What the Heck Is Stewarding Generational Wealth?

What does it really mean to steward generational wealth, and why should we care? In this episode, Austin, Josh, and Tony talk about what that actually means in real life. It’s not just about growing money; it’s about using it wisely, passing down values, and making an impact that lasts. From the firm’s early days at Red Lobster to the lessons they’ve learned along the way, they share what true stewardship looks like and how it can shape your family’s future for generations to come!

Watch the video version, get show notes, and more resources at thewealthmindsetshow.com/s2e24

➡️Download Free Resource: 8 Timeless Principles to Investing!

🎧Connect & Listen Here: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Chapters

• 0:51 Life Updates: Giant Sea Otters, Toddlers, & Study Abroad
• 3:51 How Did Hixon Zuercher Capital Management Choose Their Mission Statement?
• 6:32 What Is a Steward?
• 7:40 A Good Steward Vs. A Bad Steward?
• 11:37 The Weight of Stewardship Responsibility to Our Clients
• 16:01 The Honor & Privilege to Manage Clients' Wealth
• 17:41 Stewardship In Action & The Legacy of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management

Transcript

You are listening to The Wealth Mindset Show, where Hixon Zuercher Capital Management's team of finance professionals, portfolio managers, and a life coach come together to tackle complex topics in finance and retirement planning so you don't have to. From investment strategies and wealth management to tax planning, retirement income, and aligning your money with your values and purpose, The Wealth Mindset Show offers the tools to thrive.

Austin Wilson:

All right. Hey, hey, hey. Welcome back to The Wealth Mindset Show, where the Hixon Zuercher team helps you manage wealth, navigate retirement, and make smart decisions for a secure, meaningful future. I'm Austin Wilson, Director of Investments at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management.

Josh Robb:

And I'm Josh Robb, Director of Wealth Management at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. And today we are joined by Tony Hixon, our founder and partner here. And we are going to be talking about stewarding generational wealth and kind of what does being a good steward mean.

[0:51] - Life Updates: Giant Sea Otters, Toddlers, & Study Abroad

Josh Robb:

But first, just to check in, see how everything's going. I know for me, I just got back, my wife and I went on an Alaskan cruise, we to see Alaska. It was our 20-year anniversary trip, something we've been planning and hoping for quite a while. Great time. Saw whales, which are just incredible creatures that you don't see them in Lake Erie or anywhere around here.

Austin Wilson:

No, no, no.

Tony Hixon:

The Blanchard.

Josh Robb:

Yeah. So just cool to see them. I saw some sea otters. And this is what blew my mind. Whales are big, you know that. But I saw these sea otters. They can grow up to five feet long.

Austin Wilson:

I know. I think of river otters are like-

Josh Robb:

You see these little river otters, right? Like you hold them in your hand. Not these guys. These are big. They're still cute, but they're big, bigger cute.

Tony Hixon:

Yeah.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah.

Josh Robb:

But that was me.

Austin Wilson:

And that's the closest to Russia they would allow you.

Josh Robb:

We were there.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, you were like-

Josh Robb:

Couldn't quite see it.

Austin Wilson:

... right there.

Josh Robb:

I had my binoculars.

Austin Wilson:

Vlad, just wave at him. I know you're watching.

Josh Robb:

It was, yeah, good weather though and interesting stuff.

Tony Hixon:

Great.

Austin Wilson:

Oh, you went gold mining.

Josh Robb:

I did. I got some gold.

Austin Wilson:

You brought Rex some.

Josh Robb:

And when I came back, it hit all time highs.

Austin Wilson:

All time highs.

Josh Robb:

So my two little flakes that are floating on my little water-

Tony Hixon:

You can send your kids to college.

Austin Wilson:

Instead of being worth on dollar, they're worth two.

Josh Robb:

I don't even think it's worth a dollar. I think I got like 6 cents worth of gold.

Austin Wilson:

What about you, Tony?

Tony Hixon:

Oh, man, I can't top that. But yeah, things are going well. I guess looking into the future, my daughter is a sophomore at college and she is a major in Spanish education. And so as part of that curriculum, she'll be doing the study abroad program. And so she'll be heading to Spain next semester. So we're excited.

Josh Robb:

Whole semester?

Tony Hixon:

The whole semester, yeah. So she'll be fully immersed in the Spanish language.

Austin Wilson:

That's so awesome.

Tony Hixon:

And the fun part for us, my wife Keri and I will be heading over to visit for a week, likely in February or something to that extent. And that'll be the first English that she'll hear when we arrive.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, that's right.

Josh Robb:

You should practice and then only speak Spanish when you're there.

Tony Hixon:

Just to tick her off.

Josh Robb:

Yes.

Tony Hixon:

How about you, Austin?

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, I guess the biggest thing is our youngest one just turned one, which has been a really fast year. So three girls and our middle one's about to turn three here shortly. So things are going quickly. But the littlest one is walking and climbing and oh, before you know it, she's on top of a table somehow. I don't know how a one-year-old got on top of a table. But we're having to re-toddler proof. Baby proofing is one thing, but toddler proofing takes it to a whole new level, but we're enjoying that. So Aubrey, if you're listening, because Jen may have this playing in the background, daddy loves you. But yeah, stop climbing off that table.

Tony Hixon:

Speaking of our topic today, generational wealth.

Austin Wilson:

Generational wealth, that's right. So yeah, talking about generational wealth. So our firm's mission, our purpose here at Hixon Zuercher Capital Management is to steward generational wealth. And I think that we just decided it'd be a great idea to take this episode and talk about what that really means. What does A) stewardship mean, and B) generational wealth. What do those things mean? So Tony, let's just take a step back and talk a little bit about Hixon Zuercher and how we came to that mission today and how we got to be where it is.

[3:51] - How Did Hixon Zuercher Capital Management Choose Their Mission Statement?

Tony Hixon:

Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, the backstory is that my co-founder, Adam Zuercher and I, way back before it was cool to come up with mission statements, we did lunch and started to realize that we had similar values and goals and wanted to be entrepreneurial. And one day over cheddar biscuits at Red Lobster, we became partners of, at that time, Freedom Financial Solutions. We rebranded 10 years later. But nonetheless, Freedom Financial Solutions, we did start out with a pretty cool mission statement. It was very long and convoluted. Well, I don't even remember it at this point. It's escaped my brain. But one funny story is that I challenged the team to memorize it and if they memorized it, they got a gift card to their favorite restaurant and our intern got it right.

Austin Wilson:

That was right. She did.

Tony Hixon:

Not our team members, but our intern. So it was kind of, we knew it was too wordy. And so when Josh became a partner in 2022, we decided to do an offsite. The three of us got together. Adam was still a part of the team at that point. He retired in 2023. So in 2022, we had an offsite and decided that we really wanted to narrow in on what it is that we want to do, that we are accomplishing, and what do we want our purpose and our future to really look like. And at that point, I don't know which one of us or if all three of us together kind of brainstormed a couple hours of just beating up the words. And this steward generational wealth really had a good ring to it. And so I'm excited today to really dig into the definition of those words. Stewardship is a very broad topic, a broad meaning. We're going to really define what it means for us. Generational, this isn't just for us, it's for future generations like Aubrey and beyond. And then wealth we define, and maybe not in today's episode, but maybe a future one, but we define it as more than just money.

Josh Robb:

It's not just financial.

Tony Hixon:

You can be wealthy in relationships, in purpose, in health, and all of the good things that we want our clients to have. So that's kind of a background on how we got to where we are.

Austin Wilson:

Well, I'd like to thank you first for shortening that up a little bit.

Tony Hixon:

Yeah, you're welcome.

Josh Robb:

Easy to memorize.

Austin Wilson:

Now, they did take away the opportunity to get the lunch gift card when they chipped it down to three words.

Tony Hixon:

That's right. That's true.

Austin Wilson:

Because everyone, but the nice thing is everyone has it on the top of our brains all the time. It's easy to remember. We all know what we are aligned in coming to work each and every day to do. And that is to steward generational wealth. So let's break that down. We've got a couple sections. So let's talk about steward and specifically stewarding of wealth. So Josh, talk a little bit about just stewardship in general.

Josh Robb:

Yeah.

[6:32] - What Is a Steward?

Austin Wilson:

What is a steward?

Josh Robb:

Yeah. Steward is defined as someone who is taking care of someone else's resources. So I'm not a steward of my stuff. I'm a steward of other people's things if I'm responsible or in charge of it. And so a steward's job is to safeguard, protect, grow, and kind of fulfill the goals and objectives of the owner, but the owner's, in a sense, delegating it to that person to manage. So a steward more than anything is making sure that they are fulfilling the goals of the owner, and that's our job. So when we're stewarding wealth, and like Tony said, there's a lot of different wealth, but for right now we'll just kind of focus on the financial, our job isn't to obtain our goals and objectives. As a steward, our job is to say what are the client's goals and how can we best manage and grow that wealth to meet those.

Austin Wilson:

So there's really a couple ways this could go then. If you are a steward, you can be a good steward or I'm sure there are ways to be very bad stewards as well. Right? So Tony, talk a little bit about what a good steward would be.

[7:40] - A Good Steward Vs. A Bad Steward?

Tony Hixon:

Yeah. Well, I mean the thing I love about understanding what a good steward is you have to explore what a bad one would be.

Austin Wilson:

Exactly, yeah.

Tony Hixon:

So I guess I'll turn the question back to y'all. What comes to mind when you think about bad stewardship?

Josh Robb:

I think I mentioned is whose goals are you trying to achieve? So a bad steward may still manage the money well, but if they're not doing it towards the right objectives, they're not being a good steward. So you could say, oh, look how much I grew this money. But if the person said, I actually wanted to do this, maybe something different, well, I wasn't stewarding it to your goals. So I think the first is a good steward knows and understands the objectives, knows where they're going. And then the second thing is that they are mindful and are active, not passive when it comes to being engaged. And so I always think a great example, in the Bible there is a parable that Jesus told about some stewardship and he uses this concept of there's this rich ruler, he's leaving, and he calls up a couple of his servants and he says, "Hey, here is some of my wealth." So gives one talent was a measurement of wealth. So here's one bucket of money for you, you get three, and you get five. So each steward got a little bit different amount and then he left and they all were put in charge of this money. They were stewards. And the concept was they were all given the same objective, which was safeguard and grow this for me. Do what I would do if I was here with this money. Really that's what he's asking.

So they're gone and they all do their thing. He comes back and he says, "All right, show me what you did." And the first one said, "Hey, I had five. I worked hard, now I have 10. Here you go." And he says, "Good job." Next one says, "Hey, I had three, I doubled, I have six. Here you go." "Great job." Now two different amounts and he was happy with both of those results. It wasn't that the three with the six, he's like, "Well, you should have had 10." No, he was happy they both achieved their goal. Then the first one, the one that had one said, "Hey, I buried it. Here's your one. I didn't lose it." And he thought-

Austin Wilson:

Well, because he knew he was a angry man.

Tony Hixon:

Shrewd, a shrewd owner.

Josh Robb:

He said, "You're shrewd." And the owner was like, "Well, if you knew I was that way, you knew my expectations of what I wanted of this and you didn't do it."

Austin Wilson:

"Why didn't you do that?"

Josh Robb:

Not good stewardship. So that's a great example. I think it breaks down is it's not how much you're managing as a good steward. It could be a little or lot. Your job is to steward whatever that is well, and do it to what that owner would expect.

Austin Wilson:

I think it goes back to whose interests are you making that decision in? So if you are a steward, you're not making that in your own interest. It's not yours. You're making it in the interest in our case, of our clients who have entrusted us to make that decision for them. And that whole philosophy, it just permeates in everything we do. We hope it does. And if this is an opportunity, we all need to just keep that in our mind is we are doing things on behalf of other people for them. And as long as we are doing that in their best interest, we are acting in a good steward.

Josh Robb:

So what happens when the market doesn't go well? It's your intention in what you're trying to achieve. So if a person is being a good steward, but then things just don't work out, hey, I tried this investment, I bought this thing, or whatever the idea is, and it just didn't work out well, stewardship is based on what you're trying to do and achieve, not just the outcome. And so am I being a good steward if my intentions and my goals were right? That's really what it's being measured here from that standpoint.

Tony Hixon:

The way I kind of think of it too, Austin, is our clients earn X. I know if you're on the podcast, you can't see my hand. It's up in the air. And they live on this, and my other hand is lower. And they save the difference. It's for their future selves. And so, Austin, as our director of investments, the money that you're putting to work in our strategies isn't yours.

Austin Wilson:

Correct.

[11:37] - The Weight of Stewardship Responsibility to Our Clients

Tony Hixon:

You did not earn it. They earned this and spent this and they're investing the rest and they're entrusting that to your responsibility as our director of investments. What kind of weight on your shoulders, what kind of stewardship responsibility do you take with that?

Austin Wilson:

I mean, it's heavy because these people, and we work with hundreds of families and it's a blessing and an honor to be able to do that, but these people sacrificed. They lived below their means for years and years and years to be able to have a sum of money to hand over to someone who knows what they're doing, is what we would like to say we do, and to put them first to make decisions on their behalf. So the fact that they worked so hard for this makes the pressure even more. We have to come to work every day knowing that these people could have done a lot of things with this. They could have lived very extravagantly, but they sacrificed to get here. And we want to put that money to the best work we can to give them A, as we would say in the investment world, the best risk-adjusted return possible. Of course, we want to give them a growth of their assets, but we want to do it in a way that makes them fulfill things that they want to fulfill in their lives. So it's more obviously than just numbers here.

But it is a big pressure because if we, if Tony and I, we're managing these portfolios together here, if we make a bunch of really poor decisions... Now, we're not going to say we're going to get everything right all the time, but by and large, if we make a bunch of really outsized decisions that go very poorly for our clients, that is bad stewardship. Their sacrifice over the years of setting this money aside, living below their means, and entrusting it with us did not go well. And then that is not what we are here to do. So every day when we look at our portfolios, we're going to say, hey, do we have more opportunity to be right than we have to be wrong here? And we need to look at everything through that lens where we're making decisions that are going to be more beneficial than they could be detrimental.

Tony Hixon:

So good stewardship is that you care.

Austin Wilson:

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Josh Robb:

Yes. Caring matters.

Tony Hixon:

And care a lot. It's not yours. You have immense weight and responsibility on an asset that you didn't earn.

Austin Wilson:

Correct.

Tony Hixon:

And it heightens the bar of excellence for that.

Josh Robb:

And there's really four pillars for a good stewardship. And we kind of have beat around this but haven't hit them directly. So I'm going to highlight them and we can talk a little bit about it. But a good steward has honesty, humility, transparency, and loyalty. And the reason why those four things matter... So honesty, we talked about that. But when you're communicating, and that's where transparency comes in as well, is the real owner needs to know what's happening and they need to know they can trust you. A good steward is trustworthy. Humility is this is not your, we've talked about this many times just in this first 15 minutes, this is not your money. So you don't get to be very proud about what happens to it. That is not yours, never was. You're just there stewarding it. And then loyalty is sticking with their long-term interest. In other words, you're not getting distracted or pulled away from. You're focusing in on whoever the owner is and what their goals are. And so a good steward has those characteristics and those traits to manage that money or wealth or whatever it is that they are stewarding.

Austin Wilson:

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the complexities of managing your wealth? You're not alone. Hixon Zuercher Capital Management specializes in helping families and individuals navigate the challenges of managing their finances. Wealth management is all about combining thoughtful financial planning with active investment management to help you reach your goals. Our process is designed to guide you towards what truly matters, because we believe wealth isn't the destination, it's a vehicle for something much more meaningful in your life. Achieving your dreams requires careful planning, smart decision-making, and access to high quality investments, and that's where we come in. We understand that complex financial situations call for deep expertise in investing, tax strategies, and retirement planning, but our approach goes beyond that. We integrate your financial goals with your core values, helping you visualize the possibilities your wealth can create for a secure future. Our mission is to build, protect, and grow your wealth while keeping your vision at the forefront of our strategies. If you're ready to take the next step in your wealth management journey, visit hzcapital.com/start to see if we'd fit your needs and to schedule your intro call. Again, that's hzcapital.com/start. Now let's get back to today's episode.

[16:01] - The Honor & Privilege to Manage Clients' Wealth

Austin Wilson:

Yeah, I think on the humility point, I think one thing that is super, it needs to be in our minds as a team here is that people could go anywhere with their money, but they didn't. They chose to come here. And there's a lot of reasons they may have chose to come here. They may know us well, they may be family friends, they may be actual family, they may have friends who referred us. There's a lot of great reasons for people to come here. They may just align with the way we do things. But overall, they had a choice. And that choice could have taken their potentially a very substantial sum of money somewhere else, but instead it came here. And I think that since that money is here and they had that choice, it is such an honor to be able to have that. It's why we need to come being grateful to be able to be stewarding this because we know it's not ours and we know that they could have taken it anywhere.

Tony Hixon:

Yeah, great point. Being grateful to steward it is really well said. I would say too, the honesty pillar that you mentioned, Josh, is key because ultimately we don't have the crystal ball in the back corner of our office suite. It doesn't exist.

Austin Wilson:

I wish we did sometimes.

Tony Hixon:

Wish we did sometimes. But that being said, when our clients ask a hard question, we'll be honest with them. I don't know. We'll get back to you. We're trying our best. And on and on the list goes. And 23 years later, that honesty, that humility, that transparency, and that loyalty, I think, I hope, we put two feet on the ground every day to live that mission of stewarding their wealth to the best of our ability.

Austin Wilson:

So let's shift gears a little bit. Let's talk about how we can put stewardship in this overall thought that we've been talking about into action. So Josh, talk a little bit about how this permeates our financial planning, wealth management narrative for our clients.

[17:41] - Stewardship in Action & The Legacy of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management

Josh Robb:

As a financial advisor, when I think of stewardship, it kind of breaks down to one, if I'm going to steward, I got to know their goals and objectives. So financial planning really comes in to say, okay, what are your goals for these assets that we're managing? And that carries into what you talked about when we talk outside of just wealth from the financial standpoint, but understanding their passions and what motivates them. That helps us to then drive towards, okay, how can these assets, which are just tools for helping you fulfill your purpose, how can we help you be more fulfilled in that life? And that's really what we're trying to get to, and that's really enhances our stewardship to say, yeah, we're going to try to best manage this money, but this money is just a piece to really make you feel fulfilled and satisfied. And then on the other end is helping them, because they're also stewarding this for maybe future generations, come up with estate planning topics and walking through, okay, not just your life, but next life, how do you from that stewardship, make sure you're doing your part well?

And then once we get that figured out, you start having a conversation with that next generation, having conversation with kids depending on their age, and we've had episodes on this, but the idea of just saying, okay, let's set you up because at some point you're going to take over as owner of this and you're going to have some stewardship abilities to decide what to do with it, make sure they're on the same page. And the final one is philanthropy. Are you wanting to give to charity? Are you wanting to extend that reach, blessing outward beyond just your family? Helping a conversation with that. Because as a steward, we're looking at again, that big picture and trying to make sure we're fulfilling their final goals of those assets.

Austin Wilson:

So Tony, talk a little bit about just overall, what do you as our CEO, what do you want to see our firm be known as in the community when it comes to our legacy?

Tony Hixon:

Yeah. Well, we thought a lot about it. And in our industry at least, there are a lot of big players that want to gobble up the small guy. That happens in a lot of industries, but ours specifically is very robust with what we call rollups. So a larger firm would buy the younger or the smaller. And as I think through the legacy that we want to leave in this community, in Northwest Ohio, and the impact that we have throughout the United States, we want it to be that of abundance, of teamwork, of professionalism, of excellence. We want to operate with complete integrity. And we want that impact to be felt in our community through the actions that we take, through the clients we serve, and also just our representative team. We have 13 team members, and as they make connections and relationships and network in the community, that they can live those values out and steward those relationships well also.

Austin Wilson:

Josh, what do you think is an area of stewardship that people just sometimes don't even think about?

Josh Robb:

I think they overlook a lot of times what the role actually is. So I'm given money to manage. Okay, I just need to grow this. Is that really what I need to do as a steward?

Austin Wilson:

Right, right.

Josh Robb:

It's more understanding the goals and the purposes. I think a lot of people jump that step and just say, I just need to grow this money, I just need to manage this money. Maybe, but maybe there's more to it than that. I think that's the biggest thing is just stewardship is deeper than just managing that money.

Austin Wilson:

I would say that depending on your background, depending on your faith side of things or whatever you believe, you could even view stewardship as even another level higher where... So we're stewarding clients' assets, but ultimately you may believe that you're stewarding a higher power, God's assets as well too. So I think that it all ties together and we're all here doing the same thing on this earth. I think it's a really a cool thing that can bring us together. So yeah, any final thoughts on stewardship, guys?

Josh Robb:

I think for me, the biggest thing is we've talked finance today, but as a parent, part of my stewardship is I'm been made responsible for, in my case, four kids. Three, three. We are all stewards of these young people and our role, our job is to raise them up. Stewardship extends again, like we said, beyond finance. And so when I think about stewardship, it's just am I managing all resources that I've been put in charge of to the best of my ability towards those goals that the person who really owns them wants me to. And that's really what it comes down to.

Tony Hixon:

It's a high calling, it's a lot of responsibility, and it really gets me excited. This isn't a mission statement for today. It's a mission statement for the duration that our business is in play. And we're excited to help our clients walk alongside that chaotic marketplace or the unknowns of estate planning or just the other complexities that, Josh, you deal with in explaining tax planning techniques and all the other chaos that you help them through. That stewardship has a bit of order to it, and we're able to take that chaos because God's gifted our minds in such a way as to be able to accomplish that. Nothing through our actions, but through the blessing of God that we're able to make order out of that chaos and live it each and every day to the best of our abilities to help steward their wealth.

Austin Wilson:

Absolutely. Yeah. So we send cards out for our long-term clients when they hit long-term, they've been with us 10, 20, some of these people, 10, 20 years. It's amazing.

Tony Hixon:

It is.

Austin Wilson:

Every time I sign those cards, I'm like, thank you for the opportunity to steward your wealth for you for 20 years.

Tony Hixon:

Yep. It's absolutely, it's humbling.

Austin Wilson:

Isn't that amazing? So if you're one of our clients listening to us who's been with us for a long time, just thank you because we wouldn't be here without you and we're not going anywhere.

Tony Hixon:

That's right.

Austin Wilson:

Awesome. Well, if you enjoyed today's episode, if it was insightful or you had some thoughts about stewardship that maybe it struck in your head, hit that subscribe button on your podcast player so you don't miss the next episode. And make sure you follow us on social media. We're pretty active on there. We'd love to touch base with you there. And always feel free to check out Hzcapital.com, check out all of our tabs. You can read more about what we do as a firm, what we believe, how and why we do things. You can meet our team. Or check out the WealthMindsetShow.com, where you can find transcripts of our episodes and resources there. Other than that, thanks for listening and we'll see you next episode.

Josh Robb:

Talk to you later.

Austin Wilson:

Bye.

Tony Hixon:

Bye.

Thank you for joining us at The Wealth Mindset Show, where we tackle the complexities of finance and life planning to help you align your wealth with your values. We hope today's conversation provided value and clarity as you navigate your financial journey. Your hosts work for Hixon Zuercher Capital Management, and all opinions expressed by them or any podcast guest are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for investment decisions. Clients of Hixon Zuercher Capital Management may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. There is no guarantee that statements, opinions, or forecasts provided herein will prove to be correct. Past performance may not be indicative of future results. Indices are not available for direct investment. And any investor attempting to mimic index performance would incur fees and expenses that could reduce returns. Securities investing involves risks, including the potential loss of principle, and there is no assurance that any investment plan or strategy will be successful.