FIN-LYT by EWA®

This week on FIN-LYT by EWA, Matt Blocki and Jamison Smith take a break from the usual episode format for an open conversation about AI, investing, wealth, and the choices that shape our lives. They share how they're using AI to analyze personal finances, automate everyday tasks, organize information, and make better decisions without getting lost in endless optimization. The conversation also...

This week on FIN-LYT by EWA, Matt Blocki and Kari Owens talked about estate planning and why it matters more than simply deciding where your money goes after you pass away. They discuss how EWA is bringing estate planning into its integrated wealth management approach, allowing financial planning, tax strategy, and estate planning to work together rather than operate in separate silos. The convers...

This week on FIN-LYT by EWA, Jamison Smith and Jimmy Ruttenberg sit down to discuss how ultra-high-net-worth families can simplify their financial lives through coordinated planning. From taxes and estate planning to investments and family governance, they explore why having multiple professionals involved without a central strategy can leave important details overlooked. The conversation breaks d...

This week, Jamison Smith and Drew Deimel sit down with Dr. Bob Winters, internationally known as The Confidence Doctor, to explore the psychology of performance and how the mindset behind success in golf can apply to business, career decisions, and everyday life. Dr. Bob shares a concept he calls the “psychology of the near make” and explains why how you interpret an outcome can matter just as muc...

This week on FIN-LYT by EWA, Matt Blocki and Chris Pavcic take a closer look at what to do if you feel like you've been oversold life insurance. They discuss some of the biggest red flags they've seen in life insurance plans and how to determine whether a policy actually has a purpose in your overall financial plan. Matt and Chris start with the basics: making sure the fundamentals are in...

Receiving a 7-figure windfall can feel exciting, but it also raises a lot of questions. In this FIN-LYT conversation, Chris Pavcic and Ben Ruttenberg walk through how people often approach the first 30 to 90 days, including why the first decision may be what not to do. They discuss letting the dust settle before major purchases or lifestyle changes and thinking carefully about who you share the ne...

EWA's Q4 2026 Market and Portfolio Commentary is here. Matt Blocki, Nick Stonesifer, and Jordan Fediaczko walk through what shaped markets in the third quarter and how EWA portfolios are shifting as we move into Q4. The takeaway: stay invested in our strongest convictions, but trim where risk has gotten stretched. After a strong summer rally pushed several top performing positions to outsized...

This week on FIN-LYT by EWA, Ben Ruttenberg and Tyler Houston sit down to talk through ten signs that it might be time to have a conversation about switching financial advisors. If you find yourself nodding along to three or more of these, they suggest it's probably worth a second opinion. Ben and Tyler cover the basics that a lot of people overlook: whether your advisor can explain their fee...

Deciding when to start claiming Social Security is a question Ben Ruttenberg and Tyler Houston hear often from high net worth clients, and in this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, they break down how to actually think it through. Ben and Tyler walk through how Social Security works, from the full retirement age of 67 to the tradeoffs between claiming as early as 62 or waiting all the way until 70...

Most people Google "how much should I have saved by 40" and get back one generic number, but that number is almost always wrong, especially if you're a high earner. In this episode, Chris Pavcic and Tyler Houston move past the generic benchmark and break down real net worth targets for the top 10%, top 5%, and top 1% of earners at every age, showing why your spending, not your income...

Private foundations and donor-advised funds are two of the most common ways high-net-worth families structure their charitable giving, but the right choice depends on how much control, privacy, and involvement a family wants over time. In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Jamison Smith sits down with Kari Owens, who has integrated estate planning into the EWA experience, to break down how...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Jamison Smith sits down with Tom Krahe and Andy Bianco, two industry experts in business transactions, M&A, and tax strategy, for a deep dive into Section 1202 of the tax code, better known as QSBS (Qualified Small Business Stock). This strategy allows eligible business owners to shelter up to $15 million per shareholder, and potentially up to $75...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Matt Blocki sits down with Kari Owens, EWA's newest team member and an estate planning attorney with over a decade of experience handling trust and estate work alongside the tax returns that support those plans. Kari joins the show to introduce herself to EWA's clients and listeners as the firm officially integrates estate planning into the EWA...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Jamison Smith sits down with investment banking experts Tom Krahe and Andy Bianco to break down what actually happens when a business owner sells to a private equity group. Most owners walk into a potential private equity sale with the same fear: that the buyer is looking for a loophole to exploit them once the deal is signed. Tom and Andy push back on...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, host Matt Blocki sits down with investment bankers Tom Krahe and Andy Bianco for a deep dive into one of the biggest financial decisions a business owner could ever make: when and why to bring in an investment banker to sell a company. Matt opens with a real story about a friend who sold his eight-figure business without professional representation, struct...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Matt Blocki sits down with Bryce Conway, founder of 10X Travel, for his second appearance on the show. This time, the conversation isn't about travel hacking, it's about the biggest transition of Bryce's career: walking away from the company he spent over a decade building. Bryce shares how a college side hustle to save money on a spring break trip turned...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Jamison Smith sits down with tax strategist Nick Rosen to walk through what actually happens to your tax bill when you sell a business you've spent years building. If a sale is somewhere on your horizon, whether it's next year or a decade out, this conversation lays out the decisions that can make a real difference in what you keep. Jamison and...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Matt Blocki sits down with Tyler Bidwell and Nick Rosen to break down an often misunderstood part of running a business: the difference between what shows up on your bank statement and what shows up on your tax return. If you're a business owner in the seven figures of income, the stakes around this topic are high. Your business is likely relying on you as...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Matt Blocki sits down with tax strategists Tyler Bidwell and Nick Rosen fresh off tax season to break down the most common tax surprises high earners run into, and how to avoid them before they become expensive. The conversation starts with one of the biggest blind spots for bonus-heavy earners: supplemental income withholding. Bonuses are typically wi...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Matt Blocki sits down with the team members of Equilibrium Wealth Advisors for a behind-the-scenes look at who's actually working on your financial plan. Rather than diving into a specific planning topic, this episode pulls back the curtain on the people, roles, and culture that make up EWA, from wealth strategists and tax specialists to operations...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Matt Blocki and Jamison Smith break down a sophisticated tax strategy that EWA is implementing for a select group of high net worth clients: the long short direct indexing strategy. If you have a major liquidity event on the horizon, this episode could change how you think about taxes. Most investors are familiar with traditional direct indexing, which...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Matt Blocki and Chris Pavcic break down the cybersecurity threats most likely to impact individuals today and what you can do right now to protect yourself. While these steps apply to everyone, they are especially critical if you have significant assets at a custodian like Fidelity or Charles Schwab. With the average data breach costing over $4 million glo...

Welcome to EWA's Q3 2026 Market and Portfolio Commentary. In this update, Matt Blocki, Nick Stonesifer, and Jordan Fediaczko break down what's driving markets mid-year and how EWA portfolios are being positioned as we head into Q3. The core message: stay constructive, but make the risk work harder. After a sharp market recovery, the team is trimming broad equity beta, reducing the equity o...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Matt Blocki and Jamison Smith tackle one of the most complex and consequential decisions a small business owner can face: whether to give employees equity, and how to do it without creating a legal or financial nightmare down the road. They open with a real-world story of a company that grew from a $2 million startup to a $300 million valuation, only to fi...

In this episode of EWA's FIN-LYT Podcast, Jamison Smith and Tyler Houston break down what financial planning actually looks like for OpenAI employees navigating one of the most complex wealth creation moments in modern history. If you work at OpenAI, you are likely sitting on significant equity through the company's PPU structure, a profit interest that triggers capital gains taxes only at the poi...