Episode 13: Financial Planning in the Current Market with Bryan Saylor

 Michelle: We are modern CPA. Our purpose is to provide valuable information to small business owners on our podcast Profit Points. We discuss business how tos, give tax tips and dig into real life experiences in the crazy world of running your own business. If you find this podcast helpful, then like subscribe and follow us on social media. Welcome everyone to the Modern CPAs Profit Points podcast. And today we’re talking with Bryan Saylor about financial planning. Profit Point is a podcast set up for professionals, industry leaders and small business owners to learn the crazy world of running their own business. And welcome, Bryan. Thanks for joining us today. 

Bryan: Yeah, hey, thanks for having me. 

Michelle: And Shawn Cahill, as always, is on our podcast. As one of the owners of Modern CPA. We would like to know a little bit about you, Bryan, before we dove into some of the things that financial planners do for individuals as well as small business owners. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey? 

Bryan: Yeah, well, look, first of all, thanks for having me. I’ve been following your podcast and what you’re doing with Modern CPA. I love it. First of all, Appreciate that you’d have me on. Yeah. So professionally, I’m a certified financial planner. Been in the business for coming up on 20 years. Our firm is High Point Financial. We’re located in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. We are an independent financial planning and wealth management firm. We’re helping individuals, business owners, helping families, even some non-profits build and maintain wealth. 

Michelle: Interesting. Interesting. So what does it mean, though, to be an independent firm? What does that mean? 

Bryan: Yeah. So independent means that we’re not really tied to anyone. We’re sort of in the business of giving advice and helping people with all different types of solutions. We’re not tied to any particular insurance company. We’re not out there tied to a discount broker or mutual fund firm. We’re completely objective in the way that we go about providing financial advice. 

Michelle: So that gives clients some flexibility in what things they’re using and what packages or insurances they’re working with or having or purchasing is basically yeah. 

Bryan: For sure. I mean, I think, you know, objectivity is key. If I’m a person who is going in looking for financial advice, I don’t want to be going to someone who is compensated more for selling insurance or a particular type of or to a particular company. Right. Come to me. And we decide that ultimately as part of your financial plan, that you need some level of insurance, some type of insurance. Then I’m going to go out there and decide on what type makes sense for you, and I’m going to find the company that’s doing it best. Right. Based on a number of different things. But I’m going to find the best folks. I’m gonna look through a list of a number of different organizations and finding the best. 

Michelle: That’s great. That’s great. So it’s really the best interest of the client, basically. 

Bryan: Yeah, for sure. You know, I think the world of financial advice is kind of everywhere right now. Everybody is trying to give financial advice. That could be, you know, the big discount brokers that exist out there, the mutual fund companies or record keepers, the folks that 401k’s, insurance companies, you know, your neighbor, right? Everybody is out there giving advice. And I wouldn’t be in business at this point if it weren’t completely objective. I don’t wanna be tied down. I don’t want to be in a position where somebody’s tapping on the shoulder and saying, you know, you’ve got to sell more of our product. I just think that’s the right thing for the consumer. 

Michelle: Yeah. 

Shawn: So having that flexibility allows you to really be an advocate for your clients and being able to provide them with a lot of different options and resources to meet their financial needs. 

Bryan: Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, advice has to be personalized. It has to be. That might sound cliche. I think you hear a lot in our business about comprehensive and customized. But, you know, at the end of the day, I think that it really is, it is what it comes down to, right? I mean, it has to be, you know, every person, every family, every business owner is different. They’ve got different goals and needs and family set up and business set up. And my job is to listen, right? And once I’ve listened well and I’ve asked the right questions, I can use that information to get these folks to the right place. 

Michelle: That’s so great. So tell us about your journey a little bit and where you came from and what led you to get into this practice on your own, basically? 

Bryan: Yeah, for sure. So I graduated with an economics degree. I didn’t know what I was going to do with that. 

Michelle: Business. Something? 

Bryan: Like. I don’t know. I’m not sure. I don’t know. Right. I have no idea what I want to do. Honestly, I didn’t know how much I loved economics until probably five years into this business. I started as a finance major in school. I went through one or two accounting classes and decided that that was not for.

Michelle: That was not the avenue for you. 

Bryan: And, you know, I was like, okay, well, maybe I can get into econ and political economics. I liked it, but I didn’t realize I loved it till I got out of school and really started getting into this business, which for me started at Vanguard. I had some friends that worked at Vanguard, a big local firm here, and I went and started on the phones there, which a lot of folks do. 

Michelle: And that’s kind of the bottom, right? 

Bryan: It is for sure. The bottom, you know, it could have been the mailroom, I suppose, but it was you know, it was answering 100 phone calls a day, people calling with transaction questions or transactions and some investment questions. They were exchanging addresses. You know, but a hundred phone calls a day, you know, for anybody that’s worked in a call center that’s tough, it’s alot. So after a month or two of that, I was like, oh, my goodness.

Michelle: We have to do something different here. 

Bryan: And so I had to start there and study for the 6 and the 63, which are investment licenses. And it kind of piqued my interest. I hadn’t been particularly interested in investing growing up, but I’m awfully curious. And he did not have any answers for people. Right. So people are calling in and they’re saying, hey, changed my address. But oh, by the way, what about this investment? And what do you think? What’s going on here? It was not far after the dot com bubble burst. And, you know, people just had a lot of questions I couldn’t answer and I hated that. And so, you know, I would I would go and I researched and ultimately, every question that I couldn’t answer, I learned from it. I wrote stuff down and I said, You know what? I really do like this. And I think that I want to make this my career. And so I started studying for the Certified Financial Planner designation, which I think is kind of the premier designation in our industry. It’s a designation that requires studying for, you know, five. At that time, it was five different tests, like little two hour tests, investments and insurance and estate planning and taxes and just overall the planning process. And it culminated in two at that time. It was a two day, ten hour test. And so I kind of got into that on my own. Nobody was paying for it at Vanguard. I just kind of started studying for that on my own, and they came to me and said, Hey, look, how would you like to go to the planning group? You know, we see that you’re really interested in this. If you go to the planning group, they’ll pay for it for you. And, oh, by the way, you’re not going to be answering 100 phone calls a day. Know. 

Michelle: Like maybe let’s do that. 

Bryan: Sign me up. I like moved my stuff around my desk that day. ‘m like, I’m in. 

Michelle: I’m in. 

Bryan: Yeah. And so they moved me to the planning group and. You know, I end up sticking around for about eight years over there, and I’m really thankful for the time that I had at Vanguard. I think Vanguard is a great organization. I think the philosophy of low cost is one that sticks with me. You know, I knew that not too long in, I knew that I wanted to own my own practice. It didn’t take me not to say, Hey, look, at some point I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to sort of own my own business. Yeah, how do I get there? And so being out there was a lot of volume, right? And I was talking to a lot of folks and they gave me a lot of practice. And for me. 

Michelle: Yeah. 

Bryan: Sure. I was young. I was at the time. I’m in my early twenties. I’m thinking, how can I give these people advice? I don’t have all that much in life lessons. 

Michelle: And life experiences. 

Bryan: And so to be able to talk with people and answer questions and deal with all that volume was super, super helpful. But at some point I was like, Hey, look, you know, Vanguard has got a pretty basic investment philosophy. It’s kind of all about broad based indexing. I’m not talking about insurance and estate planning. And, you know, it could be a tax, but not talking about some of these other areas, I need that experience. And so and in addition to that, I needed some sales experience. So I kind of kicked tires on a couple of different places named, I ended up down at a Fidelity store downtown at the center city office as an account exec. So down at Fidelity, I was servicing a book of, I don’t know, three or 400 clients. It was a really great role. I was. You know, I was on a day to day basis kind of shining a light on all that fidelity had to offer, which is from that perspective was much more broad based and ultimately what I wasn’t doing at Vanguard. So I was helping folks look into options trading and a lot of things I wasn’t talking about at Vanguard. You know, about two years in, I was realizing that, look, I’ve got three little girls at home and they’re not seeing me. I’m commuting an hour and a half and working long hours. 

Michelle: Yeah. And you just knew that you were still I guess you still had that in you, that you wanted to be on your own and an entrepreneur and wanted to make that dive at some point. 

Bryan: So that’s exactly it, Michelle. I was like, Look, it’s time, buddy. You’ve been practicing all this time. It’s time to get out there and take that leap. And I think that’s tough to do in this business, as I said before, there are so many different planners out there, so many different investment advisors. It is tough to do. And I didn’t necessarily feel like I had a huge amount of clients that were going to come with me. I didn’t have a family wealth that I could count on. So I think in this business, you know, either you’ve got some other income source, you live at home, have minimum expenses, or you figure something else out. And that’s where I was. I had like I said, I had three kids at home. I had to figure something else out. And so I connected with an old friend of mine who I still am with today, who turned out to be a great mentor to me. And he had jumped out from Vanguard about six or seven years prior. He had built a successful practice. He needed somebody who could help him out. So when he was good at planning to help him out with his best clients and also help him service some of the people he couldn’t get to. And what I needed was a stable income. 

Michelle: Yeah, yeah. You have responsibilities. You have to make sure that that’s satisfied in some capacity. 

Bryan: That’s right. So you guarantee me a specific amount of income and you know, I’ll build my book from there. 

Michelle: Yeah. Yeah. 

Bryan: So I joined a firm that had about 25 advisors, if I recall, this was in 2015 and you know, it wasn’t long and that I realized that while I wanted to be in this space, I wasn’t sure if this is exactly where I want to be from a firm perspective. And I wasn’t the only one. And so a couple of my fellow advisors over there were kind of thinking about the book of business that we had, and we were saying, look, you know, is this ultimately the structure that we want long term and can we do this better for our clients? Mm hmm. I won’t get into details. I’ll just say that the answer is yes. As we started kind of getting out there and checking on, you know, who we could be working with in terms of our broker dealer relationship and just thinking about the overall structure of our firm, you know, we decided that we could do it better. And so we created High Point Financial. 

Michelle: That’s awesome. That’s great. 

Shawn: Because how many advisors with you, how many partners do you have? 

Bryan: Yep. So I’ve got three. Yeah. So three of us came, four of us came, three partners. And you know, in hindsight, I feel really grateful that almost every client came with us. 

Michelle: Nice. That’s always scary, too, because you built, you know, you’re trying to build such a book to keep you going and service those clients. And if they decide to stay with the practice that you’re with, that’s a little scary. 

Bryan: Yeah, for sure. You know, it’s always well, I can’t say I’ve been through it other than that one time. But I think for most people who have done that, there’s definitely a lot of concern about, you’re going to come with me. What’s it involve? I mean, it was a big undertaking to go out and do that. There’s one involved. I think one of the keys for us was finding a broker dealer that we could work with. And so in my space, we have two partners in our business that really provide this support. Right. The first is our broker dealer. A broker dealer really serves as kind of our back office and technology provider. They’re the folks who are the in between us and any of those companies I was talking about before that we do business with. Mm hmm. The mutual funds that are out there, insurance and banking and alternative investments and all that stuff that exists. Our broker dealer kind of helps us get them and helps us maintain a relationship with them. And we’ve got a great one. Commonwealth is just a fantastic partner, one that I hope that I’m with for the duration. And then our second partner isNational Financial Services. We’re not holding assets at the safe at High Point Financial. 

Michelle: Thank goodness. 

Bryan: N o, I’ll forget the combination or something. Yeah. Look, National Financial Services is really Fidelity. It’s Fidelity’s institutional arm. That’s you know, if you have investments with me, that’s where we’re holding them. National Financial Services. So two really great partners there. 

Michelle: Nice. That’s so great. So let’s get into a little bit about what you can do for people. And I know you wanted to talk a little bit about maybe the market and where it’s at right now. We’re in May of 2022, and so this could change as of May 19th of 2022. Tell us a little bit about what you’re seeing and what people should be looking out for. 

Bryan: Yeah. Yeah. Not much to smile about in the markets these days. It’s really been tough sledding. If you look at the markets today, they’re down two or 3%. It’s been awfully volatile. U.S. stocks are down over 15%. International down probably closer to 20. And along with that, bonds down like 10%, which is really kind of an anomaly. You just don’t see it that often. And so I think this is largely about inflation at this point and what the response is going to be by our policy makers at the Federal Reserve. But just to understand kind of where we are today, I think you really have to take a step back and look at where we’ve come from. Mm hmm. We’ve come from a place where we’ve seen tremendous growth in the equity markets coming out of the 2008, the Great Recession, and this great reset. The 2008 down market was largely about lending standards and banks making big bets. It was a banking crisis. And then we came out of this with this very long period of super easy money, very low interest rates. Mm hmm. I think if you combine that with technological innovation, you think iPhone, think Web 2.0, think artificial intelligence. You know, if you combine those two things and maybe even some demographic changes, it really has landed us in this what they call a secular bull market. So there’s just a long term bull market run. If you look at the return of stocks over the course of that time period, it’s significantly above historical averages. Right. 

Michelle: So I guess people have gotten used to that because it’s been in existence for quite some time now and they may think that it’s always going to be that way. 

Bryan: Yeah, people have certainly gotten used to it, there’s no doubt about it. I think we were that bull market run. Who knows? How long would it last? I think it was showing signs of stall as we came into the pandemic. Right. So 2020, you know, life changed for everybody. And, you know, it got really scary there from a health perspective, but the financial markets got really scary as well. And, you know, demand just at that time, demand was only kind of nonexistent. It was like everybody’s going to just hang out in their house and who knows what they’re going to buy. And that was sort of that was causing a significant downside impact to the stock market. The stock market lost 35% in roughly a month. I don’t think, you know, financial markets were seizing up everywhere. The bond market was sort of losing its liquidity. And so the government stepped in. The government comes in and they sort of shore up the bond market. They, you know, through monetary policy, meaning they reduced interest rates. They started buying up bonds. Right. And through fiscal policy, they were kind of giving everybody money. Right. Or people checks, giving states money directly, giving businesses money. And so all this money floods the system. And I think science came in and ultimately sort of, you know, they had to do that. It was an insurance plan, science came in with the vaccine, the medicine. And it came in and sort of changed things faster than what policymakers initially thought. That’s my view. And that’s kind of let us where we are here today. Right. So where we stand today is that we’ve got an inflation story. 

Michelle: Yeah, it’s been a problem for a little while, too. 

Bryan: So it’s been a problem for, you know, depending on what measure you’re looking at going back here six, nine months. I think people thought about it a little bit longer than that. But inflation, honestly, has not been a story, a true story for really about four years. 

Michelle: Wow. 

Bryan: And so I think right now what you have is you’ve got a lot of demand out there because all these businesses, all these families, they’re kind of flush with cash. The government gave it to them. Right. But that’s coupled at this point with some supply problems, right? 

Michelle: Yeah. 

Bryan: We hear a lot about this whole supply chain thing. I think people that I talked with thought that that mainly had to do with, you know, sort of labor shortages here in the U.S. at the ports and all that kind of stuff. I think it’s been sticking with us because of the zero tolerance policy that China has around COVID and the war in Ukraine. Right. And so you’ve got supply side problems and a whole lot of demand. And that’s leading to year over year inflation of like eight and a half percent. And I think the markets at this point are basically trying to price in and this is the cause of the volatility they’re trying to price in the ability of the Federal Reserve to ultimately stop that. Can the Federal Reserve reduce demand? Right. But I’m not sure the Federal Reserve can do anything about what’s going on in China. And the war in Ukraine seems to be at this point, kind of a war of attrition. So that’s what I’m seeing in the markets right now. It really is a tough environment to be in with really no place to hide outside of cash and maybe oil or broad based agricultural commodities is tough. 

Michelle: Yeah. So do you have anything as it relates to the markets that small business owners need to be aware of on their side of things? Anything that you can share with us that you know, they should be striving. 

Shawn: Is or anything they could be taking advantage of the situation the way it is now. 

Bryan: Yeah, well, I think I think that, first of all, they can always take advantage of tax loss harvesting, which is something that I’m sure you guys are very familiar with. You know, if you’ve got investment accounts that are non retirement and you’ve invested it and you see losses in those positions, you can ultimately sell out of those positions, take those losses, kind of put them to the side, but then immediately buy back into positions that are similar and maintain your market exposure. So those losses can be used to offset future gains. They can stick with you on your tax return. They could be used to offset some income, you know. So that would be one thing that I would think about for business owners. I think probably more importantly, you know, I think that preparing for markets like this, it starts with education and understanding truly where you are and what the markets are. I mean, what do they really do? The market as a business owner? I think that, you know, the markets, the stock market in particular, this is sort of secondary to all that they’re trying to accomplish with their business. And they’ve got to decide if they’re looking to build wealth outside of what they’re doing with their business. You know, how much they want to put at risk in the markets. Because the truth is, you know, the stock market goes back 100 years, one out of every four roughly. There have been losses. And I mean, super unpredictable. Mm hmm. So I think as I think about the business owners I work with, and for that matter, most folks that I work with, it all starts with making sure that I truly understand their situation, understand truly what risk they’re comfortable with, you know, asking questions about, you know, if you lost X percent, what will that do to your situation? And ultimately, I think this comes back to sort of cash flow. And what these investments, how these investments truly are going to be used down the road when that when that’s going to be. And what’s there cash flow look like day to day? Because if it’s not solid and they need this money, then I can’t be putting them in a position where they could lose 20% like they have. 

Michelle: Exactly. Exactly. I know a lot of small business owners rely on their business as their kind of retirement plan, you know. And so if they do have extra money, you need to be sure that they’re okay. Like you said, having that long term game plan, you know, it’s not going to be something that they’re going to be able to liquidate easily. I mean, it is easy to liquidate, but at what cost? The loss that could be incurred or you know, you got to think of it not as like gambling money, but just. At risk money potentially. 

Bryan: Yeah, no doubt about it, you know. Yeah. And business owners, you know, some business owners, you’re right that they’re not heavily invested in the market in many cases. Right. Because they’re like, this is my thing, right? 

Michelle: I’m investing in me. Yes. 

Bryan: It is all about human capital. I can control this. And then, you know, there’s a certain segment of business owners that says, hey, look, you know, I’m going to take what I’m making here. I’m going to put this in other markets. That’s kind of where I come in as a partner in addition to some of the planning work that I’m doing with them. 

Michelle: Yeah, that’s so great. So tell us what you do then to help them. What you do for your clients, whether they are individuals that are coming to you, individuals that own businesses or the businesses themselves. Tell us a little bit about what it is that you do for them. 

Bryan: Yeah. You know, in general, as I think about kind of simplifying down what I do in my practice, I think it’s kind of two sides, I think. And they’re both kind of surrounded by process. I think on one side, it’s about planning, right? It is about kind of going through the process to understand, you know, what’s important, why is it important? And then all the numbers, right, all the quantitative stuff, right? All the, you know, the stuff outside the numbers. And I’ve got a pretty good process and technology, you know, pretty good planning software system to help out with that. And so I think the second part of what I do is I kind of use that to go out and find solutions for people. Right. And those solutions sometimes and I think the base of those solutions is the stock and bond market. But, you know, there’s a whole lot of different solutions that exist out there, you know, in the alternatives market, a lot of banking products that I think are compelling right now for people. You know, a lot of, you know, the insurance industry is not just about traditional insurance. There’s, you know, some products out there that can ultimately provide a whole lot of downside support for people and kind of set them in a position where they know what the absolute returns are going to be, what the what the max is and what the you know, what the minimum is. 

Michelle: Minimum risk. Yeah. Yeah. 

Bryan: Yeah, exactly. I mean, their solutions are just out there in the banking insurance world right now where you can say, hey, look, I’m going to take on just this amount of loss. Like, for instance, I’ll take on the first 10%, the insurance company or the banking institution. You know, they’re going to take on anything below that. And they say, sure, no problem. But on the upside, you know, you can only have, let’s say, 13% annually. Yeah, right. And that’s just like they’ll cap you out. And so I think for some investors, for some portion of their portfolio, they’re willing to say, sure, you know, I’m okay with that. That sounds like a good deal to me. 

Michelle: And it’s personalized, right? Because everybody’s risk tolerance is different and what they are willing to do is different. So what’s good for somebody may not be good for the next person. 

Bryan: That’s right. You know, I think that if you’re young and you’re kind of an accumulator and you’re just building wealth and you understand time horizons, you’re okay with the ups and downs of the market. You know, you kind of get it and put it away I think, you know, if you’re sure you’ve accumulated wealth, you know, you’re trying to lock that up. You’re saying, hey, look, I need to protect the downside on this. And, you know, if you believe like I do, that the markets, at least in the short term or unpredictable, you know, then taking a portion of your portfolio and putting it in something that gives you some guarantees, kind of shifting that risk away from you to someone else through options trading or through, you know, insurance companies or whatever it may be. Sometimes it really makes sense. And so as I think about all the solutions that are available to us, you know, I do think we have the ability to truly personalize this for people and, you know, for business owners. I think we’re kind of starting there, I think for business owners beyond that point. You know, I think a lot of folks in my business that work with business owners, they want to work with them when they ultimately sell their business. Right. Well, the wind farm, you know, and I think what you’re, you’re sort of your money to work. And I certainly want those opportunities. I think I can help those people maintain that wealth and help them figure out ultimately how much they need to retire on and what that and what they should do with what’s left over, what the access is. But I want to be working with business owners throughout the process, right? The folks who are deep into it every day and where I help them is I help them get organized. You know, my planning software system can help them put all their documents they have for personal and business in a vault and have it be secure so they can go back to that point. Right. You can help them analyze their cash flows. Now, the second thing I do is help them with their, you know, their other professional relationships, you know, folks like you for I want to be part of that circle of people, you know, with their accountants and their bankers. I’m going to be in that zone with them and help them out. I think what we saw in 2020 taught us a whole lot about how important it is for those professional relationships. You just think about like, you know, PPP , BIDL Loans and… people are like what’s going on here, right? They got their business. They don’t know how that’s going to go. And the government is saying, hey, we can give you this money. And so, you know, having a banker that you can count on, having a CPA that can help you interpret that stuff. And me as a person who can help them translate ultimately how that’s going to impact their personal financial situation. I think that’s hugely important and that’s part of what I do as well. 

Michelle: Yeah, I think that’s so important that you say that because we are in we’re going to be offering a course to small business owners that also teaches them some of these things and how to run a business. And one of the models is what kind of team members do you need to have on your team? And your team members are going to be people like the lawyer, the banker or, you know, the financial advisor or financial planner. And there’s a whole list of people that really need to be considered to be on your team because they all work together so closely. So it’s good that you say that because that’s so important. 

Bryan: Yeah. Yeah. And again, I think just go back a couple of years. You know, sometimes I think as a business owner, from what I’ve seen, we get kind of really focused on what’s going on in your business. And then it takes moments like that to ultimately tell you how truly important it is to take a step back sometimes and make sure you got those valuable partnerships. Mm hmm. And I know you guys during that time period were probably, you know, deep into understanding what was out there in terms of those loans, who’s qualifying. And then the whole process of how that was going to be forgiven, not forgiven, you know.

Michelle: It was a learn as you go thing. 

Shawn: And the rules were changing daily and things were coming out. Yeah. And it was, it was a constant moving target. But you know, like you said, you know, working with we’re having close relationships with good people that are financial planners, financial advisors, bankers, you know, made some of that process easier because we can talk to these people to help our business clients. And those are the relationships that I think work out best when we’re on, we’re working together, we’re meeting with clients together, or at least, you know, we are working with each other to help the clients. 

Bryan: Yeah. Yeah, I know you guys are pretty deeply involved in, you know, doing proactive tax planning. I don’t wanna speak for you, but you guys can help. I’m sure you’re doing some consulting on, you know, really trying to understand these people’s business and see if you can help them out with the bottom line. I think, you know, where I come in coordination with that is helping people out with if they don’t have a retirement plan in place, then it might make sense for them. If they do, then they’re a larger organization. Is the plan they have in place, one that truly makes sense? We would evaluate the record keeper. We would make sure that their third party administrator is the right one. You know, make sure that they’re doing the right thing and that the plan is set up properly, given the goals that they have. You know, I would help them out with their insurances myself. They have insurance on key people in their business, too. They have a buy-sell that speaks and is offering it back. That’s the stuff. That’s my piece of this. 

Michelle: Yeah. And that’s a lot of times you see that business owners don’t address those things. They just don’t even really think about it until probably it becomes a little bit more important when they get these employees in there, they’re getting their first employees and they really want to retain people. They start to think about that. And when they start getting some real key employees, like you said, you know, the key man, insurance is really important in those instances. And then if you have other people that are in partnership with you, whether it’s in a true partnership or an S corporation, what’s going to happen if someone passes away? Right. So that’s really, really important to address those issues. 

Bryan: Yeah, for sure. 

Shawn: Yeah. And a lot of times, you know, you start your business and you and you set these things up, but you know, you’re now, you know, five, six, seven, eight years into it and you haven’t called back and looked at it to see if it still fits the organization that you’re in. So like surprised how often do you think you know, you know, people should be talking with you as your as the financial advisor. How, what, what makes the most sense? 

Bryan: Yeah, I kind of leave that up to who I’m working with. Right. So, you know, there are certainly people that are like, hey, look, I’m good with annually, right? Like, I know that behind the scenes you’ve got a process for how you’re managing my investments. I see that you’re doing transaction changes. I know that you’re very into the markets, you know, maybe once a year we meet. But, you know, I see articles that you send out from time to time and that’s fine. You know, I have some folks that are, you know, hey, call me every quarter. I want to sort of a market update. And then I think if there’s significant change for the family or for the business or whatever it is, but if that’s the triggering event as well, and it really for me, if I talk to you annually, you can expect them to be bugging me. I’m going to be, you know, kind of knocking on the door. 

Michelle: It’s like, oh, my gosh, that time again. It goes fast. 

Shawn: It does. It does. But, you know, I think you know, I know with working with clients, the more often we’re talking, the better we can help them, the more value we can provide them. I think that’s important with all the professionals. 

Bryan: Yeah. Yeah. As I continue to build my practice, as I think about ultimately who I want to be working with, it’s folks that at the end of the day, they want me. As part of their relationship on an ongoing basis, a part of their life and basis. So as I think about who I’m targeting, I want people who are fully engaged in, you know, in the planning process through they can get me the information I need in a timely fashion to be able to ultimately give them the education that they need and find the right solutions for them. So, yeah, I think I think you’re right there. 

Michelle: So great. Well, Bryan, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. And a little recap of what we talked about. We talked about your journey and how you ended up becoming a certified financial planner and how you’re helping your clients on a regular basis achieve their goals and ultimately maybe even retirement goals as well. And we talked a little bit about the market and how it may not be doing so hot. You know, maybe some things to keep in mind. But we are so thankful that you are with us today. And we are asking anybody who has listened to this podcast, please subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on social media. Thank you, Bryan. And then we look forward to future podcasts. 

Bryan: Yeah. Hey, I’ll be listening. Thank you, guys. I appreciate you having me on. 

Shawn: Thanks, Bryan. 

Michelle: Thank you. If you find this podcast helpful and liked, subscribe and follow us on social media.