Behind The Advisor

Today, we talk to XYPN member Ethan Miller, CFP®, founder of Planning for Progress—a fee-only firm based in Washington D.C. Ethan started his career in labor and union organizing which gave him the passion for working with individuals one-on-one to empower them to make the world a better place. Financial planning seemed to be the perfect way to help clients lead socially responsible lives while bu...

We're excited to welcome XYPN member, Rachael Burns, CFP®, CDFA®, founder of True Worth Financial Planning, on the show today. Rachael's start in financial services and life experience have allowed her to build a practice based on empathy and education. The day after learning she was pregnant with twins, her family faced the news that no one should have to hear: her husband had a brain tumor. Shor...

We're excited to welcome Colton Etherton CFP®, XYPN Member, and owner of Out of the Office Planning to the show today. On this episode, Colton talks us through his professional background, which includes starting his career in the banking side of financial services, transitioning to Merrill Edge, Schwab, then an independent RIA, all before launching his fee-only firm with a tattoo artist niche. Co...

We're excited to welcome XYPN member Sharon Weaver, CFP®, the founder of Mission Financial Planning, on the show today. Sharon has been a CFP® for over 25 years but had never actually done a financial plan until she launched her firm 11 years ago. Some early dentist clients from a center of influence referral eventually led her to go all in on working with dentists. She's been growing her network...

We're excited to welcome XYPN member Chad Holmes, founder of Formula Wealth, on the show today. Chad always knew he would be an entrepreneur and discovered financial planning in high school when his grandparents invited him to sit in on a meeting with their financial advisor. He started his career in public accounting as an auditor, thinking it would help prepare him to be an advisor because accou...

We're excited to welcome XYPN member Ryan Greiser, founder of the Pennsylvania-based financial planning firm Opulus, to the show. Ryan started his professional career as an athletic trainer before a client recruited him into a financial planning firm, where "financial planning" was actually just cold calling and selling insurance. Ryan lasted three years before moving to a broker-dealer, and while...

We're excited to welcome XYPN member Patrick Clark to the show today. Patrick is the founder of Neshaminy Creek Advisors, a fee-only firm specializing in volunteer firefighting companies and their firefighters in Bucks County, PA. Patrick has been in the industry for almost 30 years, starting out on the investment side of the business before getting introduced to financial planning through a frien...

We're excited to welcome XYPN member Reese Harper to the show today. Reese is the founder of Dentist Advisors, a virtual firm based in Salt Lake City, UT., focused on serving (you guessed it) dentists. Reese started his firm in 2007 after working at Northwestern Mutual, and he had one dentist client as part of a book of business that he left with. After experiencing 2008 and his first year of runn...

We're excited to welcome XYPN member Danielle Harrison, MBA, CFP®, CFT-I™, the founder of Harrison Financial Planning, a fee-only firm based in Columbia, Missouri, on the show today. Danielle's journey is particularly relevant to all of us navigating today's economic landscape. She launched her fee-only firm in January 2021—right in the middle of the pandemic—and has not only survived but thrived...

Today's episode is a shift from our typical one. Alan Moore, CEO and Co-Founder of XYPN, joins Maddy for a conversation about some changes that are happening—good ones—with the leadership structure at XYPN, their roles, and this podcast. As you'll hear, over the past ten months since Alan was on last, XYPN has continued to grow and formalize, which means Alan and Maddy's roles are shifting. Alan d...

Today, we talk to Cynthia Meyer, a CFP®, CFA, and XYPN Member, who is the owner and founder of Real Life Planning—a fee-for-service firm dedicated to supporting real estate investors. Today's podcast is full of information as Cynthia shares her expertise with real estate, and how she's been able to create a service model that has allowed her to scale to 50 clients in her first three years. We talk...

Today's interview is with Leo Marte, CFP®, the owner of Abundant Advisors, a virtual fee-only firm that specializes in serving Christian professionals. Leo joined XYPN and launched his firm in 2020 after spending a dozen years at Vanguard, managing a large team, and working with thousands of clients. We talk about what it was like for Leo to leave a meaningful institution and career to chase a dif...

Today, we talk with two advisors who launched their firms in the past six months. This is a different kind of podcast that gives folks an inside perspective on what it's really like in the first year. Instead of talking to people about how their first year was in hindsight, Elaine King and Scott Alan Turner, fee-only RIA owners from Florida and Texas respectively, share what it's like to figure th...

We're excited to interview XYPN's very own Director of Advisor Education, Kori Lennon. Kori pulls the strings for all of the educational programming for XYPN members—from our coaching offerings to our webinars. They are the ears and eyes of our community, always learning about what advisors need to stay up to speed. Today, she talks about her team's work to support advisors on their entrepreneuria...

Today on  Behind the Advisor (previously known as XYPN Radio), we're talking with advisors at a stage we don't usually feature: the first six months of launching their firms. Chao Zhang and Stefanie Pickard are right in the thick of it, figuring out what works and what doesn't,  as their new firms get off the ground. This episode is equal parts fun and brutally honest. Even with a decade of experi...

Today I talk with Cameo Roberson, the owner and founder of Atlas Park Consulting—a consulting firm for RIAs. Cameo isn't an XYPN member, nor is she an RIA owner, but she's deeply familiar with the space and the experiences of advisors who are running their firms. Today, we dive into Cameo's expertise; from her comprehensive background in the industry to her current work with advisors. I'm able to...

Today's interview is with XYPN member Heather Townsend, owner and founder of Townsend Financial, a virtual fee-only firm based out of Scottsdale, AZ. Heather is in her fourth year of business and is hitting her stride working with over 40 of her most ideal clients: business owners and professionals with stock compensation. Today's episode covers a lot—Heather shares her wisdom from, as she describ...

Today we hear from the three founders and owners of AVID Planning—a fee-only firm out of St. Petersburg, FL, that opened its doors in 2016. Right out of the gate, Jack, David, and Kevin experienced how much fun running a business can be when you do it alongside friends. The three of them met when they were all working at Edward Jones, had a stint at an independent broker-dealer, and eventually bro...

Today, Jennipher Lommen, founder of Wildflower Financial, a fee-only firm out of Santa Cruz, California, is on the show. Jennipher is a career changer and entered this industry only a few years before she launched Wildflower four years ago.  Jennipher homeschooled all three of her children and explained what it was like to begin looking to enter a new industry in her 40s. With age comes maturity a...

We're joined today by XYPN member and founder of SJK Financial Planning, Wes Shannon. Wes has been running his Fort Worth, TX firm for six years and, despite feeling admittedly swamped, has reached the point where he feels like he's built his ideal firm. In this episode, Wes discusses the numerous business plans he wrote before starting his own fee-only firm and how to handle transitioning clients...

XYPN has conducted an Annual Benchmarking Study for the past four years. The comprehensive annual survey gathers core performance indicators of member participant firms and ultimately draws data-backed conclusions about the success of different business models, fee structures, and niches. Today, Alan Moore and Michael Kitces, XYPN Co-Founders, discuss the study's fifth annual results. As you'll se...

We're excited to interview Kathleen Boyd, a CFP®, former financial planner, and now, XYPN's Financial Planning & Process Coach. Kathleen is joining us for a second time, as she was on Episode 131 with Alan Moore four years ago talking about Diversity and Inclusion. Today, Kathleen discusses the challenges advisors face when building their processes, how they can get overcome with analysis paralysi...

We're excited for today's episode with Ashley Foster, a Latino advisor and owner of Nxt:Gen Financial, a fee-only firm out of Houston, TX. Ashley started his career in the captive insurance space, learning how to sell and acquire clients. As many of our guests have experienced, Ashley started to feel drawn to the fee-only space and serving the community he wanted to and had a discussion with his f...

Today, we're excited to interview River Nice, XYPN member and founder of Be Intentional Financial, a fee-only firm focused on serving LGBTQ community members. River, whose pronouns are they/them, started their firm just over two years ago and has effectively served over 100 clients since opening.   River serves clients how they want to be served: through education and short-term relationships. Riv...

#XYPNRadio's very own host, Maddy Roche, is interviewed on the podcast today. Maddy is XYPN's Senior Director of Member Success, a role in which she's entirely dedicated to helping XYPN members be successful.   As the first employee, Maddy has been part of XYPN since the very beginning, and today, she shares her experience navigating change and the growth that comes along with it. She discusses ho...