Episode 129: This week, Kyle Van Pelt talks with Mitch Hamer. Mitch is the Founder & Lead Advisor at Intersecting Wealth, where he partners with families to navigate their financial lives with clarity and intention. With an approach rooted more in psychology and behavior, Mitch helps clients step back from the things that get far too much attention and focus on the priorities that are often overlooked. 

Kyle and Mitch unpack the real alpha inside modern advisory work. They also discuss the challenges of scaling a highly personalized service, the importance of building a multi-generational firm to serve multi-generational clients, and the self-aware entrepreneurial path that focuses on alignment, work-life balance, and finding your own unique way in the industry.

In this episode:

(00:00) - Intro

(01:55) - Mitch's money moment

(03:32) - Mitch's journey from options trading to wealth advisory

(09:16) - Why advisors say planning is everything

(12:08) - The challenges of scaling highly personalized service

(15:38) - What it takes to start an RIA without an established book of business

(22:03) - The difference between a strategist and a technician

(25:40) - How Intersecting Wealth builds a multi-generational firm

(29:35) - The future of Intersecting Wealth

(31:26) - Mitch's take on the future of the financial services industry

(34:27) - Intersecting Wealth's tech stack

(35:34) - Mitch's Milemarker Minute

Key Takeaways

Planning, not returns, is where trust is built. Advisors often feel pressure to deliver higher returns, but most client anxiety comes from uncertainty around spending, legacy, and purpose.

Behavioral insight is a real advisory skillset. Advisors who understand behavior, fear, emotion, and decision-making are positioned to add more value than technical portfolio expertise alone.

Don't confuse activity with value. Spending too much time on complex, non-scalable technical work can prevent growth. Realize that your greatest contribution might be in the human element, the listening, strategizing, and having hard conversations with clients.

Quotes

"I realized that the value-add was the conversations away from investments. And that's the reason why I ended up doing really deep advanced planning across the financial planning spectrum." ~ Mitch Hamer

"When you're sitting across from a family, and you're starting to unpack what they're trying to accomplish or what makes them nervous, it's often verbalized as 'I'm uncomfortable with risk'. But what I'm seeing them verbalize is 'I don't really know what my plan is.’” ~ Mitch Hamer

"You can't overlay tech on trust. It's not going to be a tech platform that moves advisors over. It's going to be a service model that wins them." ~ Mitch Hamer

Links 

Mitch Hamer on LinkedIn

Intersecting Wealth

Cboe Global Markets

John Marshall

Goldman Sachs

Morgan Stanley

Merrill Lynch

Stratos Wealth

eMoney Advisor

RightCapital

Income Lab

Wealthbox

Money Together

Connect with our hosts

Milemarker.co

Kyle on LinkedIn

Jud on LinkedIn

Subscribe and stay in touch

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Spotify

YouTube

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