Join us on this episode of XYPN Radio as we introduce you to Tim and Alexis Woodward, co-founders of Blend Wealth. These financial planners decided to blend not just their lives but also their financial expertise, serving blended families and business owners. Discover how they've diversified their services, embraced their Christian faith in financial planning, and managed a thriving business while nurturing a harmonious marriage. This is an episode you won't want to miss. You can find show notes...
Nov 15, 2023•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast What does it look like to scale your RIA and how long does it take? How big of an impact does it really make to have a niche? When should you start hiring, and who should it be when you do? Co-Founders Alan Moore and Michael Kitces met onstage this year to review the highlights of the seventh-annual Member Benchmarking Study in this episode of XYPN Radio. Every year, the study gathers information from XYPN member participants to get an accurate picture of how advisors are doing in their firms. Y...
Nov 01, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep 373•Transcript available on Metacast Doing the right thing in the financial world often involves speaking up and knowing when to go your own way. This is in no way an easy thing, but has time and time again been a source of joy for advisors. Our guest today, Mike Kelly, CFA®, CFP®, and founder of Switchback Financial has pursued doing right by his clients, himself, and his family. Along the way, he has built a successful business and has exciting new ventures on the way! Mike shares his experiences, from the impact Silicon Valley B...
Oct 18, 2023•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Your RIA journey isn’t just an upwards climb from where you are to where you want to be. It can include things like a family, embracing other opportunities, and teaming up with a friend. In today’s episode, we reconnect with Natalie Taylor CFP®. Since we spoke to her 3 years ago, she has taken an unexpected path to a growth-filled, confident today. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/371...
Oct 04, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Our guest moved up the corporate ladder to become CIO at 2 different large RIA’s. Even from the top, there is just no replacing the freedom and flexibility that owning your own business can provide for both you and your clients. Terri Spath, CFA®, CFP®, founder of Zuma Wealth shares some fantastic stories and insights that you won’t want to miss! You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/370...
Sep 20, 2023•55 min•Ep 370•Transcript available on Metacast From youth ministry to personal finance, Jeff Clark's journey wasn’t simple. In his church, Jeff offered to help his peers with their finances, but soon had the attention of a congregation also in need! Following this path, he found himself in FinTech, able to learn from experts in the field. This stepping stone gave him the knowledge and confidence to strike out on his own. In 2021, he did just that. Cataloging his growth 2 years later, he has exceeded all expectations. With Jeff's practice exp...
Sep 06, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Not only are students of all ages needing financial guidance, the solutions available to them can completely change the way we look at student loan repayment and consolidation. In this episode, we have the pleasure of sitting down with Erik Kroll, CFP®, the founder of Hilltop Financial Advisors and Student Loans Over 50. Erik tells stories about how he has changed the financial landscape for his clients, including helping one client eliminate over $250,000 in student loan debt practically overni...
Aug 23, 2023•46 min•Ep 368•Transcript available on Metacast We often hear how the network of support and connection that XYPN offers is a strong component of success. In today's episode, we learn that for our guest, Leland Gross, CFP®, the founder of PeaceLink Financial Planning, "community" wasn't just a benefit, it was essential after a life-changing event pulled his focus from building his business. In September 2021, Leland launched his firm and discovered that same month that his wife was pregnant! Three months later, they received the devastating n...
Aug 09, 2023•51 min•Ep 367•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re wondering whether taking custody of client accounts and a virtual assistant is right for your independent advisory firm, this episode’s for you! Taking custody can be a scary decision, but sometimes it's the right one. Just ask XYPN member Kate Yearwood Young, CFA, CFP®, founder of Yearwood Young Advisors. From engineering to Wall Street to founding a successful business, she acquired the skills and services to meet her client’s needs where they are. And their needs dictated that she t...
Jul 26, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you are interested in learning highly effective, yet simple ways to use data-driven market research to find and maximize your niche, this episode is for you! In this candid and informative conversation with XYPN member Marlon Wesh, MBA, founder of Wesh Financial, we learn how Marlon’s early experience in HR for the Marine Corps helped formulate his firm’s operational systems. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Y ou can find show notes and more information by clicking here: h...
Jul 12, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re interested in the impact being a student of your own art can have on your priorities and business, this episode is for you! Terry Bradford-Crane MBA, CFP® of Bradford-Crane Company went to the Naval Academy for college with a dream of becoming a pilot and an astronaut. Just as she was finishing her training program, the US repealed a law prohibiting women from serving in combat zones, and she was one of the first women to receive orders to serve on an aircraft in a combat zone. Her fir...
Jun 28, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re interested in how finding your niche can change everything and how well the equity compensation niche has worked for XYPN member Christine Amill Centeno, CFP®, MS, founder of Simplicity Wealth Management, this episode is for you! Christine started her career in financial services at Ameriprise in 2007 and worked in a variety of broker's side roles until she ultimately decided to launch her own firm in 2019. Having just celebrated her firm's fourth birthday, she has grown quickly with o...
Jun 14, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re interested in learning how employment contract restrictions can seriously disrupt your plans to take clients with you should you decide to break away from your broker, as well working through growth and fee structuring decisions, this episode is for you! XYPN member John Underhill, CFP®, founder of Acorn and Oak Wealth Management, based in Raleigh, North Carolina shares how his journey from ski bum to managing parts of a ski resort, and then several Starbucks helped bolster his busines...
May 31, 2023•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this fun conversation with XYPN member Brian O'Neill, CFP®, founder of Winged Wealth Management and Financial Planning, we hear how niching not only what you know, but who you know can radically grow your business—even in the first year! Brian spent the first 20 years of his career as an Air Force pilot, during which time he developed a passion for personal finance. Brian launched his firm in January 2021 and came out of the starting gates hot, working with 30 clients in his first year, 23 of...
May 17, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you are interested in what it takes to transition from a long-term wirehouse position to solo RIA ownership, what it means to truly answer a calling, and how to sustainably serve others without being self-sacrificing, this episode is for you! Kaysian Gordon, founder of Kaysi Gordon Financial Planning, spent 14 years at UBS focusing on financial planning for ultra-high net worth clients. Seven years ago, she started a weekly devotional blog, which later helped her build a niche working with wo...
May 03, 2023•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you're interested in learning about the advantages of growing your firm with like-minded advisors, hiring a virtual assistant, and having a supportive spouse, this episode is for you! Mike Troxell, founder of Modern Financial Planning, started his career in tech as an accountant but eventually transitioned into financial planning. Though he loved his job at an RIA, he decided to launch his own firm when the timing unexpectedly aligned, despite just having his first child and expecting a secon...
Apr 19, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’ve ever found yourself questioning what “having it all” looks like for you, how to pull focus on those visions and find balance as you start and run your business, this episode is for you. In this reflective and empowering conversation, XYPN member Betty Wang, CFP®, founder of BW Financial Planning, shares a very real look into her journey from a career in financial services on the buy side, to taking time off to care for her children with medical issues to returning to the industry in pr...
Apr 05, 2023•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you’re interested in learning how to grow your initial firm investment five-fold in 3 ½ years in a dual-entrepreneurial household, this episode’s for you! Join in the conversation with XYPN member Jake Northrup, CFP®, CFA, CSLP®, founder of Experience Your Wealth and hear about how he started his firm journey in late 2019, with no clients, at the ripe age of 27. As if that wasn’t challenging enough, his wife started her own wedding planning business at the same time. Jake always knew he wante...
Mar 22, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Andie married her high school sweetheart, who was an Air Force pilot and started moving all over the world every two years. She found work as a math teacher at community colleges, and over time, that ended up shifting into the realm of financial planning. She took part in a joint program between FINRA and the DOD that helped her get her AFC designation. That led her to getting her CFP® and, as her husband was retiring from the military and they were deciding where they wanted to end up, she star...
Mar 08, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Frank Austin, CFA, ChFC®, founder of Sustainable Financial Planning, achieved his FIRE goal of retiring at 50 and starting his own financial planning firm. His goal in starting the firm wasn't to make a lot of money as he was already set up for retirement, but instead to impact the lives of as many clients as possible. We talked about some of the things he thought he would focus on early in the business, such as ESG investing and how those plans evolved over time as he found the clients he enjoy...
Feb 22, 2023•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this informative conversation with XYPN member Joanne Burke, CFP®, CPA/PFS, founder of Birch Street Financial Advisors, we learn why Joanne left a big four firm to join a partner who’d split off to go independent and help start their accounting practice. After a few years and the birth of her second child, she decided to launch her own tax practice to give herself the flexibility to spend more time with her family than public accounting would have provided. Fast forward after her youngest lef...
Feb 08, 2023•53 min•Transcript available on Metacast Whether you live in a single or dual-entrepreneurial household, have children you’re balancing in that equation, or are just looking for effective tips to convert prospects into clients, this episode is for you! In this fun and informative conversation with XYPN member Sarah Ponder, CFP®, MBA, founder of Real Estate Wealth Planning, Sarah joked that she's 37 and on her fifth and hopefully final career. We talked about her fee structure, successful marketing programs, her new course for realtors,...
Jan 25, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re excited to welcome back XYPN member Kay Dee Cole, CFP®, founder of Clarity Wealth Development, on the show today. Kay Dee was on the show back in 2017 and we wanted to bring her back on now, to give us an update on her firm and how things have progressed and changed. I have to say it was hard to find anything that was similar to the business she was running five years ago, aside from her being there and her niche. Kay Dee shared the various transitions that have happened from splitting wit...
Jan 11, 2023•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast At XYPN we talk a lot about community. This holiday season feels like a great time to celebrate what a powerful gift being independent, but never alone can be. So, we invited three members of an XYPN Mastermind Group, Dillon Cobb, CPA, CFP®, Andrew Gray, CFP®, and Allen Mueller, CFA, MBA, to share how their group has become a gift that “keeps giving” toward their personal and professional successes. We’ll hear about how the group has become a place of shared strengths and divided weaknesses – ki...
Dec 28, 2022•57 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re excited to welcome XYPN member, Daniel Yerger, MBA, CFP®, ChFC, AIF, CDFA, founder of MY Wealth Planners, a fee-only firm based in Colorado on the show today. Today’s podcast follows Daniel’s career path from joining the Army and specializing in PSYOPS to becoming an IT manager for IBM before deciding to pursue financial planning. He effectively started his own firm at a broker-dealer because he didn't have a salary to build his own client base from scratch. Looking back, if he found a sal...
Dec 14, 2022•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast We’re excited to welcome XYPN member Jessica Goedtel, founder of Pavilion Financial Planning, on the show today. Jessica started her career thinking she wanted to be an archeologist. After a few jobs and a few different industries, her love of personal finance brought her to her first job in financial planning. She worked for a couple of different firms, including an online startup RIA, and learned as much as she could about doing financial planning and the types of clients she wanted to work wi...
Nov 30, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today we welcome XYPN member Andy Panko, CFP®, RICP®, EA, founder of Tenon Financial, to XYPN Radio. Andy always knew he wanted to be a financial advisor—but the harsh reality of financial planning opportunities (or the lack of them) for a fresh college graduate was discouraging. So, Andy spent the first 19 years of his career working in insurance, banking, and brokerage firms. It was in 2016 that Andy discovered XYPN Radio and realized that his dream of helping others with their finances could ...
Nov 16, 2022•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Co-Founders Alan Moore and Michael Kitces review the highlights of the sixth-annual Member Benchmarking Study in this episode of XYPN Radio. Each year, the study gathers information from XYPN member participants to get an accurate picture of how advisors are doing in their firms. If you’re interested in learning what really works for fee-for-service advisors, then this is the episode for you. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/347...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast In today's episode, we’re excited to have Nancy Hetrick, founder of Smarter Divorce Solutions, who specializes in collaborative divorce. After her own divorce in 2007, Nancy realized the lack of resources for divorcing individuals and became a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst to offer a kinder, court-free process. Nancy shares her journey from founding her divorce planning practice to selling the wealth management side of her business to focus exclusively on divorce planning, which is now thr...
Oct 19, 2022•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Today we talk to Maggie Beach, CFP®, CPA/PFS, and XYPN Member who is the founder of NexJenn Financial Services—a fee-only firm servicing the real estate niche—and NexJenn CPA—an accounting firm that specializes in individual and trust taxation. Today’s podcast is full of information as Maggie shares her expertise in real estate, and how her early career path gave her the ability to provide advice on a personal level. In this show, we talk about everything in the real estate niche, from prospecti...
Oct 05, 2022•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
