Healthy Advisor

At the end of 2022, Kristine McManus got an unexpected breast cancer diagnosis. Yet doctors thought it was the least aggressive form and easily treatable.  Shortly after her surgery, she received multiple messages from the hospital; it turns out she had the most aggressive form of breast cancer, triple-negative. Her outlook on life changed as she was forced to miss one of the most important years...

As the staggering number of Opioid overdoses and deaths continue to increase, so does the threat on family finances and retirement dreams. Cheryl Canzanella knows that all too well. In August 2017, she lost her husband to an accidental overdose, exposing her to the horrific realities of the opioid crisis. Since his death, she’s made it her mission to educate employers and her peers in the financia...

At just 10 years old, William Hoffman’s son Liam was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis (NF), a rare genetic condition that causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body. When Will and his family got the news, they could have succumbed to despair.  Instead, Will leaned into it, and has made it his mission to find a cure for Liam and set an example for his sons around overcoming the struggles t...

While wellbeing and mental health have become a more mainstream conversation among the wider U.S. population since the pandemic, it’s a topic still largely untouched by the financial services industry. New research from Kitces.com aims to measure and track trends across advisor wellbeing, just as the industry benchmarks anything else.  Over 1500 members of financial advisory teams responded to The...

After selling her business in November 2022, Tina Powell earmarked 2023 her “year of health.” The first step on that journey was to get a full body scan at the Princeton Longevity Center on Martin Luther King day 2023. That scan would change the trajectory of her life.  That day, her doctors discovered a 2.1 cm tumor on her right lung. Despite being a healthy, fit non-smoker, she was l...

As a busy and often stressed-out executive at one of the top RIAs in the country, James Bogart found himself neglecting his well-being, resulting in weight gain and various health issues.  A series of hospital visits prompted him to hire a concierge doctor and a nutritionist, leading to a remarkable 70-pound weight loss over the course of several months.   In this episode, Diana Britton, managing...

Facing the hurdles of disadvantaged youth, Heather Kelly’s life was marked by a single mother, a disabled sister, and limited opportunities. She moved out of her home in Ozone Park, Queens, at the young age of 16. On top of that, she has struggled with dyslexia, a learning disorder and neurological condition that posed additional challenges in her educational journey. Despite these obstacles...

When financial advisor Cary Carbonaro met her first husband, she thought she had it all. She had a great upbringing in New York, wonderful family and friends. She was very successful. And while her fiancé looked very good on paper, the relationship turned out to be toxic.   Behind closed doors, the marriage was a nightmare, with Cary facing physical, mental and verbal abuse from this man on a dail...

When Mike Wunderli started his journey into wealth management, he was excited about a career that had a combination of sales and finance, interpersonal and analytical. He built up an impressive book of business, helping entrepreneurs and business owners engineer liquidity events for their companies.  But then, the 2008 financial crisis hit, causing the downfall of large financial institutions like...

Maria Castillo Dominguez grew up in Ronda, a small mountaintop town in the south of Spain. And while she had a great support system, she also had a very humble childhood, and things were difficult for her family financially. And because of that background, she lacked a lot of opportunities. Most of her family members worked labor jobs, and no one went to college.   But Maria was determined to be t...

After selling her firm to EP Wealth in 2016, Lynn Ballou became a fixture among EP’s leadership team that worked to take the RIA to new heights. She’s also served as a mentor for younger advisors and a fierce advocate for greater diversity in the wealth management industry. Lynn had to put all of that on hold when she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer....

In his financial advisory practice, Paul Peeler specializes in planning for mental illness caregivers and their families. But Paul has his own story of caring for a family member with a mental illness and the emotional toll the experience has taken on him. When a close family member spiraled into a mental health crisis, he was forced to deal with the crippling emotions, while also struggling to na...

A lot of people in the industry know Stephanie Bogan; she’s a sought-after business and practice management coach and speaker. Before starting Limitless Advisor, her current coaching firm, she founded a consulting firm at the age of 24 and sold it in a 7-figure deal to a Fortune 200 company. She then joined Joe Duran’s executive team at United Capital, which was eventually acquired by Goldman Sach...

Sathya Chey Patterson was born into struggle. She came into the world in a Thai refugee camp, as her family had just escaped from the Cambodian genocide, an explosion of mass violence that saw between 1.5 and 3 million people killed at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, a communist political group, in the 1970s. Her family then arrived in the U.S. financially destitute. Yet her humble beginnings and fi...

Trigger warning: This episode discusses content some listeners may find upsetting. A lot of folks in the wealth management industry know Tyrone Ross; he’s a frequent speaker at industry events, an active “finfluencer” on social media, and a thought leader in the crypto asset space. Less known is his life journey and how he got to where he is today. Raised in New Jersey in a family where no one had...

A little more than six years ago, Robert started living a healthier lifestyle, working out a lot more, in an effort to lose weight. But one day while working out, he had a widowmaker heart attack, which happens when you have a blockage in the biggest artery in your heart. The name of it leaves no question about the severity of it—only 12% of people suffering from this heart attack outside the hosp...

Mary Martin had always been very health conscious, making sure she ate right and stayed in shape. But several years ago, she had a miscarriage at five months’ pregnant, although she didn’t know she was pregnant at the time. The experience helped her learn that from an emotional standpoint, she wasn’t really present in her body. She came to realize what it was like to truly be a human being, not si...

Trigger warning: This episode discusses content some listeners may find upsetting. Journalist Davis Janowski grew up in the Panhandle of Florida, where he grew accustomed to sunny weather and developed a deep passion for the great outdoors. But when he moved to Syracuse, N.Y., at age 25 for grad school, the cold weather and lack of sunlight and exercise began to impact his mental health. The stres...

When Lori Eisel first found out her son had an addiction problem, she tried to do everything in her power to get control over the situation and help him. But even years later, he is still on the road to recovery. In this episode, Diana Britton, managing editor at WealthManagement.com, speaks with Lori Eisel, president of fee-only financial planning firm Arcadia Financial Partners, who shares the s...

Advisor Joseph R. Biondo Sr. just recently celebrated 60 years in the financial services industry, but his path to success was not a linear one. In his 83 years, he has experienced his fair share of struggles—both personally and professionally. In fact, his life began with tragedy. Just three weeks before he was born, his father passed away, leaving his mother a widow with two young boys at age 30...

A little over a year ago, advisor Jonathan DeYoe was in a healthy place; he was meditating on a regular basis, working out, eating and sleeping right. But in the summer of 2021, he tragically lost his only brother and business partner when he drowned in the Pacific Ocean. He says his life came to a “screeching halt” that day. While coping with grief, he struggled to stay healthy. Since then, he ha...

On average, there are 130 suicides per day, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and individuals who work in financial services are 1.5 times more likely to commit suicide than the national average, according to the National Occupational Mortality Surveillance.   Right before advisor Larry Sprung was set to break away and launch his own firm, his brother-in-law Keith Milano...

In 2020, Danika Waddell’s prior firm was audited by the State of Washington, and the state found that her U4 was never filed properly, after four years of working with clients. The whole ordeal was traumatic for her.   In this episode, WealthManagement.com Managing Editor Diana Britton is joined by Danika Waddell, president and founder of Xena Financial Planning in Seattle. Danika shares how the f...

The loss of a loved one can lead to a tidal wave of emotions before reaching acceptance and continuing on in life without them. Before starting his own practice, advisor Vance Barse experienced profound grief after losing five family members, including his biological father who he had never met. However, this darker time in his life was followed by a period of life-changing introspection, which fo...

Managing employee burnout is key to creating a healthy workplace environment. But what steps should advisory and financial services firms be taking to reduce stress and burnout in the workplace? In 2022, ActivTrak released a benchmark study on productivity and wellbeing within the financial services industry, revealing that this space is, in fact, better at managing burnout risk than other industr...