RG 169 – Disrupting the Financial Services Industry One Client at a Time with David Flores Wilson
Nuts and bolts
David is a senior wealth manager and financial planner at Watts Capital in NYC and has been for over 9 years. His goal in life is to increase the financial literacy of hte public because it’s not taught in schools. He believes money is an important topic and he wants to advocate for people to be able to manage their own money and finances. He advises and coaches business owners on financial matters. David made his first dollar from his grandparents who owned a retail store and farm; he worked summers and weekends and would spend his money on comic books that he would resell to people in the neighbourhood. David was born and raised in Guam and then went to UC Berkley to study investment banking and then moved to New York city.
When he moved to NYC doing banking he realised it was fun but he had no control of his own schedule, so he did the CFA exams and was able to help his colleagues with their 401K allocations. He started financial advising on the side and decided to make financial planning his career. Nowadays people trust their financial future to him and his team, he has the opportunity to make people’s dreams come true which is very inspiring and what keeps him ticking. He always knew he would work in finance because his dad was a CPA so that was the kind of conversation around the family dinner table.
David has narrowed down the missing financial curriculum to 5 main categories, and if peope are getting 3-4 right then they’re on their way. These 5 are; saving, investing, protecting what they have, minimising taxes and managing debt. Saving means paying yourself first, and then think about what could go wrong and protect yourself. Tax is the most important piece htat people miss and there are so many ways to save in the US tax code. Before you run through these 5 categories you need to work out what your goals and values are and then align the investment amounts with these values – for example are you going to do passive ot active investing?
David differentiates himself from other financial advisors because of his core beliefs; he believes that people deserve objective advise that’s in their interest and affordable. He has a commitment to continuing education and with so many change in the legal structures he owes it to clients to spend him explaining these changes and coming up with solutions. Finances change over the lifecycle of a business but for many business owners their business is their baby and represents their net worth, so when they’re told to diversify out of the business they don’t want to, especially if the business is profitable. Instead of diversifying money out of the business and into the stock market David recommends putting it into real estate, then whatever happens with the business they always have a real estate asset for cash flow.
Top tips
Most important habit – Working out 4-5 times a week
Most influential person – dad
Most important tool – Education through webinars, online etc
Contact – planningtowealth.com