How A 60-Year Wealth Firm Prepares For Its Next Era

Sixty years in business gives you a front-row seat to how families change, how markets change, and what never changes about money: it’s personal. Jeff Bingham looks ahead to the next era of B&H Wealth Strategies and what generational transition really means for clients who care about continuity, trust, and long-term planning. You’ll hear why succession is more than paperwork, and how Jeff’s son Jake is earning confidence by working directly with clients and learning the firm’s approach from the inside out.

We also get practical about growth. Expanding a wealth management firm takes more than ambition, it takes process, infrastructure, and a commitment to doing the work the right way. Jeff shares how the team thinks about serving Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia while extending their footprint, all while staying grounded in a stewardship mindset. The conversation touches on biblically responsible investing and values based investing, including why some investors want their portfolio to align with their beliefs and how that fits into a broader financial plan. 

Then we go deep on technology and AI in wealth management. Jeff breaks down how tools like ChatGPT and Claude can support research, planning, and document review, and why verification still matters. From capital gains tax planning for concentrated stock positions to helping clients ask sharper questions, AI can raise the level of the conversation without replacing the human relationship that good advice depends on. If you’re curious about the future of financial planning, advisory technology, and the role of real trust in a high-tech world, this one is for you. 

Subscribe for more conversations like this, share the show with a friend who’s thinking about retirement planning, and leave a review to help more listeners find us. What’s one money decision you would never hand to AI?

To learn more about B&H Wealth Strategies visit:
https://www.BHRetire.com
B&H Wealth Strategies 
423-247-1152 

Securities and advisory services offered through Silver Oak Securities, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC. Silver Oak and B&H Wealth Strategies are not affiliated. http://www.finra.org/ http://www.sipc.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to the Four Seasons Podcast, brought to you by BH Wealth Strategy, serving Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia since 1966. Here, we guide you through the ever-changing seasons of your financial journey, offering insights to help you grow, protect, and enjoy your wealth. Ready to turn your financial dreams into reality? Dare to dream. And now, here's your host, President of BH Wealth Strategy, Jeff Bingham.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

60 years in business brings wisdom, perspective, and a front row seat to how families, finances, and the world around us evolve. Welcome back, everybody. Skip Moni, co-host, Slash Producer, back in the studio with president of BH Wealth Strategies, Jeff Bingham. Jeff, how's it going?

SPEAKER_02 1:01

It's going great, Skip. How are you doing this afternoon?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Doing fine, doing fine, and I'm excited. Uh, you know, we're we're still talking about the 60th uh year milestone with with BH. And uh it looks like we got a we're normally in uh your your dad's uh the office uh at in uh Kingsport, but today it looks like we're in a different uh different spot.

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Yeah, we are. Like I said, normally we're uh you know set up and doing this from the Robertell Bingham conference room uh there in in Kingsford. I'm actually down here in Oak Ridge where my wife and I have a home down here. Uh whole other story of of the of a commute with a commute for a blind man back and forth for a hundred and a hundred and ten miles door to door. Uh but that's that's for another day. Um but yeah, this is this is uh this is my home office down here where it is set up uh to to work and operate just like my office is in King Sports. So it's very familiar uh the screens and the various things and the tools that I need to navigate with my with my visual challenges that I have. And uh like I said, we've been talking about doing one here for, gosh, I don't know, three or four months, I guess. And finally, uh, you know, with the with a few difficulties behind the scenes that that we won't mention uh other than that today we're uh we're here and we're gonna do this thing. So I'm excited about it. Uh you know, every every day that I can get a little more independent with my, you know, with with my way of life, if you will, with not being able to see is just uh just another blessing from God. So this is a blessing.

The Next Era And Succession Plan

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Amen, brother. Well, Jeff, another blessing, as I mentioned earlier, you know, BH is celebrating the 60-year milestone this year, and it naturally brings up conversations about the future. So what generational changes do you foresee as we look ahead to the next era of B and H wealth strategies? I'd love to hear your perspective.

Growth Vision And Values Based Investing

How AI Changes Wealth Management

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Yeah, great, great question, and one that um, you know, that has been top of mind with a lot of maybe all of my clients, but many of them, you know, kind of verbalizing it, probably, I would say probably as much as uh probably the last decade or so. And you know, I can say, you know, a decade ago, we'll say 2016, I didn't, I didn't have a great answer. I had an answer, but it wasn't a great answer. And so, you know, fast forward to you know, four or five years ago, uh when Jake, uh just my son Jake, you know, came into the business uh and decided to this is what he wanted you know to do. Wasn't dad's decision, you know, dad, it was his decision to come on board and and kind of pour to pour himself into it. There's where the answer, there's where the real answer was, is what the next generation, where do we go from here? Like I said, I'm I sit in the middle of uh of this uh as a second generation owner, but really as I as you'll hear me say when I have on air, I I'm we're more stewards of this, right? Uh we're just we're just sojourners on on through this business and on earth. You know, our our our true home is and I truly believe this as a believer is in heaven. But this is what I do while I'm here on earth. This is what I think this is what God has given me the skill set and the ability to do. And so I sit in this seat trying to to to help me preserve wealth, create wealth, and also pass wealth along and to do as much as I can to to glorify God in everything that that I do. Uh and these are things that we I think that were really ingrained in me, uh, but not as conscious as they are now, you know, from my dad, you know, all those years ago, 60 years ago when we when this business started, obviously when God was born six years prior to that, uh, excuse me. But you know, but that's we've always had that. And so that that's the the he passed it to the next generation. Me, I'm passing this now and the wisdom and the knowledge. Uh, and uh Jake is getting to know my clients and working with them uh as he works, you know, kind of shoulder to shoulder with me and knee to knee with my clients. And so they're they're getting comfortable with that. They now understand that that we are, you know, set uh to be around for many decades to come. Uh as Jake likes to say, we he plans on being around, you know, another 60 years. Uh he's 30, so we'll be 90. I mean he might need a little help uh somewhere, you know, in that in that in the next 60 years. Uh unfortunately I don't think that that I'll make it but uh that long, but I but I'm excited about you know about what the you know what the next year, the next three years, five years, and so on, as long as I can be around, you know, and kind of doing this thing. I look I I I'm so excited about it because for the first time uh in a long time we were talking about actually growing this business. And you and I have talked a little bit about this, you know, off camera, and and Jake is excited about doing that. And what it and and I don't know exactly what that means when I say that grow it, because we're we're working on it, we're kind of building excuse me, the scaffolding to be able to do that because you've got to have, you know, you've got to have the right process, you've got to have the right infrastructure and the and the you know, kind of the uh infrastructure, if you will, you know, to to be able to handle kind of growing. But that's what we look to do because not only, you know, do we want to you know continue to be you know a very important wealth advisory business in our community, uh, you know, and reaching into Southwest Virginia, uh Western North Carolina, even into Georgia. I've got clients all over the country, but uh, you know, primarily, you know, we're we're in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia. But as we continue to try to grow that footprint from a wealth advisory perspective, it's also a a bit of a of a ministry and a call and to spread God's world because I'm trying to glorify the Lord in everything that we do. You know, we do we're a wealth-based, you know, financial advisory firm now. Uh my son is completely bought, not just bought into that, but he believes in that. That's a better term to put that. Uh, and uh, you know, we're we're doing uh something, I think we should do some podcasts on this in the future, where you know, we're offering biblically responsibly investing, uh, which is a concept and something that most people aren't familiar with out there, but it's a way to align your values, your morals, your biblical lens of the world with your investment strategy, you know, the companies that you own, uh, you know, trying to align those things. So in everything that you do, you're trying to take it to the highest level that you can and glorify God. So that's that's us moving to the next generation with Jake working shoulder to shoulder with me, bringing technologies and innovation that I wouldn't otherwise be able to do, you know, as uh as a uh a baby boomer, you know, at 66 years old now, and without uh with very limited eyesight, I would never be able to do. And he's very comfortable with doing those things. Uh you know, I think I you know, I mentioned earlier uh the tech guy that we work with, which is also just an amazing gentleman, Jason Kacinski. I'll give him a lovely digital overwatch, um, but works very closely with us and with Jake. Uh he's mentioned to me many times that he gives Jake, you know, the and brings him in and embracing technology that Jake's like a duct of water. He just understands it. You know, it really is something that he's quite good at. Uh I'm hoping not to lose him uh completely to the technology side of it, so he'll stay engaged, you know, on the advisor side. And I say that only with my tongue, you know, half in my cheek, because he is really good at it. But he's also a very, very good, solid advisor and has an incredible knowledge of this business um at a young age, but also a young age relative to how long he's been, you know, actually doing this, you know, over the last you know, four or five years, really engaged in it. And it's a complicated business, you know, and I've been at this for 36 years, uh, and there's lots of things that I still don't know, but he'll he'll make me aware of them. Or if we don't know the answer, he's so quick to be able to find answers and we'll verify these as I say that, but using, you know, AI, chat GBT or Claude or uh, you know, those types of things to do it. And uh it's just a it's just such a AI is a scary thing as we talked about. It's such a great companion uh to to my to my team, to me individually, but to my team, not not to replace anybody, but to make them better at what they do. So when we're sitting, uh we can spend more time in front of in front of our clients on a face-to-face basis, like like you and I are doing here, or we do with some of the Zoom, but also in that in that Robert L. Bingham conference room doing it the way that we've the way you've always done it, and I think the way that we always will. So there's a little bit of an answer to that.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

So well, speaking of technology, that was my next question was how is, and Jake, you know, who's the next generation, how is technology influencing the way that the next generation approaches wealth management from both a you know a client and uh uh an advisor role?

Why Human Advice Still Matters

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Well, I think I think uh and also I guess I'll speak to it on an advisor role first. Um, you know, I what it what it gives us is is is a tool, right? I mean, an AI is a tool, and it gives us a very fast tool, you know, to to go out and acquire information where we don't know things or we need to run calculations and it can do these fabulous things. And we are always very careful to to check to make sure that those um you know that those things are correct. I mean, we as an example, real quick, we built, I've got a client that's got a heavy concentration in an individual stock, and we want to try to to begin to uh to trim that position. So we've got but we've got large, he's got a very low cost basis and a very high gain. So capital gains taxes are out there. So we were trying to, based on his filing situation and his other income, you know, we're trying to make a calculation of how much capital gains tax he could absorb without or how much capital gains he could absorb without having to pay capital gains tax. We did the calculation, we came up with the number, and it was a it was a number that, you know, I just you know, I I felt good about what we had done. But anyway, long story short, I reach out to a CPA friend of mine. I ran the scenario mine, and boom, it was spot on. Like the AI, you know, and I think we ran that, I I can't remember if it was Claude or Chat GBT, but either way, it doesn't matter. Uh, we ran that through and it and it gave us the number almost exactly to what my CPA had had confirmed. And so we'll you know, we make sure that we do those kind of things because you know, AI can if you've ever used it, it can be lazy and it'll and and if you challenge it, it'll tell you that it just didn't want to go do something. So that's kind of weird. Uh but uh kind of like having a real employee, you know, at times. Uh, you know, I mean I I'm not trying to hopefully nobody takes offense to that. I'm joking for the most part when I say I. You know, so we're all right. I think um you know, what we're using AI for to to kind of summarize the what I was saying is that it it's just a tool to make us better. I mean, we use it, you know, Jake and I use it when we're doing planning, and we it can help us in our planning and kind of think through things faster than we can think through them other or otherwise would do our the way we used to do research. For each of my staff members, it helps them go through documents and paperwork and compliance things, and it will and it will check those things and make sure that we don't leave you know boxes unchecked, you know, and we we send things out that are incomplete. It can it does those kind of things, it does them beautifully. So again, you're not getting rid of anybody, you're making everybody better, as far as I'm concerned, in my office. And I think that's true with most offices, businesses that are out there. Uh, I think some will use it as a as an excuse to perhaps, you know, trim some staff. I get all that. It's gonna be disruptive, but I think it's also gonna be very creative, kind of creative disruption that is gonna be out there. But I think the other question that you would ask is what about, you know, what about clients? What about, you know, folks, investors that are out there? How does it change their landscape as they come to talk to somebody like us? Or perhaps they feel like they don't need, you know, uh, you know, an advisor to come to because they've got such a, you know, such an enormous depository and resource of information that's out there. You know, I would probably, I would obviously make the case, I'm a little biased in this, that they still need folks like us as their wealth increases and their goals and their dreams and their aspirations have to be plugged into that. And I think we'll always do that better than AI will do. But I think they come in uh when they come in to sit down with us if they've gone through and you are usually utilizing AI, they know a lot more. They are better educated. Now, they may not be able to identify what they're learning, perhaps in a way that pertains specifically to them, but their knowledge base has increased tremendously. So if we can then they they come in with that increased knowledge and increased capacity to go and find and continue to build on that knowledge, and they can sit down with us and then we can go through our discovery process, if you will, which is asking where are you, where you want to go, how you want to get there, and all the things that go along with that, then they're going to be able to they're gonna refine and define where where they want to go, what types of assets and how they should be investing, how much money they should be putting, you know, debt versus, you know, assets and all the kind of things from savings and investing, but they're gonna, it's gonna with what they've learned from AI, they can now put themselves into that position, right? And so, and that's with working with us. And again, I think what it can help them do is that with our wisdom and experience in doing that, and AI on their side learning and and helping them ask us the right question, helping them ask better questions to us, perhaps, and making sure that we're accountable. They could, they will, they would, that will make us better at what we do for our clients, in my opinion. Like I said, I don't think it eliminates us. There will be some that will be able to do it, you know, on their own with AI and and and God bless them for doing it. But that's been the case for years and years without AI. There's a lot of people that do it on their own that are out there. Some are better than others at doing it. But oftentimes what will happen, uh, and this is I think is very true, is that there'll be a moment when you either make a mistake or the or the you know the the risk reward becomes too great, right? You know, then whether it be inheritance or your wealth accumulation moving towards retirement, the tax loss, whatever it is, right? Something will occur and you can you've got folks like us that will always be there to provide that one-on-one, you know, kind of four seasons, again, the four seasons uh experience, which is no AI will ever know you as well as a human will. This is a human, we are built to have human touch. That's the way we are made. Uh, and that's we will not ever replace that. The day that we replace that is the day that you and I need to need to go home.

Getting Jake On The Show

SPEAKER_01 16:30

That's right. That's exactly right. Well, Jeff, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you sharing that forward-thinking insight. Would love to talk about this more, and would also love to get the next generation on the show with us so that uh we can get his perspective as well.

SPEAKER_02 16:45

Yeah, we need to get him out of being as as camera shy uh as he is. We're we're working on that. Like I said, he's he's getting he's doing more and more, you know, in uh in the meeting rooms, you know, to to have those interactions. And that's just you know one one step, one step at a time. Uh like I said, that's it's a lot easier, you know, because you you can edit it. Right? That's right. Yeah, you make me look good. I know we edit a lot of my stuff, so it always looks better when it's edit.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Not at all, not at all. But Jeff, thanks. And uh hopefully we can get Jake in the next episode.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Yeah, I look forward to doing it, and uh we'll we'll do it and we'll just continue doing these things. It's a it's a blast, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

All right, man. Well, have a great rest of the day, and we'll see you next time. Bye, man. God bless everybody out there listening.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Thanks for tuning in to the Four Seasons Podcast, brought to you by BH Wealth Strategies, where your financial success is our priority. Schedule your free 20-minute consultation today by calling 423-247-1152 or 550-bHRetire.com. Take the first step toward making your financial dreams come true. Until next time, remember every season is the right season to plan for your future. Securities and Registered Investment Advisory Services offered through Silver Oak Securities Inc. member FENRA SIPC. Well, strategies at Silver Oak Securities Inc. are not affiliated.