Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Dan Brooks Founder of Xexis Private Wealth Discussing the E.A.S.E. Planning Process

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

Dan entered the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Power program after high school and upon discharge, he purchased the family business which he operated for 7 years.After his father’s death, he discovered his father lost a small fortune due to bad advice from a stock broker. Dan decided to enter financial services to find out how this could happen and help others avoid it.In 2004 he completed the Certified Financial Planner coursework and in 2005 opened a Registered Investment Advisor firm.He owns both a Financial Advisor firm and a tax firm based in Lake Mary, Florida. Dan works with a Registered Investment Advisor firm that manages over $3 billion dollars and is one of the fastest-growing firms in the nation.Dan’s specialty is comprehensive retirement planning, including income planning, tax mitigation, catastrophic health care planning, Medicare, Estate Planning, and Generational Wealth.On a personal level, his proudest accomplishment was being a single father to his daughter, who is a Police Officer. He enjoys golf, hiking, traveling, cooking, and discovering new restaurants.Learn More:http://www.xexiswealth.com/Investment advisory services offered through Virtue Capital Management, LLC (VCM), a registered investment advisor. VCM and Xexis Private Wealth, LLC are independent of each other. For a complete description of investment risks, fees, and services, review the Virtue Capital Management firm brochure (ADV Part 2A) which is available from your Investment Advisor Representative, or by contacting Virtue Capital Management. Information provided is not intended as tax or legal advice and should not be relied on as such. You are encouraged to seek tax or legal advice from an independent professional.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-dan-brooks-founder-of-xexis-private-wealth-discussing-the-e-a-s-e-planning-process

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have with this Dan Brooks, who's the founder of Zexis Private Wealth and will be talking about his ease planning process. Dan, welcome to the program. Mike, how are you? Good to be here.

Doing great, and I'm excited to talk to you about this planning process because I love when someone has come up with a system and a proven framework. And I love acronyms, so the ease planning process. But before we dive into that, give us a little bit of your story and background and how did you get into financial services? Well, Mike, that's an interesting question because I didn't intend on getting into this business. I was actually in the restaurant business years ago, owned a couple restaurants and thought I was going to spend my career there. And something happened in my family that changed us all in it and actually kind of thrust me into this business.

So it's a little bit of an interesting story that I'll shorten it as much as I can. My dad was a prisoner of war. And when he got back, he went to college and got into the business world. He was highly successful. He was very, very, very smart and did well. So when I was young growing up, you know, it was a pretty good life. We had the big house and the up in the hill overlooking the river and the boats and taking vacations. We lived in the Midwest and we'd vacation in Florida in the winter.

And then one day it kind of all changed. And, you know, the big house got sold. We moved into a rental. My mom went to work for the first time that, you know, in my life. So it was pretty dramatic. And, you know, at that age, your parents don't really tell you. of what's going on. So I didn't know. I just had to live through it. And I didn't really find out, Mike, until, you know, many years later when my dad passed away. Because going back to that

tough time, you know, his health started deteriorate after that. And he was never really healthy afterwards. But when he, when he passed away, my mom called me over and she said, I need some financial help. And I wasn't an advisor. I was in the restaurant business. But your mom asked, and of course, you're going to help her. And I said, what's going on? And she said, well, your dad wasn't able to leave me very much. And to this day, I remember the look on her face and I remember the feeling in that room. And that's when she kind of told me the story of what had happened. When he was very successful, he was prudent with his money, he'd saved a lot of money,

intended to pay for college for his five kids and was only able to do it for one. So the story was that he really got some awful advice from a person in the financial services business, my business now. In that case, it was a stockbroker. And this story is not a diatribe against stock brokers. You know, we manage, you know, our group manages billions of dollars. So I'm certainly not against the stock market. But this was just really awful advice that he got.

Yeah. With the market going down two years in a row, he lost a bunch of money the first year. The broker said, well, look, the market always comes back. It always has, always will. You know, it'll bounce back next year. Don't worry about it, Mr. Brooks. What we need to do is take what you have left, which is substantial. and really take even more risk because when we do that, we'll bounce you back to where you should be.

Buying cheap money. Yeah, right. And that was the idea. And, of course, the market went down two years in a row and really kind of wiped him out. I think it affected his health. I think it shortened his life. And about a year and a half after he passed away, I decided to get in this business because I was kind of mad at the financial industry and wanted to find out what in the world happened. So I didn't want it to happen to me.

I didn't want it to happen to people I knew. And I thought, I'll get in there and figure out, you know, how this can happen to people. And I thought it might take a year of working in industry. And it actually took longer. And before long, I found out I was kind of in the industry. And that's when I started forming this idea for the ease planning process because I found that there's so much confusion. The public has so much confusion about the financial world. And they really just need to have, you know,

clear and honest answers because people are smart. If they get accurate information about how anything works, they're smart enough to make their own decisions. And that's how we develop this EASEE's planning process. You know, I love that you entered in the industry after almost like having a realization that the industry did wrong by your dad, your family. So you wanted to help out, fix that, prevent other people. I'll bet you didn't come up with the ease. Plans process day one, you know, you have to come in and go, let me learn the ropes. Let me, you know, work in this a little bit and then, oh, let me, let me take note of this here. This is kind of an interesting aspect. And, you know, let me make sure that this, this would

fit with this piece. And it just slowly developed over time. So at first, when you started in the industry, what was that foundation like for you? And I want to dive into what the ease planning processes, but what was that foundation? And what did what emerged as your specialty based on that foundation? Well, that's a, that's an excellent question because you're right. And I, in fact, intentionally moved from large financial company to large financial company. And if I named them, you'd know all of them. But I did intentionally because I wanted to learn what each of them are doing and the different sides of the business. You know, there's the investment side, there's the insurance side, there's the planning side. So I really wanted to.

to, you know, dive into that. I did all of the training that I could do. I completed the certified financial planning course work and, you know, hundreds of hours of other training to really, you know, kind of peel back the curtain of what was going on in the industry. So as you said, bit by bit, I put this ease planning process together. And it really came about from our clients who were telling us at the end of the process that we're using, which we didn't have a name for. They just kept saying, Dan, you know, thank you so much. I feel so much at ease now. You know, when we first met you, we were kind of confused.

We had all these questions and we weren't getting answers to it. Everybody we talked to was just trying to sell us something. And, you know, sometimes we bought stuff and sometimes we didn't buy things, but we always wondered whether it was the right thing. And, you know, we really appreciate you laying this all out for us. So that's when we actually, one of my employees said, you know, Dan, we had to call that ease. Yeah. So we did. Yeah.

And so what does the EASE stand for? Well, the first E is educate, because I believe very strongly that, you know, our specialty is we help people plan for retirement. And this is their, you know, what we call golden years. This is a big deal. You know, you need to get this right because this is the next 25, 30, 40 years of somebody's life. And if you make a big mistake in retirement planning, it can be devastating.

You know, it's not like you bought a car and the car dealer charged you $6,000 more than you should have paid. while that doesn't feel good, it's not going to change your life much. You make a big mistake in retirement planning and it can totally derail you. So if we start with education, because people need the education and they need to be able to count on it, and that puts them in the position to do the second one of the ease, A, which is analyze, and analyzing their options. Because once you understand what your options are, you can analyze them.

and we're really helping our clients put their own plan together. Even though I'm a financial planner, it's their plan that I'm just guiding them. I'm just helping them, you know, get their questions answered and give them honest answers to those. And then the third part, the S is strategize. As once you understand and you've analyzed your options, now you can put a strategy together and you can use, you know, what we call the five aisles of money. And the final part of the ease is injurates. because that is really the goal in retirement is enjoy it.

Don't be worrying all the time about whether your money's going to last or, you know, what dangers are down the road that you haven't thought about. It's really a time for people to enjoy their lives. You know, I've heard it said that people like to buy, but they don't like to be sold. And I think that what you just laid out is this process of let's teach and educate, be their advocate, lay out some options based on what we've learned from you. so here's some things to consider. And then they feel like they're part of the process and they're understanding it.

And then I like that you have analyzed before the strategy because you can't just come in day one and say, here's the strategy. Well, I barely know your last name. I don't know your goals. We didn't assess it and analyze it to see if it makes some sense. And now you're talking about running full speed ahead and putting the strategy into action. You know, and then the end result should be that enjoy. So I really, really like that.

And I've read a book, too, where I'm a, quote guy, but this book was talking about when you confuse, you lose. And you just kept hearing over and over, you know, boy, it just puts us at ease. So you certainly have a clear clarity approach to your process. So I think that is huge. And you mentioned you help people plan for retirement when you're first meeting with clients. What are some of the problems that they're facing? And I know that, you know, anyone would normally say, oh, the problem is I want to, you know, have more money. But I think when people come to you, they're at different stages. Like I've got 20 years before retirement. I've got five years before retirement. So some are still in accumulation

phase. Some are wanting to preserve. But what is typically the issues and problems that you're finding that your clients are having facing retirement? Well, if I had to say one thing, it would be that they're just confused about all of the flood of information that they have access to, that they get conflicting opinions about products and services and what to do and what not to do. And they talk to one so-called advisor, and I don't mean that in a negative way, but most people in my industry are not advisors. They're in the business of selling something. And again, there's nothing wrong with that.

But what I hear from people and have for the decades that I've been doing this is that they don't feel like they can get clear answers. And then, you know, today we've got the Internet, which is, you know, gigantic. And the problem with that is if you search on financial topics on Google, The sites that pop up, people don't even realize they are there from the large financial institutions. And they're kind of disguised as if they're going to give you answers. But at some point, you know, you're drilling down into this splash page that you discovered. And eventually they ask for your information so that you can get their free report with the answers to the questions that brought you there in the beginning.

And you turn out to be just a lead for some financial person. and it just, again, it's just a sales process. So a lot of people we talk to realize that that's happening to them, and some of them just know that they're feeling that. And what they really want is just honest answers to their questions, because, again, they're smart. And if they know how things really work, they can put their own plan together with me as a guide.

Yeah, because the guide should be there to say, okay, so I've laid it all out. What do you think about this? idea for strategy and then they're comprehending it enough to know, okay, but how would it work if and then you're going, okay, good question. Here's how that would work. And so now you're arm and arm locked together going, okay, now let's talk through these things. You're not saying, oh, don't worry about that. You need to do it this way. You're guiding them. I think that's spectacular. And again, even if you don't feel like you're a money person or a retirement planning person as a

client, you still can comprehend what's being laid out for you. There's still things can make sense. And that gut feel can be like, oh, man, Dan, it just, it just doesn't seem right. So help me understand. And you either respond and go, oh, well, it's this way. And they're like, oh, got, I got to, got it. Or yeah, I understand, but I still don't feel like, okay, good. Then let's look at option B because we don't want you to feel uncomfortable. So I think that is a huge piece is when people feel like you've got their back, you're

transparent, authentic, and you don't have an agenda, you know, because it's so many times that people are like saying certain things to just kind of whip out this last piece and go, here's the thing. But you're just an open book going. Let's just make sure that you get what you need in retirement. Yeah, that's right. And give them as much of what they want in retirement and avoid all of the things they don't want as much as you can. And there's going to be times that you say, oh, hold on.

We have to consider something here. This might be a hard topic to cover, but we can't do it this way because. or if you do this, then here's what's going to happen because you know the system. You know, at a certain age, you're required to take minimum distributions out of this account. And if you miss it, you're going to hit a penalty. So we need to make sure we put this. And it might not be a fun conversation per se, but it's necessary. So that's part of the guide is being able to communicate that with empathy.

That's right. That's right. So you mentioned in your ease planning process, there is something called aisles. Tell me about how aisles work. Well, the aisles are kind of a concept that we use because the financial industry is so gigantic and confusing to people that we broke it down into what we call the five aisles of money, where you can put money in retirement. And the visual of that is if you think about an aisle at one of the big box stores, home depot, for example, each aisle has different products in it. And the financial analogy that I use is that there are five aisles of financial products

that all are available to all of us. And we need those. We absolutely need those products, just like you need the tools at Home Depot. But if you go down on an aisle at Home Depot, it might be the hardware aisle with a whole bunch of hammers and a whole bunch of screwdrivers and so on. And they're all for slightly different uses. But like the hammers are all designed to do a job, which is. pounding a nail, but it depends on how many nails you want to pound and how big are they and how

often you're going to do it. But they're all just tools and the financial products are the same way. There's five aisles of financial products. And each of those aisles does its job better than the other four. So for example, in aisle one, there's a bunch of financial products and they're designed to do one thing. Now, they can do other things, but they do one thing better than the other four aisles. And the first thing that people learn with us is that every financial product has a positive and negative about it. You know, there's nothing that doesn't in the world. And you should never put all your money in one aisle, even though some people do. But what we show them is that the negative of one aisle can be offset by the positive of another aisle.

And when it's really using those financial products that exist in all five of those aisles in their best way, let the product do its job that it does better than the other aisles. And then for the other parts of the job in your plan, you go to the other aisles because those aisles do their job better than the others. And am I correct in thinking that client A, B, and C might have a plan and a strategy that would be aisle three, two, one, and five, and then the next client might be one, four, five, and three. So the aisles are not, you know, set in stone. It's just, oh, based on the fact that you guys need, let's go ahead and look down this aisle first,

and then we're going to couple it with that aisle. So it seems to me like you're the kind of the guide looking through the potential negatives, but then offsetting it with this. But everyone's going to have a different plan because everyone needs different things. Yeah, that's exactly right. That, you know, usually a client is not going to use all five aisles. Some of them do. But the point is that it's their choice.

Once they understand how the aisles work and how they interact with each other, they're perfectly capable of putting their own plan together with me guiding them. You know, I'm not, I'm not a planner. I. I don't know. Pardon me? What are the five aisle categories? That's kind of beyond the scope of this time that we have here.

But, you know, as they go through our process, that's what we, you know, we unfold for them. And each, each client takes a different amount of time, which is totally up to them. You know, some people, if they have a very simple, um, uh, financial, um, um, financial financial life, we can do it in two or three meetings. And there's other people that might take 15 meetings to thoroughly do it. And the thing is that it's entirely up to the client. I will stay with them until they go, okay, Dan, thank you. I got it. I got it. I got it. I understand now. And then I think part of that clarity might be interesting when you say, and you know what, aisle four and five, I don't think you're ever going to need because, and they would at that point

go, yep, you're exactly right. So let's focus on aisles one, two, and three and how we can properly align those together. So I think it's just so neat and refreshing to hear that you bring them in, educate them so that you're on the same side of the table, figuratively, and just go on, here's how we can get you where you said you wanted to be in retirement. And it's just, it kind of reminds me, too, of like, in music, you know, there's all the same notes. But boy, one composer can make a song sound whole different than another composer. So it's just how you're bringing things together. Exactly.

So what I would say is what is some of the thing when you're talking about your clients and some of the problems that they're facing, you know, yes, the end result is, boy, this has been so clear and whatnot. Can you think of maybe a generic example or case study of a client that came in? they thought one thing, you showed them the ease planning process, and then when you laid it out, they were able to accomplish something that they didn't know that they were even going to be able to accomplish in retirement. Well, actually, that happens all the time that we get that reaction.

You know, some of them are more dramatic than others because the kind of the more confused they are when they first start, the more dramatic that aha moment is for them. Yeah, because they feel hopeless coming in. They do. And they're like, you know, this is just going to be another. Many of them, you know, have a planner or they've talked to planners. They've been around to question, you know, getting advice from a number of different people in the industry. And they just come out even more confused. So that what you described happens to us with every client to it to a certain degree.

And it, like I said, the more confused and sometimes just, jaded they are. Yeah. And they've been burned a few times and they're really skeptical when they start. And at the point when they realize that this is real and they're finally getting what they wanted, which was accurate, honest information because they'll say to us things like, you know, this is what I've always wanted. I didn't know it was available.

Yep. Yep. I didn't know what to call it, but it just seemed like this should have been, you know, the process. Shouldn't somebody be doing it this way? Yep. You know, kudos to them, these clients you're mentioning, these types of clients, kudos to them because human nature is when you get confused to a certain point, you shut down, lock up, and don't do anything. So it's like, oh, if you want choice A or B, they choose A or B. But if it's, do you want A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, people go, I do nothing. So kudos to them for

continuing their search to make sure they're taking care of their family properly. They get to you. They see clarity with the e-planning process. It resonates with them. The scales fall off their eyes. They see clearly. And they're making decisions alongside with you that resonate well and set well with them. So I think that's a really big realization, too, that people didn't shut down.

They kept on until they finally got something that makes sense for them. Yeah. And it's because it's their plan. I just guide them. I just gave them honest truth about how the different things work. and they ask their questions and they put their plan together. And I just analyze it for them and give them the truth back and say, you know, I crunch numbers and say, hey, you know what? Your plan actually works.

And what we're really known for is people will come to us and go, you know, we don't think we have enough money to retire, but we're really sick of work and we'd like to retire. And we take what they're having their head about their plan. You said it earlier, kind of their gut feeling about what they want in retirement. And we analyze it from a financial standpoint. and many times come back and go, you know what? You can retire just the way you described it to me and you can do it today. Wow. And you talk about a payoff in somebody's business.

Yeah. For me, that is. They walk out with a little bit of spring in their step at that point. You should see the expressions. Wow. So that's the fun part. I mean, that's the true payoff. You know, we do very well financially, of course, and we do a lot of work for free.

We do a lot of give back to the community. But the, you know, the big payoff is that expression. you get when you really change somebody's life. Yeah, one family at a time. And you are confirming each one of those stories is confirming what we started off the conversation with is you got into the business to make sure that people are getting the best advice so that what happened to your dad doesn't happen to the next person and the next person and the next. So I think that is just spectacular, Dan. We came full circle. That was awesome.

What's the best way someone that is interested in learning more about what you do and how you do it? How can they reach out and connect with you? Well, my website is difficult to sound out. Zex's private wealth is difficult. But our phone number is 888-593-9-9-475. Or they can Google Dan Brooks, Lake Mary, Florida, and I'll pop up on their computer. Excellent.

And I'll make sure to have the website in the show notes so people can click on that as well. Dan, thank you so much for coming on. It's been a real pleasure talking with you today. You as well, Mike. Thanks. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders. To learn more about the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes, visit www.com.