Advisor Spotlight: Brandon
A Bit About Brandon
Brandon is a passionate financial advisor with over a decade of experience—on top of a degree in Finance and a CFP designation. We asked him a few questions to help you get to know him and to highlight what makes him an invaluable financial advisor to have on your side.
Brandon, tell us a few things to know about yourself!
“I love playing basketball and play in leagues twice a week to stay healthy. My wife and I enjoy scuba diving and make it a point to choose our travel destinations based on the best spots to dive. I also have two dogs that take up the majority of my free time—one golden retriever named Gryffin and a German shepherd named Luna. Each of them is over 90 lbs!”
Brandon, What does “Financial Wellness” mean to you?
“Financial wellness, to me, means establishing a plan that helps clients focus on what’s important in life and not feel like they have to worry about money from day to day by having clarity on their path into the future”
If I were new to my financial wellness journey, what is some advice you would share?
“A couple quick things: first off, don’t just wing it! Set life goals and align them with long-term strategies to build your wealth to achieve them. Second, take measurable steps towards those goals and make sure you have an accountability partner along the way. And lastly, there are no bad questions, so make sure to clarify your understanding along the way so you can be confident in your plan.
Having a financial advisor give you their objective yet informed opinion can help you overcome your anxiety around financial decisions and cut out the noise from everything you hear you should be doing from media sources.”
What are some of your favorite aspects of working with new clients?
“I love helping clients efficiently manage their complex equity compensation sales/tax scenarios in a way that resonates with them—not only from a quantitative point of view but also from what kind of qualitative effect it will have on their lives.
This can be achieved by having a well-thought-out set of goals and a financial model that can outline what can be accomplished by taking action according to a plan that aligns with what they want in life, or said another way, what will make them happy!”
Do you have an exciting client success story you can share?
“Yes! One story that comes to mind was helping a client through a complicated Incentive Stock Option (ISO) strategy. I had guided them through a multi-year exercise where they actually had to pay some AMT to be able to fully exercise their options given that the guidance for the company was very positive.
We tracked the time periods for those shares closely and executed sales in a prompt and systematic way when the company went public and they had qualified for long-term capital gains.
By doing this, my client was able to take advantage of the initial hype around the stock and sell at a great price while earning an estimated ~17% more than just the appreciated value given the tax savings afforded by the ISO strategy.
We then were able to use those proceeds to help them purchase their first home and invest the rest in a well-diversified long-term portfolio.”