Latest / Financial Planner Search / Am I Okay If I Step Away? with Bridget Grimes | Financial Planner Search
Transcript
- Chase: Bridget, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast today. I've really been looking forward to our conversation. Bridget: Thanks, Chase. Thanks for having me. Appreciate the opportunity. Chase: Absolutely. so let's just jump right in. Tell us a little bit about your practice and what you specialize in. Bridget: Sure. So I launched a firm called Wealth Choice, and in just a few days we will be 10 years old, which is super exciting. Thanks. Pretty psyched. So what Chase: Happy birthday to the firm. Bridget: we do is we provide ongoing financial planning and investment management to what we call breadwinner women. Those are the folks who everything's on their plate. They make the money, you know, most of the cases they take care of the family. They may or may not have a spouse or partner, but we engage with these folks to really help them. live the life that they're working really hard to make. Chase: And can you tell me a little bit about what inspired you to work in this niche in specific Bridget: Yeah, so I'll tell you it's a really personal story. I was many years ago going through a divorce. I had been years ago, I had been in finance, I had worked in hedge funds as a trader, and then I left and I actually became a pastry chef for a decade. And I was going through divorce, my house burned down in San Diego with lots of other people. and my two best friends who were really successful. professionals. One was this amazing hand surgeon and the other was running a media company. All of us lost our houses, all of us were actually going through divorces, and all of us were really busy. And I just realized that nobody, none of us had a plan. And I was I was really worried like what happens to women like us who don't have five minutes to think about our future. And it was truly when I decided to come back into finance and to help women who look like me. Chase: Story. so let's go a little bit deeper into what was happening if you're comfortable, a little bit deeper into Bridget: Mm-hmm. Chase: what was happening at that time for you during this really, really difficult time in your life that probably a lot of women will recognize themselves in as well. you talked, you gave us like some high-level details of what was going on in your life at that time, but how did it how did it feel going through that at that time? What was going on for you emotionally? Bridget: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting because as a woman, a professional woman, and I had two little kids at the time, right? So I I have to tell you, I didn't pay a bill. Like I had my husband pay the bills. I did not have the time. I was doing everything else. Now he did work, and a lot of our clients' spouses don't work. My spouse did work, but you know, he took care of the finances, which I would say I would never ever do again. And I d advise my clients to never do, like disengage from your financial life, bad choice. but you know, I I realized that I had no idea where we were financially. it was pretty unsettling. When we went through our divorce, we actually split debt that I didn't even know existed. That was eye-opening. and so what was going through my mind was Man, what is gonna happen? I don't have time to do this. Am I gonna be okay? what's gonna happen to my kids? Like, how do I pay for stuff? And I'm a pretty educated person and I just I mean, I have to tell you, it makes you realize that it doesn't matter how educated or successful people are. Like if this isn't your if A, you don't have time to or you don't dedicate the time or you disengage with your financial life, like that is a bad solution. And but unfortunately it's a place a lot of folks wind up. And so I was really I I was at like ground zero, like starting like, okay, so now I have to engage in this life. I have to make sure my kids are okay. I have to have a plan for myself. and you know, I was talking to my friends about this and they were in exactly the same boat. Listen to this. My girlfriend, the hand surgeon, who made plenty of money, repeatedly had her water turned off because she never paid the bill because she didn't have time, because she was managing her son, she was working all the time, she just didn't have time to focus on that. And that makes you realize like there are so many folks in this boat, so many women like me in this boat. and I I have to tell you, so I just thought, okay, look, I'm gonna start from zero and we're gonna figure this out. And I started to work at a warehouse. I didn't know anything about financial planning industry, right? I was a trader. I just knew I knew finance, I knew money, but I I came into the industry at a warehouse because my mentor from a million years ago. had worked there and he said, Bridget, come here, you can serve who you want. I'm like, great. So so I went there and I wound up actually serving women attorney partners. Why? Because I actually had very similar challenges to what I did, right? They were kind of marginalized in their industries by being female, they were underpaid, they didn't have four seconds to worry about their family and their future. and they really needed a lot of direction in terms of how to navigate their careers so that they they got paid what they were worth. So I gravitated to these women attorney partners and it's how I started my practice, which expanded over time, but it really was a great place to to help these folks as a guide because we had very similar problems. Chase: Now you mentioned a lot of the time people or women come to you and they're they are disengaged from their finances. Bridget: Yeah. Chase: What does that often look like? Do have any like you just mentioned a Bridget: Yeah. Chase: few stories already, but I'd like to see that illustrated a bit more. Bridget: Yeah, so and and I have to tell you it's not from lack of caring. It it truly comes down to lack of time and oftentimes lack of education. My clients are s crazy smart and they're really successful. They're great women, but they just don't know. So okay, so I'll give you an example of a recent client, a new client to us. she actually found us through search. I write a lot, I speak a lot. I'm super passionate about helping women get to a better place. So I I try to put content out there. So she found us through that. We had an initial conversation. She's young, she's 51, and she just retired. Her husband does not work, has not worked. They have three kids, one's still in high school, the kids one's in college and one is older. so this is a woman who did a great job of. Earning money. She worked at tech firms, she had some great stock awards, she's got great net worth. She does not know what to do with this. And and that's not because she's not intelligent, it's because her expertise was in a totally different place. So she came to me and she said, You know, I just retired, here's what I've got. can you help us? And this is so typical because You know, it starts with okay, well, what do you need? What's your cost of living, right? Like, what is your vision for your future? You know, you've got ostensibly 50 years left of life. Like, what's your vision for your kids? and it really is folks just don't know where to even start, right? And this is an interesting case because all of the wealth is in two stocks, two companies. That is a huge issue. So, how do we turn that into and preserve that in a crazy volatile portfolio. We can get into this in more detail later, but but the thing is this is an example of someone who comes to us and they're like, okay, I don't even know where to start. And how do I make sure that all this hard work translates into this quality of life for myself and my family? Chase: Amazing. And let's back up a little bit here to back to your story just really quickly. The Bridget: Mm-hmm. Chase: experience that you went through with and with you and your friends and losing your houses, losing your relationships and not having time to even think about money, how did that experience shape the way you approach your practice and your clients today? Bridget: Yeah, so so when we work with the client, before we engage with them, we go through a really specific process. And I think that's important to answer your question. So women come to us, but not everybody's a fit. And I I consider myself a guide in a changing landscape, right? Like so nobody's got a cut and dry life. Life goes through it ebbs and flows, and things happen, they come at us, we have to like come up with the best situation with what we're working with, right? So so when someone comes to us, we have an initial conversation and then if we decide, hey, maybe there's an opportunity for us to provide value to this client, we go through a specific process. We don't charge for this. But this is really important because I want to collect some information from that woman and from in her family. I want to be able to take a little 30,000 foot view of their life, like dig into some numbers, dig into some values and passions that this person and her family have and then offer some observations and suggestions. And I think this is really important because this is the only way folks can truly see what they would expect if they were to work with you. And I will not take a client on unless we spend some time. So you know let's say we've gone through this process and we feel like we're a good fit for each other. The kind of work this woman wants is what we provide, right? So it's it's just tons of deep work. It's super planning focused. obviously, there's an investment management part, but it's really planning focused. So I I share that because when we start to work with a client, everybody's got a different situation, right? There's no there are no two folks with the same stories. And I love that part about the work we do. Everyone's got a different story. They come from a different place, they have different challenges. So I especially like to work. with four different categories of folks, if you want to call them that. Like we have breadwinner women, right? And and what that means is our folks are making the money in their family. They may have a spouse or a partner who makes money, but most of this falls to my the lead partner, the the woman in the family or the individual if she's if she's single. And so our folks will either be executive women, their women attorney partners, They're women running businesses and they're women in tech. And I mention that because, well, they're all women and they're breadwinner women. There are really specific challenges that each of these specific groups folks have. There's a lot of stuff that that all of them share. and then there's some nuances, right, that we have to spend time on. But each one of them will have just challenges that we start with. Okay, what is your vision for your future? Like what are your passions? What does your future life look like to you? in you know, one year, three year, five years, like down the road. And we will back into okay, if this is what's important to you, maybe it's like, okay, we have this child, he's three, I want to pay for four years of public college. Name your goal, right? We help them kind of crystallize what that is. Maybe it's I want to have the option to no longer work at 50, whatever. Everyone's got their own list, and so then we dig into, well, where are you now? You know, what are the gaps we see? What are the opportunities we have to to to close those gaps? And then we come up with an initial plan. And you know, like I said, every one of these categories of women will have really different challenges. And things will change as we go through life, right? Like so Chase: Here? Yeah. Bridget: when we start right now with a plan of action, I can tell you when we sit down in six months and recap, things will be different. Right, whether it's tax law change, which comes at us sideways, or it's something happened in somebody's life, somebody got sick. I had two clients get really sick last year, young women. So you stop and you say, okay, let's go back to what's really important and what are we dealing with. And now let's, you know, let's Chase: Okay, no fine. That was great. Bridget: make some changes to our plan. So all that is to say, you know, everything's gonna start with what your intentions are and the challenges are different with everybody, but the process becomes similar, right? understanding where they are financially, understanding where their money's going. We always dig into where your spending is, what you're bringing in. I mean, people hate budgets. You don't have to have a budget. I'm like with you. But you at least have to have awareness. So we're going to help you with that. Right. So we understand because is there a surplus? Is there a deficit? So we dig into that. We dig into investments. How are you invested? What were you thinking? Maybe let's talk about our investment Chase: Ha ha ha. Bridget: portfolio ideas. And then retirement ideas. We go into taxes. A lot of this is tax strategy. I'll tell you one of the number one things our clients want is guidance around taxes. So we have a lot of work we do there. and then what I call risk management. So that's like, what does your estate plan look like? Nobody who I work for is going to die without a really good plan and their family's not going to fight about their money. So I mean, I feel like these are things that we're talking about incrementally, right? And then lastly, you know, insurance, which I'm not a fan of insurance. It gets the job done, but I want to make sure that we're protecting the assets that these folks are working so hard to create and to add to. So we just want to make sure, hey, are you good in terms of protecting the people you love, the people who rely on you for money and just your assets and your wealth? So that's all the stuff we cover in all different kinds of funky nuances depending on where that person's coming from. Chase: So it's it's not just portfolio management at all. It's really a very broad, like whole life Bridget: yeah. Chase: support kind of service that you provide. Bridget: yeah, you know, life support. That's a really interesting way to to to to address it. But yeah, but no, but no, Chase: Well, that's maybe not the right term, but Bridget: actually, you know what, Chase, you're right. Because it really is, it starts with what are your intentions? I mean, that is not like it are you in a 70, 30 stock portfolio. Like it's that it's that is that's that's something that has to be done. And the investments are absolutely critical. But I have to tell you, I honestly feel like that's almost the commodity in our industry. Like what truly makes the difference is the guidance you get. It's the choices you make with what you're dealing with right now. Those choices will make all the difference. We help those folks make the best choices with what they're given. Chase: And so what are some of the questions that they typically ask when they meet with you for the first time? What's usually keeping Bridget: Mm-hmm. Chase: them up at night when they first meet you? Bridget: Yeah, so I always will ask, well, questions they ask me. So I'll tell you, and these are important questions to ask any financial planner you're interviewing for or or speaking to potentially. One is how do you get paid? that is a big question because there should be complete fee transparency in anything you're getting. If you are paying for service, you need to understand the value you're getting and you need to know what you're paying. So What what what are how do I get compensated is important. I'm a fee-only planner. I'm a fiduciary. I'm a certified financial planner professional. Those are really important questions. Does your, you know, do you have a CFP designation? That connotes a certain level of expertise. That's important. you know, another thing is do you serve people who look like me? Can you relate to my problems? Which is really a big deal. Chase: That's a Bridget: You know, we serve women who look like us. Like that is, I get it. Right, I have been there or I'm going there and I can understand some of the concerns. A lot of this is emotional. Like, is that person actually able to understand what you're going through and the situations you have? So super important. and I think another question I get often that is a really important question too, is do you do I expect to manage their money? And the answer is yes, and I'll tell you why. If money is all over the place, it's at Fidelity, it's wherever. You know, like name your like many different places, and there's not one unified strategy based on what you're trying to accomplish, it's going to be much harder for that person to reach their goals. So we expect to have one really clear strategy depending on what we're trying to accomplish. And maybe there's a couple of different things we're trying to do, right? Maybe we're planning for we're funding a trust, right? Maybe Maybe we want to buy a house in a number of years. Maybe we have a retirement strategy. Maybe we have an education strategy. Whatever it is that that person is trying to fund, we need to know that every single dollar that person has is doing its best work. And there is one unified strategy for one particular goal. And I I cannot stand behind my projections if I don't know what's happening to the money. So, yes, we do expect to manage all of our clients' assets because I believe that that will help them get to where they need to be. so those are important questions because sometimes folks will say, Hey, you know, I don't want you to manage our money, and I'll say, That's great, that I can refer you to somebody who's a better fit for you than I am. Chase: do you have any favorite stories or recent stories about a transformation that you've helped a woman go through? Bridget: gosh. Yeah, you know, I do actually. So I think probably one of my and I have so many, Chase, but I'll tell you, I think one of my favorite stories was we're coming up almost on two years of when this client sold her business. So she came to me years ago. She was the CEO of a company that she launched about 25 years ago. she'd done a really great job of building this business. she has one child, one adult child who's actually at the time was in college and she's married and her she's she's a breadwinner in her family. So she she really struggled with like her entire identity is wrapped up in this company. This is what she's done for a really long time, pretty much most of her since she got out of college. Like she just got this business going and she's been successful. And so the question was, do I retire? Do I sell the company and do I retire and like, you know, have no more identity with this business? I play pickleball and golf or whatever I do, but I don't I no longer am identified as the owner of this company. Do I do that? Am I gonna be okay with that? and she has an older husband who really wanted her to retire. And there's a big age gap. So she's, you know, in her 50s. So this is a big question. Do I sell this? Do I step away? And am I gonna be okay with that personally? Or do I just kind of find some way to maybe hire somebody to come in and do more like clone me where I'm still like I kind of have my hands in this, but I don't completely step away. And for our clients who are all professional women, it is a really big decision to step away from work. It really is, whether you're an attorney at a law firm or you're running your own business. So this was a conversation I've had many times with other clients. And at the end of the day, she said, Bridget, I'm gonna sell it. So we put a team together. We brought in a new CPA. I brought in an attorney who specializes in exits. and we we just put this team together. We valued how much does she need to have, how much would she really need to net. If she were to sell this in order to be able to live a certain quality of life. you know, the attorney was able to run a bunch of scenarios, the tax team was able to run like net based on how we were gonna sell this company because there were a lot of nuances. And she got an offer, and market wasn't great, right? So this was during COVID. She got an offer, and I have to tell you, we did the numbers, they spent some time on this, and I said to her, You have to walk away. You gotta walk away from this because if you sell this, you are selling yourself out of the company, and it's not enough money. and it is a hard thing, right? Because it was still a lot of money, but it just wasn't enough money. So so she walked away. And I'm like, man, I hope this was the right decision. so within about six months, another suitor came in and he offered significantly more money. We did the due diligence, and she sold the company. And So where she is now, that was about two years ago. It was a great sale, super scary. and she's still working for the new company. So that's usually what happens, right? You don't just get to like hightail it out of there and take your money and go. You have a little period of time where you have to earn your earnout and then you get to leave. So we are almost two years in. She is almost out of that. and she is In a really great place. So we took that money, she's gonna be okay, and then she's gonna step away soon. So what I love about that story, Chase, is that we really have been dealing with those conversations around not not can I afford to retire, but can I retire? Like, am I okay with that next chapter? and what does that look like? And helping somebody really work through, am I ready for that? Because that really is a big problem for my clients, right? And some have just chosen to keep going. Like the I know I know work, so I'm just gonna keep working. so anyway, so that that is one of my favorite stories. And we're now on the other side of that sale. Chase: How how does she seem to be doing on the identity side of things? Bridget: You know, she's good. We have had many conversations over the since since she sold it, since she took that money. there has been an adjustment period for sure, because some things you don't have control over anymore, like your staff, right? It's not your staff anymore. Your title, your responsibilities are all different and dictated by what you negotiated and what the owners say. So there's definitely been some acceptance of change. but I think that she is finally at the place where she's like, Okay, I'm good. It's taken two years. and so it's been a while, right? Chase: And so when you're helping people through this decision to retire, how much of it is really about the money and how much they'll need and how much of it is more about the emotional identity side Bridget: Yeah. Chase: feeling of letting go? Bridget: So it's really both. It is really both. And I'll tell you, so much of our work is making sure that somebody's on track to be able to retire when they want to with the lifestyle they want. That is a huge deal. Every single meeting with a client who is still working, which is most of our clients, every single meeting we say, okay, here's what you're on track for as of right now. Given how much you're saving, given how much the portfolio has increased, given what we're looking at. This is how you look. Are you good with that? And if you're not good with that, this is when we make changes, right? So so that is really important, the saving part, because that's on the client, right? We can't we can't dictate what's going to happen in the stock market. We can have a really good strategy that makes a lot of sense, but we have to expect volatility, but we can affect where we spend our money and how we save it. So a lot of that is conversation like, hey, are we good? Do we need to save more? So that numbers part is important. But then I can tell you I have many clients who can more than afford to retire and they are not doing it. I actually had in July, so in the last month, month before last, I had two clients retire. It's a couple. I have worked with these guys almost 20 years. So before I launched my current practice, they followed me. we have been talking about retirement for a long time, right? Okay, he's he's 71 and she's 65. They could have retired honestly a long time ago, years ago, but they just know work. And they were like, What will we do if we don't work? And I said, You won't you could travel, like you love to travel. So we would talk about this, but they were truly there's a fear factor. And then there's also like, well, what I know is work. I know work, I'm good with this, like I know what to expect, I feel a purpose, I have you know, I'm valued. and honestly, I am so thrilled to say they both retired in July. Which is awesome. And it's really funny because the husband retired on a Friday and on a Monday, that next Monday, we had a meeting and he missed the meeting. And I said, Where are you? And he's like, my gosh. I he said, I'm retired. I forgot it was Monday and a meeting. I'm like, okay. So I said, that is awesome. Chase: It took two days. Bridget: Honest that you can't make that up. I was like, that is terrific. Okay. So that's what you should be doing. But so it's both, Chase. It's the emotional part, it's the purpose, it's the values you feel in yourself. it's you know, work is a known thing for and these are W two people, right? It's not all business owners. Like so it's it's just like, Hey, I know what to expect, but it's also you gotta know that you're financially okay. Like that part, that's there there's two different things. Chase: So we've talked a lot about who makes a really great fit to work with you, Bridget. Who's someone you absolutely would not work with? What defines them as a Bridget: That is a great question. Yeah, so no kidding, we work with breadwinner women and their families. And I, Chase: Right. Bridget: you know what I I love guys, I've got an awesome husband. It's not that. Our specialty is in really working around the challenges that these women have. So that's really who we're best suited for. oftentimes folks who are kind of deep, we call them DIY investors, will read about us somewhere and they'll like what they read and they want to work with us. but they really struggle with giving away or trusting us to do things differently. If you want to do the same thing over and over again, we are not your person. Like we have a really specific strategy, we have a very specific process. We will not just invest somebody's money without doing financial planning. I think that is a losing proposition. I cannot tell you how to invest your money if I don't know all the other things behind it. and so Or what we're trying to solve for, right? Like what is your cost of living? What do you want your life to look like? How much do you want to leave for your kids? Whatever. Like those are conversations and those things will change over time. So, you know, if somebody is used to doing it their way, but they're like, hey, maybe I want to try it, maybe you want to take part, we're not your guy. Like we are really not, and then that's okay. and anytime anyone reaches out to us and we decide, you know, we're probably not aligned, I can refer them to people who are better suited to serve them. And I will do that all day long. So I'll take the call. But we are really we're we're best suited for folks who resonate with what I've been saying. They see themselves as one of the types of folks we serve. and they want the ongoing guidance because they value that guidance. That you know, they value the tax strategy, they trust us to do better than they could do themselves because this is what we do all day long. those those are the folks we are best or not best suited to serve. Chase: How do your clients typically find you? Where do they come from? Bridget: I would say 99% are client referrals. I am thrilled to say. We have tons of marketing, which is really awesome, but most of our clients come from our existing clients. We are also in a bunch of media, and oftentimes folks will find us through search, which is great. We'll start an awesome conversation. And if we're a good fit, that's great. But we tend to be really heavy drive heavily driven by client referrals. Chase: Well that's that speaks a lot to how much your clients trust you and love you because they're referring you to their friends and their family probably. Bridget: Yeah, I I I you know what I feel really, really blessed. We work with many generations. So a few years ago we launched a practice within our our firm called Rising Professionals, and it was an answer to our client advisory board. So we have a board of eight really fabulous clients, been with us for a long time, who really give us insight and feedback so that we're always doing better with our clients. And so a few years ago, our clients said, you know, we would love someone who could serve our young adult children. And and because you know, most people in our industry are only worried about money. If you don't have money, they're not going to serve you. So we thought this is an amazing opportunity. My daughter came in a couple of years ago. She's 29, and she came in and she's now a partner in our firm. And so she runs that practice for us, and she is now serving, we're serving in one family three generations, right? So We are serving those kids, those young adult kids who are, you know, some are in college, some are like, you know, in their 20s, early 30s, but they want this guidance. it's different than the guidance for our older, more established clients who have just different problems, right? But these younger folks, they want to know how do I invest in my 401k? How do I save money for a house and pay for child care? So it's like very different stuff. some of it's basic like budgeting. But we started doing that because we really think it's important that these folks have guidance before they're down the path, Chase: Yes. Bridget: they've made mistakes, they have to recover, like let's not, let's just beat that. and so that that is actually really exciting. So that came from our clients. So we listened to our clients, any feedback on how can we do better service. We are super focused on you know, like I said, everybody's got a different situation, but I want those families to feel like. You know, my my older clients who are in their forties and fifties and sixties, who have done an amazing job of working really hard and saving money. Our folks earn the money. Our folks have not been given the money. And so they value that work ethic. They value the money that they have created. They they want to protect this and they wanna know there's a plan. So by working with the next generations, we're making sure that that money is going to be treated well. it it's it's not gonna be squandered. It's you know, it these folks worked for it. They want it to be transferred to their children in a really intentional way. So anyway, so we help with that with with our our clients. Chase: I love that you are that your firm and you are open to working with the younger generation. I w I talk to a lot of financial advisors and I gotta tell you, it's pretty rare that people are willing to work with the younger generation. Bridget: Yeah, you know, but you know, Chase, like I I said earlier, it's it I work with folks who look like me and Marnie Seaman, Chase: Yes. Bridget: who is running that program, she's working with folks who look like her. They would so much rather rather speak to her than me. I mean, because they know that she gets it, right? She was there. She worked for a tech firm for years and you know, she understands what it's like to live in an expensive city, to balance rent and and groceries and savings and So they would so much rather work with someone who looks like them. So it's been a really good Chase: Mm-hmm. Bridget: fit. Chase: And who is it that runs that program? The name? Bridget: It's Marnie Seaman. So my daughter. Yep, Marnie. Yeah, Marnie's great. yeah, thanks. Chase: Marnie. Shout out to Marnie. Awesome. Love it. And I love that you guys are are continu it sounds like you're continually growing as well. So when it comes to your practice, where do you see it in the next like one to three years? What's your vision? Are there any goals that Bridget: That is Chase: you're working on? Bridget: Yeah, I love that. And yes, we do. We are very organized. We're planners. you know, Chase: Yeah. Bridget: we we we have a quarterly meetings, we have annual meetings to try to figure out what's the vision for this firm. Because when I launched Wealth Choice, initially I thought I want to be the number one largest firm in the country serving breadwinner women. And I'll tell you something as I got into the work, the the joy that I get is from the deep work I do with my clients. So I'm not the CEO. Who doesn't want to be doing the financial planning work? I love that work. So I changed the vision for wealth choice. and the vision isn't to be the biggest, the big the vision is to be the best. And so we have been really blessed. We serve 82 families right now, and that includes some generational families. our goal is to incrementally grow the firm. I don't have a specific AUM number, asset under management number, because that is not how we define success. We define success by bringing in more really awesome people. And that may sound cliche, but it's true, right? Like you this goes back to what is enough? How much is enough for any individual, which is a question we all ask ourselves. And to me, enough is when you have an awesome practice where you make a difference to the lives of your clients. And that's what we will continue to do, which is why we're super intentional about who we bring on as a client. Are we providing the value that that folk those folks are looking for? are they, you know, good people who we're really well aligned with? Can we really help them? And then it's a great fit. but that is how we will continue to grow. Chase: And is there anything standing in your way currently? Is there other any challenges that you're facing? Bridget: No, honestly, there really aren't. Chase: Awesome. Bridget: I have to tell you, I feel like we're just really well positioned. I have an amazing team. I really do. I have a great client service associate whose name is Brittany Goldman, who is just amazing. My operations team is shout out to Britney who's who Chase: Shout out to Brittany. Bridget: keeps us all together. I have a great portfolio management team. I have to tell you, behind me, there is just a really terrific team of people. we have been super intentional about who sits in what seats. I consider everybody a partner because we respect each other. We just do great work together. so no, I I would say I believe we are super well positioned. Bringing Marnie on two and a half almost three years ago was a huge change for our firm because I had been the lead planner on everything and we hit capacity. And I I'll tell you right now, we actually are. really intentionally bringing new clients on because of capacity. So we have to really be intentional, like who's that person or you know, how does that fit into the practice? But no, we are super well positioned for the future. Chase: Amazing. I love to hear that. Bridget, this has been an awesome conversation. I think that we have a very clear picture of who you are, who you serve, and what you do best for them. For someone listening who saw themselves in this episode and wants to get in touch with you, what should they do next and where should they go? Bridget: Sure. so I'd say reach out to us and our website is wealthchoice.com. We have a contact us page. So go to that page. There's a a short little worksheet with a couple questions and fill it out and hit send and then we'll, you know, we'll get that email and we'll find some time to chat. We'll talk to anybody. We will always talk to somebody who connects with us that way. Chase: Awesome. Excellent. Bridget, thank you so much for joining me today. It was a pleasure. Bridget: Thanks for having me, Chase. Thank you.