Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Mike Milligan, Founder of 1 Oak Financial, Discussing The Sea of Sameness

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

Mike Milligan, a Certified Financial Planning Professional, author, podcast and radio show host, and university lecturer, brings 26 years of experience to the financial planning industry. After beginning his career in large banks and insurance companies, he founded his first firm 15 years ago with the belief that “everyone is One of a Kind; and they deserve a One of a Kind Financial Plan.”Challenging the “One Size Fits All” approach to financial advice, which he refers to as “Retirement Déjà Vu™,” Mike developed The One of a Kind Financial Plan™. This comprehensive plan addresses taxes, retirement income, investments, long-term care, and legacy, enabling clients to live a “One of a Kind Life.” Recognizing the need for a clear retirement vision, he then created Retirement CHI™ to supplement the plan. This innovative approach focuses on community, health, and impact, further reducing stress for his clients. Mike leads a team of over 20 professionals across the United States, including Hawaii.Learn more: http://www.1OakFinancial.comThe information provided is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice. Information is obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. Neither Mike Milligan nor his guests are liable for the use of information discussed. Always consult with a qualified investment, tax, or legal professional before taking any action or schedule a meeting with Mike Milligan. Annuity guarantees are based solely on the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing company. Individuals should thoroughly review the contract for specific product features and costs. Income payments and withdrawals from deferred annuities are generally taxable as ordinary income in the year they are taken.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-mike-milligan-founder-of-1-oak-financial-discussing-the-sea-of-sameness

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 us, Mike Milligan, who's the founder of One Oak Financial, and we'll be talking about the concept of the sea of sameness. Mike, welcome to the program.

Mike, I'm so glad to be here. You know, I'm excited to talk with you because I followed your work and I see that you do some great things out there. And I love when I see someone that has a lot of experience in the industry because I love seeing those perspectives. And so I'm excited to talk with you about some of the frameworks and methodologies that you've put in place working with your clients. But before we dive into this topic of sea of sameness, give us a little bit of your story and back. and how did you get into the financial services industry? Well, my story is well documented as, you know, on YouTube and in a previous book I wrote called The One of a Kind Financial Plan.

But it started when I was 11 years old, sitting around the dining room table with my grandmother. See, my grandfather had just been diagnosed with cancer. Soon he passed away, and he was the primary breadwinner in our family. and my grandmother had to innovate out of desperation. She lost not only the love of her life for 50 years, but she also was losing the primary source of income. And the one thing she knew how to do was cook. And she made this one particular dish.

It's called a collared sandwich. And I saw my grandmother furiously start making these. and I didn't know what she was going to do with them, but she packaged them up. She took them to the job sites where my grandfather used to work, and people were handing her $5 bills at a time. And you could buy a Big Mac for a dollar. She allowed me to account her money for her.

We put those dollar bills in folder of coffee cans because she was not very well educated. Eventually the cupboards became full, and we had to go open her first bank account. See, my granny was my first client. And Granny Elizabeth was not well educated, but she knew that she could build a business based off love and her talent. And I have since, you know, since going through college, since being in major Wall Street firms and insurance companies have now built a business based off of what my granny taught me. She said, deliver something out of love and deliver something your past.

about. And see, it carried her through the rest of her life. And I, you know, that's one of the things I want to do. We look at now with One Oak Financial, which is the second iteration of our previous company, Ideas by Mike. It's just a continuation of the same thing. We look to build one-of-a-kind financial plans for your one-of-a-kind life. My granny was one-of-a-kind. And I see everybody that I talk to, I see some uniqueness in them. And one of the things that our firm is based off of is not being like every firm out in Wall Street or insurance companies. And so we like to avoid the trap of safety. And so I can't wait to walk down this path with you, Mike.

I imagine it's like, you know, when we think about this from a client standpoint, like let's pull up a chair with our clients and we're going to be on the side of the table. Like a fireside chat. You know, let's just kind of roll up her sleeves and kind of talk about some of the things that people really don't bring up, but really should. You know, you said something there, Mike, that really stuck out at me, and I want to put a pin in it because I think people need to realize that that phrase you used is super powerful. Your grandmother had to innovate out of desperation.

And we could take that phrase and apply it to a lot of things in business, in personal, You know, all of these things, financial, all of that. We do not want to be in a position to have to innovate out of desperation because that's reacting versus responding. Well, the failure rate goes up when desperation is above. Yeah. You know, when people have the basics in their life covered, you know, the things that are budgeted, their safety, their food, you know, the things that, you know, the things that, you know, they need. When that's taken care of, it's easy to innovate for the things you want, right? And that's one of the things our firm helps do is help build one-of-a-kind financial plans

so that, like, you don't have to innovate. You don't have to reinvent the will because you misstep or you misstepped along the way in your financial journey. 100%. So when we're talking about the sea of sameness, it's like all these big firms out there, and without mentioning names, you can watch T.E. You can listen on the radio. You can go online or the person down the street.

But why do so many firms treat your retirement needs kind of like just another number? Well, you know, it's not only just another number. It's like they just treat you like a spreadsheet. Ooh, yeah. And let's call it what it is. It's efficiency over empathy. See, the big Wall Street firms, insurance companies, you name it, right? They're built to scale.

They focus on assets under management, not the stories behind those assets. The industry standard is 1% AUM fee. AUM stands for assets under management. And the advice you get is often just a formula. It's plug in your numbers, hop out a portfolio. And they do it, right, so that they're 9 o'clock, they're 11 o'clock, they're 1 o'clock, their 3 o'clock appointments that they see every day. get the same portfolio.

So they do subscribe to the fact that they're listening, but they never really hear what each individual person's uniqueness really is. And the kicker is that they're using rules of thumbs, not reflections on the needs, healths, and dreams of the people they're meeting with. That's huge. I love your statement, efficiency over empathy, because it really does make it feel like, you know, it's this big long line at the DMV and it's like next, you know, and you're like, come on up there and like, okay, thank you, sir, may have another and you're just getting the same old thing. And that empathy really ties into when you work with an advisor that cares and shows that empathy, it really is creating a relationship, you know, like building something long term.

you actually want to hear from your client again. But yet if you're just another number on a spreadsheet, it's kind of like you're a bother, right? Right. And I, you know, Mike, I will, there's nothing wrong with McDonald's, a restaurant. But you know when you walk into McDonald's, you're going to get two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce cheese, pickles, pepper, head, and sesame seed bun.

You know exactly what you're going to get. When you walk into see a big Wall Street firm or somebody who is not paying the bills for the company that you're getting advice from, they don't have anything to lose. The only loss that can occur in the relationship when you work with one of these big companies is a loss to your money. Because most people giving this advice, their salary stays the same. And these are really good people on that side, right? but they have taken a safe approach in their career because they wanted to keep their income the same. Yet they're willing to push all the risk onto the clients. So most firms use models that prioritize gathering assets, not crafty a plan for your one-of-a-kind life.

You know, you bring up salary and we don't want to get into the weeds of anything, but it makes me think of something many times in a variety of industry. You see them touting the fact that come to us because our representatives are salary-based. And the message they're trying to explain there is if someone is commission-based, then maybe they're going to put their needs before yours and try to sell a product that you're not needed. But you're making an interesting point. If, you know, and again, this doesn't mean everybody, and there's some great people on both sides of the equation. But if someone is salary-based, then you really do feel like you're getting that vanilla cookie cutter. and you might not be getting the thing that's actually most beneficial for you.

It's true, right? Because what an individual should really be concerned about is to the best of your advisor's ability, are they acting in my best interest? Yeah. Mike, one of the most overused rules in kind of the sea of sameness that's out there. is the word fiduciary. And I talk about this word fiduciary in my book, the one-of-a-kind financial plan.

I don't think that there are very many people in the financial industry who are acting in a fiduciary manner. I think there are a lot of people who by definition are a fiduciary by holding a credential or a piece of paper. But if you walk into and set at the conference room of ABC company.

An ABC company says there are three portfolios we deal with. And the next thing out of their mouth is that product is bad. Wow. They really don't have the best interest in mind of the person they're setting across the table from because everything from CDs to Bitcoin has attributes. in an investment portfolio. It's just do they have attributes that benefit the person across the table from them? Yeah.

If a company, and if a company says something is bad, the next question should be, can you offer that? Yeah. That's interesting. Because many times in these companies, they will say no.

So when we think about these cookie cutter, you know, templated off-the-shelf advice. What's the real cost of getting that type of advice versus a custom retirement plan? Because I would, the first word that comes to my mind would be like, you're missing out on something, right? Right. So cookie cutter advice isn't just impersonal.

It's also risky. Take the 4% rule, for instance. The 4% rule has been the industry's go-to withdrawal strategy for decades. It's often known as the safe withdrawal room. But Morningstar's 2025 analysis now recommends a safe withdrawal rate of just 3.7%. Why? Because of market volatility, inflation, and longer lifespans. They've made the old rules obsolete. If you're following yesterday's playbook, you could be withdrawing too much and run out of money.

or have too little and miss out on living the retirement you want. And it's just not withdrawal rates, by the way, Mike. Northwestern Mutual study, Northwestern Mutual, a big insurance company, study found that the average of America needs $1.3 million to retire comfortably. But that number is just a starting point. For some, it's way too high. For others, it's not nearly enough. the cost of generic advice is missed opportunities,

unnecessary risk, and a retirement that doesn't reflect your real life. Yeah. You know, I'm certain that when some of your clients come to you and have been experiencing maybe that, you know, see of sameness, cookie cutter advice, and they get a custom plan, they're probably like shock and pleasantly surprised.

Can you think of an example where that has come up? Yeah, I could think of thousands of examples because if we've done this for 26 years, I could tell you examples of like one of my first examples is a guy named Don who when I was working for one of these big firms, he actually retired in 1999, followed the advice of his advisor. and in 2002 was left with two thirds of his original investment and had to go back and work because he followed the rules. And sometimes when you follow the rules, it doesn't get you where you need to go. And so he played it safe. He did the thing that retiree never wants to do.

He had to go back to work to rebuild his savings. But I could also think about the clients over the last 10 years of my, career, who the message is thank you. I love the communication that you provide. I love the timeliness of the dynamic financial planning that you and the team at One Oak Financial provide to us. I also love the fact that I am able to dot, dot, dot, dot, whether that's hiking Machupeachia Chou, traveling to the Dolomites, whether it's spending more time with their grandkids so

that the children don't have to spend two or three thousand dollars a month on child care, whether it's writing a book like a life memoir, right, so that your family knows what you really believe and what you think to, you know, writing books and doing podcast in retirement. See, you could make a huge impact, right, by getting out of the sea of sameness and being to really, and being able to fully realize your potential and see what retirement can be for you. And, you know, I think that sometimes people just don't know what they don't know. And they, you know, their parents did this, so they're going to do that or their friends at work did, you know, went to XYZ company, so they're going to do it. How could you spot when you're being kind of sold a product instead of fully being heard as that person with specific needs and needing that customized planes?

What are some of those things that you can look out for? Well, if the first meeting is about account size and it's not about your story, you're in the sea of sameness, right? It is, that is like, that's like a fisherman throwing a hook out there, right, with the same bait on it. And if you bite that hook, you're caught. You're part of that fisherman's boat now. But if the, if your advisor also talks more about product, like, like annuities in the first meeting or mutual funds or insurance policies. Then about your goals, your family, in your retirement vision, you're being sold, not served.

Mike, I'm big on a big on stats. In a 2025 market watch analysis found that advisors working under the asset under management model typically charge 1% and tend to default to model portfolios and standard recommendations. And one of the largest firms in the country has publicly stated that they're trying to shed their cookie cutter image because clients are demanding more personalized service. Sure. And so if you feel like you're being fit into a pre-made box, trust your gut. It's probably true. Yep.

You know, I love your point about retirement vision. And it's almost, it sounds like to me, you're almost like a life coach of sorts when you sit down with someone to say, okay, what does retirement look like to you? And like you were saying about, well, we want to hike Machu Picchu, we want. And too many times the cliche, well, I just want to sit back and travel or play off, that's just the surface level. But what are some of the things that you're seeing that people really, really want to accomplish in their retirement, and then they need your help getting there. Well, just because being retired is not, being retired is not a death sentence.

We are learning that retirees can have just as much meaningful travel and meaningful impact in their communities and on their family. And so we actually help our clients build a vision for their retirement. In an upcoming book we have called Retirement Chi, we're actually helping people craft the retirement vision. See, when you work at a job, when you go, when you're either a W-2 employee or you're building a business as an entrepreneur, you have the solution for what the problems are your size. for your ultimate clients or your ultimate customers. When you go into retirement, you need to have the same clear vision about what you're going to do so that you can have inner peace and focus on what that period of your life can be.

You know, Colonel Sanders didn't start KFC until he was 65. Yeah, after many, many of rejections. Failed attempts, right? Yeah. And the interesting part is my granny didn't build her college collard sandwich business until she was in her 60s. You know, both of them built businesses in what is traditionally a retirement time period. But under building the vision, under retirement chi, you actually get to identify what the community you're going to be a part of is, whether that's family or church or. or a lunch club or a book club,

then you get to focus on your health. That's the H&G. Like, if you don't focus on your health, it will become your focus in retirement. You'll spend more time and energy at the end of your life on your health if you don't walk 10,000 steps a day, or start playing pickleball,

or get serious about the chronic illnesses that could come on the future. And then finally, the retirement chiefs will help people to find what their impact is going to be. So between like your community, your health, and your impact, when you can clearly turn the vapor, the things that are in your head, into paper, a written plan, then you actually know what you're going to do in retirement. Yeah, that gives you some clarity and a nice blueprint of where you are now

and where you want to be for sure. Oh, go ahead. So like in this world of retirement deja vu, where you are generally just a spreadsheet or somebody's talking to you about a product specifically, it's all about the person delivering the sales pitch. When you break the cycle of retirement deja vu, right, and you get out of the sea of sameness,

and you start focusing on things, like your retirement chi, you then can build the one of a kind of financial plan. It's not about a product or a solution. It's about you. And you are the center of what your money can do for your life and the people you love. You know, I like that statement right there to make me think of something in business. You're taught, people are taught, you know, take control of the situation and ask questions because the person asking questions is in control. And so as the, as the, the prospective client really interviewing a financial advisor, you mentioned a couple things to watch out for, like, oh, if they say this, if they mention that, you know, if they talk about

assets under management, specific products. But what are some questions that someone should ask to make sure that their advisor just really cares about them with empathy, not being treated as another number? What are some of those questions that kind of would shift some power back to the couple. Well, you can't be afraid to put your advisor on the spot. I give an exhaustive list of questions in the one-of-a-kind financial planning book about what to ask an advisor in the interview process. But here are four questions you can use to separate the real planners from the product

pushers. Number one, how do you customize your recommendations for each client? Number two, what's your process? for understanding my family, my health, my goals, not just my account balance. Number three, how do you get paid and do you receive compensation for selling specific products?

And four is, can you show me examples of how you've helped clients with unique needs or out-of-the-box goals? If an advisor cannot answer these questions with specific examples, if they say, I can't tell you this because that would be violating my client's confidentiality. Or I cannot disclose how I get paid to you because it's, you know, it's or the, the compensate or they give you some generic advice for how they get paid, right?

It's time to probably move on. Yeah. That's getting, because if they're giving generalized recommendations for your very specific life, it's time to get out of the C of C of C. same is. Yeah. So I love those questions and that kind of gives you some power to go in and know the questions to ask and know where the answer should be headed. Let's say that the answers are answered pretty well. What are some of the ways that a client can assess whether the advisor really is providing those customized plans and really living up to those answers and didn't just give them platitudes? What are some things they could be watching for like

some specific metrics. Well, there's two to these. There's two parts. There are two answers to this question, Mike. The first metrics is how does this plan make you feel? So does it pass the test? Can I sleep at night? Yeah.

And if you feel better after having a written plan in place, that you can understand. And it makes you feel better, then it's going to pass the initial evaluation. And number two, what you could do is do they deliver on what they promised. And so if they promised a 30-day follow-up call, did they promise a six-month annual review? Is the solutions, is it very easy to see the implementation process? Is it, so in other words, can they make the complex simple?

If they can, if it makes you feel better and you can make the complex, and they can make the complex simple for you, then you're heading in the right direction. Yeah, that's huge. I tell you, Mike, this has been a lot of eye-opening things that kind of set some people's mindset in the right direction of, am I really caught in that sea of sameness? So if someone is wondering, hey, how can I learn a little bit more or reach out and connect with you? What's the best way that they can do that?

Well, the sea of sameness is real, Mike, and it's cost of retirees, both money and peace of mind. But you can break free by demanding advice that starts with your story, not your account size. Ask the right questions. Look for real customization and don't settle for being just another number. your retirement is one of a kind and your plan should be too. If you want that, reach out to one oak financial.com. That's the number one oak financial.com. You can also follow us on Instagram, YouTube, or go to LinkedIn and find Mike Milligan, CFP.

I look forward to talking to people that want to get out of the CFSAMIS. Excellent, Mike. Thank you so much for coming on. It was a real pleasure chatting with you today. 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.com.