Latest / Financial Planner Search / People Over Portfolios with Brad Mendel | Financial Planner Search
Transcript
- Gregory Wilnau: Hey Brad, thanks for coming on the podcast. I love how right before we started the recording button I was like, do I call you Brad or Bradley? And you went right into it. Call me Brad. So Brad Mendel: Thanks for having me, Greg. I I I names aren't that important. It's really, you know, the the content and what you provide people that I feel is important. So Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, I always like to ask because you I have Greg and Gregory and people ask me, to most people call me Greg. I say you can call me Gregory, but I'll just feel like the Pope for a second. You know, it's no big deal. Or like I'm in trouble, you know. All right, let's dive in here. so thank you so much for coming on. We take a second and just kind of explain, tell us a little bit about your practice, what you do and what you specialize in. Brad Mendel: Ha ha ha. So my dad started the business in 1989 and he started it as basically a stock picker for clients with less than $25 million because that's where he was before that as an institutional investment manager. He was had a $25 million minimum. my career, I was an IT consultant for two and a half years after being a computer computer science major at Boston University. I then became an actuary doing small business pension plans, so tax shelter for small businesses. And then my dad asked me after I had a healthscare to come join his business and be a succession plan. And so we went from transforming a mostly an investment management business to kind of full service wealth management, leading with financial planning that then instructs us on how we want to make investments on behalf of our clients. But I would say the uniqueness is we kind of have the investment ethos built in. And then I'm kind of the actuary slash planning professional who really wants to make sure that we're aligning clients' goals and objectives with how we're doing investments for them as well. Gregory Wilnau: So going from an IT professional in computer science, this is quite quite a quite a change, huh? Brad Mendel: Yeah, I mean I think I in college I didn't want to do business, but I think after a while after I realized what my skills were and what I was good at, I've always been in the service business. So I was, you know, helping people with their computers. They had to translate what they I had to translate what they wanted and needed fixed in their computer to make sure that it was getting done. And then also helping small business owners with, you know, digitizing their businesses. and so, you know, that's kind of translated into as an as an actual we were helping businesses administer their retirement plans. So that's a lot again, a lot of client service, a lot of hand holding, a lot of white glove service. And that's kind of what we do in in in the financial planning and advising profession is a lot of white glove service making things easier for clients. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. So you serve a lot of business owners, or is that your core clientele? Brad Mendel: I would say our core clientele is just individuals, families, people who really value their time and the financial advice so that they don't have to worry about it as much. Gregory Wilnau: Okay, let's talk about your your clients for a bit. Maybe you could describe the type of person that comes to you. What's a typical situation that they need you to help lead them through? Does anything stand out? Brad Mendel: I mean, typically it's an uncertainty about where they are today and where they need to go in the future and if they're in good shape from a financial perspective. A lot of times they need help defining what they want. So when can they retire? Can they continue to work at this current job? Do they have to could they take an easier job and and lower the weight on what they need to do from an income perspective and saving perspective? And then a lot of it's just like the you know, the fear. That's out there in the media regarding investments. and I think people need a a very level headed person who's looking for their best interests. And I think unfortunately a lot of people in our industry, it's about what goes in their pocket about instead of what we can help keep in our clients' pockets. And it's also, you know, I wanna help them live their best life. I think that's the one thing that Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Brad Mendel: I value tremendously. A lot of it comes from I lost my wife two years ago to breast cancer and it really changed the way I thought about things. I was always pushing clients to use their money in the way that made sense for them while they were alive. But I think it really transformed how I look at clients and and and what how I advise them on how they, you know, think about spending and savings, you know, for the future. So I think there's a balance and most of our clients Gregory Wilnau: I'm sorry to hear that. Mm-hmm. Brad Mendel: want that balance. Sometimes they are spending too much and they need to rein it in. We need we need to help them with that. But most of the time it's actually the opposite. They don't feel comfortable spending after years of saving. Gregory Wilnau: So you think it let's dive into a little bit more about the psychology behind that 'cause I've heard this I've had this shared with me repeatedly through the work that I do and, you know, also interviewing advisors. Do you think it's just a habit thing? Like, what are some of the ways that you like encourage people to start thinking differently about it? Is it do they just need permission? Like why do you think there might Yeah. Brad Mendel: No, they need repetitive, you know, they need repetitive reassurance. It's like everybody, you have an idea in your head. Some people want a financial advisor just to validate their approach. Some people want a financial advisor to just delegate and tell them what to do. and I think that you know, we can work with either of those type types of people. The important thing is open to sharing, wanting that trusted valued relationship. Where they don't feel like they're i they're a burden by calling me and asking me a question, because that's what I love to do. I want to help them answer the questions that are on their minds. And if I can help them get it off their minds faster, make a decision and move forward and trust that decision, then you know, I feel very fulfilled in what I'm doing for my clients. And I think it just it takes two to three years, I've noticed, from transitioning to earning income and saving to being able to really Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. So you like giving that memory? Brad Mendel: sp spend the money and not worry. Gregory Wilnau: Two to three years. Anything special about that timeline? Why do you think that's a pattern? Just takes that long to reacclimate yourself or Brad Mendel: I think I think it's the repetition of meeting with me or meeting with their, you know, their financial advisor and also sometimes their spouse that helps them get to that point. And it's just going through a few years and realizing that I'm not my I'm not spending down my portfolio. My assets are still going up a little bit, even though I'm living hopefully living your best life. And I encourage them to think about, you know, let's say you're seven years old. The next 10 years you want to travel, you want to enjoy life. And if your healthcare and all that other stuff is taken care of post age 80, 85, then let's really optimize those 10, 15 years. And, you know, not worry if you spend an extra twenty, thirty, forty thousand dollars in the first two or three years when you really wanna take care of yourself, you wanna take your kids on a vacation, you wanna do the things that give you a sense of joy and fulfillment. And then we can we can I I'm I'm the guardrail. That's one of our core values. We're the guardrail. If we think that there's a problem, we're gonna address it. We're gonna tell you and we're not gonna expect you to make that change overnight. I think that's oftentimes what people fear about working with financial advisor. I'm gonna tell them they have to change all this stuff tomorrow. Well, that's not helpful or practical or enjoyable for anybody. So if we're overspending, let's create a three to five year plan to get to where we need to be. We don't need to do it tomorrow because it's if if if you need to quit twenty five thousand dollars a year in spending. We can do that over a period of time. We don't need to do it right away. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Do you do you think that maybe one of the reasons why it takes, you know, a couple of years to kind of settle in and feel comfortable is because there's an educational component to it. Do you find your you educate your clients and help them understand more about more about this? Brad Mendel: No, because I think it's with current clients who are retiring. It's not just a new client. It it seems to be the same with current and you know, with current clients. They've been clients for decades and we've told them, here's our targets, here's what we're going for. And then they get there and they say, I still it's hard mentally for me to let go. you know, and I've had clients who they're fearful they're gonna live till a hundred or a hundred and five. And I my point is if you're if we're planning for twenty-five years. Gregory Wilnau: Mm. Yeah. Brad Mendel: thirty years really doesn't matter that much because we have to sustain, you know, your portfolio with inflation and your earning power with inflation. And so it's really almost a perpetuity. Those last five years don't matter as much as the first ten years in your plan. So Gregory Wilnau: Sure. That makes sense. All right, so let's talk more about what's on the mind of your your clients or when you're meeting with people who are potential clients. What are some of the questions that they'll typically ask when they meet with you for the first time? Brad Mendel: I think for the most part it's they ask questions about, you know, where they are today. Most people want to know how how do I look today? They want that validation. Sometimes I can provide it, and other times I have to be sensitive to how I share and what I say to to help them feel still feel good about their situation, and that I can help guide them to a path to being having success, sustainable financial future. And part of it is Gregory Wilnau: So Brad Mendel: Like encouraging them to take a risk on a job that they may not have felt comfortable to do. Gregory Wilnau: Interesting. What do what do you mean by that? Brad Mendel: So like had a client who was working, I had a client who was working at a large large corporation and he was getting recruited by a small company to be head of sales. And he wants to retire early. And at his current job, it was gonna be close. It was gonna, you know, maybe he'd be able to retire in the late fifties, early sixties. And this company was offering like one percent of the of of the of the company. And a a healthy raise to his base comp and then, you know, obviously variable bonus comp based on how the company's doing. And I encouraged him to consider the total package over the long run. And, you know, the truth is, if it doesn't work out great, you took the risk. You're at the age, you know, mid-late forties. Now's your time to capitalize on all your experience that you've earned and your knowledge and your skills that other people don't have. And you still have the energy to drive for the next, you know, five to fifteen years to to create generational wealth for himself and his family. If he just stayed at the corporation, he was gonna do well, he was gonna do great, he was gonna fine, but it was a it could this could be a life-changing moment for him. And I think that my view is I can hopefully analyze people and help them make that right decision. And I felt like he's gonna be successful in this role. And if he's successful in this role, he's gonna make three times what he was gonna make at the large corporation over the next five years. Gregory Wilnau: So you inherited this, your d well, your dad started the company and you joined him after the health skip. Brad Mendel: Correct. And now I bought him out in two thousand twenty. He still works. He loves working. He's not going anywhere. He wants to be here, you know, twenty to forty hours a week, depending on the week. but you know, we have a great relationship and that's the reason I went into the business with him is we don't we don't fight, we don't argue, we don't disagree, we're really on the same page and we he helped and supported me through my challenge with my wife, so did my whole team, and you know, I wanted to help him Gregory Wilnau: That's it. That's that's awesome. Brad Mendel: feel comfortable to be able to leave the office and go on vacations and enjoy his best life too. Gregory Wilnau: That's awesome. You helped your dad retire but he doesn't want to. That's funny. Brad Mendel: Yeah, I I mean I I gave him cost certainty was what I said. I'm gonna invest in the business, in the future of the business, by spending on marketing, by hiring people. You know, we went from three to now six people, that he d he may not have wanted to take that risk to do. Gregory Wilnau: What were some of the values that he passed on to you that you feel like were had an impact on how you approach the business and working with your clients? Does anything stand out? Brad Mendel: It's it's the letting clients come to you part of it, I think. It's the really treating people you know, with with respect and kindness, you know, understanding their feelings and emotions. He's really good at like listening to people. And he's also a great connector. So if somebody has a problem, like, you know, especially if he's really good at connecting people with like healthcare to doctors and to people with to bri you know, to get give advice on cancer patients or Or things that are happening in life, he's really proactive about connecting the people he knows and likes and trusts to other people who can really help them you know, with their lives. Gregory Wilnau: That's awesome. I love that. All right, let's talk a little bit more about well, let's start talking about kind of your approach. and how people find you. So how do you typically where do you typically find your clients and what are some of the ways you get to know them as as individuals? Brad Mendel: I mean, mostly referrals. We're still mostly referral-based business. I'm trying to have more predictability. educate prospective clients and people who know people who know us about what we do. Cause I think that people don't necessarily understand. They think we just invest money. but our biggest value add is a consistency. We keep clients consistently invested in an appropriate portfolio for them. B, we help them understand. Different strategies from a tax perspective or from an estate perspective that might help them feel better about the use of their money over the long run and hopefully reduce some tax burden over the long run. Not necessarily sometimes we encourage paying tax now to save in the future. but we listen to our clients, we hear what they're thinking, what their values are, and then we try to align our strategies and approaches to their, to their values. You know, we we say I call meet you where you are. That's another one of our core values. We wanna listen to you, we wanna hear you, we wanna apply what we know and what we think about your future to your situation, and we recognize we don't wanna change everything right away. We wanna slowly pull you to where we think you're in a great position financially and you have a good understanding and you have trust and comfort to call us if something changes. Gregory Wilnau: Alright. So you shared a couple of your are your values. I know that was something before the call, before we start recording that you wanted to talk more about. what are what are your are your core values? Is that something you'd like to share? Brad Mendel: Well, I I think the most important one is people over portfolios. Some people want to see their portfolio grow over time and that's the most important thing to them. Some people want to use that money, you know, to go on a trip with their grandkids. They want to use it to, you know, to help their grandkids pay for college. They wanna help support themselves and their goals in terms of they want to go on some nice v vacations or buy a Nice car or play golf every day or whatever they want to do. We want to make sure that we can help them understand how they can do that and what the trade offs might be in the future if they choose to choose that path. and we'll keep pushing. Like we're we're we're thinking about what you want. Even if you're not telling us. We're listening, we're hearing, we're we're we're not gonna push you past your comfort zone, but we're gonna really, really think about driving. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, I love that. Brad Mendel: money the use of your money towards what you want ultimately. And and there's it life is about trade offs, whether you have twenty million or whether you have two million or whether you have five hundred thousand, it's all about trade offs. You can't do everything. You know, the twenty million dollar client is deciding, you know, things that are like private versus, you know, versus first class. The you know the five million dollar client is second home. Can I afford a second home? Well maybe it makes more sense to rent. Maybe it Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Brad Mendel: I like just being in two places and I don't need to travel a lot. You know, those are the decisions they're making. And then the five hundred thousand dollar client is I just don't wanna run out of money and I have long term care issues and they wanna make sure that they're protected against the things that are on their minds. but they all have the same trade offs they gotta make in their in their life. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Yeah, you can say you can do anything you want, but you can't do everything. So and every time you say yes to something, you're implicitly saying no to something else, right? Brad Mendel: Yeah. So I think it's important that we help clients break down their needs, their wants, and their hopes. Like what are their dreams? And I hope we can help them make some of their dreams come true. Most of their wants come true and all of their needs come true. Gregory Wilnau: I love that. That's really cool. All right, let's Brad Mendel: The other thing that I think makes us a little unique and different is we are not going to push for every dollar to be invested in under our auspice. We think about the person. Like, you know, for example, we can manage clients' 401k plans directly through a platform and charge a fee, or we can just help them with it on an annual basis. And that's a thinking about the person and what's going to be best for them and making a recommendation. you know, accordingly. Cause I believe, and I'm lucky to be put in this situation that I can do this. I believe you make people feel comfortable, they're gonna be successful, they're gonna trust you more. And whether it's a referral or later in the future you get more more assets to manage. We're gonna help them grow their whole net worth, if that's what their goal is, especially when they're young and and they're accumulators. And then over time we're gonna benefit way more than trying to Tell people it's in their best interest to roll their money over to us to manage it in IRA or have us manage their former K direct. Gregory Wilnau: Sure, sure. All right. So let's talk a little bit more about what you're working on in in in your practice. so when it comes to to to your practice, where do you see it in the next one to three years? what's what's your vision? Are there any goals that you're working on? Brad Mendel: Well, my goal is to more have more focus to what I do. I am developing a webinar and and educational event for widow and widowers. And I really want to give people who want that support some free education as well as know that there's somebody who emotionally gets what you're going through. when I lost my wife a little over two years ago, I have two kids, ten and five, and it was a lot emotionally. And I was exhausted just doing things I know how to do very, very well. I've guided many people through, either helping with their parents' estate or their spouse's estate. And it just it just was exhausting for me. And I recognize now the challenge that a lot of people go through, especially when they don't even know what they're doing. And I think that they need to have more resources that don't charge an hourly fee to help people through that. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Yeah. Wow, that's heavy, man. especially since that you personally went there. Brad Mendel: And so that's what I want to work on. That's what I want to prioritize in terms of my my marketing efforts and my education efforts. And then I want to support my junior advisor, Alex, in the growth in his career to serve the people that he wants to serve. Gregory Wilnau: I could see how Brad Mendel: So I mean I'm really big about vendors, employees, all the constituents, like my partners slash vendors. I want them to be profitable serving us. I want my clients to feel great that we're helping them achieve their goals and objectives. We're making smart investment decisions for them and we're we're making recommendations and connecting them with good people. and then I want my employees to feel like they have a career path to achieve their goals and objective, whether it be make a lot of money or whether it be You know, work three or four days a week and and and make that trade off from a compensation perspective. and I feel like we're small enough and nimble enough that I can outsource if I need to, or I can insource if that's what people want and they can show that they can do the work. Gregory Wilnau: I like it. I like how you're helping people figure out what they want and then giving them a path to get there in a way that's mutually beneficial. I love that. Seeing some continuity between not just how you work with your clients, but also your team and your company. So that's really cool. All right. Brad Mendel: I mean I give them I'm not gonna hire people who don't who don't who aren't gonna have the ability to have the freedom to, you know, go to their kids' soccer game or go to a doctor's appointment. 'Cause I want them to do that, but I need to trust them that they're gonna get their work done for clients, 'cause if they're not delivering for the company and the organization, then it's not th th there's no point in that. Gregory Wilnau: Sure. Yeah. Sure. Well, it's the thing that's giving them ability to to to do that, right? So you it's your responsibility to kind of protect that. So you gotta make sure that the people you're hiring are supporting that goal and supporting that vision. And there's continuity between that and how you also serve your clients. So I I love that. let's talk a little bit about maybe influence and how you've grown. so as your practice has grown, are there any like programs or trainings that have kind of shaped your approach or your pol o your philosophy and maybe positively impacted how you serve your clients. Is there anyone you'd like to give a shout out to? Brad Mendel: I think the there's one program that I think has been helpful and I think will continue to be helpful if they're still, you know, operating. But I think the just the general methodology, I use a program called Elements, and it's especially great for young people who want an app on their phone that helps them measure their progress and it gives them very simple to understand metrics, and we can then put it in a framework of how do you compare to other people your age. I think that's super helpful for people. 'Cause traditional financial planning has all been all about a Monte Carlo or cash flow simulation. And I think sometimes the end client that's just like it just noises in their head that they don't truly understand. And so if we can help say you've you're, you know, you you grew your income, you grew your spending, you grew your savings rates, and then you're we with they have different metrics on liquidity, which measure retirement readiness and then also if you want to put a down payment on your first home, like How much liquidity do I need to have? And they measure it in years of expenses. And I really feel like that's an easy thing for people to understand. and it gives junior advisors a way to learn how to advise clients because it gives them a clear training on basic financial advice without getting into complex future cash flow stuff. and then they can jump into that next as they're studying for the C F P and they're really getting their their their their feet wet. So I I like that. I think Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Brad Mendel: You know, small advisors like myself, we we can't we can't build and develop our own training program from scratch. We have to kinda lean on other resources out there. but still put our own spin on it. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, sure. Yeah, I'm familiar with with elements. It's nice and simple. So I like that. I can also see how it gives the people in your that your your you know your junior advisors who are who are learning, it kind of will give them a hand more of a hands-on, tangible way to kind of digest some of the information. So I I really like that. Really like it. Okay, let's talk more about what it's like to work with you. So let's say somebody becomes a client today. What's happen what happens the first couple of weeks? what is onboarding like? look like. what does it look like to work with you during the course of a calendar year? Brad Mendel: Yeah, so I mean onboarding's pretty, pretty straightforward. We'll get your elements profile set up. We'll get a financial plan set up in our financial planning software. And we will kinda we will help you transfer whatever assets make sense to move to us and connect other assets to our, you know, to our accounts that can be. and then we'll kind of help block and tackle what of your 401k allocations we'll get on a screen share and help you make sure that those are in line with. what we're thinking about from an investment perspective. and we'll make sure you're you're you're taking advantage of all your employer benefits. we'll make sure that all of your investments are in the right account types. So tax optimize your investments to the to the extent that we can. and we'll onboard your accounts and when we'll do a basic financial plan with some key tasks that need to be accomplished in the next 12 months. If you do have estate planning documents, are they Are they in line with your goals and objectives? Do you have enough life insurance? Or do you have life insurance you don't need anymore? you know, kind of all of those things. And are you doing IRA contributions or Roth IRA contributions? We'll kind of get a roadmap for you of what the next 12 months looks like for you. and then, you know, we we kind of have different tiers of clients because we want to be able to work with everybody and give them the value of financial advice at the right cost. And so we have, you know. Clients who are on a hundred dollar a month subscription model for under $750,000 of assets. And they get a once a year, we call it an annual update call where we go through everything. And they get a quarterly email with a scheduling link just as a here's something we notice about your financial profile, or here's some things you should be able to work on. Let us know if you need help with them or if you have any other questions that come up in your life. Because we want to provide that reminder, we're here for you. Cause we are like I Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. that's really nice. Brad Mendel: Just 'cause you pay me a hundred dollars a month and we have a fifty thousand dollar account doesn't mean you shouldn't call if you have a big important question. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. One of the things I really like about that is i you have a model for people who aren't yet maybe ready for a the AUM structure. So you're kind of giving them the support that they need to kind of get to the point where that well more it might make more sense to work for you even more closely with them. Have you found that that's the case? Brad Mendel: Correct. And so Yeah, no, I mean we have some wealthy clients who just pay us a hundred dollars a month. I think it's great and we haven't really been taken up on this, but like, you know, you have one you have one spouse, husband or wife who's the do it yourselfer. You're getting into your sixties or seventies. If something happens to you, who's gonna help the spouse who doesn't know or doesn't feel comfortable? You gotta develop a relationship with somebody who can help support them through that life transition. Gregory Wilnau: Sure. Brad Mendel: 'Cause their whole world has been they've been living you you've you've lived together, you've supported each other for thirty, forty years and now all of a sudden you don't have that person and then you also need financial help and you gotta build trust with somebody while you're in that altered emotional state. I just don't think that it's worth the money if you have, you know, significant assets to not just pay that person for once a year that you think and build that relationship with your spouse, leading the way on that. So Gregory Wilnau: Sure. Sure. I yeah, I really like that. Brad Mendel: and then we have our traditional we call private client, but that's just a name. where we do proactive outreach, we do retirement planning in the spring, tax planning in the fall, and then estate planning in the summer for those who are kind of in the top tier of clients who need the estate projections. we'll obviously review, make sure you have all your documents, make sure they're set up right for any of our clients. but we're proactively projecting out their estate tax and determining if there's any strategies that make sense. Or a lot of times it's just reminding them of what we talked about last year and they may have decided not to do it last year, but maybe this year they feel differently. And it's kind of it's it's the we wanna we don't wanna force people to meet with us and spend a lot of the time on this stuff if they don't want to, but they we want them to know we're looking out for them, even when they're not engaging with us, that we are thinking about them. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Man, a hundred a hundred dollars per month for that accountability seems like a good investment, for sure. all right, so we're about at time, but I wanna of course I want to make sure that we ask this final question. So for anybody who's listening, who's interested in learning more about how they might be able to work with you or that wants to get in touch, what should they do next? Brad Mendel: so our website is www.mendelmoney.com. And you can go to the website and you can schedule a free 15-minute personal path consultation. So we basically have a personal path planning process and we'll kind of see if you're right for that on that call. If we're a good fit, if you enjoy talking to us, you feel good about talking to us, and we feel good about working with you, then we can kind of decide what the next steps are. So happy to provide, you know, just a general assessment of where you are today and see if it makes sense to talk again. Gregory Wilnau: Awesome. All right. Brad Mendel: My my promise is always no pressure. Like I'm not gonna I am not gonna put pressure on people to do something they're not comfortable doing. I think the best clients come from clients who want the advice and who value us. And I really want to develop that great long term relationship, ten, twenty years, you know, and if they're not ready, they're not ready. Yeah, we're we'll be here when they are. Gregory Wilnau: Absolutely. Love it. Well thank you so much, Brad, for coming on. Really enjoyed the conversation and look forward to talking again. Brad Mendel: Sounds good. Thank you, Greg.