Steadfast Wealth Planning Podcast

Finding Your Financial Match: How to Choose the Right Advisor for Your Values

• Cody Stansell • Episode 10

Share episode

What Does It Mean To Have A Fiduciary Financial Advisor, And Why Is It Important?

Finding the right financial advisor isn't just about credentials—it's about connection, compatibility, and comprehensive expertise that aligns with your unique needs. Cody Stansell, CFP and Senior Wealth Advisor at Steadfast Wealth Planning, breaks down the essential questions everyone should consider when selecting a financial planning partner.

The conversation reveals critical red flags that signal potential misalignment, like the uncomfortable "salesman feeling" that permeates some advisor relationships. Cody emphasizes the importance of that initial gut reaction: "If you sit down in a financial planner's office, it's almost like that gut feeling of do we feel like we're in the right place?" True professionals view planning as a relationship, not a transaction, giving clients the time and space needed to make informed decisions without pressure.

Beyond personality fit, Cody explores the fundamental differences between comprehensive planning approaches versus single-focus strategies. He highlights the evolution of financial planning from strictly investment management or insurance-focused models to today's integrated approach that addresses taxes, estate planning, employee benefits, and more. For those navigating complex financial situations, finding an advisor with relevant expertise becomes even more crucial. As Cody notes, "We want a financial planner that goes through several aspects...a comprehensive view on all your money and not just being sold an insurance product."

Whether you're considering a large established firm or a boutique practice like Steadfast Wealth Planning, understanding these distinctions empowers you to make choices aligned with your values and financial goals. Smart planning begins with selecting the right advisor—one who views your financial journey through a lens of transparency, integrity, and Christian values that build toward a life well lived.

To learn more about Steadfast Wealth Planning visit:
https://www.SteadfastWealthPlanning.com
Steadfast Wealth Planning
5550 Granite Pkwy, STE 270
Plano, TX 75024
469-606-2040

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Steadfast Wealth Planning Podcast, where faith and financial wisdom come together. Hosted by Cody Stansel, owner and senior wealth advisor, we provide comprehensive Christian-based financial planning to help families, individuals and business owners build a life they're proud to live. From investment management and tax planning to preparing for retirement, we're here to guide you with clarity, integrity and purpose. Let's get started.

Speaker 3:

Not all financial advisors are created equal. Discover how the comprehensive advisor standard sets the bar for transparency, integrity and putting your best interests first every time. Welcome back everyone. I'm Sophia Yvette, co-host and producer. Back in the studio today with Cody Stancil, senior Wealth Advisor for Steadfast Wealth Planning. Cody, how's it going today?

Speaker 2:

Hey, sophia Doing well. Good morning. It is almost school time and with three kids that age, we're ready for them to be back in school routine.

Speaker 3:

It's all healthy, so, yeah, we're doing well.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, awesome, great to hear that you're managing Cody. Yeah, it's a dog. Days of summer it it's triple digits. The kids are bored at the house, so we're ready for school to start here in a couple weeks, that's for sure well, cody, always great to be back with you now, ready to unpack what comprehensive advisor responsibility really means for your listeners.

Speaker 3:

Financial future absolutely all right. So, cody, how do I find the best financial planner for me, and why is it so important?

Speaker 2:

great question. The for me part is what I want to point out there. There are a lot of great financial planners out there. It's really okay. Who is best for me, my situation, where I'm at in life, my personality type, those kinds of things. So I receive this question a lot. There are a lot of gray areas to this answer. So, similar to if you ask 20 different people what the best pizza in town is, you might get 20 different answers, right, because everyone's needs and their preferences are a little bit different. But I have four or five big components and kind of red flags topics to talk through on this one.

Speaker 2:

First off, in my opinion, I believe that you have to have the same mindset and get along with the financial planner. So if you sit down, go into a financial planner's office, it's almost like that gut feeling of do we feel like we're in the right place? Does it feel sketchy? You don't have to be best friends or think the exact same way, want to be best friends or think the exact same way. But I talked to a lot of clients that would meet with a previous advisor and then just felt uncomfortable or awkward at times or maybe their questions were a little not what the clients thought they would ask. Personality is a big one too, and just how they view money, your goals goals have to align. There's a lot of advisors that are okay with you having a lot of debt and so if you don't love that, then obviously their advice is going to be geared that way. Or vice versa, if you're okay with debt, but your advisor's like no debt ever. You know, obviously there's that advice isn't really going to align with how you view money. Now let me clarify you don't have to agree with 100% of every piece of advice that your advisor offers you. That's why you hired a professional. Is they're going to have topics or things that they bring up that you're like oh, I don't know about that and that's the whole purpose of it? Right, they're bringing insight that maybe you haven't thought about before as a professional. But just the overall arching do I feel comfortable? Do I feel like they're just trying to sell me something? Just how the advisor talks through your particular financial plan and situation, you will get a feel, for I don't know about this, or yeah, sounds great. So I'd say that that's a big red flag for folks is just how you feel in that initial meeting.

Speaker 2:

The second topic kind of follows the first one if they feel like a salesman and we all know what it feels like to be sold to. Whether someone knocks on your door and they're a roof inspector wanting to fix your house or fix your roof, or you walk into a car lot and everyone's dealt with a car salesman before, we all know what it feels like to be sold to and in our business, unfortunately, there are very good salesmen in our business that aren't great financial planners but they're very good salesmen and so that kind of stinks for a lot of clients. There's also a lot of firms that have different advisors that you talk through during the process. So you might come in, meet with an advisor and his team and they're kind of the salesman type process and then you say, yeah, sounds good, what's the next steps? But then you meet with another advisor in the team and they're your comprehensive planners and it feels like, wait, what happened to those people that I talked to? And you know it feels like a process and there's just some red flags there. Let me see here, yeah, and make sure your timing is right too, before you make a decision.

Speaker 2:

A lot of salesmen if you feel pressured to make a decision, that meeting right. If you're like, oh, you got to decide today, that's a huge red flag. As a salesman, for instance, we want to meet with clients however often that they would like to meet before making a decision. So if I'm meeting with someone for the first time, sometimes they're ready to go and I say let's hold off, let's meet again to go. And I say you know, let's hold off, let's meet again to talk about this, this and this. It gives you time to think of some questions that you may want to ask in the next meeting. Sometimes we meet with folks two, three, five times before they actually become, you know, come on board as a client. So we want I always say I don't have customers, I have clients. Right, I want clients for life. This isn't a transaction. So I want you to be very comfortable before you come on board. That way our relationship is sustainable and steadfast for the future.

Speaker 2:

The third topic is just the areas of focus and the practice of focus in the practice. Right, do you need a lot of tax planning because you're selling a business or you own a business, you have payroll needs or you're selling property or some other big taxable event in your life and you're looking for a lot of tax planning? Well, obviously, look for a firm that puts a lot of emphasis on tax planning, right? Our industry used to be either just investment management so think of just investments or an insurance based firm, right, and there's obviously big differences between the two. But over the last 20 years that's kind of evolved into where it's over comprehensive financial planning on several aspects, and in my opinion, that's where you want to be. That's what we do. We want a financial planner that goes through several aspects of managing investments talking through taxes, making your estate plan, making sure your estate plan is in order with your wills, trust If you receive stock options or restricted stock from your job, talking through that as well, a comprehensive view on all your money and not just being sold an insurance product or just your advisor just manages your investments but doesn't do any of these other topics that you would love to have advice on. I'm a certified financial planner myself, so Cody Stansel, cfp and the CFP board is just think of it like a designation in our industry. That proves that you've gone through the topics, the comprehensive topics, and that you have studied estate planning, taxes, investments, employee benefits, the whole nine yards Right. So that certification on the end of our title definitely brings up that topic.

Speaker 2:

Next one is there's a big discrepancy here and there's no right or wrong answer. But do you want a big firm? Do you want a small firm? There's pros and cons to both Think of. If you needed to hire a plumber, some people are okay calling the 1-800 number, dealing with the rep. Maybe you get faster service that way because they have a lot of plumbers on staff. Maybe you feel more comfortable because it's a nationwide plumbing business and that way the odds of them being a fraud or Ponzi schemes obviously a lot less. They wouldn't be in business if they were doing something like that. Or vice versa, you feel the smaller touch of a smaller firm. You deal with the same folks.

Speaker 2:

Once again, there's no right or wrong answer, but it all depends on what you feel is best suited for you. For instance, we are that smaller firm. We're a small field located here in Plano. Clients call us, they text us on our work line. Once again, we don't have customers. You don't have to repeat your situation every time you call in and just have a question about your finances. You know, we know you Right, I'm going to one of my clients weddings here in four weeks. Right, it's about relationships and it's about having that kind of hometown feel. But with that you get a lot of small firms that maybe don't have the technology or the resources where we're kind of hometown feel, but with that you get a lot of small firms that maybe don't have the technology or the resources. We're kind of in between. I'm a big believer in good technology and it's not just a good old boy with your paper statement that we mail you, you can log in 24-7 and go through those things. So that's another big one from folks I see Big firm, small firm. There's definitely differences. Once again, no right or wrong, but there's definitely big differences there. And Then, lastly, in our industry I do want to bring this up, I mentioned a little bit earlier there is a big difference in an insurance based financial planning firm Contr compared to an investment based financial planning firm.

Speaker 2:

I'm not going to name any names, I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus, but any life insurance company and how they view financial planning is definitely different, and it's definitely from an insurance view. So a lot of the financial planning questions to your answers or, excuse me, answers to your questions will be insurance related. Right, a permanent life insurance policy and or an annuity is going to be a lot of their answers, because that's where they're coming from in their point of view. That's not necessarily what we do. We are an investment based firm. What we do, we are an investment-based firm. So, once again, we want you to have your 401k, your IRA. It's a mutual fund. Look at your money, stocks, bonds and not an insurance view of your money per se. We don't want you to have a lot of debt.

Speaker 2:

Obviously, clients that have an insurance need and they need life insurance or disability insurance or they need guaranteed income. Yes, then, we are insurance licensed and we definitely have clients that have life insurance and annuities through us, but that's not our. That's not how we view. Our recommendations to clients is you know, oh, you have to have this life insurance policy first and, yeah, we're worried about planning for retirement later. That's definitely not what we do we look at from the opposite ends. So I I just meet with a lot of clients that come from insurance based firms and they come over and I have a client, not married, no kids, has all this life insurance and it's like. That doesn't really make any sense because if you pass away, no one's depending on your income and you can tell they're just sold a product instead of like what do they actually need? So I hope that makes sense. Those are the four or five big topics that I thought of and what I see from my clients when they come in and have questions and when we interview with folks.

Speaker 3:

Yes, cody, thank you so much for breaking that down so clearly for us. Honored to join you, as always. We will see you on the next time on Steadfast Wealth Planning.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, Sophia.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on the Steadfast Wealth Planning podcast. Ready to take the next step in your financial journey? Visit steadfastwealthplanningcom for a complimentary consultation or call 469-606-2040. Smart planning, Christian values, a life well lived. We'll see you next time.