The Financial Guys Reviews

Mike and I have spent the last 25 years building one of the largest firms in Western New York. We have a very specific process that we have refined over the last couple of decades. While we appreciate input from our advisors while working in a highly collaborative team environment, we do not approve of our advisors straying from a system and process that has successfully helped our clients reach their goals and enjoy a comfortable retirement. We also have extremely high standards and expectations of both staff and advisors. Unfortunately, not everyone meets these standards, and we are not the “everyone gets a trophy” type of firm. We did start our own Broker-Dealer and we do have our own RIA. Both are independent firms. I served on the board of NEXT Financial for several years and was a member of the Compliance Advisory Board as well as the Acquisition and Development Committee for decades. I still have many friends and colleagues at NEXT and know many of the senior leadership in Houston, including the President, personally. Leaving was not an easy decision, but we knew they intended to be acquired which we felt could lead to a lack of independence. We were correct as they were acquired by Atria, a private equity firm, a few years after our departure. To be clear there is not a single NEXT office in Buffalo or Rochester that comes close to our size at over $1 Billion in assets under management. More importantly, the firm we launched, Peak Brokerage Services, has been recognized repeatedly by multiple national outlets, most recently we were ranked #1 for overall advisor satisfaction by Wealth Management Magazine. Peak has also been ranked #1 for Compliance for 3 consecutive years by that same annual Wealth Management Magazine Independent Broker-Dealer survey for firms under 1000 advisors. At The Financial Guys, we want our Financial Planners working with clients to develop the overall plan and strategy, while our Investment Committee, at our independent Investment Advisory firm, handles the day-to-day investments. The Investment Committee for Independent Solutions, our RIA, has over 180 years of combined investment experience, including multiple Chartered Financial Analysts, like Paul Meeks CFA, who is featured weekly on CNBC. To you, my apparently jealous competitor who seemingly wants to play both financial planner and money manager, I’d rather put my own money (and I do) with an Investment Committee with Chartered Financial Analysts and 180 years of experience who are dedicated day in and day out to managing assets whose primary or sole responsibility is to do just that. It’s unfortunate that a former colleague or employee has decided to use this forum to falsely attack our firm. However, as I have previously stated, when looking for an honest review of the firm, you should consult the members of our organization that have been with us for over a decade, as opposed to believing the false anonymous claims from those who were “cut from the team”. Jay Blanchard, who runs our Financial Planner field force and has been with us for 15 years, recently shared a segment of a speech from Nick Saban, who is one of the all-time greatest college football coaches. “High achievers don’t like mediocre people and mediocre people don’t like high achievers.” - Nick Saban That’s not in any way meant to disparage the author of this critique, but I offer that as a possible explanation for the animosity that this individual seems to harbor against us. They can set their own standards as we have set ours. After 20+ years on the radio, thousands of satisfied clients, multiple national awards for excellence, and over $1 billion in client assets, I think our standards speak for themselves! -Glenn Wiggle