The Story Behind WiseWay Advisors

For nearly 20 years I served as a pastor. Much of that time I was an Executive Pastor, which means my role was to handle the finances and operations of the church. Now, most churches are known for asking people for money, right? However, I was privileged to serve at churches where we created a different culture around money. We never guilted or shamed people into giving. It was awesome!

In fact, my personal passion was to help people make wise decisions with their money. Over the years I have taught over a thousand people how to be wise with their finances using principles found in the Bible.

But there was a problem.

You see, the church were I most recently served as Executive Pastor had grown so much I needed to spend more of my time on the administration part of my role – think budgets and buildings – rather than my passion which was working with people.

The other problem was that as I was helping people to implement the principles I taught, I discovered that many of them were taken advantage of by “financial advisors.” These financial advisors would sell “my people” insurance they didn’t need or have them in investments which had really high fees.

I was stuck. I didn’t know how to best help “my people” AND I was spending more time doing administration instead of ministry.

Then I received a phone call.

A Christian financial services company called me and wanted to pay me to help them improve how they serve Christians. It started out as just a consulting gig, but the more I thought about it and the more I talked about it with my wife, the more excited I was about working with this company as a full-time financial advisor!

So that’s what I did.

I became a financial advisor determined to always put my clients best interests first.

I soaked up the training for my new role. I learned the rules and regulations and the science behind investing. I helped people with investments and insurance – it felt great! I helped train other advisors on how to create financial plans. I was invited to share my experiences at my company’s regional gatherings.

Then I started getting emails about annuity sales being down and we needed to sell more annuities. No one could ever tell me why it was in the best interest of my clients. (Because it wasn’t.)

I started doing research on what was happening in the finance profession and I discovered there were many other investment philosophies that made sense. There were products and strategies that I was not allowed to implement at my company. I learned my job was really to sell financial products and that 98% of financial companies operate this way.

I had thought the company I worked for was different because it was a Christian organization.

It wasn’t. So what was I going to do?

It quickly became very clear that I would need to start my own firm where I would be able to fully implement the vision I believed God had given me. I knew I needed three building blocks:

• Most financial advisors scare you into buying something you don’t need. I started WiseWay Advisors to help you achieve the vision for the future you desire. Yes, we talk about what can go wrong, but we focus on helping you make the most of life.
• Most financial advisors do not have to do what is in your best interest. Legally, they are required to do what is in the best interest of the company they work for, not you. WiseWay Advisors is an independent Registered Investment Adviser, and legally I must do what is in the best interest of my clients.
• Most financial advisors make money on commissions, hidden fees, referral fees, and kickbacks that you don’t know about. At WiseWay Advisors, we never take commissions, referral fees, or kickbacks and our fees are 100% transparent.

The result of these three foundational principles is that clients of WiseWay spend most of their time planning their future instead of their finances. Because at WiseWay Advisors:

We help you get the most of our your money so you can get the most out of life.