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#143 - Building A Virtual Firm While Raising Four Kids On The Road - Hamilton Brandenberg
How do you go from knocking on doors in the snow to running a referral-driven, tax-focused retirement firm? Hamilton Brandenburg shares his path from Chick-fil-A’s “my pleasure” culture, to prospecting at Edward Jones, to launching a fee-only practice built around tax-smart retirement planning. A near-lapsing whole life case pushed him toward a model where taxes, decumulation, and clear service rhythms give clients real value they can feel.
Hamilton talks about the habits that mattered early, how they evolved into surge meetings and a proactive review schedule, and why retirees need more than pie charts. They need coordination on withdrawals, Roth conversions, Social Security timing, and account sequencing that keeps lifetime taxes low.
We also get into the chapter where he built a virtual practice from a 46-foot fifth wheel while raising four kids, and how remote work forced cleaner systems and sharper communication. He shares practical advice for advisors going independent and simple ways retirees can evaluate whether an advisor is really planning through taxes.
Social:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamilton-brandenburg-9a361b12b/
Is it in this episode was obtained from Bensound.
What's up everyone? Welcome back. This is the OnlyFee Only Podcast. Thanks for being here. In this episode, we talked to Hamilton Brandenburg, based out of the Atlanta metropolitan area. He is the owner since October 2022 of Brandenburg Financial Services. And this was just an awesome conversation. One thing I noticed about Hamilton was from talking about his early beginnings at Chick-fil-A all the way up through working at Edward Jones and door knocking, all the way to owning his own firm. There is just nothing but authenticity. So I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk to him. I know that Peter did as well. And we hope you enjoy this episode. So stay tuned for this episode with Hamilton on the Only Fee Only Podcast.
SPEAKER_01:What's up, everyone? Welcome to another episode of the Only Fee Only Podcast. I'm Peter Travolo. I'm here with my co-host Brock Buckles. And today we're so excited to have Hamilton Brandenburg on. Really excited to hear his story about how he's building his own firm and how he's serving his clients. So, Hamilton, welcome to the show, man.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, thank you, Peter. It's great to be here. Good morning. Hey, hey Brock, how are you guys doing? Everybody having a great day?
SPEAKER_02:Good, good, man.
SPEAKER_00:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Thriving. Living, man. Living. So for those who don't know who Hamilton is, those who aren't following along, let's catch him up to speed in about 30 seconds. Um, I've said 30 seconds in the past, and then people just ramble on for 10 minutes. But here I go.
SPEAKER_00:Here's my 10-minute ring.
SPEAKER_01:What's the elevator pitch? Give it to us.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so so I I'm a shockingly a fee-only financial advisor in the Metro Atlanta area. Uh we have uh I have a practice that we serve about 60 households, and we're really retirement focused. So it's people who are either retired or they're very close to, and their problems are deaccumulation, spending their assets down as much as they possibly can and trying to avoid overpaying the IRS. And that's really that's really my focus.
SPEAKER_02:That was, I mean, that was great within the time allotment. That was fantastic. I think that was, yeah, that was ding ding ding. There we go. So, how did you know that you even had an interest in this, man? Like, how did you kind of get into it? Because a lot of people, you know, they go to college for one thing, they end up doing another. And I know that you were Edward Jones. So, like, kind of walk us through the initial beginnings of getting into the career and then how you ended up where you are today.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So I yeah, ever since I was a young child, I dreamed of helping people save money on taxes in retirement. Uh said no one ever, right?
SPEAKER_02:Um, like, do you remember how old how young you were when you were having these thoughts?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I I can, and it was not very young. Oh. So I I was a management major in college, so kind of like decent at everything, great at nothing. I kind of thought about getting into the industry then. I actually had an offer to do an internship with a a large national insurance carrier. And at that uh meeting, they're like, okay, so the internship is you're gonna write down a hundred names and numbers of your family members to sell insurance to. And I was like, oh man, I just don't know that I want to do that because I'm afraid that they won't want to talk to me anymore. So uh passed on that, didn't really think about getting back into financial planning or anything afterwards. And I went to work for a uh captive auto finance company for General Motors for a few years, doing a few different roles there. And I remember at the time I was, you know, young and aggressive and trying to grow my grow my business and climb the ladder, uh, grow my career. And I just kind of came to the conclusion that eventually, if I did well enough, all roads would lead to Detroit, right? And my family was growing and young. I I think I had a couple of kids by the time I got to the end of my career at GM Financial. And I was like, I just don't want to move around every two to four to six years and to chase the next thing to make more money and have more control over my life. So a friend of mine at the time uh was working for uh for Edward Jones, and he he and I had worked together at Chick-fil-A in high school, and so he was just telling me about the opportunity, and I was like, okay, this is great. I love, I like numbers. I work in a number ish kind of job, and I go into dealerships and I work with the owners and help them on their cash flow planning and how to leverage their financial tools and all this stuff. And I was like, this could be a really cool job for me because it sounds like a lot of similar skill sets translate, but you know, more of the ability to build a practice and have control over it. So that's kind of how I I got started in the business. And then, you know, after a few years, I through, I'm sure we'll talk about it some, I kind of came to some different conclusions and decided that I wanted to build my own business and and take the fee-only route.
SPEAKER_02:Uh uh I have a that's amazing. First of all, that's amazing. Second of all, I have a question. Okay. You worked at Chick-fil-A in high school. Yes. This is totally off to off topic, but I've always wondered when people leave there, if when people say thank you for the rest of your life, if you're like my pleasure. Is that a thing? Or you do? Yes. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:I started, I interviewed at Chick-fil-A two weeks before I turned 14, which is the youngest like you can legally work there. Oh, and by the way, I was homeschooled, so all the stereotypes. And so my the guy's like, okay, yeah, you can work here, but you can't work here for a few weeks. You gotta be 14. And I left when I was like 21, maybe 22. Um, so I I've done a lot of my pleasuring and you know, and and serving chicken.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, that's all good, man. Nothing wrong with it at all. Nothing wrong with it at all. Pete, I know you had something, but I just had to I had to get into that for a second.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's interesting. I mean, seven years too. I mean, what's like the craziest story that you have from that?
SPEAKER_00:There's a lot of crazy stories. So um my sister-in-law worked, met my brother working there, and she accidentally I I I just like to pick on people. I was the manager. I picked on people I liked, so I had her take the trash out once this big thing, and she accidentally like hit a celebrity's car with it and scratched it. So we had to file an insurance claim. Um, I've chased people, I've jumped out of the drive-thru window and chased them into the street because they would pull up on their cell phone, pay, and just drive off without getting their food. So you're like running into like a 54-lane road with handing food through the window. Don't forget your chicken. Yeah, that's right, that's right. Yeah, you can't take your chicken. Uh, it was a lot of fun, though. Great experience for a teenager. Uh, good honestly, one of the best experiences to get me ready for this, just learning how to talk to people and be positive all the time.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah. And people are coming at you, you know, on a rainy day, a sunny day, whatever's going on in their mind, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Their expectations are really high. Like we had a crystal next door and a Wendy's on the other side. And, you know, the the customer service level expectations there are very, very low. But over here, like if you forget to put a lemon in someone's tea at Chick-fil-A, then they're gonna talk to your manager and be like, I specifically asked for two lemons. And then he's like, Come on, man, give them two lemons.
SPEAKER_02:So well, with all that being said, thank you for the explanation, Hamilton.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So let's um, so we moved from the captive um finance company to Edward Jones, right? That's where we're at. Um, so for those who are not familiar with Edward Jones, right? It wasn't necessarily write down a hundred names like the previous insurance company, but what was the training like there? What was the initial marketing plan? Like what were you doing in the beginning, and what was kind of your you know, North Star there?
SPEAKER_00:So your marketing plan is was really kind of like door knocking, because this is pre-COVID. So Edward Jones was a big door knocking firm. And I I'll be honest with you, I liked it because I I didn't want to sell to my network. I wanted to um, and there maybe there was like some insecurity being a new financial advisor, being like, I don't want to call grandma because I'm trying to figure this out. But it was just going door to door and knocking and meeting people, and you started out before you got your licenses and kind of building up your prospect list, and you followed a script and you tried to uncover a need, get a name and a number, and that was kind of building your pipeline out. So I actually door knocked up until probably well, really until the firm told us we had to stop in February of 2020. I started in 2018 and door knocked every week for two years and actually got a lot of really great clients out of it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. What was like the strategy with the door knocking? Like how many days, like kind of how many doors, like what were the metrics there?
SPEAKER_00:Well, the the strategy is if you don't have clients, you're door knocking. So I I would work six days a week and I would get out by, you know, usually by seven or eight o'clock in the morning. It was uh socially acceptable to start knocking on people's doors. And you're just trying to uncover, I would literally knock on their door, hey, Peter, I've got an investment uh firm that I'm starting down the road, or I have an investment practice I'm starting down the road. I help people with uh saving for college and helping get a better return on their investments. Do you have an IRA? And you would just be like, yes or no. And then it's like, okay, well, are you happy with the service that you get there? Yeah. And a lot of times you would just get a no, I'm not. Cool. Let me give you a call about that sometime. If anything great comes across my desk, I'll let you know. And you just start to build up names and numbers and call people to set appointments for financial planning, essentially.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And there's something to be said about that because, you know, it seems like, and we're like, we're all young, but like if the newer are like the ones that are just starting out, right? They're not gonna get any of that door knocking or cold calling experience. And I mean, there is a lot to be said about that experience and like rehearsing your script, going up, you know, stumbling on your script a little bit, looking like an idiot, you know, just um, yeah, no, that's so interesting.
SPEAKER_00:The first day I did that, I remember the the very first day I door knocked. We all flew back. We had our training on Friday, we flew back, and all my co all my peers were gonna start door knocking on Monday, and I was like, I'm gonna do it on Saturday because I need to get it out of my system. And it was like one of the weird days where it had actually snowed in Georgia. So I'm out in a suit, walking through a neighborhood, it's there's snow on the ground everywhere, and I'm about to go knock on a stranger's door, and I was like, please don't be home, please don't be home, please don't be home. Uh so yeah, it was it was very it was it was tough kind of just cutting your teeth that way.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna say, man, but you are cutting your teeth and it's a way to get into it and you can appreciate what it takes. And then down the road, when you figure out there's different methods or you're you become more comfortable with it, sure, that's a lot better. Because I remember like being in Northwestern originally, like the 40 dials a day was like, I'm gonna call 40 people every single day, and it's just gonna be like, yeah. And I was like, I don't even know. And then if you don't have enough names or some of those names are getting stale, you're like, wait, I'm gonna call those 40 names again. And so you but then eventually when you get better at it, it was kind of like, well, if I don't call 40 people today, like I didn't do the job. Like I'm gonna go to bed tonight and think to myself, I did not do what it takes. I didn't do what it took to actually do the job. So it is something that, you know, although I'm glad I'm not there anymore and I'm doing something different, um, I can still appreciate the the experiences that I had because you learn a lot. So I'm sure you you feel the same way, it sounds like.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, my survivor's bias would tell you, oh, that was such a great time. But then if someone's like, well, why don't you go do it today? No, I don't want to do it today.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely not. Yeah, no, absolutely not. So you decide that you you want to do something different. What was kind of the moment? Because a lot of people have that, where they're like, okay, I don't want to be doing this anymore. I want to go start my own thing. What was kind of that aha moment for you, Hamilton?
SPEAKER_00:So I started listening to Michael Kitz's financial advisor success podcast. And I was like the only person in my little cohort of Edward Jones people that just found it. I was probably Googling something and I came across Kitz's.com and I was like, oh, there's a whole podcast about how to be successful in my industry. This is great. So I just started ravenously devouring episodes. And you're just learning, like, hey, there's so many ways that I can add value to other clients and to do more unique things. And I remember a time I had a client who this is actually a little fun insurance story. He was had bought a lot of whole life insurance policies in the 80s. And he had taken a lot of loans from those because he just life happens, right? People borrow against them. But he thought that the dividends would be paying for his premium and and the loan payments. So essentially that he would his cash flow will be fine. And I remember around 2019-ish, probably the insurance company lowered the dividend and they sent him a letter saying, hey, this policy is basically going to lapse if you don't pay an astronomical amount to keep it in force. So we tried to do a loan rescue. That wasn't really an option. We looked at a few other different and and really it came down to I was like on a whiteboard trying to help them figure out, okay, we have money in a taxable brokerage account, we have these insurance policies, these are the ones we're gonna keep in force, this is what we're gonna let lapse. Here's how we're gonna move money from your brokerage account to an IRA, and here's how this is gonna affect your taxes over the next couple of years. And that scenario, plus all of this kitsus stuff that I had been just saturating my mind with, I was like, man, my my retired clients really need someone who can do tax planning for them, not just help them do a little math on a whiteboard, but like truly do ongoing tax planning, be proactive. And at the time, I don't know what the culture is now, but that wasn't something that I think I would have been able to do where I was. Sure. At least not to the level that I felt like some of my clients needed in particular. So that was kind of the moment of hey, you know, I've been I've been enjoying all this kits' stuff and seeing what else is out there, but I think I need to do what's out there because that's what my clients need.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. And there is something to the like, if you're at a larger company, I don't care what you're doing or where you're at, there's going to be a culture about like, this is who we are, this is what we do, and this is what we focus on. And you're incentivized and rewarded by that kind of system, right? And so, in order to make your own rules and do your own thing, you you truly have to go out and and figure out what it is that you want to do and what your unique service offering was gonna be. I'm curious. So, when you were moving from the from Edward Jones to opening and having your own firm, were there things about it that you felt like were a lot more challenging? Because I know I could speak for Peter and I, like we left, right? Now there's no CRM. We got to go find the CRM, and then we have to build the CRM and then all of that. So, were there moments like that for you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, definitely. Uh so I I'll I'll tell you too, this intersected with some stuff that was going on in my personal life at the time. So my wife and I, we have four kids, and we decided all all really around the same time, around the time I wanted to go independent and all this was coming together. We decided we also wanted to sell our house and move into a RV and travel full-time and work remotely. And because COVID had done that for my practice, everything had gone virtual. Even my retired clients who live 10 miles down the road are like, Hamilton, we don't want to drive up and see you. Can we just do a Zoom call? So we so yeah, so there was a lot of uh stress and trepidation because I went independent probably about a few months after selling my house and moving into my RV full time and deciding to trap. So there's a lot, and I'd never like towed a trailer at all before. Now I'm towing like a 46-foot fifth wheel with four kids living in it. We're homeschooling, we have never homeschooled before, and I'm starting a business. And then on these, you know, on these great kids interviews, there's like a million different ways people are billing their clients. So I'm like, okay, I'm starting my own practice. Should I be how should I bill people? You know, like all these questions. What CRM should I use? It was very overwhelming, I feel like, initially. And um, I just kind of had to, you just had to slog through those decisions and just try to make what's what's the best, quickest decision I can make that gets something propped up so that way I can get back to what's important of serving my clients. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. What are some like core bullet points you would say, or like you know, what would maybe be some episodes or lessons that you've seen other advisors give you that you know you'd say are like core pillars of your service offering.
SPEAKER_00:A lot of stuff that, yeah. So so I really liked um I liked Andy Panko when he was talking about you know doing the EA and the tax prep thing. And I was like, wait a minute, like I could do tax prep. So shocker that became something that I offered. Um I I liked Matthew Jarvis's surge meetings approach. And so that was something I actually implemented while I was at Edward Jones too, was just really getting all my clients used to a service model of we're gonna meet twice a year, and these are the times that it's of most value to you for us to meet and be proactive with your plan. Um there's there are a million great episodes, but those two really stand out to me as things that really influenced what I do within my practice for our clients.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So are you are you still on the road? Are you still doing that? We just got off the road like two months ago. We were gonna do it for, or maybe a month ago, actually. We were gonna do it for like maybe a year, and we ended up being on the road for three years.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because I remember I was looking back, I remember literally getting the text, you're like, I'm on the move, or something like that. Can we do a cell phone call? The first time that we ever talked. And I remember talking about the setup and all the stuff. I'm like, what kind of truck are you driving, man? What do you got going on there? Because I've always thought it would be a cool idea. Um, but I think if you can build it while you're pulling an RV with four kids that are homeschooling, I think you're gonna be all right, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the stress level has gone down a lot. I was like, I didn't even realize how much time, how like how stressful being moving every two weeks was until I stopped doing it. I'm like, this is so easy to get all my work done in the during the normal hours.
SPEAKER_02:You're like, wait, there we have structure now? Yeah. Amazing. So um what was the main route or route that you guys like took to that you took to grow it? Like what was the main because a lot of people, you know, again, you have that door knocking history. A lot of people will cold call, a lot of people utilize their natural market. Some people are doing LinkedIn marketing. What worked for you and why?
SPEAKER_00:So I had, I was very lucky early in my career, Edward Jones to work out of the office of a couple of advisors who had done a great job serving their clients and built a very referrable business. And I remember asking one of them once, I was like, Okay, how do you get all these referrals? Like thinking he's gonna give me the secret sauce, we're gonna write it down. Uh, and he was just like, Well, if you want to get a lot of referrals, you just have to be referable. And I was like, Okay, that's not helpful. But but it really was. It's like, okay, have a discipline, have a structure to how you're running your business, reach out to your clients proactively with a reason to call them, and they're going to send you more business. So for me, like the own the big two things have been I got a good initial core of clients from door knocking. And because I am proactive with how I serve them, they give me a they give me referrals. So a lot of folks, I mean, I have a couple of clients who have referred, you know, probably about a third of my business to me, um, just from working in their area specifically, helping them with their equity compensation and helping them with their retirement planning. So it's really just been referrals after door knocking stopped, it was referrals. And that's what it's been since then. I do, I do a podcast, I post a lot on LinkedIn, um, but that's really more just to meet centers of influence and also talk to other financial advisors because it can be a little lonely being by yourself. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So where do you see the firm going from here? Do you see it being a solo shop and you keeping that freedom? Do you want to try to grow into a boutique firm or you know, do you want to try to blow the roof off of it and go enterprise?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I I think right now I would just like to probably double the number of clients that we're serving. I think it would be, I would like to bring on uh maybe an associate advisor and client service manager and kind of take a build a little team out. Um, so that's kind of the next focus is you know, I I don't know how much more I'd want to grow beyond that, but let's let's at least start with building a team and see where that takes us.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And did you start with that? Did you start with the end in mind? Like, was it like when you started it, you were like, I don't really want to get get bigger than, you know, a couple people, or did you just kind of figure it out as you went?
SPEAKER_00:I I started with like the next quarter in mind. I was like, I was like, okay, how do how do I grow enough clients so that way I can continue to make this a viable business and not just have to quit and you know live in my trailer somewhere by myself and be sad that I left a good job. Uh so no, I didn't really start with like a big goal for growth. It was just like, hey, how can I build something that is a great lifestyle practice and pays for my family to experience this and uh this life that we're living? And also it you know, allows me to feel good about the quality of work that I'm doing for my clients. And that's that's kind of really the focus I started out with, I'd say.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, for sure. Do you have something, Pete?
SPEAKER_01:No. Um, I was just gonna say, Hamilton, were there any golden nuggets or anything like that that you were thinking of before coming on the show or you know, you want to get out there to the audience?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, you know, I would just say it my my thing has been for people who because I sat on the sidelines for a long time, wanting to go independent, not feeling very confident in doing so. And um, I'd say if there's something you really want to do, just just do it and figure it out later. You know, we spend especially financial advisors, we uh like to plan out every single detail and plan for every contingency. And you just can't do that, right? So if if I can door knock my way into a successful practice that feeds my family, if I can buy a a dually truck and a 46-foot uh toy hauler, having never towed before, and build a business and see the US all doing that remotely, like anybody can do this. If that's something that you want to do and you feel passionately about, just start doing it. Because like like Nick Murray would say, like you're not going to you're not gonna you're not gonna do by learning, but you can learn by doing. So just start doing things and you'll figure it out.
SPEAKER_02:Awesome, man. Yeah, fantastic advice. Um, and for those that want to follow along with what you're doing, is LinkedIn the best place?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I am active on LinkedIn. I have a podcast successfully retired and a YouTube channel retire with Hamilton.
SPEAKER_02:Awesome, man. Well, thank you so much for the time. Great talking to you, and look forward to doing this again one day.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks, Brock. Thanks, Peter. Great talking to you guys.