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What "Am I Okay?" Actually Means with Donny Stewart | Financial Planner Search · Financial Planner Search

• Chase: Donnie, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. Donny Stewart: Yeah, happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Chase: Awesome. Well let's dive right in. Tell us about your practice and what you specialize in. Donny Stewart: yeah, so the name of the firm is Swan Wealth Management. We focus on retirees and people thinking about retirement, as well as some younger professionals more in our own specific demographics. That's more of an organic growth that's happened. But a lot of it has to do with like where we came from. So I'm not sure if you want to touch if you want me to touch on that. but yeah, so we I guess origin story, the three of us all went to college together at Regis University in Denver, played on the golf team together. So we've known each other for over a decade, played on the golf team and then just all started in the financial services industry directly after, more on the institutional side, working with advisors. So we would support advisors with portfolio construction or insurance solutions. And eventually all of us had the chance to kind of see hundreds and hundreds of ways to do it on the advisor side and realize that there was a better way. so I had experience working with clients prior to joining up with Mike and TJ through e Trade and Morgan Stanley, that they had purchased a business in Idina, Minnesota from a retiring advisor on the independent broker dealer side. due to him being older, he had a lot of retiree clients and people who were about to retire. So naturally that became our immediate specialty and we dove right in with retirement income planning, tax efficient withdrawals, doing taxes in-house is another thing that we do with clients. And so our Niche, if you will, has has kind of landed on how to help people properly retire and answer the question like, Am I okay? and what can I spend in retirement? the other balance to that is you know, because we have three of us, we have the ability to go a little bit wider with the specialties we have. And so that's allowed us to open the doors to younger professionals and think. Essentially the person who is earning good money, has a family, busy with life and may have the ability to do it, but just doesn't have the time to execute on their strategy and may be missing some things along the way. So that's led to a lot of people with equity compensation, which is a background of mine, as well as just high earners in general trying to find ways to manage their wealth effectively. Chase: I like that you guys specialize in in helping people from the younger generation as well. It's something that you don't see a lot in financial services. They all want to focus on, of course, the older demographic, you know, the people who are saying, Am I going to run run out of money in retirement? Or one kind of a I guess kind of a dark way they put it, am I going to l outlive my my savings? So I really like hearing that you're also focusing on helping the younger generation as well. Let's back up a little bit. so you when you say the three of us, who's the three of us? Donny Stewart: Yes. so myself and TJ Bruce and Mike Maholic. Our business is somewhat unique, at least from my research and what I've read, we split everything equally. So every client, every dollar that comes to Swan is split amongst us equally. So we all have a vested interest in everybody who signs up with us. It's a group effort and decisions are made on a group basis. So we don't get into a situation where you know somebody's making unilateral decisions for a client. It's a three person team and so we kind of can take each one as it comes and vote on what the best choice is to move forward with the client situation or just the business in general. And that's been really helpful. Chase: And from from the client's point of view, what's the benefit of of having all three of you on their on their case as it would be, together? Donny Stewart: Yeah, absolutely. I think first off, it's personality. So they'll get the chance to meet all three of us and naturally they'll just start calling or emailing one of us more frequently and we just take that as a bit of a hint that, okay, like they they really are vibing with TJ or they're really connecting well with myself or with Mike. And that person just naturally becomes the lead for their entire financial planning journey. However, in the background, in that situation, let's say they gravitate towards Mike. TJ's gonna be doing a lot of the tax work. I'm gonna be helping out with a lot of the financial planning, given that I'm a CFP. and then it's one of us joining in on the meeting oftentimes with Mike. So the benefit is it's not just the unilateral decisions that are made. you get a little bit more diversity of thought. And you also have backup because things happen. People travel, people get sick. and so if there's some continuity there if one of us were to fall ill or pass away, honestly. So yeah. Chase: That's awesome and I can see how that would really benefit benefit your clients as well. So it sounds like you all kind of have your own specialties, but also your clients have the the option to to speak to whoever they vibe with the most out of the three of you as a team. Donny Stewart: Yeah. Yeah. And it sometimes, you know, we'll pick it up too. Like I think I fit well with so and so. So I just go I run with it and c over communicate, you know, to the point of Chase: Yeah. Donny Stewart: like, okay, like this this person's on top of it. I now know to, you know, email or call Donnie. And it just is it's a good system for us. I know it's not exactly perfect. It sometimes it makes sense to you know, you get these bigger teams, it's like, hey, John is he's got he's got room for somebody, so give to John and it's like a smooth transition often, but we kinda like the way we do it, yeah. Chase: It sounds like with the three of you working on each client together, each client probably gets more attention than they would otherwise. Do you think that's that's accurate? Donny Stewart: I do. Yeah, we don't have an assistant currently. So y what you get is when you talk to one of us, it's one of the financial planners, one of the owners, one of the partners, right? And so we don't pass you off to some lower like paraplanner or assistant. Like it's it's always gonna be one of us and all of us are vested in the business. And so having the ability to Have all of our cells and our office line, you know, there's just a kind of a a nice I guess backing to that if you're a client, right? You you don't have to call an eight hundred number, but also you don't just have like a solo advisor. are they busy? Are they available? You know, there's just multiple people you can talk to. Chase: And clients really appreciate that too. Like we've found, when they start a relationship with a financial advisor, it's a relationship to them and they hate being passed off to somebody else. So that's awesome that you guys they if they come to work with you, they stay working with you. So back, let's back up a little bit further. so it sounds like you and your teammates kind of naturally organically rolled into this business together. Was there something that Like before that that inspired you to to get into this line of business. Donny Stewart: yeah, I think it goes back to our careers starting fairly in unison in the financial services industry, working with advisors, seeing how people did things, and just knowing that there's a better way after even being in the industry for two or three years, advisors not really giving the level of care that I thought I could, and TJ And Mike echoed those sentiments and and eventually it was just a matter of when, not if, that we wanted to be on this side of the business. I was very fortunate to land a role as a financial consultant with e trade back in 2019, and that put me immediately working client facing. So I was able to see more into what. really makes clients tick and also know the background layer of like how financial advisors apply their practice. So at that point, you know, having seen both sides, I was able to come into the into the fold with TJ and Mike in March of last year and really helped bridge the gap for them since they were new to the client facing side. they were they were learning from the guy that we bought the business from still but they have so many great things to offer and I just feel like in this business it's really difficult to go it alone as an advisor. And we just think that with three people you get the benefit of taking focus of different financial planning areas and applying those and becoming a specialist. So you know, not all of us have to know everything about Social Security. If we have one guy that is just a total guru, then Great, like let's bring him in on the call when somebody asks those questions. or investments or tax. Like it and so if you really look into financial planning, there's it's so wide as to the topic areas, whether you're looking at insurance, estate planning, investing, and then y it's all about from there, it's also very deep. And so just being a one man show is very difficult and we just like to be able to balance it between the three of us. Chase: So from the from the client's perspective, so you talked about, you know, what it was like working with the institution before. Now you're independent and you're working client facing one on one. What what is the what would you say are the main differences in the client's experience between working with someone involved in the institution versus you now working independently with them? Donny Stewart: So in in regard to like if they were working at like a large or l working like with a large institution financial services company, like big bank or something? Yeah. Chase: Yes. Yeah. What are they experiencing differently in in that situation versus what they're experiencing working directly with you and your team? Donny Stewart: Yeah, great question. I think it's a lot of what they don't see often, but or maybe they're unaware of, to be frank. There's corporate initiatives that can be pushed from big banks and and big institutions that clients often are not aware of. I mean, because why would the advisor tell them that they need to grow their business by X amount? I was interviewing with a large Wirehouse firm a few years back, and they had between three of them $500 million under management. And they had two assistants. I'm like, this is a really solid business. And they just kept talking about how much they're growing and how much they really want to push the level of growth and and keep. And I was just thinking, like, okay, if they have if they have 800 clients and 500 million. Like what about the existing clients? Like what do we w we're kind of losing focus of like growth is great, but to to what extent does it start to reduce the benefit for the existing client base? And so I didn't want to work in an environment like that, and have it impact the experience that a client receives. Because if they're paying you, you know, one percent, which is kind of the standard AUM fee, Chase: Mm-hmm. Donny Stewart: I feel like they should really feel good about it at the end of the day and want to continue to pay you. I don't want them to feel like an afterthought, they're only getting called once every six months, or they're just a number. we just really want a personalized experience, not cookie cutter, and essentially just be so communicative and responsive and not Let them get lost in the fold of things. Chase: So it sounds like that experience of working with the larger institution really really shaped the way you approach your practice today and the way you approach your relationships with with your clients. Donny Stewart: Absolutely. I mean, I think that's part of why we took this business independent when we purchased the book from the retiring advisor. It was an independent broker dealer. And there's even some rules there that are passed down. It's it's better than like a wirehouse, but Chase: Yeah. Donny Stewart: it's more work to be fully independent and but you get to choose like who you pay to do things, whether it's compliance based or Help with marketing or whatever. and then you set the guardrails. So if there's things that you need to follow, then you can set those. But you don't get basically initiatives passed down. So we decided that that was going to be best for our future client base, our current client base, and and how we think about things. Cause we want to kind of start from start from scratch and build what we think represents the best client experience. And in order to do that, being fully independent made sense for our business. Chase: Absolutely. How has the experience been for you going from from working for somebody else to being a partner in a business and, you know, being responsible for this this book of clients? How has that been? Donny Stewart: It's been great. I it just really fits my personality type. I I have control issues in some ways, like it for better or for worse, like I like to have my hands on Chase: Nice. Okay. Donny Stewart: things. And so if like I mean my former manager, like her and I got along very well. but I would just tell her, I'm like, this this policy it doesn't make sense. And I would give her the reasons why it doesn't make sense for the firm and for the client. She'd be like, I I don't have control of it either. Like, I don't know why you're telling me this. But that that's those are the things that really rattle my cage. And so now being fully independent, having the ability to change policy on the fly for our firm so that it impacts our business and our clients in a positive way is really just it makes it worth the additional labor that is involved with starting independence. Chase: I feel you too on the on the wanting control part. That's really important, especially when you see like a problem like, well, we could serve our clients so much better if we had this in place, and then you have the ability to actually do it, and then your clients benefit from it at the like at the end, like almost immediately probably, when you have that level of control. speaking of your clients now. Donny Stewart: Yeah, it's an empowering feeling. I mean, we that's something we like to tell our clients too is look, we're we're here to provide all of the information that you need in order to make decisions. Like if you want us to tell you what to do, like we can, but ultimately it's your money and your life. We're here to walk alongside you and give you what you need in order to feel confident making decisions. And so it just lines up well with like how we set up our business too. Like we want people to feel they have control of a situation, they can make the choice. so it just really it blends in well. Yeah. Chase: Like you're guide, not a boss for them. Guide them along their journey. Just take the wheel, please. Donny Stewart: Right, exactly. Now don't get me wrong, there's some clients they hire us and they're like just take care of it. Like they're like, I don't want to look at it. Yeah, exactly. Which is fine too. Chase: So on that note, describe the kind of person who comes to you typically. Donny Stewart: Yeah, the people that are in a life position where they're very busy. so this would be the younger crowd, think like up and start with their career, late twenties to early forties and weddings, kids, family, aging parents, you name it, things that are way more important than like digging through what sh ETFs or stocks to pick or how much to contribute to their 401ks, like all of that just gets lost in the shuffle to actual things that matter more in life. So people that really don't have the time to manage that effectively, we serve them quite well. the other side would be the people who are preparing for retirement or in retirement, concerned about. how much they can take in retirement, when they can retire, and really if they're just going to be safe. Like they just want to make sure that they're going to be okay. So that gravitates around just it's it's a different picture than the early, you know, stage employed, but there's still just as many questions, right? Like when do I start Social Security? which investment bucket do I pull from? Do I pull from the IRAs? do I pull from my brokerage account? how are taxes impacting this? Can should I Roth convert and how much? If so, how do I stay out of the Medicare taxes? Chase: Big one. Donny Stewart: yes, so there's just a lot of questions that revolve around it and for those types of people too I mean they may be retired but there's usually other things that are top of their mind, you know, hobbies, grandkids, traveling, and we want to empower them to do those things and also just feel confident in like the monthly amount of income that they can take. So a lot of people out there with kind of in kind of display like, hey, your probability of retirement success is like ninety-four percent. And to us, we don't really think about it that way because what about the six percent where it's not successful? we position it as like here's actually the amount of income that you can take and use more of like an effective guardrail strategy if you're familiar with that. So that gives people a much more clear picture because they don't really know what ninety four percent means, right? Like if I'm at ninety four percent yeah, does Chase: Yeah. It's not really clear what that means. Like Donny Stewart: that mean like there's a six percent chance that I'm eating cat food or is it like Chase: Yeah. Donny Stewart: what does that mean? So Chase: I like that. Is there a six percent chance I'll be eating cat food? That's a good line. You should have that on your website. Donny Stewart: Yeah. Chase: so you you it sounds like you have like a really well-defined, like two very well-defined categories of clientele and people who really fit well with you. what do you find to be the main differences between them in the questions they typically ask when they come to you for the first time? Like what is keeping them up at night? Donny Stewart: Mm, mm. Chase: Each each category. Donny Stewart: Yeah, so we'll start with the young crowd and work up in age. so Chase: All right. Donny Stewart: yeah, if it's like we'll just give like a stereotypical young professional, we'll call thirty eight years old, two young kids and working professionals making three hundred to four hundred thousand a year joint and concerned about If they are saving the proper amount to retire on time. and if they're doing it effectively with taxes. So, like, am I am I doing the right things from a tax strategy? Is the question we'll get. am I contributing to my 401k in the proper manner? where do I save? Like, which buckets do I save towards? Should I be putting money into a Roth? or should I be putting more money into my four one K? how do I get my kids started investing? You know, so there's those are the kinds of questions that we're fielding. And just kind of trying to make it personalized too. There's not just like a generic cookie cutter situation for those types of clients. And so realistically, we have a three step program when we're being introduced to somebody and the first step is just to kind of get to know them and they get to know us and make sure that we kind of get a feel for their situation and that they like us and vice versa. So after that it's more data gathering. but when we're de when we're doing the data gathering because we have a background of their life, the questions start to come out easier and both Swan and the client or potential client bec is allowed to be more vulnerable. Because they have a connection with us now. And That allows us to ask more pointed questions and that allows them to ask more pointed questions as opposed to just like the general you know, am I able to retire at age sixty? Like which I suppose is something everybody wants to consider. But yeah, it's that I would say that's the main framing. And then for the retiree client, go ahead. Chase: No, no was gonna say that's more for the younger crowd that that typically comes free comes Donny Stewart: Yeah. Chase: to you. Donny Stewart: Yeah. And the retired client, it is often like, Am I going to outlive my money? you know, if it's if they're actually already retired, am I going to have to go back to work? Am I am I able to afford funding my grandkids' college? can I spend more than I'm currently spending? Am I doing things proper from a tax standpoint in retirement? Or can I optimize this? So And then just the general like how am I doing? Like the number of times, which is just Chase: Am I okay? Donny Stewart: like so general. Like it's like you're you know, it's it's all relative. somebody with I've seen people with a million dollars think that you know they're they don't have enough. I've seen people with a million dollars feel very comfortable because they're frugal, right? So It's it's all relative, but the how am I doing is a very common one as well too. Chase: Do you have any specific stories about clients in those situations that where you've led them through from a point A where they are and a to a point B where they want to be? Is there anything that any stories that stand out in your mind? Donny Stewart: yeah, like from retired client or somebody who's Chase: If if you have if you have Donny Stewart: Somebody who's not a number, one from each. Chase: if you have one from each, that'd be great. If if you don't, it's fine. just the top of one that's top of mind, but if you have one from each, that'd be great. Donny Stewart: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. younger clients, they So one is yeah, one is a doctor and the other is their wife is a corporate professional, earning around a million dollars a year. So very complex income situation from like how do we mi navigate taxes and how do we navigate proper savings and bucketing. So essentially, When we onboarded the main value proposition was, hey, we're gonna show you where to save, how to do it and how to execute on it, and invest whatever you're saving after the four one Ks and the pre-tax stuff into tax friendly type investments. So utilizing tax loss harvesting and their after tax accounts basically allowed them to save taxes along the way. We implemented not only just like the investments and the savings piece though, but also insurance review, review of their property taxes, review of just everything based with a dollar sign. We say like we're doing a good job when you have a question that comes up in your life. And it, if it has a dollar sign in front of it, you feel confident calling us or emailing us. The same couple, about a year and a half in asked us how they would recommend how we would recommend them structuring the pay for their nanny who is caring for their kids. Like it was the it was just like the the best compliment I could receive. I'm like, this is something that most financial planners are not getting. Right. yeah, and so Chase: Yeah, they trust you. They trust your opinion. Donny Stewart: being able to just execute on everything that is concerning them and having consistent contact allowed them to get to that point. And they have busy schedules, they're raising a family, they're trying to make sure that they're executing on their strategy, and so Yeah, we essentially are able to help them do that. And they're one of many in that young range that we're doing similar things for, but yeah, that would be one example. The other one, we have A recent one actually of a situation where they weren't sure if they were going to be able to retire when they when they could. And there was just a lack of clarity as to how much they'd be able to spend in retirement. And so what we were able to do is just show them hey, based off of your current portfolio, you look at your four one K from your work. this IRA that you have from a previous job and also their after-tax account. We're we're able to show them like, hey, actually you can retire like next year if you want to. And they just couldn't believe it. They were shocked that they could spend not only the $8,000 a month after tax that we told them comfortably, but that they could do it next year and they're like, Well, I don't even know if I'm ready to retire that soon. And Chase: Ha ha ha. Donny Stewart: so then they ended up talking with us about like, are we am I ready for retirement? Like, I don't know if I'm ready for retirement. We like, well, did you talk to your employer about potentially doing something part time? And he's like, I didn't even think about that. But I bet like there's some projects I'm working on and I'm sure they'd love to keep me around. And so he ended up being empowered by the fact that he could retire, be able to go to his employer with this proposal of I want to work twenty hours a week and then being okay, yeah, well we would rather have half of you than none of you. So he able was able to get the benefit of easing into retirement, which we love because well, two things. You you have s an income stream still, but also it It lets you test the waters of retirement. Find out what you like, what you don't like, and see if you're eventually able to fully dive in or not. we're worried about people getting bored and not having a purpose. And so that's one of our big initiatives with our retirees is before you retire, dedicate some time to focus on what your time looks like after those when those forty week hours a week are injected back into your schedule. Chase: so do you often find yourself having these conversations where it goes beyond just, you know, portfolio allocations and tax planning and so on? Do you find yourself often having these conversations where it's not just about, you know, their numbers and their accounts, what their income can be, but also are they emotionally ready to retire? Do you find yourself like getting more personal with with your clients? Donny Stewart: Yeah, absolutely. We call it the psychology of retirement. And if you look at the studies, it's there's research out there that shows if you retire fully without having like a true stated purpose in retirement, there's a sugar rush the first six to eighteen months. I have all the time in the world. Every day is Saturday. I can sleep in until nine. I can stay up until midnight. I can you know, do whatever, right? I don't have any rules anymore or any structure. And if it sounds too good to be true, it often is, right? That's like the age-old saying, and that's the case with retirement as well. If there isn't a purpose, then that sugar rush wears off. After six to eighteen months, depending on the person. And the happiness then decreases, which is in effect like a slap in the face to us. Like we don't want that. Because our job is to make sure that you are empowered and happy in retirement. And so dedicating some time around like functionally, how do your days look? How do your weeks look? What are you doing that's gonna And it's different for everybody, right? It could be, yeah, we're carrying we're taking some of the slack off the kids and we're watching the grandkids on Thursdays and Fridays or whatever. you know what? My wife and I actually we're we're volunteering every Tuesday and Thursday for four hours a day. that's gonna be our plan. Or I'm gonna play golf five times a week. You know, it c it that's that's that person everybody's different, right? And that's where we want to make it specific to the individual or couple that's retiring, but we do not want them to get in the point of having no purpose because purpose is power. Chase: You'll have these conversations to kind of coach them through that as well. Donny Stewart: Absolutely. Yeah. Chase: Fantastic. I love the I love the stories that you told because I think it really really paints a very clear picture of who really works well with you and what's on their minds when they first come to come to have conversation with you and what they're looking for. But who is someone that you definitely would not work with? Who would you meet and say, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna work with this person? Donny Stewart: Yeah, that's a great question too. There was a point where it felt like everybody, but no longer. Chase: Ha ha ha. Donny Stewart: Realistically, we don't want to take on people that are changing advisors without cause. if it's because like if there's particular reasons, like if they give us that they weren't doing a good job because of not incorporating a tax strategy or you know they didn't really think about their estate plan very well or what if it has to do with like anything revolved around financial planning that's being missed then yeah like we'll we'll entertain that but if somebody says like yeah my advisors they were down two percent last week or something like if they're tracking performance like on a day to day basis which isn't The worst thing. Like I, you know, we have clients that'll look at their portfolio daily, which is a little neurotic, but okay, that's fine. but we're not going to do like weekly portfolio reviews with people. That's just not there's so much more to it. there's so much more to planning and being mindful of how to incorporate strategies so that there's a higher probability of success for folks and that they're able to retire on time and take as much money as possible and pass as much money as possible to their kids and grandkids. we want people that are willing to get vulnerable with us. We will get vulnerable with them if they'll get vulnerable with us. So if they're not willing to open up and answer the tough questions, then they're not gonna be a very good fit. If they're looking for like a place that's trying to outpace performance of certain benchmarks, then we're just they they'd be better off not meeting with us. Chase: Yeah, so it sounds like you're looking for somebody who's not gonna be like, I want you to be my stock picker so you can out outperform the market. You're looking more for someone to say, I want you to help me plan so that I can live a better life in the future. Is that about someone else? Donny Stewart: Yeah, yeah, I absolutely that sums it up really well. I think I mean looking at if you look back at the kind of the examples that I gave, it's people just trusting that we're going to execute on all the facets of their plan. where to save, how much to save, when I can retire, where to pull from, what's tax efficient, as opposed to just like how good is your investment strategy? You know, we get we have good investments, like we've done a good job, but we're not like touting, hey, we beat the market last year, even when we did, because the it could just as easily go the same the other direction. Like we're trying to Chase: Mm-hmm. Donny Stewart: meet the market and then beat it by planning for every possible i scenario and being tax forward in nature. that's how we're making our value. Chase: So how do your clients typically find you? Like where do they come from? Donny Stewart: yeah, that's a good question. a lot of internal referrals has been the first couple of years. I mean we did go through a lot of time intensive work in order to iron out some of the Some of the things with our current client base that were not something that we decided but were put into place previously. just kind Chase: Can we Donny Stewart: of optimizing it around what we thought was best for them. So that took a lot of work and effort. so consolidation of current client accounts as well as their friends and family. some natural markets too. Like that's kind of how the young market has grown for us. So, just kind of word mouth, but we have started to have more of a presence on LinkedIn. Mike has taken the reins on that front. and then we're also we just are starting to build out like our own YouTube channels and topic areas. Chase: Dice. Donny Stewart: So yeah, we're about to hit we're about to hit the ground running here towards the end of this year. just education forward stuff. You know, if people want to window shop, more power to But if they want to you know tap us on the shoulder to further clarify, we'll be here for that too. So I think a lot of it just has to do with how we want to run our business. We want to be education forward. And as much as somebody wants an information we'll provide it to them. And if we can get that out to the masses and if I can create a video on net unrealized appreciation and somebody saves fifty thousand dollars in taxes and I never talk to good for them, you know. Chase: So yeah, so t speaking of your practice, where do you what's your vision? Where do you see it in the next like one to three years? What are you working on? Donny Stewart: Yeah, so in terms of where we're at now, we're just getting to the point of optimization for our current client base, which is why we're kind of starting our marketing efforts. We didn't want to again, this goes full circle, like I mentioned earlier with the big firm that I interviewed with, not wanting to forget about the current client base. we didn't want to get ahead of our skis and search for new clients too heavily without taking care of our current client base. So yeah, I would say we have capacity for sure now. Now our systems are optimized. We have a very good custodian that we're working with, an altruist. we're ready for growth. Like we are building out our service model to be more more of a continuous thing for people. And I picture by the end of next year, doubling our growth as we are now. we've grown 33% the last two years. So 2024 and 2025 were exactly 33%. Chase: Right. Donny Stewart: which is kind of funny. Or no, sorry, 34%. So we'll yeah, Chase: Gotta be accurate here. Donny Stewart: exactly. I'm a numbers guy, right? Chase: Yeah. Donny Stewart: so yeah, I mean if we can continue on that growth path, I think all three of us would be pretty pleased. we're gonna shoot for the stars and and hopefully land somewhere in between here and there and that's the goal. Chase: I love it. Is there anything standing in your way? Like is there any are there any challenges in that currently? Donny Stewart: of course. Yeah, I mean you have the last five years have been very, very tailwind type markets. So if you're an advisor and you're just coasting, get ready, right? Like you don't know when the next correction is coming and I guess that could be an opportunity like ours too, because that's when when times get tough, like the cream rises to the top, right? Like it's that's kinda how it how it works. And I think that's really when we'll be able to show our value too and people are gonna realize at that time another reason why they hired us. So that's gonna be a definite headwind. I mean that next correction it it's it's never fun, but it is where a lot of the value is added. So the other thing is just I mean i it it'd be hard not to talk about our artificial intelligence. I think when we look at where we're at and where things are going, nobody really knows exactly like what impact it's going to have on them their own lives or careers like mine. But I equate it to if you I I don't know if you're are you a golf guy, Chase? By chance you play at all? Do you Chase: Not really, honestly. Donny Stewart: play any sports? Chase: I do water sports. I don't I don't play any group sports currently. Yeah. So like scuba diving. Donny Stewart: Water sp like polo, like water polo. Chase: No, things like scuba diving, freediving, spear fishing. Yeah. So I I'm probably not the best Donny Stewart: Scuba diving. Okay. Okay. Sweet. Chase: guy for a anal analogy. Donny Stewart: No, I can do an analogy around that on the fly. Okay, so Chase: Okay, let's go. Donny Stewart: I've never scuba die I I've never scuba dove, scuba dived, in my life. Chase: Scooby Dived, I think. Donny Stewart: Sounds awesome. And the spear fishing, really cool too. I grew up fishing. if you were to give me all of your equipment and tell me to put it on, you I'm sure you have like if that's your thing, like you probably have top-of-the-line stuff. And if you told me to put all that stuff on and you gave me like an hour rundown of how to do it, do you think I'd be able to be as good at it as you? Chase: In one hour? No, because there'd be some things that you would forget the moment you hit the water. Donny Stewart: Exactly. Exactly. You have years of experience doing it and you're continuously on it. So I that's how I kind of equate artificial intelligence almost. It's like you have you have this system that you can use to get information. But a lot of times like I wouldn't know even what to ask you if I were going getting into the scuba suit. Like so I a lot of people Think, okay, well, all the information in the world is in front of me right now. I can ask this chatbot or what have you. But oftentimes the chatbot doesn't really know where you're going with it. So if you don't know the questions to ask it or you don't know what to check it on, it can lead to some advice, call it advice, that might not be tailored to a person. My concern is that. People are going to get caught in that and they're going to forgo getting advice by relying solely on the internet or chatbots for information, when Chase: Yes. Donny Stewart: they don't have the background. Now, if they have done a good job throughout their career of staying on top of things and they truly dedicate and make like this a part of their life is is managing their own finances, then Hey, more power to you if you want to spend the time on it. But Chase: Mm-hmm. Donny Stewart: going into something without the time, expertise, and vision, it's just gonna make it really challenging because you're gonna feel a lot of confidence coming from these AI bots without knowing if you Chase: Yes. Donny Stewart: can if you can respect it or not, right? so yeah, it'd be like if I tried to fix my car by using Claude or Chat GPT and it's like, well, I know a little bit about cars, but not nearly enough to like fix something that's damaged with a chatbot. Chase: Yeah, actually I I love that analogy because I mean I like everybody now, I think I'm using it all the time as well. But I like the analogy of the of the scuba diving thing because let's say for example you go how to scuba dive, ChatGPT or Claude, and it'll tell you probably how the equipment works and how to keep neutral buoyancy and stuff like this, but it might forget to tell you that when you are coming up from your dive you have to stop halfway and off gas, otherwise the nitrogen will boil your blood when you reach surface. Like so I love that analogy. It makes perfect sense. Donny Stewart: Yeah. Chase: awesome. So you guys have been growing, which is great to hear. I love I love hearing that. As it has grown, are there any programs or training or people that have positively impacted how you serve your clients? Is there anyone you'd like to give a shout out to? Donny Stewart: I would like to give a a shout out to Michael Kitsis. I don't know if Chase: Michael Kitsus. Donny Stewart: yeah, his podcast is fantastic. he works he he has a an entire CE training, but he has his own firm as well and is very granular with how he does things, but very focused on practice management and how to basically approach client situations and get the best result possible for the client. Very client focused. and yeah libbygry is another podcast that has been very helpful for us. Practice management, things that we've implemented to better affect our outcomes for clients and make sure that communication is better and systems are better for them. so Yeah, and then just our our general network too, like us coming from cor like from the finance side prior to our advisor, like we have advisors that are in the business that came from the same place as us and and hearing their ideas has been helpful as well too. So I'm not sure if that's exactly what you were looking for, but that's kind of what comes to mind for me. Chase: No? Awesome. Excellent. let's say switch gears here for a sec. If I Donny Stewart: Mm-hmm. Chase: wanted to become a client of of you your guys' today, what would onboarding look like for me? What happens on our in our first meeting and what happens the first four to eight weeks? And then what does it look like over the course of the calendar year? Donny Stewart: Yeah, great question. so SWAN is actually an acronym for sleep well at night and we like to Chase: I love it. Donny Stewart: Thanks. we like to take that approach with the decisions that we make in the business because we want to sleep well at night, about how we approach clients. And we want all of our clients to feel the same way with their planning as well, too. So when you onboard, we want you to get that sense before you ever make a decision. And so The get to know you phase for us is critical because people want to work with people that they like and respect. So we want to feel that way about our potential client and we want them to feel that way about us. And that's the entirety of the first meeting. They can bring up you know, some of their financials if they want. We're not gonna pry for it. it's more about general, like how you feel Currently, about your situation, what you're concerned about, where you would like to go, and what you'd like to see in a professional working alongside you, like what their vision is. And if those things match up, and if at the end of the call they can feel good about where we're heading, we'll set up another call. And from there, that's where it gets in a nitty-gritty. provide us detail on. four one Ks, insurance, we do taxes in house, so we have a lot of knowledge base and that and we'll take the two previous ten forties, review those, any trust docs, anything like again, if it has a dollar sign, send it our way. and we'll do a review and essentially The third meeting would just be a presentation of like our initial thoughts. We're not gonna give them everything and say like go go on and you know, just w so we don't spend as much time as like a current client building the plan, but we'll at least give them some things to take away and like how we would implement strategies. and then tell them, hey, you know, you can you can make a decision. So typically those three meetings, a long version would be like five weeks between the three. but typically it's it's about three or four weeks between those three meetings, just information gathering and that sort of thing. and then from there, they say, yeah, let's go for it. Let's set up those accounts. Well we already have all their statements on file. We do all the legwork of paperwork on our end. So we do all the data entry. Chase: They've got to appreciate that. Donny Stewart: Yes, exactly. So all the data entry, we have all their vitals, you know, socials and date of birth and all of that. Set up all the accounts that they need and shoot them an email and all they have to do is click through a review click pattern of about eight clicks and electronically sign it. and their assets will come over electronically as is, so no tax consequences or anything. And then from there we would implement the strategy of the investments. So that would kind of be like there'd be a bit of a quiet time. We like to let people know, like, hey, give us a few weeks to start putting some of this in motion. And then we'd set up like another call probably a month after assets are transferred in just to kind of reassess where we're at, what immediate changes were made and why, and then start to game plan longer term type things. So it's very seamless turnkey onboarding. people have been Chase: Sounds like it's really easy on their side too. Donny Stewart: It's if you're tech savvy, you could set up four accounts for someone. like if you were setting up accounts with us and you had four accounts, Chase, it would if you're tech savvy, you could do it in four minutes. it if you were not tech savvy, maybe ten. So it's it's very seamless, very turnkey for the client, and it's been a great experience. we like to make things as frictionless as possible for the client. Like we don't want them to be questioning their next move. Like we want them to feel, yeah, I have to do X because TJ told me to do X. Like not like do I do X? And then asking us if they do it. So Chase: So you're proactive, you already have all the steps laid out for them before any of that happens. Donny Stewart: Exactly. Yeah. Chase: And awesome. So for someone who is listening right now and wants to get in touch with you guys, what should they do next? Where should they go? Donny Stewart: Yeah, the best way would just go to Swan W like Wealth Management. So s Swan W dot com and click the yellow button. Have us call you. Chase: Awesome. Excellent. Donnie, it's been a pleasure talking to you. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Donny Stewart: Chase, thanks for having me. Really appreciate the time.