Financial Planner Search

About Financial Planner Search

Finding a financial advisor is easy. Finding the right one is hard. Most advisors look the same on paper — credentials, services, a polished website. But what you actually need to know is how they think, how they treat people, and whether you'd even enjoy working with them. That's what Financial Planner Search is for. Each episode, we sit down with an independent financial advisor for an honest, in-depth conversation. No sales pitch. No jargon. Just a real look at who they are, how they work, and who they're best suited to help. By the end, you'll know what they’re all about. Whether you're approaching retirement and looking for a fiduciary for the first time, thinking about leaving your current advisor, or simply want to make a smarter hiring decision — this show gives you the inside access you need.

Publisher

Gregory Wilnau

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

19 Mar 2026

Latest episode

7 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

56 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   7 Oct 2026

   If You Die, Nothing's Left with Melissa Yano | Financial Planner Search

   In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Melissa Yano, a CFP at Capital Wealth Planner, talks with business owners whose companies are already working and who still do not have an answer for what happens if they are suddenly gone. She works with closely held businesses, often a solo owner or a couple, usually up to about $15 million in revenue. People come to her when cash is piling up, a colleague has just sold, or last year's tax bill made them choke. A CPA can tell them what already happened. Melissa looks at what is next: how they pay themselves, whether the business could stand without them, and what they are actually moving toward if they ever step away. She will also say it plainly. If you die and nothing is set up, there may be nothing left for your family, your business, or your employees. Her husband cringes. She says it anyway. If you are married, she wants the spouse who is not the money person in the room. She grew up without much money or financial literacy, and she does not think a CFP designation makes her the only one allowed to understand the picture. Takeaways Why "the business is fine" and "I still don't know the next step" show up in the same first meeting What changes when someone looks forward instead of waiting for the tax return The surprise of a bigger net worth than the owner thought, and cash they still do not know what to do with Why she says the quiet part out loud: if you die, there may be nothing left What you are moving toward after a sale, so you do not spend the first year bored and hard on the people at home Chapters 00:00 From larger family wealth to smaller business owners 02:15 Who shows up, and what they ask first 03:46 What a CPA already did, and what is still open 05:56 Cash, an advisor they have not talked to, and a bigger net worth than they thought 07:39 How an owner knows it is time 10:06 Direct, and the spouse stays in the conversation 11:46 "If you die, there is nothing left here" 13:58 Putting the pieces of the puzzle together 16:30 What you are moving toward after you sell 20:37 Where to find her You can find them at: https://capitalwealthplanner.com (https://capitalwealthplanner.com) If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/ (https://www.wilnaudesign.com/) #financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #businessowners #smallbusiness

2. 

   5 Oct 2026

   Wealth Is a Tool, Not a Trophy with Gary Preisser | Financial Planner Search

   In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Gary Preisser, Managing Partner of Stonebriar Wealth Advisors, explains what he calls functional wealth. Most of his clients are retirees, or close to it, and he spends a lot of time reminding them that every dollar they have is going to be spent by somebody. It might as well be them. Gary came up through tax preparation and small-business consulting, where the useful question was always cash flow. He was surprised, once he entered this industry, to find the first conversation was a sheet of questions about feelings and risk. His process runs the other direction. Start with why the money exists. That tells you when it is needed. The investments follow the timing. Money needed in six months does not belong in the market, and it does not belong in a 12-month CD that will not be there when the bill shows up. He also walks through what a "good" return actually means. A 7% year sounds fine until someone took half the market's volatility in a year the market was up 20%. His business partner Shay compares that to paying for a dozen eggs and opening the carton to find nine. Later he talks about the widow's tax trap, the ants in Aesop's fable who saved the food so they could eat it, and a 96-year-old client he keeps telling to spend more. His longer aim is to get other advisors to start with purpose before they ever talk about a product. Takeaways Every dollar already has a job, and the job is not to sit on a statement A conservative return can still be a bad year if it lagged what that level of risk should have earned The useful tax question is when to pay, while the lower brackets are still open Saving for decades does not finish the plan. Someone still has to use the money Purpose, then timing, then the portfolio Chapters 00:00 Wealth is a tool, not a trophy 01:48 The $10,000 refund that was a loan to the government 04:11 Start with why, then decide when the money is needed 08:22 The real worry is not running out 13:45 Nine eggs instead of twelve 16:27 The widow's tax trap 21:32 The ants were supposed to eat the food 27:31 Clients who say "just take care of it" 32:28 The surgeon, the scalpels, and a backwards industry 37:38 The first appointment, and what a quarterly meeting is actually for You can find them at: https://www.stonebriarwealthadvisors.com/ (https://www.stonebriarwealthadvisors.com/) If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/ (https://www.wilnaudesign.com/) #financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #retirement #taxes

3. 

   1 Oct 2026

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

   In this episode of Financial Planner Search, Donny Stewart, CFP and partner at Swan Wealth Management, discusses what people are really asking when they say, "Am I okay?" He and his partners, TJ Bruce and Mike Mahalich, met on the Regis University golf team, spent years on the institutional side, and later bought a book in Edina full of retirees and people close to it. Every client and every dollar at Swan is split three ways. You meet all three. You end up calling the one you click with, and you still reach an owner. Donny's problem with a 94% "probability of success" is that nobody knows what the other 6% is. He puts it as a chance of eating cat food. He would rather show a monthly amount you can spend, with guardrails if things run hot or cold. The younger households look different and sound the same. Late thirties, kids, a full calendar, wondering if they are saving the right amount in the right place. Sometimes the sign it's working is a call about how to pay the nanny. The other half of the job starts when the paycheck stops. Donny calls it the psychology of retirement. For six to eighteen months it can feel like every day is Saturday. Give that stretch a purpose, or the feeling fades. Purpose, he says, is power. Takeaways "Am I okay?" gets a monthly number, not a probability Three owners on every client, and you call the one you actually like A 94% success score still doesn't say what you can spend The first year off work fades if there's nothing to get up for If the question has a dollar sign on it, they want the call Chapters 00:00 Three college teammates, one firm 07:12 You always reach an owner 18:16 Two kinds of people, one question 20:20 The 6% that sounds like cat food 26:21 A nanny, and a man who could stop next year 32:35 Purpose is power 44:11 A chatbot in a scuba suit 49:32 Sleep well at night 55:22 How to reach Swan You can find them at: https://swanwm.com/ (https://swanwm.com/) If you are a financial advisor looking to grow your business you can find out more about Wilnau Design at https://www.wilnaudesign.com/ (https://www.wilnaudesign.com/) #financialplanning #finance #financialplannersearch #retirement #purpose

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