Financial Planner Search

Gregory Wilnau
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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.

  1. 19h ago

    Wealth Is a Tool, Not a Trophy with Gary Preisser | Financial Planner Search

    In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Gary Preisser, Managing Partner of Stonebriar Wealth Advisors, explains what he calls functional wealth. Most of his clients are retirees, or close to it, and he spends a lot of time reminding them that every dollar they have is going to be spent by somebody. It might as well be them. Gary came up through tax preparation and small-business consulting, where the useful question was always cash flow. He was surprised, once he entered this industry, to find the first conversation was a sheet of questions about feelings and risk. His process runs the other direction. Start with why the money exists. That tells you when it is needed. The investments follow the timing. Money needed in six months does not belong in the market, and it does not belong in a 12-month CD that will not be there when the bill shows up. He also walks through what a "good" return actually means. A 7% year sounds fine until someone took half the market's volatility in a year the market was up 20%. His business partner Shay compares that to paying for a dozen eggs and opening the carton to find nine. Later he talks about the widow's tax trap, the ants in Aesop's fable who saved the food so they could eat it, and a 96-year-old client he keeps telling to spend more. His longer aim is to get other advisors to start with purpose before they ever talk about a product. Takeaways Every dollar already has a job, and the job is not to sit on a statement A conservative return can still be a bad year if it lagged what that level of risk should have earned The useful tax question is when to pay, while the lower brackets are still open Saving for decades does not finish the plan. Someone still has to use the money Purpose, then timing, then the portfolio Chapters 00:00 Wealth is a tool, not a trophy 01:48 The $10,000 refund that was a loan to the government 04:11 Start with why, then decide when the money is needed 08:22 The real worry is not running out 13:45 Nine eggs instead of twelve 16:27 The widow's tax trap 21:32 The ants were supposed to eat the food 27:31 Clients who say "just take care of it" 32:28 The surgeon, the scalpels, and a backwards industry 37:38 The first appointment, and what a quarterly meeting is actually for You can find them at: https://www.stonebriarwealthadvisors.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 #retirement #taxes

  2. 4d ago

    What "Am I Okay?" Actually Means with Donny Stewart | Financial Planner Search

    In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Donny Stewart, CFP and partner at Swan Wealth Management, discusses what people are really asking when they say, "Am I okay?" He and his partners, TJ Bruce and Mike Mahalich, met on the Regis University golf team, spent years on the institutional side, and later bought a book in Edina full of retirees and people close to it. Every client and every dollar at Swan is split three ways. You meet all three. You end up calling the one you click with, and you still reach an owner. Donny's problem with a 94% "probability of success" is that nobody knows what the other 6% is. He puts it as a chance of eating cat food. He would rather show a monthly amount you can spend, with guardrails if things run hot or cold. The younger households look different and sound the same. Late thirties, kids, a full calendar, wondering if they are saving the right amount in the right place. Sometimes the sign it's working is a call about how to pay the nanny. The other half of the job starts when the paycheck stops. Donny calls it the psychology of retirement. For six to eighteen months it can feel like every day is Saturday. Give that stretch a purpose, or the feeling fades. Purpose, he says, is power. Takeaways "Am I okay?" gets a monthly number, not a probabilityThree owners on every client, and you call the one you actually likeA 94% success score still doesn't say what you can spendThe first year off work fades if there's nothing to get up forIf the question has a dollar sign on it, they want the callChapters 00:00 Three college teammates, one firm07:12 You always reach an owner18:16 Two kinds of people, one question20:20 The 6% that sounds like cat food26:21 A nanny, and a man who could stop next year32:35 Purpose is power44:11 A chatbot in a scuba suit49:32 Sleep well at night55:22 How to reach SwanYou can find them at: https://swanwm.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 #retirement #purpose

  3. 6d ago

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

    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 herWhat it looks like when a successful woman has the money and nowhere to startWhy she told a CEO to turn down a sale that was still a lot of moneyThe gap between being able to afford to stop and being okay with stoppingWho she refers out: people who want to keep doing it their own wayChapters 00:00 Breadwinner Women01:04 The Fire, the Divorce, and No Plan05:46 Retired at 51, Money in Two Stocks08:29 She Will Not Say Yes on the First Call15:03 How She Gets Paid, and Who She Serves18:05 Walk Away From the Offer23:17 He Forgot It Was Monday26:07 Who She Will Not Take28:36 Marnie and Rising Professionals32:27 The Best, Not the BiggestChapter 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

  4. Sep 23

    Live by Design with JD Ramirez | Financial Planner Search

    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

  5. Sep 23

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

    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

  6. Sep 17

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

    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

  7. Sep 15

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

    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

  8. Sep 9

    From Labor to Capital with Eli Mikel | Financial Planner Search

    In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Eli Mikel, founder of Clockwise Capital, discusses why every person is on a path to becoming a business owner, whether they know it or not. Built in 2017 around the idea that every season is not created equal, Clockwise pairs business owners with an AI named Kronos and a curated network of independent financial advisors who stress-test both their portfolios and their business plans against the cycles ahead. Eli walks through the shift he sees happening as AI disrupts labor: the work that used to take a generation to absorb now happens in two years, and the people who come out ahead are the ones who reorient themselves from selling their time to owning capital. He shares the Clockwise onboarding process, the "time portfolios" built to be cycle-aware instead of cycle-agnostic, and the personal reason he's aiming to convert one million business owners by 2035. Takeaways * Why AI disruption is an invitation to become an owner, not a threat to your job * How Kronos AI and a human advisor work together inside one operating system * Stress-testing portfolios against 2000, 2008, 2022, and 1929 scenarios * Turning portfolios into paychecks across public, private, and operating businesses * Building community as the single most important thing you can do right now Chapters * 00:00 Introduction to Clockwise Capital * 02:15 The Origin Story — Cycles, Seasons, and the 2008 Crash * 05:22 Who Clockwise Serves — Business Owners * 08:40 Why Everyone Will Become a Business Owner * 11:00 What's Keeping Clients Up at Night * 16:23 Inside Kronos — Eli as His Own Client * 18:29 The Cashier and the Kiosk * 20:14 Vision — One Million Business Owners by 2035 * 26:34 The Clockwise Onboarding Process * 33:30 Embracing the Most Impressive Moment to Be Alive You can find them at: https://clockwisecapital.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 #AI #cashflow

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About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Gregory Wilnau
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    55
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Gregory Wilnau
  • Show Website
    Financial Planner Search