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
#155 - A Discretionary, Childfree Life with Cory Smith
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Most financial advice is built around a default life plan — and it quietly breaks down when you've opted out of that script. Cory Smith is a fee-only financial life planner and founder of Discretionary Inc. in Reno, Nevada, where he works exclusively with childfree individuals, couples, and business owners who want their finances to support the life they actually want — not the one they were expected to want.
In this episode, we get into his core concept of discretion: the freedom to determine your own best course of action. We talk about what changes in planning when there are no assumed heirs, why longevity and support structures deserve more attention in this space, and how he works backward from a client's vision to build a financial framework around it.
Cory also shares the path that shaped his philosophy — from commission-driven environments and door knocking at Edward Jones to the fee-only model — and how he integrates George Kinder's Real Life Planning process into a modern client experience, including a concurrent planning approach that delivers early wins while the deeper work unfolds.
We also cover what's working in his business today: partnerships, community building, and using short-form and long-form content to reach people who are quietly rewriting the rules.
If you're interested in values-based planning and building a life on your own terms, this one's worth your time.
Cory's Social and Website
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dincwithcory/
https://www.discretionaryinc.com/
Welcome And Guest Overview
SPEAKER_00How's it going, everyone? Welcome back to the OnlyFeel podcast. And as always, thanks for being here. Today's guest built his entire practice around a client base that is largely underserved. People who have chosen a child-free life. Corey Smith is a financial life planner and the founder of Discretionary Inc., based out of Reno, Nevada, where he works with individuals, couples, and business owners to build financial structures around the life they actually want to live, not just a number and an account. His whole framework centers on what he calls discretion: the freedom to determine your own best course of action. Whether that's travel, entrepreneurship, creative work, or just keeping your options open, Corey starts with the vision and works backwards to the finances. This is a great podcast, and I hope you guys enjoy it. Here is Corey Smith on the Only Fee Only Podcast.
SPEAKER_03How's it going, 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 Corey Smith on. We're really excited to have him on, share his story, and how he's helping his financial planning clients. So, Corey, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks for having me on, guys. Yes, you bet. So we've had the privilege of being able to work together. But for those who don't know who Corey is, um, you want to give a quick background and then we can uh start the podcast? Sure.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, uh, so I've been in the industry for let's see, going on 13 or 14 years now. Um, just started my own firm about a year, year and a half ago now. Um yeah, so we work with uh child-free and entrepreneur-minded communities. Uh and yeah, we're one of the few advisors that works specifically with uh with the child-free community.
Why Child-Free Clients Need Different Planning
SPEAKER_00Yeah, this is a very timely conversation, and I don't know if it'll be out, but we just uh were talking to Maddie Roche the other day. So similar, similar, yeah. We love Maddie, she's awesome. She is awesome, man. She is awesome. So how did you decide? Like, what what makes you passionate about that? Like, how did you decide? Did you just feel like it was a kind of an underserved part of the advising community? Like, what was uh or the financial planning world? Like, what did you what did you think about getting into it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um, I mean, the idea of working with the child-free community actually really bore from uh mine and my life partner's experience of planning. Um you know, I when I first started in the industry, like everybody, I was kind of serving everybody. And my partner and my and myself both have always been entrepreneurial-minded people. Um, it caused me a lot of pain and a lot of suffering and struggling when I was in the army because uh there you kind of learn to they say jump and you ask how high, and I would always ask, why are we jumping? Um, but it also brought a lot of success as well. But so I knew that I was entrepreneurial-minded. Uh, my partner has always she actually went to college for entrepreneurship. Um and then also later on top of that, being child-free, one of the things I realized is that the advice, like traditional advice that you get and give, um, really isn't built for people that want to go that entrepreneurial path or that child-free path. Um, there's additional considerations, freedoms, opportunities that we have that general people that are going the traditional route, starting a family, uh, things like that, that they don't necessarily have. And so the planning dynamic needs to change. Um, you know, not only are there more opportunities, but also we need to flesh out some of those risks, like longevity. Um, you know, Brock, you just had mentioned meeting with Maddie, and like what they're doing over there at Child Free Trust is absolutely amazing. Like, this is that solves a huge issue, even that we've been seeing for our clients as well. So um, yeah, just realizing that those are the people like, and then I wanted to work with people that are like-minded, you know, people that don't necessarily want to, you know, go again that traditional route. Um, so if I'm gonna go and build this, let's build it for the people that I love being around.
Early Career Lessons From Edward Jones
SPEAKER_03I love it. I love it. So uh before the call, you had mentioned kind of where you had started in the industry. Um, so let's kind of touch on that, and then I want to dive into the RLP and how you got into real life planning. Um, because I think it's really cool between the RLP and also, you know, the child-free type of planning.
SPEAKER_01Sure. Um, yeah, so getting into the industry, um, you know, right out of high school, I got into the military, and then after the military, I went into college, realized that I loved accounting statistics statistics, uh man, accounting statistics and finance. And um it was during my time in college that I reconnected with one of my army buddies, and he was working for Edward Jones at the time, and he encouraged me to come and you know apply with them and uh take a look at that. And that sounded like what I originally thought it was gonna be was going in and doing investment analysis and like understanding buying single stocks and everything. And I was like, oh, this is an absolute dream. And I got in there and I realized a couple of things. First of all, my passion really was for helping people, not necessarily in the investment world. I still love the investments. It's something that that I um I love paying close attention to and being well versed in. Uh, but I realized that where we really make the difference, it's not in the investment management, it's helping people make better decisions. And um so yeah, I I spent uh some time there at Edward Jones. Um, you know, I've got some stories on why it wasn't a good fit, and then decided to go out into the industry um as a whole. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00Did you do some door knocking when you were there, man? Dude, my knuckles are still bruised from door knocking.
SPEAKER_03But with that, like what are some good lessons that you know, maybe that you look back on, you're like, man, maybe that was some good training, or you know, because there's some people that they don't get that type of training, and there's something to be said about it.
SPEAKER_01I mean, you absolutely learn what it takes to build a book of business. Um, you know, I I'm fairly certain that Edward Jones is probably evolving with with the times, but at that time, like before you started any, like you passed your series 7, 66, your your insurance licenses, and then you had to go and collect, I don't know, 500 names, I think it was. And literally like from sunrise to sunset, even past sunset, I was going and knocking on doors all day. And you kind of realize you learn what it takes to again just build that business. Um, and then they also taught me a lot of what not to do, what I realized that I you know didn't want out of providing value to to clients. So yeah, for sure.
Preparing To Launch An RIA
SPEAKER_00So learn a lot of good lessons, man. When you decided you like, hey, I'm gonna start my own financial planning practice, I'm gonna do this thing. What were kind of like the ways that you were getting ready? Were you like, hey, I I'm gonna have like this go-to-market plan, or I you you kind of knew who you wanted to work with, but like what were you kind of thinking right before you were starting your firm? Because I know that can kind of be like a nerve-wracking thing, and you're like trying to figure out what direction I'm gonna go, and your brain's in a hundred different places. So, like, what was kind of your mindset going into it, and then some of the the first things that you started doing?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so um, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, I mean, I started thinking about it early on, probably basically about five years into my into my time uh as an advisor. I started realizing that okay, what are the kind of skill sets that I need to know? What are what are the areas that I need to excel in in order for me to go and be able to go and launch my own firm? And um so you know, I spent many years kind of just toying around with the idea of okay, eventually I'm gonna start my own company, gaining all the knowledge that I needed in the different areas of investing in taxes and um in in just insurance and planning uh in all of the different areas. Right beforehand, um I don't know if it was necessarily nerve-wracking because of the fact that I had thought about it for so long. Uh and I had a really good transition plan. I had found um so probably for the last five years before four or five years before I had started um before I started the firm. I was working as uh basically director of operations for I started with like I had worked at Northwestern Mutual, the director of investment operations, and then more broadly at with a couple RIAs being the director of operations and planning, kind of managing all of the back office stuff. So I saw all of the different systems that needed to be made, meet needed to be created, and I got really lucky with the fact that I found another RIA firm that they just needed a bunch of those back office systems built. And I I told him I was like, hey, I'm gonna be starting my own firm. And as long as you're okay with that, I'm gonna come on. I'm gonna come on as a contractor, we're gonna do these, like build out these systems, and once we're done, like we're done. And that gave me basically a seven-month runway to start like thinking about the name, thinking about the the different processes, thinking about uh all the different things that kind of need needed to be done. I mean, turns out I probably could have benefited from like an 18-month runway, but yeah, having that seven-month runway was uh you know, was better than nothing. It's better than no runway. Yeah, exactly. I mean, so many people go out and do it with no no runway.
SPEAKER_03Yep, yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's incredible. So are you set up on the XY chassis, or what does that look like?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I actually just recently joined the XY chassis. Um again, I've I've always been somebody that marches to my own beat. And when I first looked at it, I was like, well, you know, it doesn't really make sense. Like I knew that I was wanted to be fee only, but also um, you know, I'm not a CFP. I or I don't have, yeah, I'm not a CFP. So, you know, I was like, I'm not gonna be able to be featured on their page, so there's no real benefit there. And it wasn't until um after going through the RLP designation, I and finding a community there, seeing the fact that so many of those community members were also members of XYPN, and I was like, hmm, okay, this is now this makes sense. Like I know what my tech stack is, and I see where I'm gonna get the discounts and where this is gonna make sense. And turns out I can go and join XYPN, get a more of a sense of community because building a business on your own can at times feel pretty lonely. So um, you know, get that community and also, you know, start getting discounts on some of the technology that I was already using.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a big one, man, that we always talk about. It's like if you could be paying less for the technology, that's a huge thing because Peter and I have talked about that. Like, we've gotten to points in the business where we're like, I think we're paying like five or six hundred bucks right now for like technology that we're using a minimal amount, or we need to just go through and refine or see if our CRM already has something that we can be using.
SPEAKER_01Doing those audits and finding out where the where overlap is or where you're missing, or like where you're just paying for something that you're like is something that you tried six months ago, and all of a sudden you're like, we're not even use that anymore. Here's like leakage of you know, 50 bucks a month.
SPEAKER_03Let's just like business subscriptions versus personal subscriptions, or doing an audit of what we're using.
Real Life Planning And The Vision Work
SPEAKER_0050 bucks a month, also known as$600 a year. That's just yeah, exactly. You know, that can go towards something that that's a flight to a conference or whatever it might be. So uh well, is in your in your planning practice, man, what are the things that you really enjoy? Like, are there any parts of the process or you know, is it the initial meeting? Is the actual planning work? Is it you know, talking to the clients? Like, where you really feel like super fulfilled inside of your business?
SPEAKER_01Um I think really since going and doing that, getting that RLP designation, one of the things that I'm starting now starting to lean into and recognize is the thing that's giving me the most amount of pleasure is honestly helping clients dream and figure out what having a fulfilled life means. Um, and what I'm finding also on the back end that's making planning so much easier because of the fact that like beforehand, it was hey, come in, we're gonna save on taxes, and yes, we still do that. We're gonna, you know, align your investments. Yes, we obviously do that. You know, we're gonna do all these things, but not having that deeper connection, people would not say flip-flop, but they would they would you know potentially start to recognize um or share that, oh, you know what, I actually really want to do this one crazy thing over here that like early on in our relationship, I just didn't feel comfortable telling you about. And um, so helping them dream up front and figure out what it is that like what is it that they want, not what does society want, what does not what other people like have put onto you. Um helping them figure that out and then building the plan around that is uh is a lot of fun. Um, you know, we use the standard kinder process, and that vision meeting is just, I mean, I just had one the other day and um the the client, she's like, if I could do this, like I just get tingles head to toe. And like when when people say that, you're just like you feel the same feelings, and it's awesome having that connection.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's a he's a special guy too, man. He he's awesome. We had him, we had the opportunity to actually have him on the podcast. I don't know how many episodes ago, but he he is really an inspiration to a lot of a lot of planners out there.
SPEAKER_01So absolutely, you know, it it's funny because I actually didn't at no point did I act even consider getting the RLP designation. Um it was actually my life partner, Lindsay, who uh you know, she's been a business consultant for financial advisors for two decades, three decades. She recently, a couple years ago, she launched her own firm. And she has always been on the that like human side of planning kind of movement. And one day she she's like, you know, I kind of want to go to this training out in HANA for it was the five-day training course at George Kinder's house in HANA. Um it just so happened that that aligned with our anniversary. And we uh, you know, another fun thing about our relationship is the fact that um, you know, we're not married, we're life life partners, but we uh uh we all have had this long joke where Lindsay has always said she's like I can do anything for three years. Um and like it used to be that that's why she leases leases her vehicles because she can do that for three years, she could stay at a job for three years, and after that, she would kind of get tired of of like the corporate bullshit and be like, Okay, I need to move on. Yeah, so it was always I can do anything for three years. So our joke has been uh every three years, it's a renewal year, and we uh you know, kind of jokingly we'll go out to dinner, we'll go out, do something, and and be like, So uh, you know, do we want to renew this for another three years? And it just so happened that that fell on a renewal year. And I was like, You gotta answer one question first before we go and do this. Is this gonna be a renewal year? And uh she she's like, Yeah, like of course we're we're in this for the long haul. Um, but yeah, so we went we went to uh HANA, and that's when I really saw the power. Like it's everything, it was everything that I had been trying to implement on my own in a framework that just naturally works.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So how did you go from that trip to just integrating it into your practice and your client experience? What did that look like?
SPEAKER_01Um It is and has been a series of kind of trials and errors, trying to figure out you know, how do we how do we both provide value up front? Because clients don't necessarily come to us for this life planning experience. They come to us because there's some type of a financial need, question, concern, uh, just uncertainty, whatever it may be. But then really within this framework is the only is my personal view the best way for us to go and deliver the advice. So uh at first, I when I first came back from HANA, I was uh, you know, I kind of went all in on it and I said, okay, this is what we're doing. We're starting with uh exploration and vision and then the obstacles. And um through walking a couple clients through that, I realized that you know we're not really providing the value that they're coming to us for up front. So one of the things that we switched to now is um I could I call it just kind of concurrent planning, where we do we do our getting organized meeting first, the very first thing, and figure out what are the things that they actually came to us for, and we'll start fixing those while we're going through that those three exploration vision and obstacles meetings. Uh, because like if it's if they're you know concerned about the fact that they don't have insurance, it's just if it's disability or life insurance, you guys know it's gonna take us a couple of weeks for us to get that in place. So why not start that process knowing that okay, on the back end, we might need to change the amount or the type or whatever it is, uh, but at least get that process started so we can start getting those quick wins for them. Um, you know, we can go and see, hey, you've got all this money that's sitting in cash, let's just move it to a high yield savings account. It's a month's worth of interest, but it also is just action that starts getting people excited about you know what it what's to come over the course of the rest of the relationship.
Mistakes To Avoid And Fee-Only Clarity
SPEAKER_00Yeah. No, I love that, man. I like how you say that. And it's it's a great way to organize things. What is uh what do you feel like is something that maybe you wish you would have known more about? Or um, like if you could go back and give yourself advice when you were first starting out, what would you say to yourself that you feel like would have a material impact? I know that's a big question.
SPEAKER_01I'd say just do your do your research on understanding what the industry like the ins and outs of the actual industry. You know, I came into a commission-based sales role where uh, you know, after a couple of interactions with some of my leadership, uh they they made the statement of I wish I could just change your title to statement gatherer, because that's the only thing that you should be doing. Uh and you know, that's that's when I realized I was like, okay, I'm not a great fit here. Um like I knew I knew that I wasn't a great fit there, and then I went into uh the insurance world because I had met one of the you know um general managers or you know, one of the larger agents who was like, Oh yeah, you you come on board this team and uh you know you're gonna do you're gonna run the investments for the team, and this is gonna be a great fit. And the first client that the first person I brought to them was this person that you know they're in their mid-20s, they just they worked in real estate, they just made like$130,000 a year. Um and they're like, Okay, yeah, the recommendation is gonna be we put fifty thousand dollars a year into whole life. I was like, no, what this is the first year that they just made any real money, and like next year they can make nothing. Um so like again, I just didn't know the industry well enough. I knew, like through those trials and errors, I realized I was like, oh, there's this fee only path. Um, and I think looking back on it, if I would have known that ahead of time, I would have avoided a lot of the kind of missteps early on in my career.
Marketing Shifts From Doors To Video
SPEAKER_03I love it. So you mentioned earlier, you know, door knocking, getting 500 names, um, and then I guess cold calling them. But how's the ball game different now? How are you marketing? How are you getting your, you know, your firm's name out there?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So um, you know, again, this is a a series of kind of trial and error. We've been going the social media route. Uh, so we worked with N2 in order to go and produce the 120 social media, uh, short form social media videos. And those have been, you know, that's that's been a really great experience. It's also been a learning experience on um what it is that we want to apply and do moving forward. So it went from cold calling and door knocking uh back at the very beginning of my career to leaning into my network, uh, doing, you know, I'm working with there's a woman that's building a uh, it's called Lady No Kids, but she's building a community for the female child-free community. And her and I are coming together to uh do a kind of a woman, women and wealth program for her and uh and all of her community members. So leveraging community uh like that. And then also again, that social media. One of the next things that we're uh going to start taking on right now, we're building the inventory of videos, um, but going into more of the long form video format, moving from short form to long form.
SPEAKER_00I love it, man. I love it. Yeah, those guys into are great too. They're awesome guys.
SPEAKER_01I was blown, like just blown away about by how smart those guys are, and um, you know, I'm still using their their new AI, Sage AI, to help me with at least the the base level of the um the scripts. Yep, for sure.
SPEAKER_00No, it's hey, when you implement things into your practice in your business that make your life easier, man, it it's it's amazing. And it's crazy how you know that those things come along. You're like, I didn't even why have I been doing this the other way for so long?
SPEAKER_01You know, it's funny because I was actually I was actually trying to build my own, not not an AI agent. Like I'm I'm not nearly as smart as those guys, especially when it comes to marketing, but I was I was smart enough to to realize that hey, I need to use AI uh where when and where possible to make me more efficient. Sure. And so I had been uh and I talked to Nate about this when I was out doing like recording the videos with him about how I was trying to build out my own um AI script generator, and he's he was like, Yeah, we got something coming for you here in a couple months. Like, yeah, just let's say you know, he's like, keep going, but but also we we're working on something on the back end, and um like once they've you know, mine was a tenth of what even their first version was, so yeah, yeah, this comes with experience and reps.
Mentorship Advice And How To Connect
SPEAKER_03I love it. Um, any other golden nuggets you wanted to share, Corey, when you were coming on the podcast, or you want to get out there to our listeners?
SPEAKER_01Um golden nuggets. I I think for people that are getting into the industry, um, again, finding yourself a mentor, uh, someone that is ideally in the free fee only space, and potentially even finding mentors in different areas. You know, there's some people that are just super heavy focused into investments, and you know, that's great. There's some people that are so far on the um kind of feeling side uh that it may be, you know, to some to some extent, like at the detriment of efficiency of you know, the taxes or efficiency of building your wealth. But finding mentors in these in those key areas where you really want to improve is I mean, that will move you light years ahead of everybody else.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely, man. Great point, sir. Well, hey, man, for people that want to follow along with your journey, what you're doing, uh, what are the best places to do that?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so um anyone that wants to connect with me, I'm always available at me uh at my email, just corey co-r-y at discretionaryinc.com. Um, I've got a bunch of videos on Instagram, and those are good, and I'm pretty active on there. Going to maintain being active there. Uh my handle there is dink din c underscore wealth. And then uh coming soon, YouTube. It's my handle there is discretionary hyphen inc.
SPEAKER_03I love it. Well, Corey, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate you coming on the show.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. I appreciate it, guys.
SPEAKER_02Thanks, man.