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300. Built to Last: The History and Future of Wiser Wealth Management

• Wiser Wealth Management • Episode 300

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In this episode of A Wiser Retirement® Podcast, we celebrate hitting a major milestone, 300 episodes! In this special episode, President Casey Smith and Senior Financial Advisor Shawna Theriault, CFP®, CPA, CDFA®, reflect on the history of Wiser Wealth Management, the growth of the podcast, and the firm’s mission to provide real, relationship-driven financial planning.

Related Podcast Episodes:
- Ep 251: Shawna Theriault's Road to Becoming a Financial Advisor 
- Ep 241: The Heart and History of Wiser Wealth Management with President Casey Smith
- Ep 173: Making the Most of Your Airline 401(k)
- Ep 168: Everything You Need to Know About 529 Plans
- Ep 184: What It’s Like Traveling Full Time in Retirement with the Retirement Travelers

Learn More:
- About Wiser Wealth Management
- Schedule a Complimentary Consultation: Discover how we can help you achieve financial freedom.
- Access Our Free Guides: Gain valuable insights on building a financial legacy, the importance of a financial advisor for business owners, post-divorce financial planning, and more!

Stay Connected:
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- A Wiser Retirement® YouTube Channel

This podcast was produced by Wiser Wealth Management. Thanks for listening!

Celebrating 300 Episodes

Speaker 1

In the end , I believe that everybody deserves a good financial plan and deserves to have a hope for the future and deserves confidence in their future , and that falls along with our mission statement . Welcome to a Wiser Retirement Podcast . Today is a special milestone we're celebrating our 300th episode . We've done this 300 times Hard to believe that We'll take a look at the history of Wiser Wealth Management what makes us different and where we're headed in the future . I'm Casey Smith and today I'm joined with Senior Financial Advisor Shauna Theriault . Each week , we bring you practical advice on retirement , investing and planning for your financial future , except for this week .

Speaker 2

We're going to talk about the past and the future from a company standpoint .

Speaker 1

Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening . That really helps us out . So let's get started . Hey , shauna .

Speaker 3

Hello , episode 300 .

Speaker 1

First of all , I'd like to say thank you for everyone who's listening , especially our regular listeners . We get emails from you with show topic suggestions and comments . We always enjoy that . I'm always . You know . We live in a world where everybody wants to be like a social media star , podcast star or whatever . I don't care about any of that really , uh , but it's always funny to see people that come in and interact with us because they only know us from the podcast and just how he's like . Oh , it's Shauna here . I heard her on the podcast .

Speaker 4

I'm like she's a normal person . I am a normal person , I'm going to talk and say hi .

Speaker 1

Um , you know I'm going to talk and say hi , absolutely . Why do we do this ? How do we even get started with this ? Honestly , this is something I've wanted to do since really 2007 . And it takes a while to build a team , like years , to put all your ideas out there and start them . So we did it , uh , and we did it during a quiet time when COVID started in 2020 . And I looked at the time our , our data person was , uh , brad Lyons , and I looked at Brad and I said we should do a podcast and Brad was good for anything .

Speaker 1

He's like , yeah , let's do a podcast and we , we uh enjoyed our time with him , uh , when he was here and I had good banter with him and that that's just kind of started .

Speaker 3

Well , that was like everyone was doing the internet , and doing I mean like we were sitting at home , right .

Speaker 1

Well , we weren't . Why is there still not ? I understand , but I'm just saying there was a lot of people that were interacting differently than they had before . Very , very , uh , very correct . But we started and we got like 20 episodes in and I think someone said how many downloads are we getting , and it was like 25 . We're getting 25 downloads .

Speaker 4

And they were all your parents .

Speaker 1

Yeah , I know it's probably my mom , your family it's probably my mom on four different devices .

Speaker 1

Five times each right or something like that . Moms are good for that . So , yeah , it was . It was a slow going , um . I had read an article about a podcaster uh finance based podcaster out in uh Seattle area that did it for five years and it finally took off for him and I was like , okay , we're going to keep doing this .

Speaker 1

The purpose of the podcast has always been to educate our listeners mostly , who are going to be our wiser client base about topics , our thoughts and opinions on different subjects . We tried different formats of the podcast . If you listen , there's a gentleman out in California who's a client here that has listened to every single episode . He was binge listening because they're about 30 minutes each Right , and it's funny because they go where's Brad ? I've heard Brad in the last few episodes Like , well , brad hasn't worked here in a couple of years . He's like , oh , you'll hear Andrew pretty soon , but but we've , we've , um , uh , we , we started off and , as , as we went along , more and more listeners uh started joining us , uh , so that that was fun .

Speaker 1

We try to do the first few episodes of just educational type things that could live forever , uh , and then I think we did more current events for a while , and then we kind of went back to episodes that would last longer . Yeah , uh , which is which is kind of what we focus on . Uh , what we focus on now , uh , the episode , uh , all the episodes total are a little over 70 000 , so we've had 70 000 downloads downloads okay , uh , so that's like 233 downloads per episode .

Speaker 1

but if you take away that first couple years where we're struggling to get 40 or 50 downloads , uh , the downloads now are very , very big uh which , which is helps , um , helps average it out , I guess , over time .

Speaker 1

Uh , we also started a wiser retirement YouTube shortly after , so this podcast could be watched through the YouTube channel and I'm always amazed at how many views we get there . I think in the last 30 days there's been 90,000 views through the podcast , not just of the podcast on YouTube , of the podcast , plus all the video shorts that we do that come off the podcast . So that's been , I think , pretty successful . There's not a whole lot of financial advisors that are doing exactly what we're doing , so it's really hard to benchmark it . Uh , because some of the best firms have some of those , but the format's not good or the video quality is not good , uh , and so I don't even see them as as inspiration .

Speaker 1

Uh , you know Josh Brown and what he does , uh on the compound , and what he does he's on CNBC every day means that this huge , this huge hood ornament for his firm . That's a whole different level . I'll never be at that level . I'm perfectly fine with that , but some of those things that they do are inspirational . But usually what we try to do is find things outside this podcast that are not related to finance even , and try to bring in some of the formats of how we , how we do that , and it takes a good team , I mean , uh , to produce a podcast . This , this room we have , is just for the podcast . Now we have our producer , nick , sitting outside the room listening in , waving at me when I've done something , uh , that I shouldn't have done . Uh , we , we've got Hadley who's who's been here for four years now helping us craft .

Speaker 1

All this ahead of time gives me the my show notes and then , takes all the the packaged up podcast that , once it's done by Nick , then goes to her and she disseminates it around around the world . Right , so we're in . We're going through a transition . Soon Hadley's going to go work with her family and her family're and we'll be going through a transition .

Speaker 1

Soon Hadley's going to go work with her family and her family business and we'll be transitioning a new uh uh marketing manager into the mix who will be uh doing a lot of those tasks going forward . Um , top three episodes these are all linked to the show is number one uh . Episode one 73 is making the most of your airline 401k . Uh we , we do a lot of flat fee planning for airline pilots . Therefore , that would make sense . That that's where a lot of those leads have come from . Episode one 68 , everything you need to know about five 29 plants would be the second most downloaded episode and then episode 184 , what's it like traveling full-time in retirement with the retirement travelers , which is and and actually it .

Speaker 1

Actually that was John and Bev who did that episode with us . That's a great episode to listen to . I was literally traveling myself . My daughter is an English eventing rider and we were actually in Kentucky and I was having to stay in a RV myself for a week , which is horrible . I don't know how they do it , but anyway , they and I was doing the podcast from the RV , so it was kind of funny . But uh , they , they sold everything and they travel the world Like supposedly all their possessions are in , uh , two backpacks .

Speaker 4

That's it .

Speaker 3

Wow .

Speaker 1

So kudos for them , for living out their G , their dream . Um , if , like half the time , we're just trying to get our clients take one trip a year , uh , we , this is one of my other uh . My one of my favorite uh guests was James Hughes jr . He's the author of the book of family wealth keeping it in the family . We read that book as a team . Uh , we reached out and he was willing to do a podcast , but his book is about legacy planning and it is . He has very , I think , three different uh books , but this , that book in particular , was really inspirational about not just creating wills but creating , putting a letter on top and saying these this is my story and this is how I want to be remembered and this is how you should think about money and how you should think about what you're inheriting and uh really really

Speaker 1

inspirational , really inspirational

The Origin of Wiser's Podcast

Speaker 1

podcast . We were so excited to get him . And then we have some of our regulars , like Tom Townsend from Townsend Realty Group comes in and talks about real estate , usually about once a quarter or two . Logan Steele has been on many times from Steele Choice Insurance . He's our go-to person for healthcare If you need individual healthcare yourself or if you need a supplemental plan . That's a whole world that seems to be constantly changing and you have to have someone who specializes in that . We've had a Dr Tara Arnold on for an episode from whole heart psychotherapy .

Speaker 1

Uh , I've done look , quite a few interviews with uh or podcasts with Marty paradise . Paradise business coaching . Those are always fun . Those go really long because you get two business guys talking business . It's really bad as far as the length . Don Freeman , president of the Digital Assets Council for Financial Professionals , dacfp . Don , has done a couple of crypto episodes with us , really a pioneer in helping advisors understand cryptos and the future of cryptos in relation to wealth management firms . And then this one actually was a really popular episode John Ostenson if I'm pronouncing his last name right , he was at Fanbridge Consulting name . Right , he was at fan bridge consulting . Uh , he basically helps people with purchasing um businesses , specifically , um franchises , specifically franchises , uh . And we've had clients actually use his services .

Speaker 1

We've had amy rambo on for a few episodes from blue pineapple travel . Amy just helped me get my family down to the Dominican Republic or a little vacation , which I don't know . That was interesting . She did a great job . Nothing on her , just culture shock for me . You can never have enough tip money down there . It's ridiculous . Like every time I turn around it's like yeah , it was like the hands out for a tip Like this is this , is this is getting expensive , but anyway , it's like I was like hands out for a tip Like this is this , is this is getting expensive , but anyway it's . It's been a good run .

Speaker 1

It was an experiment to begin with and I think it's actually become a part of our firm because we get to showcase all the extremely intelligent people that work here . My , my , my position has always been hire people smarter than me . So if I hire a person , are they smart at me , at this particular job that I'm hiring them to do Right , and if they are , then they could be a good fit if they fit in all the other areas Right . So it's getting to showcase um , you know William and grace and eventually you guys are probably meet Caroline and Alex and , uh , maybe Shauna . You know Shauna .

Speaker 1

With so many designations we had to shrink our business card font . So we you know Andrew getting to showcase our team and how smart and detailed oriented the team is . That the podcast really helps with that . You know I have I have a podcast out about me and and the history of Wiser , so I don't want to spend a whole lot of time on the history of Wiser overall , but the company was founded in 2001 after I had experienced the brokerage world and having to sell annuities and insurance and I just thought that there was a better way to be doing this .

Speaker 1

But we should do in a way that is under the fee only banner , where we're not selling any products to clients that pay us directly for asset management and they pay us for financial planning , but we're never selling them anything . The only thing we have to sell is that they can trust us and we have good ideas . And that's a tall task because , honestly , in the financial services industry there's a lot of people out there . There's seven advisors to every one like qualified lead out there and the barrier to entry to be a financial advisor is very , very low . There's . You don't even have to go to be a finance major .

Speaker 1

You can literally take a test it's not extremely difficult and call yourself a financial advisor , and if you can sell yourself , then people will trust you , even though you really don't know anything . Yeah , so that's sad from an industry standpoint , but the fiduciary fee-only standard which we operate under makes a difference . Now more and more people are coming to our side as they should .

Speaker 1

In some countries you have to work this way . It's the law . But in the US we are really kind of in a chokehold from insurance companies and they couldn't sell their products because they're not in the best interest of the client . So we have this fee-based model or we have a commission model that are more prevalent in our industry . So I saw the need for that um , for for more focused on financial planning that go along with the asset management Um .

Speaker 1

And then , quite honestly , the world's really bad at service , like we're a service economy but we can't return phone calls and emails . We can't seem to put others before ourselves . And so I wanted to create a company culture that could return phone calls and emails even when it's not in our interest to do that , meaning that maybe there's not a dollar that we're gonna earn by making this phone call , but it's the right thing to do . So it's creating that brand and that culture and I think we've done that at Wiser over the last 24 years . In 2007 , I purchased a company called Wiser Financial and I rebranded it and called it Wiser Wealth Management , and so that's where really Wiser Wealth Management started really growing was in 2007 . I was a dual career person . I ran around as an airline pilot . I flew for Colgan air and part of the U S airways network up in the Northeast and then I got hired on with them right after nine 11 , a few months after nine 11, .

Speaker 2

I was lucky to have the job .

Speaker 1

And then in 2004 , I finally got on with Atlantic Southeast airlines , which is you would know that it's Delta Connection . You bought a ticket on Delta and you went anywhere in the Southeast it probably was on a CRJ operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines and so I did that for 10 years , 6,700 flight hours , over 4,400 flights in my logbook under the Delta banner , and I did mostly backs out of the clock flying so that I could uh , build this firm . And so I I flew in the evenings and I worked here during the daytime . And here we are in 2014 , I stopped flying , and so we have a lot of pilot clients here because of my , my relationship in the industry and it's it's been a it's been a uh , it's been a fun run . And it's it's been a it's been a uh , it's been a fun run .

Speaker 1

Um you know , in in the end . Um , I believe that everybody deserves a good financial plan and deserves to have a hope for the future and deserves confidence in their future , and that that falls along with our mission statement . And it falls along with uh , about 25% of the people that we help here came in and afford us , meaning that they have high debt . They they don't have the dollars to pay us for our flat fee and they don't have the assets for us to manage . But we take that time we have with them and we focus on trying to make their lives better . And one out of 10 , I feel like I appreciate it and do it Right and it's fun to see their success . The the other nine realized that being fiscally responsible is hard work and it doesn't come naturally always .

Speaker 1

And we don't hear from them again , but I'm willing to work with the nine to help the one .

Speaker 2

Yeah , right , yeah .

Speaker 1

Uh , and , and so that's you know . In our company handbook it even says , um , sometimes , uh . In our company handbook it even says , sometimes payment for services is not in dollars but an unsolicited hug , right ? And also that when we all die someday they're not going to say , oh Casey , we're in an efficient wealth management firm , or the best or the biggest . Nobody cares at that point . It's about the lives that you touch . So that's what I think . We've surrounded ourselves with 18 people , 18 team members now , that all believe all that , that they're here to make a difference

Most Popular Episodes

Speaker 1

in someone else's life , right ? And it's really hard to find those people . When we go interview for people , when we have open positions , most people only think about themselves and it comes through in the interview .

Speaker 1

I I tell the story quite frequently . I don't think I've ever said it on the podcast , but uh , one of the uh biggest cases . Well , okay , let's look at our associates . So so michaela , who is uh no longer an associate , she a plant , she's a financial advisor Now . Her minor in college was foreign mission work . Uh , grace , who's an associate here , her major was finance but her , but she spent her all her summers on foreign mission trips in third world countries and such Right .

Speaker 1

Uh , we took a chance hiring her cause she'd never done this job before , not even an internship , and she's turned out great . Yeah , uh , william . Uh has a couple of good internships . Uh is a financial planning major but he volunteered time in organizations helping people who are financially underprivileged . We'll say that .

Speaker 4

Yeah , right , yeah .

Speaker 1

So he had the volunteer work uh to put in there , yeah . Right , yeah , so he had the volunteer work to put in there . Yeah , so you look at , you , look at those scenarios of these rising stars , and here at Wiser , that's . The secret ingredient is their heart .

Speaker 3

Right , you can train the job . Yes , you can't train the character .

Speaker 1

No , you can't , yeah , you can't , and so that that's what we try to reproduce here . Those are all the warm and fuzzies . We all have to do the job in the end , but I assume everyone's gonna be able to do the job . You just want them to also not only be thinking about themselves but truly caring about the person on their side of the table . So when we started wiser , we were an asset management firm . We didn't really do financial planning . It wasn't until until .

Speaker 3

Well , that was probably true .

Speaker 1

Back then Back in that era , the early 2000s .

Speaker 3

That was . I mean , there wasn't a lot of financial planning , Correct ?

Speaker 1

Early 2000s , we mostly focused on just assets , and then as I tried to add more value . I started adding planning , and the planning was mostly retirement planning , right , what most of the world does now .

Speaker 4

You just .

Speaker 1

Right .

Speaker 3

Just focused on retirement time value money calculations .

Speaker 1

All you were doing .

Speaker 3

Yeah .

Speaker 1

I got X amount of dollars , can I make it ? But there's so much more to it . Yeah , and that's what we . That's where we are now as a firm . That's why we have all these people here , because there's so much more to planning than just can I make it through retirement with enough .

Speaker 3

And the clients know that they feel that now I feel like there's a shift I mean they're coming in like , okay , you can manage my money , but what is the other stuff , and that's just the most important ?

Speaker 1

the planning is that obviously it's all important investing the money is important but it's a piece of it well , I I honestly I feel like the . Maybe we can talk about this in the future section , but but um uh , asset management to me is a commodity robots . Robots are doing a lot of it now . We'll probably do more of it in the future yeah so , as an advisor , what is your true value beyond asset management ?

Speaker 1

if you don't have one you're not going to be relevant , right , and so that's . We want to make sure that that we're looking at the entire family fiscal health , not just that you have enough money to make it to the end . Yeah , so , yeah , it's , it's . We introduced , probably six years ago now , flat fee planning so we didn't have to manage assets .

Speaker 3

You could pay us a flat fee , yeah , and Cause so many people get turned away at other firms . They're like they have this or nothing .

Speaker 1

They have assets in our management , but then they can't help you , Right ? And then there's also because , remember I said , the barrier to entry in our industry is very , very low . Um , so there's also people who have been taken advantage of by other advisors . Uh , it's kind of like adopting a cute puppy from the pound and you go to pet it and what does it do ? It puts its head down . It doesn't trust you . Yet it's been beaten before and that's what some of these old advisors do Beat the crap out of your portfolio to take advantage of you . Or don't return phone calls and emails . Or , I think , a lot of people . They say I deposited a half million dollars with a rollover IRA maybe two years ago and I just realized he never invested it . It's like what the heck ?

Speaker 3

Or he hasn't called you in two years .

Speaker 1

Yeah , or hasn't called you in two years , and that's partially because they're probably working in a high productive firm . I mean , they have to have a lot , they have to produce a lot of revenue per client or per advisor . And so , after you have , uh , they've gotten everything out of that turnip , they moved to the next turnip , right , and so they have like 3,500 clients per advisor , yeah , right , where ? Where we have hundreds , yeah , so they're totally different service model , uh , in in the end , um , so anyway , we introduced that and that's been a big hit , especially in the aviation space . Um , ideal clients at our firm are always retirees , uh , because cash bucket system your , your , your now famous chart that you had drawn up of how we manage , uh , uh , cash in retirement , right , right , that's a drawn up of how we manage cash in retirement , right , Right , that's a little unique to how we handle things .

Speaker 3

How do you sleep at night ? The sleep factor too .

Speaker 1

Correct . So we have , I think , a unique process for that that other firms aren't doing . I enjoy working with business owners and obviously our pilots Business owners only because most advisors have never been a business owner .

Speaker 1

They don't understand how the piece people think and wired Right . And it's not that there's some secret sauce that I have with business owners , but it's just that they don't have the as much in the traditional 401ks . A lot of it's wrapped up in the , in the value of the , of the of the business Right and therefore you need to grow that business . And with a lot of advisors they say I specialize in small business owners , but they work with business owners that are selling their practice because then they become more like a traditional client at that point .

Speaker 3

Right .

Speaker 1

Where .

Speaker 3

I like working with the people who are trying to grow their business .

Speaker 1

Right , right , let's take it from where it is and let's , let's , let's , let's make it bigger , let's scale , let's do it . And I'm not a business coach . I got Marty paradise for that Right , but , but , but . I've done this .

Speaker 1

I'm doing this and I understand the pain , Uh , also understand the importance of succession planning . Okay , so these other advisors who want to work with business owners they've probably never even talked to anybody about succession planning . What happens if you get hit by the bus and your business is all wrapped up in you ? How does your spouse get compensated for that business , Will they ? Is he just going to shut down ? That'd be horrible . Yeah , so those are all things that I enjoy working with on the business owners . You know we have a lot of women clients here single women , widowed women , divorced women . We have a lot of women clients here single women , widowed women , divorced women . I think that's been a lot of it because of your influence , being a woman yourself and very accomplished and so they're going to gravitate to other accomplished women because that's where they feel safe .

Speaker 3

Well , we have a lot of women working for Wiser too yeah , that's true which is very unique to our industry as well .

Speaker 1

I think it's like 80% of the women , or 8% of the employees of the firm are women .

Speaker 3

So that probably has a lot to do with it as well . Yeah , that's true . I do think that that's .

Speaker 1

I'm trying to hire men . They just they haven't succeeded getting through the process . Well , I don't know . I mean , alex is here now .

Speaker 3

We've got William . Yes , that's true .

Speaker 1

Andrew , yeah , and Andrew , so I guess I have my guy foursome now for golf .

Speaker 3

I've never had that before , I just not realized that you do , although Michaela's probably better than a lot of them . Michaela's going to beat all of us .

Speaker 1

Yeah , Michaela will beat all of us in golf . She's the golfer .

Speaker 5

Before we get back into the episode , have you ever wondered why annuities keep coming up as a recommended investment , while they're often pitched as a way to reduce risk and secure your future ? Annuities frequently benefit the salesperson more than the investor . Download our free guide . Buyer , beware , why Do they Keep Trying to Sell you that Annuity at wiserinvestorcom ? Forward slash guides . Now let's get back to the episode . Let's get back to the episode

Wiser's Client Philosophy

Speaker 5

.

Speaker 1

So you know it's who's our ideal client . Our ideal client is really anybody who's looking for confidence in their financial future . And that seems very cliche , but that's the reality . We were worse . We're scalable . We can work with someone who has a little , who wants to have a lot , and we have the ability to work with people with a lot to make sure that that they have the tax planning done that they shouldn't put in place and as well as the estate planning Right .

Speaker 3

Well , and that's one of the things I really loved about the firm , is that you can meet people where they are and , as some firms say that , oh , we help you know .

Speaker 1

Yeah , but everyone has to fit into a box .

Speaker 3

Exactly so it's like well , you go here , you know , but if , even if someone most of America has most of their money in 401ks in their home , Right .

Speaker 3

That doesn't mean they don't need planning , right . So you know it's , it's so beneficial to them and , you know , inspiring potentially to be able to help them at a younger stage . Cause it's like , okay , I have to have this much money for an advisor to work with me because it's AUM or asset center management and or you won't even talk to me . But how do I even get to that point if you won't even talk to me Because I don't really know how I'm doing with the finances ?

Speaker 5

Right so it's like what'd you get ?

Speaker 1

What'd you get ? A half million , call me , or . Reality is most firms . Now good firms are going to be one to 3 million . So , once you get the one to $3 million and you call me and I'll tell you how to be a success , Right , it's kind of like when you graduate college and it's like you know you them .

Speaker 3

Part of it is my vision of you have to build the future .

Speaker 1

And you build a future by planting seeds today . And that's what most firms aren't willing to do , because they're owned by private equity companies . They're owned by multiple owners who are looking for their equity payouts and they're not willing to invest time and money into a young person who they're actually losing money on . Willing to invest time and money into a young person who they're actually losing money on . So we probably have a third of our client base that that , if I hired a consultant , they would tell us to fire that person because we don't . They don't generate enough revenue for us . Wow , and the way I look at it is these are people that we're going to serve , just like they had $10 million , because they will eventually have it .

Speaker 4

And there's goodwill with that .

Speaker 1

There's goodwill that develops and , of course , they tell people about this , and so , if anything , look at it as a marketing expense . Yeah , I'm losing $4,000 a year in this relationship , but that's not what it's about . It's about did we change someone's life ?

Speaker 3

Yeah , because your mission is different than that . Correct , it's not about the money .

Speaker 1

Correct . Money's important , you have to have enough of it to keep running .

Speaker 3

I mean really you could fire half the employees and half the clients and still make the same amount of money really in a lot of firms . You could , I mean , but that's not growing the opportunities for different clients and it's not growing opportunities for other people coming in Correct . So I mean , that's a different .

Speaker 1

So it's thinking a little differently about what makes up the firm .

Speaker 3

True , and I would say even further to that , is the heart that you have in it . And then most advisors have heart and they care about their business . But there's just something which is why I came here . It's just there's just something different about your perspective and the way in which you go about it , because it literally . I mean , we're a business , we have to look at the numbers , but none of what we do is driven by the numbers ever Like it's .

Speaker 3

It's about the people and , um , I've worked for great firms , great , and , and they love the people too . And I'm not saying there , don't . But it's just a different feel of you know , you've said it on the podcast before . It was like when I first came here , you know I was going to meet with someone who was large potential client and you're like I don't care if you win the business , just help them . You know what I mean , and so there's never any pressure . Well , and that's the thing . And I tell clients that I'm a salaried employee , I don't make commissions , I don't get paid , whether you come with me or you don't come with me , I'm just here to help you .

Speaker 3

You know , what I mean , but that's the stance of where I worked everywhere on than some of the people that are making commissions et cetera . Not that everybody that makes commissions is bad , but it's really hard to know if they're giving you what's best for you or not , because you know that they stand to benefit from it .

Speaker 1

Or even quotas . We have firm goals , but I don't have any one person here that I would go to and say , hey , did you close X number of accounts , right ? Now if we have a bad close ratio . We do track numbers , we do track data Right , but we had you know , if I was closing 20% of the people that I met with , you guys would probably be like , hey , what are you doing wrong ? Like we , in our position , we should be closing probably 60 to 70% right .

Speaker 1

So we want everybody to be in that 60 to 70% range . That just means that we're probably not talking about our values as much and how we can help people .

Speaker 4

Right .

Speaker 1

So I'll coach somebody through that , but I , you know , obviously we want to win every single client because that makes us feel like we're the best , because if they interviewed other people we'd have to be the best . What what's happened ? You know , been doing this for 25 years . What's interesting is that people who interview us , they go to another firm but they eventually come back to wiser . And they were never I say back to , but they were never actually physically here they came in and did a consultation but , they go somewhere else .

Speaker 1

And they go yeah , this is not what I thought it was going to be . And then they come , they work their way back . It may take four years , but I see people come through . Yeah , and I don't always remember them .

Speaker 1

They'll say remember we did a , we interviewed with you guys , you know , four or five years ago , and it's like I'm sorry , I don't remember . I do 15 consults a week , right ? So if they say no , you just kind of move on to the next person . But we probably could do a better job of even follow up , because I am so I have so much PTSD from the year I was in the brokerage business where you had to call people all the yellow pages for those young people listening .

Speaker 2

Yellow pages was basically the Google business before we had Google .

Speaker 1

There was a yellow page and you , you , you just went through this zip code and you just called for dollars after like 6 PM . It was horrible , and that is not my MO , I don't like rejection at all yeah . So my , my whole thing .

Speaker 3

I don't know anybody that likes that .

Speaker 1

I don't . My whole thing now is is like I'll , I'll tell you how I can help you , and if you don't think that's a good fit , then I'm not desperate for for business , right ? Well , that's the thing .

Speaker 3

We're looking for people that are looking for us right , we're looking for people who you know we can help , who need us , and you know where it's a good fit and so that's actually the thing with our marketing director right now and me and she , she listens to these episodes .

Speaker 1

So , yes , I'm talking to to you , kate , but so , kate , kate wants me to like call people if they did a download off the website , to like call them and say , hey , would you like to come in for a consultation ? I don't even want to do that . Like , that is not my MO , that is not , that is not my thing . Um , to me that's like well , that's warm calling , it's like no , I don't want to do . Like like there's . I think we have such a good thing here that when people realize the value , we don't need to be hunting people down .

Speaker 4

Right , right .

Speaker 1

That's a terrible sales job , by the way , like if you're running your business this way , I would tell you not to do it .

Speaker 3

Well , yeah , I mean , if you , if you're putting out things that you know people resonate with and you know they , they see the value in you , they're reaching out to you , you know they're calling you because they have a need and they see the value that you add .

Speaker 1

but just because of things like this we're talking , we all do consultations , but I understand , I meant we , but you know they see the value of that , so it's yeah , it just don't want to be pushy , and so that's what I promise people is that we're not going to be we're never going to be pushy .

Speaker 4

All the time we're pushy is when you're doing something once you become a client and and something stupid's happening right and I and I got to be like you run it in a really bad position if you execute this , um , you know , and it's ultimately up to them very rarely does that happen right ?

Speaker 1

very rarely and fortunately , over the years when it has happened , it's been a client . He's been here for such a long time . Yeah , and , and you know , there's been times , time periods in the crisis , where I've said I'm not selling this portfolio , you can hit enter like I'll key it up . You can hit enter , but I might be responsible for this . Yeah , it's happened twice in 25 years yeah and both times , uh , we laugh about it . Now there's still clients , we laugh about it . They're like man , you really you and the client .

Speaker 3

You mean the client . Yeah , yeah , yeah that's right .

Speaker 1

No , not us internally , but yeah .

Speaker 2

We're not laughing at clients , me and the client .

Speaker 1

Uh , me and the client laugh about it now , um , over dinner or something like that , Just cause they're like , oh man , if I had done that I'd be so screwed right now . Yeah , but anyway , um , so , let's , let's talk about , uh , just just some quick stories . Uh , I examples that Hadley asked me to give , and this podcast

Memorable Client Stories

Speaker 1

is probably a little longer than normal and hopefully people are still listening , but these are just kind of like my journey as being a financial advisor . But I had a couple very early in my career that had gotten into a lot of debt . From that they owed to the IRS and what had happened was he'd become a contract independent contractor for a consulting company . He's making really good money let's just say , 300,000 a year and he was an escort and you just get a check . You get your checks but you forget that you got to make a big chunk and send it back to the government because you got to pay the employer portion and your own personal portion of taxes so they had gone for a couple years .

Speaker 1

You're getting referred by a client and and he owed like hundreds of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the irs and this couple . I remember this is when I realized that you're not just a financial advisor . Sometimes you become a marriage counselor . And I saw the path forward and we were trying to negotiate with the IRS . If we couldn't negotiate with the IRS then we were going to have to liquidate some assets to cover the tax . But the assets that we're liquidating were assets that were inherited from a deceased parent of the spouse and there was some emotional attachment to those . So it created a problem and I could tell there's friction in their relationship . And actually last year in their review meeting they recounted this to me and I did remember it . But I sat there at the table across from them and I said you guys can get out of this and you're going to be just fine . But I said if you guys get divorced over this , I quit . That's funny . Fine . But I said if you guys get divorced over this , I quit , because this is early 2000 .

Speaker 2

So , we didn't do tremendous amount of planning at that time it was more asset management .

Speaker 1

So this is all on board planning at this point , right . But I just looked at it and said , look , I'm going to save your marriage , I'm going to save the tax situation , but if you quit each other , that I'm quitting both of you , just to let you know way to give an ultimatum .

Speaker 3

I'm sure , that's why they stayed together , because of you .

Speaker 1

They laughed at that and they said we know we were on the rock . She's like I don't know if we ever gotten divorced , but we were definitely on the rock side of the whole thing . But you put us at ease , uh . And so I always go back to that story and tell that to young advisors and say you're not just a financial advisor , you're become , you're the non-emotional partner in a relationship meaning that that you're only called on when needed , but when you're needed you're not .

Speaker 1

You're not going to take sides , you're just going to look at it from an objective standpoint and try to help them , and that's what . That's what I was doing at that time . So , uh , they've been at this firm for 22 years , I think . So it's been um , uh , it's , it's , it's . It's been fun to see , to see them grow and even go through other . They've gone through much bigger life challenges since then and they're stronger than ever . So it's , it's fun to see uh , uh , see , see them succeed and then been here so long . I mean , our client retention rate is 99% , so that's just tracking over five years . We don't track it after five years just because the the form that we have to fill out to the SEC every year in a record regulation stuff doesn't ask for us . If we don't , we don't track it . But uh , 99% for five years is really good in this business .

Speaker 1

Another one is uh , we had a business owner that was trying to sell his business and I was already in a position where I worked with all his daughters except for one sold . This business needs to stay in the family the , the , the . The family had , um , uh , had some , some , fairly , you know they were the children were doing fine , we'll just say that , uh , but I felt like I was able I'm not taking credit family to get all the credit , remember , we're just the guys , they're the heroes Um , but I was able to kind of guide them into a plan to keep this family in the business for generations and we can't call it a success yet , but it's on its way to that success and that's really fun to see . To take a dad who's been really successful , uh , in business and be able to translate that success where probably four or five generations from now , um , people are less concerned about resources and more concerned about maintaining an enterprise , uh , and so I think that's a really important role as our , as a firm , as as and clients who work with you and me especially , uh , that we can pick stuff like that out and make think , help people dream bigger .

Speaker 1

Yeah , you know , let's , let's think bigger , let's . Don't just think about liquidating this . If you think about that in a normal firm like , oh , yeah , we're going to liquidate this because that's AUM . Right , that could have been $30 million in AUM .

Speaker 4

Yeah .

Speaker 1

Right , right , and instead that's not where my mind went . My mind went to how do we keep this in the family ? This is a cash cow . There's no debt Like this is a business that that family should come together on and we could thrive here , and so that's . I think that's pretty cool from from , from from all the people I've worked with , that's been a pretty cool case to work on . I guess a third example over the years goes back to the beginning again , and I have so many examples . Every client has a unique story and and and um . I can sit here and just talk about every family , but but they probably all figure out who they are and that'd be embarrassing . Christy and she was a client , a larger client , at the time when I acquired the company , and I acquired the company in 2007 .

Speaker 4

That's the worst time to buy a wealth manager right .

Speaker 1

Fortunately paid a paid a price for it . That was more than fair . But um , you buy the firm , you're the new person , and you go to see this , this really sweet elderly lady , and try to tell her that her portfolio is down at the time like 25% . That was just the beginning of the financial crisis and she doesn't know you . And she hardly knows me , that's hard .

Speaker 3

That's hard conversation . You learn real fast how to talk to people .

Speaker 1

You learn real fast how to talk to people . But I drove to her house . She would come to the office every now and then , but I mostly went to her house to visit with her . Uh , and I remember her looking at me going uh , young man , this is this is nothing . I grew up at the tail end of the depression and we're . We're going to be just fine , and I think that was probably the one of the few client meetings where , financially speaking , I've come out more ahead than the client .

Speaker 4

Right , yeah , yeah , right .

Speaker 1

Well , I'm not a fan so I have to have more emotionally . But just talking about money , right , right , she , she won that argument , but she won it in my favor . Where she bought people like , oh my gosh , how am I going to live , how am I going to do . And she just had so much calm and wisdom and a big it started this whole relationship with her that she would send my kids Christmas presents . This was when they were little .

Speaker 1

She would send them Christmas presents and she tried later in life , when she couldn't drive anymore , she would try to send them cash .

Speaker 3

I'd have to take it back . You're like no , I was like no , we can't be sending cash to anybody related to me .

Speaker 1

Do not get me in trouble , please , but she was so sweet . I remember she had so much back pain , but she was always smiling and we developed this really , really close relationship , just as um , just as two human beings and and so so much wisdom and and from her . Uh , there ended up being a lot of other widows that found us over time , who all lived pretty close to the office , and so I took her and scheduled a lunch with all the other widows , thinking they got to know each other . Somehow . You can't live within five miles of each other and not have run into each other .

Speaker 1

And it turns out her husband owned a tractor company and the other other widow , her husband , was a pediatrician in town , and they found out that , oh yeah , we bought a tractor from your husband . Oh yeah , our kids went to you , your dad , your husband is a pediatrician when they were little the pediatrician . And so that's where the wiser women was born . So we had this wiser women group that um uh , right now they're not mobile , so we don't do um ? Uh lunches anymore right now , but we but we do special things , like we send them uh flowers for Valentine's day but we , that's the day that they would not get flowers because you know they don't have a loved one with them , and so we would send them .

Speaker 1

uh , every February , we sent , we sent our wiser women , uh , uh , uh , red , red roses , uh , which is pretty cool . Um , and then we also check in them a little more statistically they're they're most likely to be taken advantage of .

Speaker 4

Yeah .

Speaker 1

So we have to check in and make sure that that uh that everything's going okay with them , um , but those are probably some more more memorable moments over the last few years . One more current to um from a long time ago Uh , they want to talk about , like , the future

Growth Vision and Future Plans

Speaker 1

of wiser a little bit . Um , you know , my goal is is to not lose our culture as a firm , but we are on a race to grow our firm to a billion dollars in assets , meaning that our firm manages a billion dollars in asset center management . And it's not necessarily for , um wealth reasons that I want to do that , though that's a benefit , but it's for self-preservation of the firm .

Speaker 1

Because you have a firm with a billion dollars in assets , you have enough revenue to pay people well , to make sure you're hiring the best people , and it makes the ecosystem run better . Your firm can take advantage of other firms not advantage in a negative way , but take advantage of situations where solo practitioners pass away and where do those clients go ? We could welcome them into our firm . If I died . My firm is not going to evaporate overnight because I'm not here .

Speaker 2

Right and it won't today either , and it won't today either .

Speaker 1

No , no , no . We have a succession plan in place internally for the firm now , but we're , as of this , recording , episode number 300 and doing this recording in July . We're around $460 million in asset center management , but we grow 25 to 35% a year . So , we could hit this goal in the next few years .

Speaker 1

Uh , but it takes a lot of client referrals and we don't ask clients for referrals , they'll be get a lot of them . Yeah , right , so the future of wiser , I think , looks much like it does now , but it's uh , casey and Michaela and grace and Caroline working as a , as a team , and then your team with you and William and Alex replicating what we've been doing all these years , right , and then , as William , william's really close to being a financial advisor now .

Speaker 1

So eventually he has a team and eventually , michaela has a team Right , and so you have all these different pods or teams of people with different expertise , but they all do the planning process the exact same way that we've been doing it for these last few years . Yeah , and we're able to replicate what I created . That's what I want as a founder . It's like , or make it better .

Speaker 4

Right , right , always , always try to improve .

Speaker 3

So , you're always ahead of technology or I try to try new things .

Speaker 1

Yeah , I try to be in deep dive into AI now and how that can help us with efficiency and things of that , what you do in the future ?

Speaker 1

Um , we seem to be one of the few , few firms that have workflows . So if you call me , uh , and ask for something or talk to you or anybody this firm , we start a workflow and therefore the process of withdrawing money or depositing money or making a trade happens the exact same way , no matter who does it Right . So you mistake proof , your process is what you're trying to do , right . So those are all things that we want to do as a firm . Honestly , I have to meet less with clients . To make that happen , I have to transition into a CEO and a business owner , and that's hard for me because I love these families . I look at a sheet of paper and I go .

Speaker 1

Oh all these families Michaela can probably do this better than me . William or Sean I could do this way better than me because they don't get all the gazillion phone calls that I get . They don't have to . They don't have to worry about all these other systems that that we're trying to create . But then I I think about oh , but I'm not going to know about what happened with their kids or I'm not going to know what happened , so I just get personally involved in it . But my , my role has to change into where I can lead the group . But I have confidence that the existing group can can meet with the clients with the same passion that I do , and so can can meet with the clients with the same passion that I do . Uh , and so that that's something that , um , as a business owner , you have to be able to let go of some of that .

Speaker 1

So , unfortunately , in the future there's less of FaceTime with me , probably , but there's um , as , as I do at the meetings with people that you've taken over for me , as you know , I always like to step in and shake hands , and you know . I like the banter and the cut up before the meeting more than I like the actual meeting , so I still get to do that Right .

Speaker 4

Come in and interrupt and disrupt things .

Speaker 1

Um , but , but you know , 10 years from now we should be a billion dollar firm inside that , 20 years from now , we should be a two to $3 billion firm . Uh , it's hard to fathom that , uh , but , but we want to . You know , we want to . We want to be able to , um , uh , be the same people that we are today . That's the hard part , right ? That's the hard part , right . How do you have a client who's been here for 20 years walk in the front door but get greeted by someone they've never seen before ? But they have to make them feel like that . They've always been here . Yeah , and so those are . Those are things that we have to work on really hard as a team .

Speaker 3

that we don't lose that culture Right . Absolutely 100% .

Speaker 1

Um , but yeah , I think the future is very bright . We have , we have um a great group here and the ones so far , the ones that haven't cut it , have kind of self-selected out and we haven't had to do too many firings .

Speaker 3

No , no , not at all .

Speaker 4

They kind of kind of like this isn't for me in the hiring process Right .

Speaker 1

Yeah , no , no , no . I learned that probably 10 years ago . Um , who I need to hire , so that that could be a whole nother episode but um , but yeah , you know 300 , we did it . I don't like looking back , I only like looking forward . They forced me into this episode , dadgummit , but , but it's been 300 episodes of learning , chatting , teaching , educating you know people about various topics . And as long as we keep working in some airplane talk every now and then with the pilot groups that I like talking with , then I'm going to keep doing it All right . So there's a few other episodes .

Speaker 1

If you want to learn more about me or Shauna , take a listen to episode 251 . Shauna Theriault's road to becoming a financial advisor . Gosh , she's a badass . She's really a badass Hard worker , super smart Probably the smartest person I know , honestly . Episode 251 .

Speaker 1

Episode 241 , heart and History of Wider Wealth Management . That's with me . Michaela interviewed me and then she started talking about my kids and I cut up like I was going to start crying or something , but that's a good episode . Episode 241 . I do this all for the kids , right ? Episode 173 making the most of your life . For okay , because we talked about that earlier . Episode 168 was the 529 plan set line that everyone seems to like . Episode 184 if you really want to learn about the retirement travelers and how you can sell everything , live out of your backpack episode , episode 184 is a good one to listen to , but thanks for listening to today's episode . If you're interested in learning more about Wiser Wealth Management or want to schedule a consultation and meet with one of our fiduciary financial advisors , like Shana or Michaela or myself , you can do so by going to wiserinvestorcom or clicking in the episode notes . We'll see you guys next week .

Speaker 2

Thanks for listening to a Wiser Retirement Podcast . We hope you enjoyed today's episode . Make sure to subscribe wherever you're listening . That way you don't miss any new episodes . We'd also appreciate if you could leave a rating and review . If you have any questions about anything that was discussed today , head to wiserinvestorcom and reach out . The host and or guests may personally own securities , digital assets or other investment vehicles mentioned on this podcast . Neither the host nor guests of the show are compensated for their participation and no referral fees are paid to or received by any host or guest for clients , listeners or similar interests . Investments involve risk and , unless otherwise stated , are not guaranteed . Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial advisor , tax professional , insurance professional and or legal professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein . Past performance is not indicative of future performance .

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Casey Smith

Co-host
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Shawna Theriault, CFP®, CPA, CDFA®

Co-host