Who is Rob Wheat and Why Should You Care?

Welcome to my blog.  This is my first foray into the “blogosphere”.  (Is that a word?)

A few times a month, I’m going to come to this forum and speak my mind, possibly even vent about what this citizen, father, business owner, and financial advisor sees happening from HIS perspective.

 

My goal here is NOT to sell anyone anything on this site.  I have plenty of other sites and forums where in a telegraphed and transparent way, we do make recommendations and do help people perplexed, confused and frustrated by retirement planning get pointed in the right direction.

 

Now for a little bit about me:

 

I have been in the financial services world for the better part of 18 years.  I began working with a large property and casualty form with the word “Farm” in it.  From there I moved to a Financial Services company and grew a practice for and with a company with words North and West and Mutual in its name.

 

The reason I am wasting valuable space and time to potentially bore you with my bio is that it was extraordinarily significant in the formation of who I am, and the ­­lens through which I see all things financial.

 

I truly believe that every client we took on and helped while at those firms are today better off for having met me, and engaged our help.

 

However, having the opportunity of hind sight, COMBINED with the continued evolution of the financial planning complex, AND where we as pre or post retirement Americans find ourselves in the year 2014; I am absolutely convinced that the majority of information that people are being offered over the internet, on Television, from their 401k provider, in the newspaper, or many other sources… Is absolute garbage!

 

No offense to all the purveyors and providers of products and solutions offered by paid employees or commissioned agents / brokers of those many long standing recognizable firms, but those channels of distribution, advice and products is muddled by the fact that they are:

 

1. Selling a product from a menu of items offered from their employer, and

 

2. Are at the end of the day working for their respective employer, and NOT you!

 

Sounds harsh? It also sounds hypocritical given that I worked for the very types of well-intentioned and respected firms that I now so harshly criticize.  Fair Point!

All I can say is that as this advisor grew his practice and his awareness of a viable alternative, he quickly gravitated toward it.

 

I promised not sell in this blog; However, I never said anything about shameless promotion!

 

We are set up as a Registered Investment Advisory in Dallas, Texas.  Independence is the cornerstone of our philosophy.  We sit on the same side of the table with our clients, not across.  What that means is that we are free from the conflicts of interest, limited product offering, undisclosed or difficult to isolate fees that so many of our competitors are not.

 

Personally, I tend to buck many of the norms my industry holds so dear.  The Ivory Towers of the Financial World developed over decades have yielded many rigid constructs that I have increasingly come to reject.  Things like 3 Piece suits, golf course country club meetings, BMW’s, corporate speak, things that both you and I would agree have been in the past the requisite attributes of a viable successful financial advisor are the very things that I have come to challenge or even outright reject.

 

Don’t get me wrong- I don’t meet with clients in my bunny slippers and my favorite Magnum P.I  T- shirt.  I hold securities licenses and 4-year college degree. We have brick and mortar offices, conference rooms and all the office trappings technology one would expect.  We just believe that this problem (for many of us) that we call “retirement planning” needs to be broken down and de-escalated to a more simplistic level.

 

Finance is complex, not simple.  But the solutions and the conversations which lead to solutions need to be more clear, more honest, and ratcheted down several notches to allow the client not to feel as though one wrong word or one errant disclosure of private information or inclination will somehow diminish his leverage with the advisor, and therefore his ultimate result.

 

The advisor benefits from this type of setting in that he can calm down and back away from a primary focus of selling, dividing and conquering client assets and instead focus on an honest conversation about what the clients goals and desires actually are, and just as important, whether the advisor and the client are a good fit for one another.

 

On that note, that’s where I will zip it and sign off.  If you like any of what you have read, please stay tuned.  Going forward, we will be offering product reviews and market related analysis.  I hope I haven’t offended anyone with my comments or beliefs.  You may not always like what I have to say, but I will always let you know where I stand.

 

If you think we might be a good fit for your situation, please feel free to complete the form below and receive a risk free second opinion and find out if your pointed in the right financial direction.

 

-Rob Wheat