Only Fee-Only
This podcast interviews fee-only financial planners to learn about how they are helping their clients and serving their specific niches.
Only Fee-Only
#116 - Revolutionizing Financial Planning for Ukrainians: Lyubomyr Ostapiv's Impact and Insights
Curious about how financial planning is evolving for Ukrainians worldwide? Lyubomyr Ostapiv, founder of Wealth Gardens and co-founder of iPlan.ua, has been a key figure in bringing fee-only financial planning to Ukrainians. Inspired by American financial experts like Michael Kitces, he shares how the opening of the U.S. stock market to Ukrainian investors in 2017 created new opportunities and reflects on his own move to the U.S.
Lyubomyr also discusses the differences between financial markets in the U.S. and Ukraine and how content marketing and education have helped him build a trusted advisory firm. His YouTube channel, Immigrants Financial Freedom, provides financial guidance for first-generation immigrants in both English and Ukrainian. This conversation explores the future of financial planning and the potential for international diversification.
Connect with Lyubomyr on LinkedIn, and follow along with his journey!
Social:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyubomyr/
x: @lostapiv
Youtube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnaOpmbSYjQMiROFZ6Fdvdg
How's it going? Everyone, welcome back. This is the Only Fee Only podcast, and I'm super excited today because we are talking to Leo Ostapiv, who is the founder of Wealth Gardens, which is based out of Delaware, united States, but he's also the co-founder and partner of iPlanua, which is a fee-only financial planning firm for Ukrainians worldwide. So he literally brought the concept of fee-only planning to Ukraine and now works with Ukrainians all over the world, which is a super cool thing. So we loved talking to Leo in this episode. We had a lot of fun and he had a lot of great things to say. So enjoy this episode with Leo Ostapiv on the Only Fee Only podcast.
Speaker 2:How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Only Fee Only podcast. I'm Peter Travelo. I'm here with my co-host, brock Buckles. How's it going today, brock, I'm living my best life man.
Speaker 1:It's good to be here with my co-host, brock Buckles. How's it going today, brock? I'm living my best life man.
Speaker 2:It's good to be here with you Likewise, and today we are very excited to have Leo Ostaphev on. He's from Ukraine, he's a fee-only planner and an entrepreneur here working in the United States, and very, very excited to have him on and be able to share his experience. So, Leo, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Yes, thanks for inviting me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2:Likewise. Well, for those who don't know who you are, do you want to give a quick overview of who you are and who you're currently serving?
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, I have a background in economics, bachelor degree. I've been in corporate world working, you know, anything from project manager to financial director, to personal finance, because personal finance always was my passion and that's what I enjoy doing, first for myself. Then I started like free blog and then in 2017, I made it my profession. So I co-founded first the only firm in Ukraine. In 2017, we started as two co-founders and we grew to a little firm that still operates in ukraine. Uh, it's 15 financial planners now and adding support people it's about 20 people that still work. Yeah, yeah that's amazing.
Speaker 1:So I mean that that's not a small deal, leo. You literally started the concept of financial planning in Ukraine. So tell us about you know how did you find out about fee-only planning initially? And then where did the idea say, or where did the idea come from to say, hey, I'm going to bring this back home and start fee-only planning in Ukraine?
Speaker 3:home and start feeling planning in ukraine. Yeah, I think I discovered it through michael kicks's blog, and you know we don't have high quality opinion leaders in ukraine, so only the few that we follow, and I think michael was like first of them. Uh, there is a company called Creative Financial Planning I believe that's the other one I followed back then and we just believed in this model, because Ukrainian market is so much behind US and the dominating model. There is insurance agent the person who sells permanent life insurance and that type of thing and, uh, we started doing something, you know, totally different in charging fixed fee for our services. Uh, the other notable thing was that in 2017, national bank of ukraine lifted off some restrictions so people in Ukraine were able to invest in US stock market easily. You know, they would open online US brokerage account, they would transfer money from Ukrainian bank to US bank and buy all that S&P 500, other ETFs that American investors do. But it was possible back in 2017. Before that, it was just only for privilege.
Speaker 2:Very cool. So let's talk a little bit about how you came to the United States and what that process has been like. With the tragedy and disaster that's going on in Ukraine, I know that's a big emphasis of your background, so just really want to hear from your point of view, like how the transition has been and what the United States has been like for you.
Speaker 3:Well, United States is like my second home because I lived in the United States First time I came. Actually it was an exchange program for summer jobs like a student, Then I had my professional internship. So even before this visit, I lived in the United States for a total of two years on a different setup and I loved the country. And first time I came I was amazed how open people were in that what I call, you know, not the rural America, but the one single unit, family America, you know, outside of big cities, the suburban area, outside of big cities, the suburban area.
Speaker 3:So yeah, when the war started, it was really tough to live in Ukraine. Mostly I came, obviously for family reasons, as I have a wife and a small child. But, as Chinese say, you know, some crisis is an opportunity and I have a two-year refugee program now in us that allows me not just to live but to work here legally. And it's it's true opportunity because I can visit conferences, I can meet fellow advisors and for me it's a huge professional development. Know, it's like going from small town team to NFL. That was this transfer to me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I mean that makes complete sense. There's a lot of thought leaders here, right, like you said, michael Kitsis and be able to kind of follow along with what they're doing. And it's so cool that you started that concept in Ukraine. So what have been the big differences? I mean having worked in Ukraine, starting that up over there and then coming here, like what are some of the things that you've learned and that you now appreciate since you've been here?
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, the key difference. You know, since those markets are so much on different level, the competition in Ukraine back in 2017 and even now is very mild. So when you do high quality content, you're going to get leads and clients easily. You know, and we have 15 advisors we are number one firm in Ukraine, but in US it's so much more competitive. There are so many professional, talented advisors and it's almost impossible to do a general contact saying oh, this is Rossi, array, this is Array. That's the difference in getting clients.
Speaker 3:I mean some people do, but they are top of the top of the top. So in the US I'm working in a really small niche called Ukrainian Americans and I do run a financial literacy YouTube channel, but it's more for immigrants. I'm not expecting clients from there. To be honest, and you know, my way to find clients in us is just to visit some ukrainian events where that you know they based on the community interest or some business interest, but I visit them on all over east coast for now, yeah, and that's the way to to get clients. So that's the key difference. You know, the competition and the quality and the professionalism in the US is so much higher and better in the left.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely. What are some of the things that you find that people that are coming here from Ukraine are needing to navigate Like? What are the questions? Because obviously you're a financial planner, you've now had financial planning practices in two different countries, you know a lot about financial planning. That's very clear. But when people are coming to you and they say, okay, we've moved to America, we've immigrated here, we're learning about the system, what are some of those initial questions that they have for you about kind of the way that finance works over here, and how do those conversations typically go for you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess there is a one-time need to transfer money. You know, some people would use crypto, some people would use some money transfers, but it's a challenge because there are some limitations imposed by National Bank of Ukraine. So many people just want to transfer money. And, of course, taxation I'm not an expert on taxation, but I got to have like a context of professional CPAs to refer my clients and do some basic tax planning, which is totally different, of course. But I guess my main expertise is to show my clients investment accounts, so-called tax advantage accounts. We don't have anything like that in Ukraine.
Speaker 3:In Ukraine, you would get your income, you pay your tax and then you invest and you have investment tax. And in the US you have so many varieties. Like, you have basic 401k, ira, etc. But if you're a small business owner, you have I don't know 8, 9, 10 other options, and then there are also limits and then if you're using that account, you can't use that account. Oh, there is a limit on your adjusted gross income, so you can't use it. Then you have health savings and college, and for my clients it's like a new universe, like they moved to another investment planning. But I'm telling them you got to use this. First you know, and then if you have body boarded debt, then you use taxable account. That's the way it works in America. If you simplify it.
Speaker 2:Yes, I think that's such a great point. You know, there's so much information that's out there, right, like your example about Roth IRA, but Roth IRA for Ukrainians and the different way of education, explaining what it is and the function of it. You know, I think that's what really puts the value on the financial planner. You know, you hear all the time that people are scared about, like robo advisors or people that are just going to go on the Internet and Google it. And, yes, the information is there, right, but does it fit your situation? I think that's such an important lesson and something to drill in on is that that's why you're valuable as a financial planner. So it's so cool that you know, out of like you said, something bad that you're able to, you know, help Ukrainians and um push their financial planning forward. Um, so, with setting up your financial practice in the U S? Um, how did you go about registration? Are you a member of XYPN or NAPFA? What's that look like?
Speaker 3:I joined XYPN one of the first things because I kind of knew about XYPN from Kits's blog.
Speaker 3:I joined it maybe a few months after coming, when all the immigration shock was over and I started switching more to work instead of immigration. So, yeah, I am a member of XYPN and they were totally supportive and super helpful in helping me to register as an independent advisor. I am state registered in Delaware and I got my registration on April 30th this year, so I have only a few clients of US, but you know it's more than zero, so it is a good start already. And yeah, I passed two exams security essentials and 65 um.
Speaker 3:I am learning cfp now in boston institute of finance, but you know I'm not 100 sure I need cfp because I plan to come back to europe someday and you know cfp seems too much, you know, investment of time for me, but it's valuable. At least learning it is valuable. But I guess, yeah, right now I work with both European and US clients and my way of learning besides Boston Institute of Finance is just, I'm going to visit all different conferences and in fact, in one week I'm going to go to XYPN Live in Minneapolis and I have already a whole list for 2025 of conferences.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good. Well, we'll see you there, Leo. We're going to be there too, so that'll be a good time. So tell us about how you built you. Take this concept of financial planning, feeling financial planning to Ukraine. You said you're up to like 15 advisors. Now there's more, there's more support staff than that. So it's in my head, I'm going through like what would it be like to bring a completely new idea to a country, and then how would the people in Ukraine react to it? So how did you go about? You know, reaching out to people and meeting people and growing that firm in Ukraine to where it is today?
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, it's tremendous effort in content marketing, you know, and the point of content marketing that it's more of an educational one. Like I was not going and saying, hey, I'm Lubomir, I'm so cool, come and purchase my services. I was telling, hey, there is an opportunity to invest in American stocks. Look, you can buy Google, amazon, nvidia Well, I wish somebody bought nvidia at that time. But, yeah, it's more about a 3500 and low cost index funds that you know we were promoting and yeah, so just putting that as educational context, showing, then showing some showcases. Okay, you know that three years in, like 2020, and we have I don't know, maybe 200 clients, but telling stories of those clients and you know that generates even more interest. So we've done a lot of educational work.
Speaker 3:Um, I'm also of three books now. One is about family, finances, love and budget, and there is a huge topic on like investments too, and then the other is about teaching kids financial literacy and there is a whole chapter about you know, how can you invest some kind of like? How would you do 529, but you know, under ukrainian laws? Um, so there was a lot of education, you know, and, like every advisor knows, michael kids is, uh, back in ukraine. You know most of people who were at least slightly interested in investment topic. They would know us because we have youtube. We have all possible. You know channels, podcasts, sites etc. And yeah, at some point, you know, when you have a big channel it just grows organically.
Speaker 2:You don't need to advertise this, do anything, just people recommend to other people and it grows so like just a quick list, like what are some accounts or financial planning concepts in the United States that are not even on the radar over in Ukraine? Because I got to also think that with fee only planning and like registration and things like, do you get registered with the Ukrainian government to set up an RIA? Like what does that look like?
Speaker 3:to set up an RIA. Like what does that look like? Well, no, in terms of investing, it's kind of simple. People would open account at interactive brokers that's the only US brokerage that works with Ukrainians and it's taxable. So you don't have a lot of choices. You just do your portfolio and taxable account and you know if you don't sell anything. You know if you don't sell anything, you don't have capital gains, so you don't pay taxes. But uh, yeah, you have some dividends and there is a dividend tax. But it's fairly simple and that's like the, the mainstream investment in ukraine.
Speaker 3:And, of course, you know people can buy treasuries, can buy Ukraine government bonds, and real estate is a huge market in Ukraine as well. Obviously, before the war, there were a lot of people investing in real estate projects in their home country. So, sp, only you know we are not selling people. Just you know, oh, you should buy those ETFs. Only you know we are not selling people. Just you know, oh, you should buy those ETFs. We make financial plan for them and you know, for some capital, there is a place for real estate in their financial plan. So that's the other major allocation asset class besides stock market. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So, Leo, what's next for you? I mean, what's on the horizon? Obviously, you've built an amazing firm in Ukraine. You're building a great firm here in the United States. What's next on the radar? What's next on your mind? Kind of something you want to do big business goals for America.
Speaker 3:I'm going to have 50 clients in two years, etc. My primary goal is to learn new instruments, to see what's new in ValsTech. I already learned RightCapital. Even for the time I've been here, I've learned a lot because I use RightCapital. Now it's great. I guess that's my primary goal. If I get maybe 10 20 clients ukrainian, americans, who's in the next year, that will be a success in terms of, you know, growing my practice here.
Speaker 2:Very cool, um, and out of curiosity, how has the xypn onboarding process been for you and the community and everything like that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's really good. You know, I feel XYPN is that right kind of advisors. You know a lot of people like me, not just solo advisors, but small firms that have similar setups. There is a lot of discuss because I assume you know GP Morgan, morgan Stanley. They have great advisors too, but they probably a lot different from what I do with clients. So XYPan is just the right kind sort of advisors for me to talk with and to interact.
Speaker 2:Love that.
Speaker 3:So, leo, any golden nuggets or anything that you wanted to make sure to share to the audience. I bet about 40% of total capitalization outside US and there are great companies in Asia and Europe and I am a big fan of international diversification. I know there is a home country buyers in any country, so I guess our listeners and the audience of the podcast would benefit from international diversification.
Speaker 2:Love it. No doubt emerging markets are important. So, leah, thank you so much for coming on today. For those who want to follow along, maybe see your YouTube channel.
Speaker 3:See where you're at on LinkedIn what's the best way to follow along? Yeah, I have YouTube channel for immigrants, for new immigrants in the US. It's called Immigrants Financial Freedom, so anyone who is a first-generation immigrant, I hope will benefit from that channel In English and Ukrainian, so the primary language is English there. And yeah, I'm LinkedIn. I'm Lubomir Astapiv and you can easily find me. Maybe we can put a link to my bio in the podcast description so people can connect.
Speaker 1:Yep, absolutely Everything will be in the description below. Leo, thanks so much, and we'll look forward to seeing you next week.
Speaker 3:Yeah, see you there.
Speaker 2:Thank you for your time. Thank you so much, Leo.