I wasn\u2019t old enough to rent a car, but in my early 20\u2019s I was recruited to be a stock broker, and I was pretty excited about it. It felt like I was on my way to something big. Once I passed all the requisite exams, then went through a couple of months of OTJ training, I was stunned and a little sickened. I learned really quickly that I\u2019d just committed to becoming a telemarketer. It wasn\u2019t the career I\u2019d envisioned, and it wasn\u2019t a role that over time I\u2019d come to appreciate. This big, respected Wall Street brand name brokerage firm expected me to smile and dial until I built up a respectable book of business\u2014 meaning getting enough suckers to buy whatever investments I was pushing. Did I actually know more about investing and risk management than 99% of the general public? Maybe. I probably knew a little something about a few things but not enough to make my living posing as an expert. As a Vice President, (now I was 27), I was responsible for managing several brokers, making good money and hating every minute.<\/p>\n
A few years went by and I got out of the financial services biz completely and started doing some TV. I created my Public Television show, MoneyTrack<\/em> in 2005 and it ran on 255 PBS stations as a weekly series. The whole reason I dreamed up this new show was because I wanted to use television to educate everyday investors about the very things I\u2019d seen and could pass on. The whole purpose of MoneyTrack<\/em> is to demonstrate that anyone can understand the basics of saving, investing and managing money. All on their own. Kids as young as 14 can learn how to invest. Ben Stein, John Bogle, Jeremy Siegel, Burton Malkiel\u2014 even Warren Buffett were some of my favorite guests for our segment called, \u201cInvesting 101\u201d on every MoneyTrack<\/em> episode. I also wanted to make viewers aware that not all financial advisors are sharks.<\/p>\n During our third season of the show, I wrote the companion book to MoneyTrack<\/em> and I made dozens of national appearances on CNN, Fox & Friends, CBS Morning Show, and many other talk shows across the country. Our team was getting emails from viewers from everywhere. Many asking us questions about how to find good financial advisors. My co-host Jack Gallagher and I were out on speaking engagements and we kept hearing one particular question over and over. I had to stop and just… listen. The question was so simple. Here\u2019s what our audiences were saying: \u201cWe don\u2019t want to invest all on our own\u2026 we need some guidance. But how do we find really good advisors who aren\u2019t selling something?\u201d That question became the problem I had to solve.<\/p>\n Wealthramp is my answer. Knowing not every independent advisor is good, just as not all stockbrokers are bad, I start by rejecting 85% of all financial advisors. I then invite only those who can demonstrate they are qualified and not commission-driven. These advisors must make their living from fees that are straight-forward, and they have to be willing to put that in writing. Our advisors must also practice as true fiduciary advisors. There are thousands of independent advisors registered with the SEC who are held to the much higher fiduciary standard than brokers, and they’re hiding in plain sight but they don’t have billion dollar ad budgets. How do I curate the A-list? I start by eliminating the sales people, zooming right into expertise and background experience, and I demand full transparency of their compensation. I then use an \u2018eHarmoy\u2019 approach to connect consumers to these advisors. We simply listen to what you, our users tell us are your biggest priorities and concerns about money. Then we match your priorities to only those fiduciary advisors who fit. I\u2019m following through on what my TV audiences told me they want.<\/p>\n Really good advisors are out there but they’re not easy to find, and that\u2019s where I come in. I invite you to look at Wealthramp and grow with me as I thoughtfully roll out this brand new service across the country. And understand my mission is to help America realize that anyone at any age or income level can access high quality financial planning \u2014 you don\u2019t have to be wealthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wasn\u2019t old enough to rent a car, but in my early 20\u2019s I was recruited to be a stock broker, and I was pretty excited [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n