Authority Magazine · Follow
Published in · 11 min read · Dec 12, 2019
Having a budget and a savings plan isn’t going to secure a financial future. There are so many other factors that help build stronger financial futures. A solid and comprehensive financial plan, asset allocation, true diversification, income providing investments, efficient tax planning, perpetuity investments, planning Roth conversions and so many more things that a good financial advisor can do for their clients regardless of wealth that they would not be able to do on their own.
As part of our series about what one should look for when hiring a financial planner or adviser, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brieanna Mason, the Principal Advisor at Woman’s Worth® in California. Woman’s Worth® focuses on working with women and their families. What makes the team stand out is their understanding that financial issues can come with emotional and physical health issues. The goal is to help women and their families achieve Total Well Being because it’s not all about the money. Her residency began at Regent Wealth Management, the sister company to Woman’s WORTH®. Her passion for providing people with advice is rooted in planning for a fruitful retirement. Brie has an exceptional understanding of the unique financial needs of women. Brieanna majored in International business, which sparked a desire to study abroad. She attended college at the University of London’s School of Economics, where she helped write policies on trade for the newly formed European Economic Community (EEC) before making her return to the States. She also studied at San Francisco State University and Cal State East Bay then continued her education at Saint Mary’s College’s graduate program. Currently, Brieanna and her family live in Willow Glen, a neighborhood in central San Jose, CA. She has two teenagers and three rescue dogs. She volunteers locally to support victims of human trafficking and various charities that help local children.
Thank you so much for doing this with us, Brieanna! Our readers would love to ‘get to know you’ a bit more. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
I went to school to study international business with the aspiration to either become a delegate to the United Nations or a stockbroker. I laugh at the brain of a 20 year old. I did help write policies for the European Community, but never was appointed to the UN. It was my experience in the recruiting process of Wall Street firms that steered me to think I would never work in the financial services industry; in the cesspool culture of Wall Street.
I held fulfilling positions in a couple of different Industries prior to finding my true calling as a fiduciary advisor. It was really my personal life transitions that brought me down this path, to this job, that I am so passionate about. Within a single week, I was suddenly single, suddenly the sole provider of two children and told by my doctor I may have breast cancer and all with no access to my family finances. I was getting divorced and only with the help of an attorney could I gain access to our money. Like so many others, I gave up too much of myself in marriage without equal in return. I never wanted another person to have to suffer what I had or make the same mistakes I had, so I chose to change my road. I wanted to do something that would help people, maybe help them avoid taking my previous road.
Can you share a story about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting in the industry? Can you tell us what lesson or takeaway you learned from that?
When the partners of Regent Wealth Management hired me, our goal was that I would lead the company successfully through transitions to be agilent with scalable, predictable, and repeatable processes. As many new leaders are, I was eager to prove my worth so I told, I didn’t ask, I told our founding partner that we were going to limit the days that we saw clients in our offices, so that we could spend blocked and focused time working on our processes, improving our deliverables, reviewing and developing our financial plans for our clients. Well, this sounded ridiculous to a man who had decades of success behind him. As the saying goes, ‘if it ain’t broke’…
He came from the school of thought that to be worthwhile, to gain valuable experience, to be credible, you had to feel the pain of long hours, multitasking constantly, take back to back meetings, see clients on Saturdays, you get the picture… You got to school every day by walking two miles uphill in the snow and got home by walking two miles in the snow and this is what made you someone worthwhile.
We were on opposite sides of the room, but we agreed that both saw value in the other’s perspective, so we started to make these changes slowly and looking back as a company four times the size, we laugh out loud at some of our earlier exchanges.
My biggest takeaway from my earlier years at Regent is to always consider taking slower small steps to set the pace, then increase the pace to get to the goal.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
I am continually working on improving our program and process that is designed around the unique financial needs of women. I’m looking at a wide variety of disciplines and resources that includes educational, physical, psychological, physiological, biological and every other “logical” that you can think of. By doing this, hopefully, I can reach a conclusion that allows me to develop a program that gets down deep into the real feelings, fears, understandings, wishes, desires, goals and hurdles that women have with money. I believe if I can improve a woman’s general financial education, her relationship with money and her personal understanding of what money can and can’t do for her, she can make better, more meaningful and longer-lasting decisions in both her financial life and personal life.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Is there a takeaway or lesson that others can learn from that?
There wasn’t a big event that I can pinpoint as the tipping point but it was an idea that was sparked by a series of events. Very early on in my tenure at Regent Wealth Management I heard a couple as they were leaving the office of our founding partner, Don Bergis. The woman, let’s call her Jane, turned to Don and said to him, “ thank you for answering my questions directly.” Don’s response was, “Sure, I am happy to.” But Jane stopped him and said, “ No, no. You don’t understand. When I ask our current advisor a question, he will turn to my husband and answer him.”
Although my own experiences with Wall Street recruiting procedures and firms showed me women were seen as unimportant or sub-par to their male colleagues, that exchange was the instance that told me this is still an “old boys” environment.
That sparked me to begin my research on the unique financial needs of women and what they want from a financial advisor. Today, through a partnership with Woman’s Worth, we are able to bring a program developed for women and by women to women everywhere.
What three pieces of advice would you give to your colleagues in the finance field to thrive and avoid burnout? Can you give a story or example?
Be your genuine self and share who you are openly. People see through the “Facebook” self and genuinely want to be comfortable being their true selves with you too. Clients will trust you faster and building a deeper relationship with them.
Take care of yourself first. Schedule your day to include time to work on what is important to you and developing your business. If every hour of you day is filled with client meetings going into the evening, your health will eventually suffer and what good can you be to your clients or your family if you are always getting sick. And, if you haven’t supported your team, they may be less likely or unable to support you if you are unavailable.
Lastly, always respect and treat your team and support staff as your equal. Go out of your way to say thank you and show your gratitude when you can. This will motivate them to do a good job more consistently and you will have less employee turnover.
Ok. Thank you for all of that. Let’s now move to the core focus of our interview. As an “finance insider”, you know much more about the finance industry than most consumers. If your loved one wanted to hire a financial advisor (not you :-)), which 5 things would you advise them to find out about before committing? Can you give an example or story for each?
The first thing I would say to them is to understand what they want this person to do for them. Do they want an advisor that is focused on planning or an advisor that is more focused on investment management? There is a very wide range of services that are offered from advisory firms. I think it’s important to understand what services you are looking for and why.
For example, are you approaching any type of transition in your life? Maybe you want to save for a child or grandchild’s college education but also not stop saving for retirement. Do you know if you can do both? In this case, looking for someone who has training and tools for financial planning would be best. If you want to pay off your student loans faster, a financial coach would be more appropriate.
Secondly, once they have determined what scope of work they want this person to do, look for someone who takes their fiduciary duty seriously and if appropriately licensed as a fiduciary advisor. Not all financial coaches have or need to have a fiduciary advisor license, but they still should have a very strong sense of their fiduciary duty.
The third step would be to find someone or an independent company. What I mean by this is, if you select a franchise firm like a Big Wall Street firm or the advisory department or partner firm at a bank, your advice will be directed by what the parent firm expects their advisers to present to their clients. The investment choices are often mandated, required and spiffed by the parent company. The advisor can be limited to what is presented and he or she can be paid more if they invest your money in certain Investments.
The fourth suggestion would be to have at least three meetings with the advisor before you start down the path of becoming a client. By doing this you will be able to see if they are consistent, if they have good follow-up and if they follow through on what they have promised you.
The last step to take would ask for the advisors commitments to you in writing. For example, if they promise quarterly meetings, who will be scheduling those and what type of documents will they provide at the meeting? How often will your plan be revised? Do they charge for more than one financial scenario in a plan and so on.
I think most people think that financial advisors are for very wealthy people. This is likely not actually true. Can you explain who would most benefit from hiring a financial advisor and why? Can you give an example?
This is a very common and strong misconception. What the “do-it-yourselfers” and non-affluent people don’t understand is that they are likely already paying close to or the same amount on their Investments as they would pay a financial advisor for a financial plan that includes managing their investments. Having a budget and a savings plan isn’t going to secure a financial future. There are so many other factors that help build stronger financial futures. A solid and comprehensive financial plan, asset allocation, true diversification, income providing investments, efficient tax planning, perpetuity investments, planning Roth conversions and so many more things that a good financial advisor can do for their clients regardless of wealth that they would not be able to do on their own.
I work with a family that has a special needs child. Most of their income has to be dedicated to therapy and medical costs. Both adults have access to employer-sponsored retirement accounts such as a 401(k). They both were contributing into their “target funds” but had access to a wider variety of choices. Target funds can be some of the most expensive options in retirement plans because they are compiled of a variety of mutual funds, that can have high hidden and undisclosed fees, plus there is there is another layer of fees wrapped around the mutual funds for actively managing the asset allocation mix. As the target date gets closer and closer the investment mix will be shifted away from equity investments and more money will be invested into fixed-income options. These are one-size-fits-all investments that may not be suitable for everyone and can be more expensive than the other choices in employer sponsored plans.
So, I helped this family choose the lowest cost choices in their current 401(k) plans and built them a plan where they could see exactly when they could retire and have enough money to continue continue to support their special needs child into adulthood.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
In my career, I have worked in a few different industries. I was 29 years old, working for a commercial furniture manufacturer when one of my customers, a COO of a company, approached me to manage his sales force. My first response to him was that I was too young for such a big job and he had ten sales people half of which were older than me. I was a single young woman; I did have some good career experience, but my life experience was limited to being responsible for myself and my golden retriever, Hunter. How could I lead a team who had years more experience, mortgages and vacation homes? But my customer had worked with me for a couple of years and saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. He knew my talent could be nurtured and directed to running and growing his company, which I did by tens of millions of dollars per year. He believed in me and knew that I would take the position seriously and passionately while being a great supporter and mentor to each sales person on the team. This was my entry into management and operations for which I am forever grateful for.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I want to share two things, actually. First, put your phone down and talk to someone. We are connected to people today through false filters of social media. It’s like looking into a window from the outside. See what happens when you are waiting in line at Starbucks and you ask the person in front of you how their day is going so far. It can be a refreshing experience, but first, you’ll have to find someone who isn’t staring into their device!
Secondly, the concept in the movie ‘Pay It Forward’ is a simple but incredible idea that if practiced, it would change the world profusely.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
Check me out in LinkedIn! C. Brieanna Mason.
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
