 100 Households
• 23:03 The Process: Fit Meeting to Ongoing Planning
• 27:37 The Post-It Note & "The Value Is in the Planning"
• 36:07 Red Ocean vs. Blue Ocean & the Identity Conversation
• 39:12 "You Don't Talk Like a Financial Advisor"
  

You can find them at: https://www.contextfinancial.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 #retirementplanning #financiallifepanning #lexingtonky

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, David D'Albero and Carmine Coppola, co-founders of Strata Capital, talk about the moment they decided they couldn't keep working for the company instead of the client.

They met at MetLife's Premier Client Group, where the job was to sell a product and move on. They watched on a TV in the office as the news broke that they'd been sold to Mass Mutual, and when the new management told advisors to drop their planning and investment licenses and focus on "core product," that was the moment they looked at each other and knew they were leaving. Their next firm started better and ended the same way. Carmine describes a six-month stretch where he tripled his assets under management and watched his income go down, because he wouldn't sell someone a life insurance policy just to hit a goal.

Today Strata Capital works almost exclusively with Fortune 500 professionals at the VP level and up: people with complicated benefit packages nobody has explained to them, tax bills they suspect are too high, and a growing question that David says is showing up in nearly every conversation now, which is whether they can walk out of the big stressful role early and still keep the purpose and the social side of work. David and Carmine build plans around the worst case rather than the best one, run every recommendation through a tax lens, and put the whole team in the room on every client case so no one is the single point of failure.

Takeaways

* Why true independence was the only way to work for the client

* How complex corporate benefits get overlooked in most financial plans

* The rise of semi-retirement and walking away from the grind early

* Building a firm that outlasts its founders

Chapters

* 00:00 Meeting at MetLife and finding common values

* 04:19 The TV announcement that started it all

* 07:47 Who Strata Capital serves

* 11:24 What keeps clients up at night

* 12:50 The semi-retirement conversation

* 20:00 Raising the standard of advice in the industry

* 24:21 Onboarding and the war room approach

* 29:13 A year in the life of a Strata client

* 34:39 How to get in touch

You can find them at: https://www.stratacapital.co

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 #fiduciary #corporatebenefits #semiretirement

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Jack Dwyer, President of Sunpointe Investments, talks about why he left a giant consulting firm to build a practice that shines a bright light on fees and conflicts and why he thinks of advising as garden-glove work, not white-glove waiting.

Jack came to this as an Army engineer who commanded a bridge company in Iraq.

He still uses that same instinct: take the fog of war, markets, taxes, family dynamics, a job change and boil it down to what actually matters for this family. He and his partner grew Sunpointe out of family-office work at Hammond Associates and Mercer, serving established offices alongside tech entrepreneurs and even other finance professionals. One moment that meant a lot to him: a fellow CFA charterholder hired them, first for his aging parents, then for himself. The through-line is what money is supposed to carry. Jack sits with kids as young as sixth grade to talk about how markets actually work. He helps grandparents put a family mission and five core values in writing. As he puts it, pass along personal values at the same time you’re passing along account values.

Takeaways

• Garden-glove service: digging in beside families instead of waiting on them
• Pass personal values with account values
• Next-gen education as early as sixth grade
• A family playbook so you can adjust when life happens
• Even people who “could do it themselves” still hire a coach
  

Chapters

• 00:00 From Army engineer to family-office advisor
• 03:03 Why they built Sunpointe for transparency
• 07:17 Family offices, entrepreneurs, and the CFA who hired them
• 10:18 Preparing kids and grandkids for wealth
• 15:27 Family playbooks when the plan meets real life
• 21:29 Garden-glove service, not white glove
• 22:29 Building out family governance, education, and giving
• 26:52 How working together actually looks
• 30:18 Where to start a conversation
  

You can find them at: https://sunpointeinvestments.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 #familyoffice #nextgenwealth

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Andy Schelitzche, financial advisor at Manifest Planning, discusses his comprehensive, relationship-first approach to financial planning.

Based in the Minneapolis metro with a second office in the Chicagoland area, Andy and his team act as the "quarterback" for around 450 households, coordinating with CPAs and estate attorneys to solve holistic problems for their clients.

Andy explains why most people delay finding an advisor until a life event forces the conversation, and why nearly every client tells him they wish they'd started five years earlier. He pushes past the obsession with "the number" to the question he really asks clients approaching retirement: what are you going to do at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays? Along the way he covers his onboarding process, the role client events play in building referrals, and his vision for growing the next generation of advisors at Manifest Planning.

Takeaways

* Retirement readiness is about lifestyle, not just a savings number

* A financial plan is a lifelong relationship, not a transaction

* Investments are one piece — real value is coordinating every part of your financial life

* Life events are what finally move people to seek advice — don't wait

* Prioritize competing goals by understanding what each truly requires

Chapters

* 00:00 Meet Andy Schelitzche & Manifest Planning

* 03:25 Who Andy Works With & Why People Seek an Advisor

* 08:27 What Keeps Clients Up at Night

* 11:58 Building Lifelong Client Relationships

* 18:45 Where New Clients Come From

* 21:36 Vision for Growth & the Next Generation of Advisors

* 25:57 The Onboarding Process & Annual Reviews

* 32:46 How to Connect with Andy

You can find them at: www.manifestplanning.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 #retirementplanning #wealthmanagement #Minneapolis

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Ryan Staton, managing partner and co-founder of Staton Walsh, explains why the old advice to keep work and home life separate falls apart the moment you own the company. For a business owner, the two are already tangled, the succession plan is a family conversation, the balance sheet is a retirement plan, and nobody is treating them as one thing. Ryan's firm exists to put them back together.

Most of his work lives in construction: trades contractors and government contractors, largely between Philadelphia and Northern Virginia. He walks through the prevailing wage math that decides whether a contractor can afford to offer benefits at all, the fringe dollars on a public contract, the 20 to 35 cents of payroll burden riding on every dollar paid in cash, and what a company can do with that money instead. It's a technical strategy with a very human reason behind it. Ryan grew up in a blue collar household, and the line he keeps coming back to is the one he hears from guys on the job site: "I'm going to do this as long as I physically can."

He also shares how the firm measures itself. Not assets under management. The ten year goal is 20,000 people in their retirement plans, 500 families served, and 50 successful business exits. Big enough to serve the clients they have, small enough to still care.

Takeaways

* Building the bridge between business life and personal life

* Prevailing wage strategy that funds benefits instead of payroll tax

* Measuring a practice by impact, not assets under management

* A behavioral questionnaire that tailors the process to each client

* Intentional, boutique growth including a waiting list.

Chapters

* 00:00 Building the bridge between business and personal

* 02:59 An accidental origin story in wealth management

* 05:35 Why they left to start Staton Walsh

* 07:31 Staying small on purpose

* 09:44 The construction niche: trades and government contractors

* 13:53 Prevailing wage, fringe dollars, and the 25-cent problem

* 18:07 Retiring with dignity in a physically demanding trade

* 19:15 Reputation, referrals, and the ABC partnership

* 21:45 Ten year goals measured in people, not assets

* 25:10 The real bottleneck: finding advisors who share the mission

* 29:53 Discovery, strategy, implementation and the behavioral questionnaire

* 35:18 What the first 90 days and the years after look like

* 39:11 Where to find Staton Walsh

You can find them at: www.statonwalsh.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 #constructionindustry #businessexit #401k

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Michael Mezheritskiy, President of Milestone Asset Management Group, discusses why his ideal clients often know they have a tax problem but can't put it into words.

Michael left a long career at Fidelity to build a fee-only practice that lives in projections, estimated payments, Roth conversions, and Medicare IRMAA management not product sales. He works with people who are retired or close to it, typically with enough assets that the real risk isn't running out of money. It's the tax bill waiting for them at RMD age, the widow's penalty, and the ten-year rule their kids will inherit. Michael also shares how monthly tax seminars fill his pipeline, how his team set a "road to a billion" goal, and why he uses an internship program to hire for attitude before credentials.

Takeaways

* Why many near-retirees feel a tax problem before they can explain it

* Roth conversions as a way to manage RMDs, IRMAA, and family outcomes

* Front-loading the "go-go" years instead of waiting to enjoy the money

* Discovery and assessment before asking someone to commit

* Building culture with internships while aiming for a billion under management

Chapters

* 00:00 Complex tax planning as the specialty

* 01:43 The accidental start and the leap from Fidelity

* 04:39 How tax planning became the differentiator

* 08:31 Ideal clients: go-go, slow-go, and no-go

* 11:28 The questions people ask (and the RMD conversation they avoid)

* 13:50 Seminar marketing and the Roth conversion bucket

* 16:39 The team's "road to a billion" vision

* 20:44 Hiring for attitude and the internship filter

* 25:13 Discovery, assessment, onboarding, and quarterly cadence

* 31:33 How to connect with Milestone

You can find them at: https://milestoneamg.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 #rothconversions #retirement

In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Brian Thorp, founder of WealthTender, discusses why most people who never work with a financial advisor still distrust the profession and how online reviews and consumer-controlled search can change that.

After 22+ years in corporate wealth management, Brian built WealthTender as one of the first platforms where Americans can read advisor reviews the way they already do for doctors and attorneys, once SEC rules finally allowed client testimonials.

Brian walks through the perception gap that still defines the industry: people who work with advisors are overwhelmingly happy, while people who don’t often rate the profession lower than auto mechanics—because for decades the loudest stories were the bad actors on the nightly news. He explains why reviews almost never talk about investment performance, why consumers should stay in control instead of filling out forms that get sold to multiple advisors, and why searching for an advisor “for me” (special needs, large-employer transitions, business owners) often beats “near me.” He also shares how WealthTender is building advisor profiles and Voice of the Client awards so the right matches show up not only on wealthtender.com, but inside ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI search answers.

Takeaways

* Why advisor perception lags the lived experience of people who actually work with one

* Putting consumers in charge instead of selling their contact info to the highest bidders

* Searching “for me” before filtering down to “near me”

* What client reviews actually say (confidence, catalysts, and how an advisor makes them feel)

* Positioning advisors for AI discovery and recognizing best-in-class with Voice of the Client awards

Chapters

* 00:00 Meet Brian Thorp and the origin of WealthTender

* 03:01 Why advisors get ranked below auto mechanics

* 05:04 Reviews are about experience, not performance

* 07:27 The Dallas advisor brought to tears by client reviews

* 09:11 Consumer control vs. lead-selling “find an advisor” sites

* 11:24 Find an advisor for you, not just near you

* 15:12 What shoppers care about—and how AI changes discovery

* 20:14 Building profiles that actually reflect the advisor

* 27:28 Vision: AI search and Voice of the Client awards

You can find them at: https://www.wealthtender.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 #advisorreviews #findanadvisor