Latest / Financial Planner Search / Family Office for the Rest of Us with Mikey Manghum | Financial Planner Search
Transcript
- Gregory Wilnau: All right, Mikey, how are you doing today, sir? Mikey Manghum: I am well. Greg, how are you doing? Gregory Wilnau: doing awesome. Looking forward to chatting with you. to get started, Mikey Manghum: Yes, sir. Gregory Wilnau: why don't we just quickly talk about maybe you can share kind of what you do and a little bit about what you specialize in in in your practice. Mikey Manghum: Absolutely. Yeah. So I help run the private wealth division for a regional bank here out of the Midwest. that's region bank. So Region Private Wealth got launched just shy of two years ago. And I basically operate as vice president, financial advisor. We're a small team but mighty, so a lot of hats, but really Gregory Wilnau: Nice. Mikey Manghum: just helping people with wealth management and planning for their future. Gregory Wilnau: Okay. so let's talk a little bit about your journey as an advisor. What in Mikey Manghum: Yeah. Gregory Wilnau: sp how did you get here? What kind of inspired you to do this? Mikey Manghum: Great question. So really it had a lot to do with basketball. My my dad was a professional basketball player. he moved from the United States to the UK, met my mom over there. So I was born and raised in the UK. And I came this way to attend college and play basketball and try and follow in his footsteps. And you know, as a as a late teen you start to maybe figure out a little bit of the financial dynamic in your household and I realized that while it appeared my parents did very well in their industries. They'd maybe not made the the most astute financial decisions. And I was privileged enough to take a class my freshman year called personal financial planning and just felt as though, wow, my parents needed this. I'm sure so many other families needed this kind of insight and direction. And it was at a small Christian school, so it felt like one of those ways that it could be a a like a marketplace ministry type consideration and it would be a a a noble profession to help people navigate the world of money and planning for their future, setting themselves and family up for success. And so it really started freshman year and it's just it's been a journey since then. Gregory Wilnau: Awesome. So you your firm, Regent Private Wealth, is kind of a spinoff, right? And you guys are Mikey Manghum: That's right. Gregory Wilnau: so c w can you tell us a l a little bit about that and kind of how that that turned out or or or how this how Mikey Manghum: Absolutely. Absolutely. Gregory Wilnau: this came to be? Mikey Manghum: So so the current president of the bank bought the bank back at the end of end of two thousand seven, start of two thousand eight, which arguably when you look at economic history is probably the worst time in the h world's history to buy a bank. But Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Mikey Manghum: they they navigated two thousand eight, two thousand nine, two thousand ten. And then the bank has just grown gangbusters in the last sixteen years or so. And they had reached a point where they really needed that additional service for their clients. They there's there's less of a consumer retail approach with with the bank. It's a it's a very small business oriented and focused bank and a community bank. And so they just wanted to continue to offer services that they felt like their clientele needed. And once you get beyond deposit accounts and loans and lines of credit, a lot of people are asking about investing for the future. Making sure their estate planners dialed in, understanding how to maximize the value of their business, those types of things and and it really required a private wealth division to be st started. Gregory Wilnau: Awesome. I love that. So they're growing. They realize that they needed customers need more help. Mikey Manghum: Yes. Gregory Wilnau: and that's kind of where where you guys come in. That's awesome. I love that. Mikey Manghum: Yeah. Yes. Gregory Wilnau: Okay. Let's talk a little bit about your your your clients and the types of people you serve. maybe you could describe the type of person who who who comes to you. What's a typical situation Mikey Manghum: Yeah. Gregory Wilnau: that they need you to lead them through that that they reach out to you for. Mikey Manghum: Yeah, th and th there's a few different avatars. So I'll kinda go through maybe three key ones and and and talk about what what the needs of those different groups are. The first is is what we would describe as Henries, which you may have heard that term before, but high earners, not rich yet. Okay. So I'd like to consider myself as as much of a Henry as well, even though my name's Mikey. but really that individual, Greg, they're they're a young professional, they're making great money. it's maybe not all in the stock market or investable assets. Maybe it's in a small business that they own. Maybe they have some real estate and they also have business entities. And they're getting to that point of life where they've realized I have a lot going on and I need some help with this. Kind of the classic entrepreneurial journey of, hey, this vision is bigger than me. I need a support staff. I need some who's on my team because I can't do every single how. Right. And that individual is is needing help. within the business, within their personal economy, planning for their family, trying to make sure they understand how their money is going to work for them outside of the business, making sure they're setting their family up for success, but also mitigating risks and threats that exist as a young professional, maybe with young kids. You gotta think about things like a trust and life insurance and disability coverage and and and offering benefits to your employees and those those types of things. So we we are a really good fit for that kind of busy maybe slightly overwhelmed individual that needs to have a trusted partner to d delegate some of that financial responsibility to. So that's kind of avatar number one. Avatar number two is is probably a similar individual, but further down the road. And so maybe they've had some larger life transitions. They're empty nesters. They're coming towards the end of the growth phase within their business and they're thinking about transitioning a business or moving well from one kind of pocket to the other. And now they are looking to say, okay, how am I invested assets gonna provide the kind of lifestyle I want in retirement. How do I think about this from a tax efficient standpoint? How do I think about this? Maybe there's some philanthropic desires and they want to make sure that things are set up the right way to not only take care of the family but pull back into nonprofits or churches or things that have been meaningful in their life. How do I do that in the most efficient way? And that's also a great fit for us. And the bank actually Banks nonprofits for free. We have we have free banking for nonprofit organizations, which is you know, we're we're in kind of the the Midwestern area, which is a very popular thing. So there's a large nonprofit clientele for the bank. So we also Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Mikey Manghum: do a lot in the way of helping endowments or investment accounts for nonprofits be maximized. We have a much lower fee structure for nonprofits is our kind of nod to what the bank's doing on the banking side, but still providing that quality service for them, creating great returns. helping them maybe develop an investment philosophy statement for the nonprofit, engaging board members or members of a finance committee to make sure everyone's aligned with where we're trying to take these funds and and Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Mikey Manghum: what purpose they're going to serve for the for the mission of the organization in perpetuity. So those are kind of three avatars that we see on a consistent basis, but we feel very well equipped to serve those those individuals or entities. Gregory Wilnau: Awesome. I l I love that. I love how you broken them into the three very clear descriptions. let's talk about that a little bit more. W when somebody reaches out to you, what are some of the questions that they'll typically ask? What's keeping the what's keeping them up at night? What's what are what are the common concerns or questions that they bring to you when they meet with you for the first time? Does anything stand out? Mikey Manghum: Absolutely. Yeah, so maybe that same list but in the reverse order. a lot of times with with the nonprofits, it's very mission oriented. They want to make sure that hey, someone has entrusted us or or a group of people that have donated have entrusted us with these funds to further the purpose, further the mission, and they understand that maybe there's some a a limit to their own expertise and they're they're really just wanting to lean on quote unquote expert advice to make sure that they're stewarding those funds well. There's not any kind of pitfalls that they're wandering towards or just things that they're not aware of that they need to be aware of. So a lot of times it's hey, we need some checks and balances for this money Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Mikey Manghum: that we're getting to invest in steward and we need some professional guidance and direction. Someone's gonna come in and give the board an update, maybe every, you know year, twice a year, even on a quarterly basis, send us some reports, let us know how we're doing, because ultimately it's something that's helping uplift the mission. And so that's really what it is. They want to they want to feel like they're doing right by the people that have donated their hard earned money. That's that's kind of their primary concern. With the folks that are maybe nearing retirement, gosh, there's a there's a lot of different reasons we get the call. What I'll say is often when we sit down with married couples, what we see is One spouse is is very concerned with how do we make sure that this wealth that we're potentially passing along doesn't ruin the next generation, right? But they're Gregory Wilnau: Sure, sure. Mikey Manghum: they also feel like they know what's coming to them and they know how to handle it without necessarily telling them, hey, we'll we're leaving you three million dollars, and now that 22-year-old has already spent half of it in their head. So how do they do the transfer? How do they create legacy? And really it's in a way that goes beyond. The dollars and cents. It's like how do we communicate what was important to the people that have generated this wealth? And then how now can you essentially take that baton and keep running with it? So they want help not only with the actual setup of things like the estate plan, but then bringing the family members into the room and having some of those conversations to better prepare. I'm sure you've seen the statistics. The average inheritance in the US has gone in 18 months. That's scary for people and they they want to avoid that. So that's typically maybe one party's concern. The other is that typically there's one person that's ran point, so to speak, with the financial picture. So they know where everything's at, they know all the passwords, they know the balances of these different things. And maybe the rest of the family or the rest of the business is just not as privy. And so that they're thinking about it more of a financial succession plan. How do I make sure that everything's set up? It's simplified, it's consolidated, not only for the benefit of making it simple for retirement. But maybe one day I'm not here and and later Gregory Wilnau: Sure. Mikey Manghum: in life you start to think about you know the finality of it all. How do I make sure that it's not just this, you know, dusty drawer f full of papers that no one knows how to navigate? And so a lot of times that's kind of the cleanup request that we get is help them consolidate, help them get clarity around it. Is I want confidence in handing this off. and then honestly with with the Henry, could be a a multitude of things. Maybe within their business, they have employees that are inquiring about benefits. And so that's the initial, we get a lot of folks calling like, hey, I need to set up a retirement plan for my employees. And that's the Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Mikey Manghum: foot in the door and then they realize everything else that we can we can serve them on. Or they've had a very large tax bill because all of a sudden they've had a very successful year or two in business. And they're like, hey, this is all well and good, but I don't like that the IRS is my favorite charity this year. Help me mitigate some of that those taxes, help me create a tax strategy. Or if it's more of a family-oriented consideration, it's like, hey, my business is booming. You know, I'm I'm able to get some people around me to help with that. I know what the KPIs are in my business. I know how to measure success. But my personal economy is a a little bit of a cluster. There's there's things that I put in place before I got married, there's things I put in place before I became a parent, and and now I just need to know. that I'm as dialed in on the personal economy front as I am within my business. And so a lot of times that is a trigger for conversation as well. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, I love that. I wanna talk more about how you what it looks like to work with you, and the kind Mikey Manghum: Yeah. Gregory Wilnau: of the the journey that you'll you you you kinda go through with them in in a little bit. But first I wanna know, how do they typically find you? where do you where do you where do your clients typically f come from? How do they find you? Mikey Manghum: Great question. So, my my business partner and I, we've been in the industry for close to ten years now. And so Tulsa is is where we're located. Tulsa is like the biggest small city you've ever experienced. There's the whole six degrees of separation that you often hear about. In Tulsa, I'm convinced it's one or two degrees of separation. So my wife grew up here, I've been here for seventeen years. My business partner's grown up here. So we just know a lot of people. We've been in the business for a while. So we have a lot of natural referral business that comes from The circles that we run in, already existing, you know, legacy clientele. But now having launched as an additional service to the bank, we have a lot of referrals that just come in from our bankers, the branch presidents, the market presidents, as they feel more and more comfortable with the services we're offering and how we can, you know, really just bolster their reputation. You've done a great job taking care of them as a banking client. We now just become you know an extra Cherry on top, so to speak, with all the things that you can serve them in. So allow us to serve your already existing clients in that way. We share the same brand, we share the same name, we're in the same building. It's a very natural referral partnership for. Gregory Wilnau: I I love it. I I think that that that's great that you have that synergy. so this might be typically I'll ask this question 'cause I wanna understand more about, you know, your vision and where you're taking things. And this this might be a little bit dependent upon like your larger bank that you're that you're a part of, but so feel free to skip this question if you when I ask it. But when it comes to to to your the pr this practice, right? where do you see it going in the next one to three years? Like what's your vision? Are there any goals you're working on? Mikey Manghum: Absolutely so. we we've always said we don't necessarily want to be a a a mega office here in the home base of the bank, which is Tulsa. We really want to equip smaller, nimble, agile boots on the ground advisory teams in the markets that the bank is already present present in. And so There's a there's a Tulsa, Oklahoma location of the bank. There's Broken Arrow, there's no water. That's all kind of within about a 30 to 45 minute drive. So we're we're probably pretty well equipped to serve that clientele. But then you kind of get into the Oklahoma City Edmund area, which is about you know an hour and a half from here, and then we have a a presence in Dallas and Frisco. We're looking at more locations in you know St. Louis, Missouri, Kansas City. So the goal would be, you know, we're we're an advisory team of three and we have some back office support. as well. And so how can we start to put some of those teams in these different markets? Because the other thing, Gregory Wilnau: Interesting. Mikey Manghum: you know, when you're working in these areas and meeting with people and getting to know them and we're starting to talk about things like legacy and estate planning and bringing children into the conversation, I think it helps to be familiar with the reality that those clients are experiencing. So the reality is I don't know everything that's going on in the world of philanthropy in the Dallas Frisco. area. So we need people that can speak that language. They know what's going on with business and construction. I mean, every time I drive down there, it feels like Dallas just moves further and further north. Essentially Gregory Wilnau: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mikey Manghum: when you you drive that highway, once you hit the Buckeys in Melissa, for anyone that is familiar with this part of the country, you're essentially in North Dallas and you still have an hour to go. So we we want people that can can be a part of the fabric of of their communities. And so our goal is to eventually have a team in all of those major metro areas where the bank already has a presence. Gregory Wilnau: Interesting. Is there any challenges or anything standing in the way of that right now? Any current challenges? Mikey Manghum: I mean it's I I don't know that it's a challenge. It's a good problem to have, Greg. The bank is growing so fast. I mean, they're they're a decently large bank. W I I would probably say you're we're in the mid size category. So the bank already having the resources of being as old as it is and Gregory Wilnau: We can Mikey Manghum: the net income that it does, it can throw up locations pretty quickly. It's gotta be a little bit more of a strategic approach for us 'cause we're still less than two years old as a firm. And so it's just really moving with the pace of the bank. That's that's probably the biggest challenge is making sure that we can properly service those clients and prospective clients in those markets. Now, the beautiful thing is we have Zoom, we have teams, we can still connect with people virtually. But for the folks that want that, you know, person they can go meet with and shake their hand off, my partner and I can only hit the highway and and and hit the airport so much with with young families at home myself. So that's the challenge. Gregory Wilnau: Sure. Yeah, sure. Yeah. Yeah, it becomes trickier when you got families at home, man. you know, life moves Mikey Manghum: That's it. Gregory Wilnau: so my life moves so fast, and you know, if you're if you're gone a lot, you show up one day and you're like, my gosh, you know, you've grown, right? So Mikey Manghum: Yeah. Yeah. Gregory Wilnau: So what I want to do now is I wanna understand more about how you work with your Mikey Manghum: Mm-hmm. Gregory Wilnau: clients and what it looks like to work. you. So maybe you could walk us through your actual process. So let's say somebody contacts you about possibly becoming a a client or inquiring about your services. What is what does that process look like? What does onboarding look like? What happens the first few weeks? What does it look like to work with you during the course of a calendar year? Just take us through it, man. Mikey Manghum: Absolutely. Well and and our first call is definitely a discovery call because we want to make sure that we're we're a good fit. We don't assume just that someone just because they have maybe some marketable assets they they need manage that we're automatically a great fit for you know, I I'll back up a little bit and then hopefully try to directly answer that question. But my partner and I several years ago, we we became aware of this concept of a family office, which I'm sure you've you've stumbled across too. It's typically reserved for Gregory Wilnau: Why don't you tell us why don't you tell us what what that is really Mikey Manghum: Okay, so Family Office is a s typically reserved for ultra high net worth. You're definitely kind of in the taxable estate range at higher, which for those that maybe don't know, that's about a thirty million dollar household net worth and above. But oftentimes a true family office, you're paying a percentage of your overall net worth to a team that is going to bring all the subject matter experts that may have some input on your personal economy into the room. So we're talking tax strategy, estate planning, investment management, insurance planning. The whole nine, for for the average person, those are that's four or five, six different relationships. A family office's goal is to try to bring all those voices around one conference room table, make sure there's alignment and synergy with where the family's trying to go from a from a vision standpoint. And so it it seems like a bit of a no-brainer that all your financial professionals would be on the same page talking and in alignment with where the family wants to go. They're the CEO. They cast the vision, and you essentially have a team that that makes up a financial board for you. Well, we were very attracted to that concept. And the question was, well, why doesn't this exist for someone that's not yet worth 30 million? Because if anyone needs it, it's the person that's not yet accomplished 30 million, right? making 30 million and above or being worth 30 million above probably covers a lot of issues just by the fact that you have the resources. And so what we want to try to bring to the table is specifically within that niche of, hey, maybe you're worth a million, maybe you're worth 30 million. But anywhere in that range, we want to bring a family office style approach to your economy. So we essentially then play the role of personal CFO. And I say all that to say sometimes people engage with us and it really is just a I need you to manage my investment assets, maximize the return, minimize fees and make sure it kicks off enough income for me to sail off into the sunset and have my vacation home. In beautiful Florida next to where Greg's at and wherever else you know you may want to be. So people can engage us in that way. And so it's a an asset management fee that we charge and and we have that type of investment only relationship. But we don't necessarily want to silo the relationship to that because typically we're working with people where there's there's just a lot more going on. There's a lot more action, there's a lot more wrinkles happening in their day-to-day. I mean, you get into business ownership, blended families. inheritance, all those kind of things. And now it's like it's not as simple as being able to completely separate those different professions. Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Mikey Manghum: And so a lot of times people engage with us on that front and that's a consulting fee. Now if we have some assets we're managing, there may be a combination there, but we do discounts if people are you know engaging us with on both fronts. And so the discovery meeting is really us figuring out what all do you potentially need from us. And based on everything that we are providing, what's a good fit for you in this time? Knowing that people can scale up or scale back as they need to. If someone says, Hey, yes, I'm I'm ready to move forward, then we kind of get into what you're talking about of what does the first few weeks look like. And obviously there's all the administrative things going on on the in the backside of setting up accounts and signing agreements and all those kind of things. But Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Mikey Manghum: really those early weeks, what we're trying to understand is, hey, you're the CEO of this thing. A lot of times money has become the thing on the pedestal. Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Mikey Manghum: I remember an old I think it was an old Voyeur commercial. People were like in their yard and they had like a random number above their head. And it was like, This is my number for retirement. Like any of us could really know that. Long term care considerations, no one was expect expecting the inflation we've had in the last five years since COVID and all right. So but it became this thing where it's like, what's the monetary goal? And our Gregory Wilnau: Mm-hmm. Mikey Manghum: belief is that life is just more holistic than that. And we're actually doing you a disservice by only focusing on the number. The number can be important, but the number's not everything. And so, really, in the beginning, we when we actually walk people through a full exercise in our first official meeting where we're having that family cast vision. What's important Gregory Wilnau: I like that. Mikey Manghum: to you? Right? Like what what's important relationally? What's important in terms of your career or you what you feel like is your purpose on this earth? What is important financially? That's that's a big piece of it. What's important emotionally and spiritually? What's important to you in terms of your physical well-being? Like when you get to the end of the road and you're about to go meet your maker, what has to be true across those main categories of life for you to say, you know what, Mikey? I think I ran my race well. I've lived a life that I'm very proud. I'm leaving something great for the next generation. Because if you can paint that picture for us, we are proficient enough to reverse engineer the financial components of it. And it and honestly, for some people, it can feel a little life coachy, right? But what we're seeing is more of a move in the industry of like, hey, finances are not this just thing in a vacuum. It's a part of your overall story. You want to be able to look back on your life and say, that was successful. I'm proud of it. I'll I'll pick on myself, right? Like because of what I saw growing up and because of what my wife saw growing up, we really want to prioritize our marriage. And we know that our kids are not going to be in our household forever. It's important for us to invest in our relationship. We like to get away from the kids once a year and just go on a little short vacation. Gregory Wilnau: Sure, sure, sure. Mikey Manghum: So that's not a cost, right? That's an investment. So it's a part of a financial plan for us, right? And it may be different things that are important to different people, but let's build the plan based on what's important to you because it's too easy to get caught up with what the Joneses are doing, right? And it can Gregory Wilnau: Definitely. Mikey Manghum: hurt a very well-intentioned and and probably successful financial plan if we get distracted by a vision that's not ours. I always joke and say, hey, I love it when my clients pull up in the nice, fancy, two-seater drop top convertible. Like I'll come out and take a look at it and I'll ooh an R over it and I love it for you. I have three boys that are probably all going to be over six feet tall. I need a sprinter van. Right? Like that's it. That's Gregory Wilnau: Basketball players, baby. Yeah. Mikey Manghum: it. That's it. And my oldest is actually a big soccer fan and the World Cup just ended. Sami with that that's where we're at right now. We've got cleats and dirty soccer balls everywhere. So I I say all that just to say really what we're trying to do in those initial weeks, Greg, is really understand how do we fit in, having a client have a full understanding of all the services we can offer that maybe they aren't typically hearing about inside of a a true wealth manager's office that's only talking about investment. We're kind of we're taking that family office approach, but by by first understanding the vision and what's important to them, because then we can reverse engineer all of the financial components from. Gregory Wilnau: that. So after you've onboarded them, got the financial plan, you're offering that guidance. What does it look like to work work with you in a way that that's beyond that? So like during the course of a calendar year, do you do you check in every couple of months? Do you have scheduled calls once per quarter? Are you available ad hoc whenever they have a question? Maybe you just give us a high level explanation of kind of what it looks like to work with you. Kind of like over the course of a calendar Mikey Manghum: Absolutely so. Gregory Wilnau: year. Mikey Manghum: Yeah, and and in that first year, you know, w we want to cover all of those different components. So we'll go through segments of the insurance and risk mitigation plan, the estate plan, and we have an order of operations that we would follow, you know, absent of some client priorities. But oftentimes the clients come in and they're like, I really want to deal with this first. And so we can we can shuffle those different components of the financial plan. but once we get into more of a regular rhythm. We we are trying to engage with at least a quarterly meeting with them one on one or you know, however many people that are in their group with with one of the advisors on a quarterly basis. We are sending out monthly newsletters that's often just just kind of market commentary, letting people know what's what we're seeing in the market, those types of things. We have quarterly what we call value add webinars and so Most recently we were able to have Schwab's chief investment strategist, Lizanne Saunders, spend forty five minutes with us and just answer questions about the economy and the stock market. And we've got a lot of people on there with with kids that think, you know, calcium and and and guessing what's gonna happen next is the same as investing. It's like, well, there's a difference between gambling and investing. So we're trying to add value in those ways. That's happening on a quarterly basis. We typically have two or three client events a year. Some of them are specific to the private wealth division and some We partner with the bank because they have some big VIP events that they typically throw and so the private wealth clients will get invited to that too. So we are we're trying to engage as much as possible. Essentially the way clients can think about it is we're gonna pursue a a meeting at least once a quarter. But if they're if they have a consulting relationship or an AUM relationship, they basically have us on retainer. That's why the fees exist. It's an advisory service. It's not like we don't have any commissionable investment products, so it's not like We've done all we can and we've got paid and we're trying to move on to the next client. Our goal for our advisors is to have a manageable book of business that they can go deep with. We're not trying to have you manage five hundred relationships and not be able Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. Mikey Manghum: to service people well. Gregory Wilnau: Yeah. I love how you make sure that there's plenty of room for that so you can deliver service that is exceptional and high and high quality. All right, Mikey. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing Mikey Manghum: So Gregory Wilnau: with about what you do, a little bit more about what you do, a lot about your clients. for someone who who's listening who's interested in learning more about you and possibly what it looks like to work with you, where should they go next? What should they do? Mikey Manghum: Yeah, would love to have a conversation with them. probably the best way to get in touch is via our website. So RegentPrivateWealth.com. There's a contact us form that they can click. It's up there in the top right hand corner when they land on that on that homepage for us. That you can also access that contact form through the About Us page. So if you want to learn a little bit more about this guy and his British accent and my business partner, you can read that before submitting your inquiry. But we would love to have just a discovery call 30, 45 minutes, and get to know you and your story. Gregory Wilnau: All right, Mikey, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Appreciate ya. Mikey Manghum: But thank you for having me.