Financial Planner Search

Finding a financial advisor is easy. Finding the right one is hard. Most advisors look the same on paper — credentials, services, a polished website. But what you actually need to know is how they think, how they treat people, and whether you'd even enjoy working with them. That's what Financial Planner Search is for. Each episode, we sit down with an independent financial advisor for an honest, in-depth conversation. No sales pitch. No jargon. Just a real look at who they are, how they work, and who they're best suited to help. By the end, you'll know what they’re all about. Whether you're approaching retirement and looking for a fiduciary for the first time, thinking about leaving your current advisor, or simply want to make a smarter hiring decision — this show gives you the inside access you need.

Financial Planner Search is a business podcast hosted by Gregory Wilnau, with 49 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Gregory Wilnau hosts Financial Planner Search, a business show with 49 episodes published.

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  Financial Planner Search

  Am I Okay If I Step Away? with Bridget Grimes | Financial Planner Search

  Sep 29, 202636 min

  In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Bridget Grimes, founder of Wealth Choice, talks about the women who make the money, carry the family, and still do not have five minutes for a plan. The firm is about to turn ten. Bridget was a hedge-fund trader, then a pastry chef for a decade. During her divorce, her house in San Diego burned down. Her two closest friends, a hand surgeon and a woman running a media company, lost their houses in the same stretch and were going through divorces too. None of them had a plan. Bridget had let her husband pay the bills. In the divorce she split debt she did not know existed. Her surgeon friend had the water turned off more than once, because there was no time to pay it between the operating room and her son. That is who Wealth Choice is for. Bridget calls them breadwinner women: executives, law-firm partners, founders, and women in tech. They may have a spouse. The weight still sits with them. She will not take someone on until she has spent unpaid time on the numbers and on what that woman actually wants her life to look like. A recent client retired at 51 with the money sitting in two companies and no idea where to start. A CEO who had built her company for 25 years got an offer during COVID. Bridget told her to walk away. It was a lot of money. It was not enough, and it would have sold her out of her own identity. Six months later a better offer came. Two years on, she is almost through the earnout, and it took that long to feel okay. Another couple, 71 and 65, could have stopped years ago. They retired in July. The next Monday he missed their meeting because he forgot it was Monday. Bridget’s line is that the question is not “can I afford to retire?” It is “can I retire?” Takeaways Why a divorce and a house fire sent her back to serve women who look like her What it looks like when a successful woman has the money and nowhere to start Why she told a CEO to turn down a sale that was still a lot of money The gap between being able to afford to stop and being okay with stopping Who she refers out: people who want to keep doing it their own way Chapters 00:00 Breadwinner Women 01:04 The Fire, the Divorce, and No Plan 05:46 Retired at 51, Money in Two Stocks 08:29 She Will Not Say Yes on the First Call 15:03 How She Gets Paid, and Who She Serves 18:05 Walk Away From the Offer 23:17 He Forgot It Was Monday 26:07 Who She Will Not Take 28:36 Marnie and Rising Professionals 32:27 The Best, Not the Biggest Chapter labels follow the transcript. No Riverside chapter sheet was provided. You can find them at: https://www.wealthchoice.com/ If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/ #financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #breadwinnerwomen #womeninbusiness

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  Financial Planner Search

  Live by Design with JD Ramirez | Financial Planner Search

  Sep 23, 202640 min

  In this episode of Financial Planner Search, JD Ramirez, who leads RAM Capital Group, talks about what changes when a business owner stops running the company by default. JD grew up in his family’s wine business in Colombia. By eight or nine he was around the vineyard. He was not tasting the wine. He was watching his parents turn grapes into something people wanted, then put the money back into the company, the employees, and the next season. That is still his standard. If he says he will do something, he treats it like a signed contract, and he expects his team to leave a client better than they found them. His phrase for the work is live by design, not by default. Most of the people who come to him already own the business. Restaurants, stores, healthcare practices, law firms, companies they have been building for five or ten years. They usually show up with a structure in place. The first pass is a hard look at what is actually there. His favorite recent conversation was a couple in Atlanta who had spent 45 years building a manufacturing company after moving from Mexico with three children. Nobody had asked what they wanted to happen to the company, how it would move to the next generation, or how they might share some of it with the executives they already treat like family. Another company in South Florida went from about 10 employees to about 680 after a reward program that went past salary and a bonus: performance measures, a path toward equity, schooling, and even a daycare at the workplace so parents could have lunch with their kids. He will not take an owner who will not be coached. If the advice sits unused, he would rather walk away. Takeaways - What a childhood in a family wine business still requires of his word - Why “live by design, not by default” starts with questions the owner has not been asked - How a 45-year company opened up once someone asked about the next generation and the people they treat like family - What kept employees at a South Florida company as it grew from about 10 people to about 680 - Who he turns away: owners who will not act on the coaching Chapters 00:00 A Family Wine Business in Colombia 04:37 Your Word Is the Contract 06:48 Live by Design, Not by Default 09:40 Forty-Five Years, and Nobody Asked 15:02 Taxes, If I’m Gone, and Getting My Time Back 17:38 Past Salary and a 401(k) 24:04 If You Are Not Coachable 28:24 Seven to Ten Offices 37:46 The First Year 39:57 Where to Find JD You can find them at: https://www.ramcapitalgroup.com/ If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/ #financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #businessowners #succession

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  Financial Planner Search

  What's Missing Isn't the Money with James Roberts | Financial Planner Search

  Sep 23, 202633 min

  In this episode of Financial Planner Search, James Roberts, founder of Intentional, talks about what is left after the title and the income are already there. He entered the business in 2007 because he wanted to get rich. Within three years his brother was diagnosed with cancer, he nearly died in a car accident, and his third son was the 46th child born with a rare genetic syndrome. The work he had been doing, telling people whether they could hit a retirement age and handing them a plan that looked like everyone else's, stopped feeling honest. He noticed that clients who were unhappy while they worked were still unhappy once they got there. Intentional exists to connect purpose to wealth in a way you can actually see in the accounts. The doorway is a 30-minute Wealth Identity Assessment. It reads 190 points and, before James asks a question, describes how someone feels about earning, saving, spending, and growing money. He also learns whether they think, feel, or act first, and the advice follows that order. A widow who inherited money and only wanted her husband back started in municipal bonds she could understand. A year of teaching later, she held stocks and private equity because she understood them. An HVAC owner in Maryland was ready to sell the company he had been given at 23 so three children could inherit evenly. His 50-year-old son was already running it. James asked what would change if the father said so out loud. The son took the company, later tripled it, and still tells James the gift was his father's confidence. James's line on that story: an extra 3% a year would not have changed those four lives. Takeaways - Why three personal crises ended the "know your number" version of his practice - How a 30-minute assessment describes your relationship with money before you answer a question - What changes when he knows whether you think, feel, or act first - A succession where the lasting gift was a father's confidence - Who he turns away: closed to looking at themselves, and only interested in this year's return Chapters 00:00 Three Years That Changed the Practice 03:10 The Wealth Identity Assessment 04:15 Bonds She Could Understand 08:43 Think, Feel, or Act First 13:26 The One-Drink Rule 14:59 Who He Will Not Take 18:39 The HVAC Owner and His Son 23:41 Training the Next Advisors 27:12 Mentors and the Causes That Shaped Him 29:01 The First Month with Lily You can find them at: https://www.i10wealth.com/ If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/ #financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #wealthidentity #legacy

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  Financial Planner Search

  Less Tax, More Abundance with Peter Culver | Financial Planner Search

  Sep 17, 202631 min

  In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Peter Culver, co-founder of Wealth Thrive, talks about using taxes as the front door to something bigger: a life rich beyond money. He and his partner work with entrepreneurs, typically people earning around a million a year, or sitting on a liquidity event of that size, who already feel the tax bill in their gut and sense their CPA is only adding up the numbers, not showing them a better way. Peter did not start here. He spent 12 years as a lawyer, then walked across the street from a firm with a library and fancy furniture to run a startup from a card table. The work flipped his week: less paper, more people. That same instinct shows up with clients heading into a sale. The easy part, he says, is the math. The harder part is what happens when the “CEO” sign comes off your forehead, like the Arizona client who sold for eight figures and then said he was depressed, because nobody at Walmart knew who he was. Wealth Thrive’s process is Discover, Design, Deploy: a short questionnaire and a first tax projection, then a handful of ideas ranked by dollars, time, complexity, and comfort, then they walk the client through implementation. In the right case, they can even go back in time and recover taxes already paid. Takeaways Taxes as the front door to a richer life, not the whole story Why a silent CPA leaves successful owners guessing Who you are after you sell the business Discover, Design, Deploy — from first numbers to implementation Going back in time for refunds of taxes already paid Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Wealth Thrive 01:23 From the law firm to the card table 04:44 The entrepreneurs they work with 07:36 What keeps clients up at night 14:30 Life after you sell the business 19:49 Discover, Design, Deploy 29:45 How to get in touch You can find them at: http://www.wealthrive.com/ If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/ #financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #entrepreneurs #businessexit

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  Financial Planner Search

  You Can't Hug a Spreadsheet with Frank Legan | Financial Planner Search

  Sep 15, 202629 min

  In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Frank Legan, a financial advisor with 26 years in the business and founder of his own independent practice, discusses his "humanity-driven" approach to financial planning and why he believes you can't build a meaningful plan from a spreadsheet alone. Frank started his career at a wirehouse and a bank, where he learned that human nature is "undefeated" during difficult markets. The lure of independence was the chance to build something in his own image to communicate, write, and plan with clients the way he believed served them best. Today, his practice is built around the conversations that happen at the kitchen table: how a family's resources can be aligned with their hopes and dreams, not just their returns. He shares the question he asks every prospective client, borrowed from his mentor Dan Sullivan, that reveals whether someone is truly ready to do the work, and walks through his "1242" cadence for keeping clients seen and heard all year long. Takeaways * A humanity-driven approach puts who you are ahead of what you own * The "three years from now" question reveals who's ready to plan * The 1242 cadence: monthly check-ins, quarterly reports, twice-yearly in-person meetings * Most clients leave advisors over communication, not performance * Building a "Unique Ability Team" so everyone spends 80% of their time doing what energizes them Chapters * 00:00 Introduction & "Skipping Into the Office" * 02:04 How Frank Fell Into Finance * 04:35 The Humanity-Driven Approach * 07:03 Who Frank Serves Best * 09:37 What Keeps Clients Up at 2 a.m. * 12:02 The Three-Years-From-Now Question * 15:43 Writing for Kiplinger & The Humanity Factor Book * 17:02 Vision: Building a Unique Ability Team * 22:47 The Onboarding Experience * 26:45 The 1242 Client Cadence * 28:46 Where to Find Frank You can find them at: https://franklegan.com If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/ #financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #humanitydriven #clientrelationships

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