Only Fee-Only
This podcast interviews fee-only financial planners to learn about how they are helping their clients and serving their specific niches.
Only Fee-Only
#97 - From Intern to Innovator: Brittany Brinckerhoff’s Financial Planning Journey
Curious about turning a love for numbers into a fulfilling career in financial planning? Join us for a chat with Brittany Brinkerhoff of Hilltop Wealth Advisors. Brittany shares her journey from college intern to leading the Ascend program, aimed at helping young professionals and families secure their financial futures. Learn about the subscription-based service she created for high-income clients needing flexible, affordable financial planning.
Brittany also discusses the challenges of moving to an independent advisory firm and the strategies used to keep client trust. She highlights the support from the XY Planning Network, which helped attract younger clients through online searches and local referrals.
In the final part of our conversation, Brittany emphasizes the importance of visual roadmaps in financial planning to reduce stress. She shares stories of clients with high incomes and significant student loan debt, showing how financial advice can turn anxiety into peace of mind. Connect with Brittany on LinkedIn or visit Hilltop Wealth Advisors' website to learn more. This episode is packed with insights for anyone interested in financial planning or improving their financial health.
Social:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanybrinckerhoff/
We are excited to announce the BC Brokerage Mixer at XYPN Live 2024! All fee-only planners are welcome. Join us from 7 PM to 11 PM in the Northwoods Room at the Hyatt Regency on the second floor for great music and drinks. We’ll have a DJ, cocktails, and mocktails. Drinks are on us! It’s the perfect way to unwind after a long day. Bring a friend and RSVP via the link below. Looking forward to seeing you there!
https://www.linkedin.com/events/bcbrokeragexypnlivemixer7244741904142065
How's it going everybody? This is the Only Feel Only podcast. Welcome back. In this episode we talked to Brittany Brinkerhoff and it was a fantastic episode. She is a financial planner at Hilltop Wealth Advisors, based out of Raleigh, north Carolina, and she has been with them since the beginning of her career. So that is coming up on eight years now, and she is now a financial advisor and in charge of the Ascend program, which is directly geared towards young to mid-career professionals and young families. It includes both holistic financial planning and strategic investment management, delivered in a way that is tailored towards younger investors. She had an absolutely amazing point of view thoughts. I've gotten to meet Brittany several times in person. She's always so much fun to hang out with. So enjoy this episode with Brittany Brinkerhoff on the Only Fee Only podcast. What's up everyone?
Speaker 2:Welcome to anotherff on the Only Fee Only podcast. What's up everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Only Fee Only podcast. I'm Peter Travelo. I'm here with my co-host, brock Buckles. How's it going today, brock? It's great man, happy to be here with you, love it, living the dream and we're inching near 100 episodes. So really, really, really excited about it. But today's conversation we're going to have with Brittany Brinkerhoff from Hilltop Wealth Advisors Really excited to share her story and learn about how she's grown in the financial services industry. So, brittany, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you guys, so much for having me Excited to be here.
Speaker 2:Likewise so for those who don't know who Brittany is, you want to give a quick 30, 60 second overview, elevator pitch, of who you are and who you're currently serving.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely. Quick summary of my background I was born in Colorado, grew up in Virginia, went to school at UNC, chapel Hill, and while I was in college I discovered the world of financial planning and started interning at Hilltop, the company I am still at today. So I started interning here over 10 years ago, which is insane. Done all the back office roles, but I knew I wanted to be an advisor working directly with clients. So I've been in that advisor position for a number of years now. But what's really fun is that I run our Ascend service here. It's something we just rolled out in the past few years and it's our subscription style financial planning service for high income, young and mid career professionals. So I'm getting to work with a lot of people around my age going through really similar relatable things, and I'm so grateful for what I get to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's awesome. So you went to Colorado and now you've eventually ended up in North Carolina. So you just kind of you're like college had the internship, everything was going well. So you were kind of it's the only place you've ever worked in, right, I mean not post-college, post-college.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I have never had like a adult job interview. I applied for this internship. Don't even have a resume at this point.
Speaker 2:I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what got you interested? I mean, when you were in college, right, and you started to kind of see the opportunities and the things that were out there, like what really drew you to financial planning and made you think, hey, I want to help people with this, like this is important to me, I can see where you see where this is going to be a career that makes sense.
Speaker 3:Yeah, totally. I think I got really lucky. So I was studying math at UNC. I've always liked numbers, kind of the black and white it's right or it's wrong. You can learn the rules and go from there. But I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I was just exploring different career paths. I had numerous waitressing jobs in college. I love the restaurant industry and getting to work with people, meet people. Those were some of my favorite jobs, for sure. But then I had a family friend in Charlottesville who was working at an Ameriprise office and they were looking for a summer intern. So I took that internship. I had no idea at all what financial advising or financial planning or investments I knew nothing.
Speaker 3:But I got to work there.
Speaker 3:It was so eye-opening.
Speaker 3:I really got to sit in I mean, I was mainly doing intern work, but I also did get to sit in on some client meetings and just see what that relationship was like, some of the conversations they were having, and I realized that financial planning was that perfect combination of the really logical problem-sol solving skills I was learning from my math degree but getting to directly help people.
Speaker 3:So I didn't have to think about it much longer. From there I was like, yep, this will work for me as a career. And so I asked that Ameriprise office if they knew anyone down around Chapel Hill where I was going to school, and they connected me with Hilltop, which at that point wasn't an Ameriprise franchise. And so really I just got super lucky with timing and connections and knowing people and that's how I got the internship at Hilltop and, as you guys know, there's so many different types of people and services in the financial service industry. So I think I got again super lucky to land somewhere with good people really trying to do the best thing for their clients. And yeah, it's been a no brainer to really stay and get to build Ascend here.
Speaker 2:That's very cool. Yeah, very few people we talked to that. They find the space like that and have stayed at the firm that they started with.
Speaker 1:Maybe nobody. Maybe nobody, pete. Actually I don't think we talked to anybody. That'd be almost 100 people.
Speaker 3:I'm also definitely there's not too many XYPN members who are part of an existing RIA, so I think that alone kind of puts me in a different segment too. But it's been really neat getting to be a part of that organization and know so many people who run their own practice.
Speaker 2:Really neat getting to be a part of that organization and know so many people who run their own practice. Yes, so let's talk a little bit about that. I mean you said that Hilltop it started as an Ameriprise franchise, so I'm guessing it no longer is. So what was that transition like from your point of view and kind of what was the guiding goal and mission there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely. So it was April of 2016. I had been full time here for a year. I was in like a paraplanner, financial planning associate type role, and that's when they decided the partners here decided to leave Ameriprise, go independent. They really just wanted to be fee only and be able to serve their clients in a way that was a lot more transparent, with a lot more access to the best technology and the best planning tools and custodians. So I definitely got to help with that process of going independent, which was so much work. I don't know if you guys know much about that, but at that point I was doing a lot of the back office paperwork and you've got to open a new account, move every single client over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But definitely immediately saw why it was so worth it Just being able to pick from all the financial planning tools, not just what the broker dealer had given us and getting to be fee only and be really clear about what was important to us, why we were picking that segment of the industry yeah, doing what's best for the clients, for sure. Segment of the industry.
Speaker 1:Yeah, doing what's best for the clients, for sure. So, so how? What was the conversation with the clients Like? Did it start to? Were you guys starting to charge them in a different way, or did that kind of stay the same, or what? What was like the? We were the same same people still here to serve you, but things are changing a little bit Like. What was that like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's crazy, Cause when you go independent you can't give anyone a heads up. So one day you're just suddenly like we're no longer here. We've got a new phone number. I promise we're not running away with your money.
Speaker 3:But, we were largely offering the same services, but we could actually charge a little bit less because we were just able to pick and choose what costs to take on for the tech stack. I mean, I wasn't an advisor at that point, so I didn't have my own clients, but I definitely heard a lot of those conversations and that's why it's so important to have a deep relationship with your clients, because then they trust you when you decided to make a change or a move like that. So at that point, yeah, we were mainly just working with clients on an AUM type basis, like the typical wealth management platform, but because we had gone independent and could then choose how we wanted to work with our clients, that's where this idea of how can we really work with people who are younger and don't have half a million dollars yet, but want to do the financial planning and saving, investing for the long term? So us going independent is a big reason why I've been able to do this Ascend service.
Speaker 2:Love it. So let's dive into that. Ascend as well as XYPN, because that is interesting. Is the entire firm XYPN, or is it just you?
Speaker 3:No, it's just me yeah.
Speaker 1:Let's go.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So one of the other advisors here. He knew of XY before I did, he knew of the conference at least, and so when we were talking about this idea of a subscription style financial planning model, he knew that there were plenty of advisors out there doing that this way, working with the younger clientele in a non-traditional way. So they sent me to XYPN live back in St Louis. I don't know if you guys were at either of those.
Speaker 1:None of those.
Speaker 3:It was like 2018, 2019.
Speaker 1:Yeah, denver would have been the first one.
Speaker 3:Denver.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it was St Louis and then virtual and then Denver. Yeah, but just getting to go to that conference and see how there were so many advisors doing things in so many different ways Like there's definitely not one right or wrong way to approach it that was super eye opening and encouraging. And then went back to XYPN live again the next year and then decided that I wanted to be a member, so I'm probably it's not the most practical membership on some degree because I'm not using any of the tech stack. I didn't need to, you know, launch my own ria. We're not using their compliance, but just being part of the organization. I've had so many friends and being able to bounce ideas off of them outside of just the advisors at Hilltop. That's been super, super helpful. And then also XY has that find an advisor tool on their website and I've had a number of new clients find me just using that.
Speaker 1:Well, that's good Kind of pays for itself, then. And also I mean I think there's something to be said. We always say it's our favorite conference, that we go to every year, because the sense of community and just the vibe.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to throw names of other conferences out there, but some of them you go to and you're like it's a little stuffy in here, it's a little stiff, you know, and that when you literally feel like you're amongst friends and people that are kind of all just trying to do the same thing and it's just a really cool environment. But you are definitely the first person that I've heard of that's not taking advantage of, like the tech stack, but the community and the Find my Advisor thing is really really good and just to be able to have ideas and bounce ideas off of people. So you have like a group and everything that you're a part of and you're allowed to or not allowed to, but you talk to people from that yep.
Speaker 3:Yep had a study group since I joined in 2019 and we used to meet every other week and now it's more like every other month. I think that's just phase of career things, but yeah really cool that they know my background, what I've been working on, what's been challenging or successful, and vice versa, for sure yeah, love that.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about what's been challenging, what's been successful. I mean, so you're kind of like a additional service onto an existing RIA, right? Our clients do you have older clientele at Hilltop and you know it's a lot of children that are coming in, or is it just new business coming in and they find an advisor Like, how's that experience been for you so far?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's really been a mix of both. So we just officially put Ascend on our website January of last year, so we haven't had it out and around for all too long, but we've gotten quite a bit of traction over the past year and a half, even without doing any paid marketing for it, and it's a mix of definitely existing clients, kids and grandkids, but also people finding me online. I have the certified student loan professional designation so I've definitely had quite a few people especially last year when there were so many student loan rules up in the air reaching out to me, filtering by student loan advisors and finding me that way. But then also, because I'm at an existing firm, we have pretty good relationships with local CPAs and estate attorneys, so they already know and trust Hilltop and now they can feel more confident referring any of their clients to us because we work with young people and we work with retirees. So definitely being able to take on all walks of life just makes us an easy referral partner, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I think there's something to that, right. Also, you're kind of like green and growing or ripe and rotting, and so if your clients just keep aging and then there's nobody coming in the front door and then slowly people start exiting, you know where's the growth there too, right? So you literally had this bolt-on thing that's going to encourage so much growth for years and years and years to come, and then, as you grow, all of these clients are going to be growing with you and moving to different areas of the firm. So not only is it a great thing that you're going to be able to help and serve more people, but it's a great business move too.
Speaker 3:So the prize. More firms aren't doing it. Yeah, you can't just only grow from the top largest accounts retirees.
Speaker 1:You've got to be thinking long term like as long as, as long as, like, our wealthiest clients are still with us, we're hanging on right, but it's like it's not a sustainable model, because if you're younger and they're older, it's like, unless you plan on helping that person's kids out well, like the money's gonna leave you at some point.
Speaker 3:So right, and you want to be proactively building that relationship with the kids because, yeah, there's definitely some stats about the number of change of advisors that happen when parents pass away and inheritance is received being able to build that relationship earlier on, not only are you also helping the kids make better choices earlier on, but then you've built that relationship and that trust and I think that'll go a long ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no doubt yeah, you got something, pete.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say what are some of your main value adds? What are you finding that these younger clients want? And you said you've been able to kind of pick and choose but you haven't been using XY's tech stack, so kind of what have been the main value adds that clients have really liked and maybe some pieces of technology you've been using?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we use eMoney as our financial planning software and I love eMoney. I've never used any of the other ones, but I feel like it just allows you to really see someone's full picture in one place, and especially for someone who's younger they've probably never really gotten to have everything such in a holistic way. Getting to see all of their accounts, especially if they're married or with a partner Just that level of organization is a huge value add for someone that's never done financial planning. That being said, I think a lot of the financial planning softwares allow some capacity for aggregations like that. But I think the biggest thing is just a lot of young people.
Speaker 3:You feel like maybe you're doing the right thing. You know you're putting money in your 401k, you've got an emergency fund. You bought a house like feels like you're doing the right things, but is it enough, or should I be saving more? Or bought a house like feels like you're doing the right things, but is it enough, or should I be saving more or can I be spending more? You really have no sense of you know visually what that could look like for your future. So having a way to give people that really tangible visual is huge and makes it so much easier for them to both be motivated about long term goals hopefully even dream bigger about what their long term goals could be but then really understand the trade-offs of some of the decisions that they're making now and how, if we're talking 50 years from now, what life could look like. I mean, there's so much unknown in that timeframe, but it really gives you a sense for what that reality could be.
Speaker 3:I think that's the biggest value add just being able to have that visual for the financial decisions you're making now and what that could mean in the long run.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no doubt that makes perfect sense. I mean, it's just one of those things where you have to know where you're going. If you don't know where you're going, you don't have some sort of roadmap. Obviously, as you go on, things will change. You'll make more money, You'll maybe want to throw some money at real estate investing who knows, there's different interests that come up but at least having something like we're actually traveling on a road instead, of driving through a cornfield right Um exactly Having a destination.
Speaker 1:Exactly. So what are the things I'm going to make you tell us what you don't like. Um, so, like, what are some of the things that, like, everybody has? Hey, I really love the plan, I really love the client piece. I don't think anybody really loves the paperwork, but, like, what are? What are things that you but we'll do both. What are the things that you really like about, kind of the financial planning industry or doing on a daily basis, and what are those things that maybe are not your favorite to do?
Speaker 3:That's a great question and again, I think I'm lucky because I'm at a firm, so I'm not doing much of the paperwork I'm not doing. You know, I'm not our CEO, so I don't have to spend too much of my time doing the things that I definitely think would distract me from financial planning. So, yeah, that's hard to say. I do think maybe for some clients, situations like really getting in the weeds of budgeting and cashflow I don't think that's necessarily my area of expertise, probably something I could go and work on. But when you work with a client that has a lot of credit card debt and bad cashflow habits, it really takes a professional to know how to handle that and get someone on track. So that definitely intimidates me but I think is a really important piece of the financial planning world.
Speaker 2:Sure. Yeah so like in your experience, like you know, working with younger people, like how much has it been like that they haven't had an advisor before or they had bad money habits, or maybe their family, you know, they never really talked about money, they just don't know. Um, like kind of what's been your experience there? Because we can talk about softwares and stuff all day, but like what are some of the conversations like and feelings around money?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I think it really can vary, of course, but since I'm targeting working with people who have pretty high income, it seems like a good number of them, you know, came from families that showed them good relationships with money and they're already savers. They're already doing a lot of the right things. They're just looking for that affirmation that they're doing what they should be. Or maybe there's a few tweaks we can make, but they're largely already on the right track and that's great. I mean, most of the people I work with have never worked with an advisor before, so all of it is a new experience. But I think where I am able to add maybe the most value and change is when someone comes in really not feeling confident about their finances and not feeling sure if they're doing the right thing or if they're completely off track or if there's even a way to be on track and being able to. Of course, diving into the details is how you make any change, but stepping back and thinking about the big picture I think I see this a lot too with my clients that have student loans, like really large student loan balances that can feel so heavy and daunting when you have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, to be able to think longer term or even visualize what could be, but kind of being able to show a light at the end of the tunnel of big picture. We can change some of these things you're doing now. Really talk through what their money means to them and how they are currently spending it, making sure the way they are spending money is in alignment with their goals and values, as much as they can. That's really really cool to get to be able to work with people who have that emotional, maybe baggage with money coming in and being able to really provide a lift.
Speaker 3:I met with a prospect just a couple of weeks ago and she was super nervous to come in. She had some loss and death in the family. But even just meeting with me one off we hadn't even gone through any recommendations or anything yet, I was just meeting her but she could just see the way he'd been lifted from her shoulders, just having someone to talk to. She felt comfortable. She gave me a hug at the end, so that was really sweet, I think.
Speaker 3:Yeah, getting to meet relationships like that is awesome.
Speaker 1:It is. I mean, some people just literally I feel like one of the biggest part out of all the financial planners that we've talked to. Sometimes people just want you to be like one of the biggest part out of all the financial planners that we've talked to. Sometimes people just want you to be like it's okay, you're going to be okay, like it's like a pat on the back right Like the same way that you go to, you know to to a friend. It's like, yeah, but this friend or this person that you're working with happens to know a lot about financial planning and they can actually tell you everything's going to be all right. And like, like Pete said, it's like some people do grow up and it's just one of those things to where maybe they have plenty of money, but their household that they grew up wasn't financially secure and so they still always have those thoughts kind of going on in the back of their mind, even if they do now have great money habits. It's like there's a lot of psychological things going on in the background, right.
Speaker 3:Oh, a thousand percent. And yeah, sometimes for those people maybe you're just always reminding them that you're okay. We've stress tested, you know, we've looked at worst case scenarios and the numbers can only go so far, but just being that person to tell them it's all right, I got you.
Speaker 1:If I run one more Monte Carlo simulation on your situation, my computer's going to break.
Speaker 3:Like you're good, we've looked at all of the trials we have done everything we can I do feel, though, like there's so much personal finance information online, like if anyone wants to master financial planning, they don't need an advisor to do that. So it really comes down to is that what you actually want to do in your free time, and or maybe you value having that third party affirm, or really just help you understand having that outside perspective?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really what it is. I mean, it comes very simple to people who are used to seeing it every day, right. But for someone who they might be an engineer or a teacher or whatever they might be, right, they're great in their profession, but they don't really know much about finances. Um so um, you have your cfp, you're in xypn. Are there any other organizations you're a part of? Um, just you know, leading out yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:so I'm pretty involved in our local fpa chapter. I've been on the board for a few years. I was running our next gen group and this year I am our chapter president. So I'm a big fan of the Financial Planning Association and, just in general I think, between XY and FPA, one of the best parts of this field is just meeting other advisors and seeing how they're doing things and what's working for them, what challenges they've had. So I really, really loved being involved with the FDA.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, it's nice to be in the room with people that you can learn something from right. I mean, that's always been my favorite thing is being able to have conversations with other professionals, and I love it when I'm not right, because it's like there's something I could be doing better, like you can incorporate this, and it's a constant thing where you're just building these blocks of how can I get better here. Okay, well, maybe I have something to share along the way with somebody else. So it's, it's really good. Um, coming into the financial planning space, or maybe now are there people in the industry or leaders in the industry that you kind of look toward. I mean everybody's. Like you hear Michael Kitsis all the time. You hear you know there's a bunch of names that you hear all the time but who have been kind of and maybe that's just somebody at Hilltop, right, you've been there forever. So, like, who has that been to you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a really good question and I mean, I do think the advisors that I've learned from at Hilltop, yeah, I think they're doing such good work and I've really learned how to treat clients well. And yeah, I would say, though, just being in the fee-only space, I think we kind of idolize fee-only, but there's certainly merits to people who are outside of this segment of our industry too, outside of this segment of our industry too, and that's definitely one thing I've gotten from being in the FBA is just getting to know people who aren't fee only and pros and cons of that.
Speaker 3:That's not exactly the answer to the question you just asked but, I, think, just in terms of people that I've learned from, it's largely been who I've worked with here, of course, ketis and Alan Moore, and just people through xy, um yeah that's good.
Speaker 2:It's a good answer is there anything um, you know that I mean you've had a pretty straight line just being at hilltop. Is there anything that, like you wish that you knew before you, like started down this trajectory? Like if you could go back 10 years and tell yourself a couple golden nuggets, like what would you say, knowing what you know now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the one thing, just thinking back the timeline of my career I mean, I got my CFP in 2018, but it wasn't really until maybe 2020 that I was meeting with clients, and maybe not even 2021 until I had clients that were just mine and I do think I probably could have pushed myself to be ready earlier. Definitely want to. I've always been the kind of person like I want to be perfect at what I do. I want to be fully ready before I try anything. But that's probably the biggest piece of advice I would give to anyone in this industry really is that you simply cannot know everything. No one knows everything. You need to be knowledgeable and have a good baseline of information, but sometimes it's good to push yourself to do things before you think you're ready to. Being uncomfortable is definitely the best way to grow. So, thinking back on my time at Hilltop, I probably could have tried harder to be meeting with clients earlier, but I don't regret the path that I've been on either.
Speaker 1:Coulda, woulda, shoulda right, hindsight 2020. At the end of the day, I always say, it's not about what you were doing, it's about what you learned from it and what you're doing now, what you're going to do going forward. So I think that's really good advice. What you're going to do going forward. So I think that's really good advice. Anything that you want to put out there, you know anything that you were thinking about before you thought about or let me get my words together, that usually happens Anything that you wanted to say before you came on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Hmm, I mean, I think it's just fun talking about all the different ways that advisors get into the industry and then how we're doing what we do. It's also really cool. I don't have an answer to this, but thinking about the direction that the financial planning industry is going to go as technology only keeps getting better, like really being able to highlight that human element of what we do even as technology improves. Not necessarily a statement, but I think that's just definitely something interesting in our industry for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you so much for coming on today, Brittany. For those who want to maybe reach out and learn more about you, just follow along. What's the best way that they can follow along?
Speaker 3:Yeah, linkedin is probably where I'm most active, best way that they can follow along. Yeah, linkedin is probably where I'm most active. So, brittany Brinkerhoff, linkedin, but on Hilltop's website, hilltopwealthadvisorscom, we also try to put out good content, blogs, all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:Love it Well, Brittany, thank you so much for coming on today.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me.
Speaker 2:You bet Thanks.