Finding Your Financial Match: How to Choose the Right Advisor for Your Values

What Does It Mean To Have A Fiduciary Financial Advisor, And Why Is It Important?

Finding the right financial advisor isn't just about credentials—it's about connection, compatibility, and comprehensive expertise that aligns with your unique needs. Cody Stansell, CFP and Senior Wealth Advisor at Stansell Wealth Planning, breaks down the essential questions everyone should consider when selecting a financial planning partner.

The conversation reveals critical red flags that signal potential misalignment, like the uncomfortable "salesman feeling" that permeates some advisor relationships. Cody emphasizes the importance of that initial gut reaction: "If you sit down in a financial planner's office, it's almost like that gut feeling of do we feel like we're in the right place?" True professionals view planning as a relationship, not a transaction, giving clients the time and space needed to make informed decisions without pressure.

Beyond personality fit, Cody explores the fundamental differences between comprehensive planning approaches versus single-focus strategies. He highlights the evolution of financial planning from strictly investment management or insurance-focused models to today's integrated approach that addresses taxes, estate planning, employee benefits, and more. For those navigating complex financial situations, finding an advisor with relevant expertise becomes even more crucial. As Cody notes, "We want a financial planner that goes through several aspects...a comprehensive view on all your money and not just being sold an insurance product."

Whether you're considering a large established firm or a boutique practice like Stansell Wealth Planning, understanding these distinctions empowers you to make choices aligned with your values and financial goals. Smart planning begins with selecting the right advisor—one who views your financial journey through a lens of transparency, integrity, and Christian values that build toward a life well lived.

To learn more about Stansell Wealth Planning visit:
https://www.StansellWealth.com
Stansell Wealth Planning
5550 Granite Pkwy, STE 270
Plano, TX 75024
469-606-2040

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Steadfast Wealth Planning
Podcast, where faith andfinancial wisdom come together.
Hosted by Cody Stansel, ownerand senior wealth advisor, we
provide comprehensiveChristian-based financial
planning to help families,individuals and business owners
build a life they're proud tolive.
From investment management andtax planning to preparing for

(00:25):
retirement, we're here to guideyou with clarity, integrity and
purpose.
Let's get started.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Not all financial advisors are created equal.
Discover how the comprehensiveadvisor standard sets the bar
for transparency, integrity andputting your best interests
first every time.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm Sophia Yvette, co-host andproducer.
Back in the studio today withCody Stancil, senior Wealth

(01:00):
Advisor for Steadfast WealthPlanning.
Cody, how's it going today?

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hey, sophia Doing well.
Good morning.
It is almost school time andwith three kids that age, we're
ready for them to be back inschool routine.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
It's all healthy, so, yeah, we're doing well.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Awesome, awesome, great to hear that you're
managing Cody.
Yeah, it's a dog.
Days of summer it it's tripledigits.
The kids are bored at the house, so we're ready for school to
start here in a couple weeks,that's for sure well, cody,
always great to be back with younow, ready to unpack what
comprehensive advisorresponsibility really means for
your listeners.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Financial future absolutely all right.
So, cody, how do I find thebest financial planner for me,
and why is it so important?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
great question.
The for me part is what I wantto point out there.
There are a lot of greatfinancial planners out there.
It's really okay.
Who is best for me, mysituation, where I'm at in life,
my personality type, thosekinds of things.
So I receive this question alot.
There are a lot of gray areasto this answer.

(02:20):
So, similar to if you ask 20different people what the best
pizza in town is, you might get20 different answers, right,
because everyone's needs andtheir preferences are a little
bit different.
But I have four or five bigcomponents and kind of red flags
topics to talk through on thisone.

(02:40):
First off, in my opinion, Ibelieve that you have to have
the same mindset and get alongwith the financial planner.
So if you sit down, go into afinancial planner's office, it's
almost like that gut feeling ofdo we feel like we're in the
right place?
Does it feel sketchy?
You don't have to be bestfriends or think the exact same

(03:02):
way, want to be best friends orthink the exact same way.
But I talked to a lot ofclients that would meet with a
previous advisor and then justfelt uncomfortable or awkward at
times or maybe their questionswere a little not what the
clients thought they would ask.
Personality is a big one too,and just how they view money,

(03:24):
your goals goals have to align.
There's a lot of advisors thatare okay with you having a lot
of debt and so if you don't lovethat, then obviously their
advice is going to be gearedthat way.
Or vice versa, if you're okaywith debt, but your advisor's
like no debt ever.
You know, obviously there'sthat advice isn't really going
to align with how you view money.
Now let me clarify you don'thave to agree with 100% of every

(03:50):
piece of advice that youradvisor offers you.
That's why you hired aprofessional.
Is they're going to have topicsor things that they bring up
that you're like oh, I don'tknow about that and that's the
whole purpose of it?
Right, they're bringing insightthat maybe you haven't thought
about before as a professional.
But just the overall arching doI feel comfortable?
Do I feel like they're justtrying to sell me something?

(04:10):
Just how the advisor talksthrough your particular
financial plan and situation,you will get a feel, for I don't
know about this, or yeah,sounds great.
So I'd say that that's a bigred flag for folks is just how
you feel in that initial meeting.
The second topic kind of followsthe first one if they feel like
a salesman and we all know whatit feels like to be sold to.

(04:33):
Whether someone knocks on yourdoor and they're a roof
inspector wanting to fix yourhouse or fix your roof, or you
walk into a car lot andeveryone's dealt with a car
salesman before, we all knowwhat it feels like to be sold to
and in our business,unfortunately, there are very
good salesmen in our businessthat aren't great financial

(04:54):
planners but they're very goodsalesmen and so that kind of
stinks for a lot of clients.
There's also a lot of firmsthat have different advisors
that you talk through during theprocess.
So you might come in, meet withan advisor and his team and
they're kind of the salesmantype process and then you say,
yeah, sounds good, what's thenext steps?

(05:15):
But then you meet with anotheradvisor in the team and they're
your comprehensive planners andit feels like, wait, what
happened to those people that Italked to?
And you know it feels like aprocess and there's just some
red flags there.
Let me see here, yeah, and makesure your timing is right too,
before you make a decision.
A lot of salesmen if you feelpressured to make a decision,

(05:38):
that meeting right.
If you're like, oh, you got todecide today, that's a huge red
flag.
As a salesman, for instance, wewant to meet with clients
however often that they wouldlike to meet before making a
decision.
So if I'm meeting with someonefor the first time, sometimes
they're ready to go and I saylet's hold off, let's meet again
to go.
And I say you know, let's holdoff, let's meet again to talk

(06:00):
about this, this and this.
It gives you time to think ofsome questions that you may want
to ask in the next meeting.
Sometimes we meet with folkstwo, three, five times before
they actually become, you know,come on board as a client.
So we want I always say I don'thave customers, I have clients.
Right, I want clients for life.
This isn't a transaction.

(06:20):
So I want you to be verycomfortable before you come on
board.
That way our relationship issustainable and steadfast for
the future.
The third topic is just theareas of focus and the practice
of focus in the practice.
Right, do you need a lot of taxplanning because you're selling

(06:41):
a business or you own abusiness, you have payroll needs
or you're selling property orsome other big taxable event in
your life and you're looking fora lot of tax planning?
Well, obviously, look for afirm that puts a lot of emphasis
on tax planning, right?
Our industry used to be eitherjust investment management so
think of just investments or aninsurance based firm, right, and

(07:03):
there's obviously bigdifferences between the two.
But over the last 20 yearsthat's kind of evolved into
where it's over comprehensivefinancial planning on several
aspects, and in my opinion,that's where you want to be.
That's what we do.
We want a financial plannerthat goes through several
aspects of managing investmentstalking through taxes, making

(07:28):
your estate plan, making sureyour estate plan is in order
with your wills, trust If youreceive stock options or
restricted stock from your job,talking through that as well, a
comprehensive view on all yourmoney and not just being sold an
insurance product or just youradvisor just manages your

(07:48):
investments but doesn't do anyof these other topics that you
would love to have advice on.
I'm a certified financialplanner myself, so Cody Stansel,
cfp and the CFP board is justthink of it like a designation
in our industry.
That proves that you've gonethrough the topics, the
comprehensive topics, and thatyou have studied estate planning

(08:11):
, taxes, investments, employeebenefits, the whole nine yards
Right.
So that certification on theend of our title definitely
brings up that topic.
Next one is there's a bigdiscrepancy here and there's no
right or wrong answer.
But do you want a big firm?
Do you want a small firm?
There's pros and cons to bothThink of.

(08:33):
If you needed to hire a plumber, some people are okay calling
the 1-800 number, dealing withthe rep.
Maybe you get faster servicethat way because they have a lot
of plumbers on staff.
Maybe you feel more comfortablebecause it's a nationwide
plumbing business and that waythe odds of them being a fraud

(08:53):
or Ponzi schemes obviously a lotless.
They wouldn't be in business ifthey were doing something like
that.
Or vice versa, you feel thesmaller touch of a smaller firm.
You deal with the same folks.
Once again, there's no right orwrong answer, but it all depends
on what you feel is best suitedfor you.
For instance, we are thatsmaller firm.

(09:14):
We're a small field locatedhere in Plano.
Clients call us, they text uson our work line.
Once again, we don't havecustomers.
You don't have to repeat yoursituation every time you call in
and just have a question aboutyour finances.
You know, we know you Right,I'm going to one of my clients
weddings here in four weeks.

(09:36):
Right, it's about relationshipsand it's about having that kind
of hometown feel.
But with that you get a lot ofsmall firms that maybe don't
have the technology or theresources where we're kind of
hometown feel, but with that youget a lot of small firms that
maybe don't have the technologyor the resources.
We're kind of in between.
I'm a big believer in goodtechnology and it's not just a
good old boy with your paperstatement that we mail you, you

(09:57):
can log in 24-7 and go throughthose things.
So that's another big one fromfolks I see Big firm, small firm
.
There's definitely differences.
Once again, no right or wrong,but there's definitely big
differences there.
And Then, lastly, in ourindustry I do want to bring this
up, I mentioned a little bitearlier there is a big

(10:17):
difference in an insurance basedfinancial planning firm Contr
compared to an investment basedfinancial planning firm.
I'm not going to name any names,I'm not going to throw anybody
under the bus, but any lifeinsurance company and how they
view financial planning isdefinitely different, and it's
definitely from an insuranceview.

(10:39):
So a lot of the financialplanning questions to your
answers or, excuse me, answersto your questions will be
insurance related.
Right, a permanent lifeinsurance policy and or an
annuity is going to be a lot oftheir answers, because that's
where they're coming from intheir point of view.
That's not necessarily what wedo.

(11:00):
We are an investment based firm.
What we do, we are aninvestment-based firm.
So, once again, we want you tohave your 401k, your IRA.
It's a mutual fund.
Look at your money, stocks,bonds and not an insurance view
of your money per se.
We don't want you to have a lotof debt.
Obviously, clients that have aninsurance need and they need

(11:20):
life insurance or disabilityinsurance or they need
guaranteed income.
Yes, then, we are insurancelicensed and we definitely have
clients that have life insuranceand annuities through us, but
that's not our.
That's not how we view.
Our recommendations to clientsis you know, oh, you have to
have this life insurance policyfirst and, yeah, we're worried

(11:42):
about planning for retirementlater.
That's definitely not what wedo we look at from the opposite
ends.
So I I just meet with a lot ofclients that come from insurance
based firms and they come overand I have a client, not married
, no kids, has all this lifeinsurance and it's like.
That doesn't really make anysense because if you pass away,

(12:02):
no one's depending on yourincome and you can tell they're
just sold a product instead oflike what do they actually need?
So I hope that makes sense.
Those are the four or five bigtopics that I thought of and
what I see from my clients whenthey come in and have questions
and when we interview with folks.

Speaker 3 (12:22):
Yes, cody, thank you so much for breaking that down
so clearly for us.
Honored to join you, as always.
We will see you on the nexttime on Steadfast Wealth
Planning.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
Thanks, Sophia.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Thanks for joining us on the Steadfast Wealth
Planning podcast.
Ready to take the next step inyour financial journey?
Visitsteadfastwealthplanningcom for a
complimentary consultation orcall 469-606-2040.
Smart planning, Christianvalues, a life well lived.
We'll see you next time.