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Tune in to "What Works" hosted by Don Patrick where we tap into 2,500+ years of experience in running financial advisory practices. In each episode, Don sits down with an experienced financial planner, uncovering the unique insights and experiences that have shaped their careers. From navigating market fluctuations to building successful client relationships, Don and his guests share invaluable business tips and strategies for financial planners looking to thrive in the industry.
Join us every other Thursday, as we explore the wealth of knowledge accumulated from over 2500+ years of combined experience in financial planning.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to What Works. This is a show for consortium advisors
that taps into over 1,000 years of experience shared by our consortium
advisors.
I'm your host, Don Patrick, and I'm here to guide the conversation with
guest advisors and lift the hood on what works for them in business and
life. It's all about learning and growing.
So let's go.
Don Patrick: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the 37th episode of the IFG
Podcast. What Works and our guest today is Troy DeCastro with his firm,
Pathway Financial Partners in Atlanta, Georgia. Troy, welcome, man.
Troy DeCastro: Well, thanks Don. Thanks for having me. I look forward to it.
Don Patrick: Yeah, me too. It's a lot of fun. So let's just start off, learn
a little bit about yourself, where you're from, your family, that sort of
thing, and kind of get into your professional career. But let's learn a bit
about you.
Troy DeCastro: Again, thank you for letting me spend some time with you
guys. I basically grew up in Douglasville, Georgia, on the west side of
Atlanta. I'm almost 60 years old. Sports was a very important part of my
life growing up. Yeah, I did everything from basketball to baseball to
wrestling and football and all that stuff. Went to school at East Tennessee
State. I was fortunate enough to get a scholarship there to play football.
So I played, that was kind of in the Southern Conference, 1-AA football is
what I call it.
Again, grew up with sports being a very important part of my life. I thought
I was going to be a teacher and a high school football coach, but kind of at
the very end of my career in undergrad, I had done some substitute teaching.
I pulled a 12-inch knife off a kid, and I had some other stories that didn't
go so well.
I kind of changed my mind about that. I actually had a situation one time
where this kid was making fun of my last name and I went over to him and got
in his face, then put my hand on his neck and said, "Do you have a problem
with me?" And he said, "No, sir." And then I think the next day in class,
they're like, "Don't touch students."
So again, I realized pretty quickly that maybe teaching wasn't the best
thing to do. So I was a math major. Did not have a clue, right? I was like,
"Well, okay, well, if I don't want to be a teacher, I knew I didn't want to
be an engineer." Accounting sounded no fun to me. So I did what any rational
person would do. I got into actuarial science. So I spend a few years—
Don Patrick: Accountants are the comedians compared to actuaries, you know
that right?
Troy DeCastro: Well, there's an old joke about what's the difference between
an accountant and an actuary. The accountant looks at your shoes, whereas
the actuary looks down at his.
So I tried doing that for a while and I got a job with a firm called William
M. Mercer. They've gone through a bunch of different name changes. I think
it's just Mercer Human Resources now. But anyway, I spent four years trying
to be an actuarial analyst. I actually was two tests away from reaching the
ASA designation, which is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries. So I was
two tests away from being designated actuary.
That was kind of interesting, but I finally realized this wasn't for me. So
I moved down to—when I say down, it was the floor down—I moved down to
investment consulting with the same firm. So investment consulting, I spent
another four years doing that for the same firm and I had a chance to work
on a variety of pension plans for very major organizations: university
endowments, foundations, we're talking a couple hundred million, 500
million, billion-dollar type assets. I did a lot of manager search, so
manager research, asset allocation studies, investment performance reviews.
I spent quite a bit of time at the highest level doing that stuff. Decided I
didn't want to do that, then I went to an investment firm. I got my CFA, by
the way. I was a CFA charterholder in, I think it was '97. Then I went to an
investment firm and became a wholesaler.
So I spent 20 years being a wholesaler and trying to talk people into using
our mutual funds and SMA accounts. One of the important things I learned
from that was really, frankly, what not to do. Right? I learned a lot about
what not to do if I was ever to become a financial advisor. And I've got all
sorts of, I mean, I've got all sorts of horrible war stories about what
advisors have said to me. Glad to share, or we can move on.
Don Patrick: We could hear a few of the things you learned about what not to
do.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. Probably my worst example, I had an advisor who had
asked me to give him our one-year number. Okay, the firm I worked with was
very risk-averse, focusing on down-market protection. In 2000, 2002, as the
market was down, I think a cumulative 40%, my firm at that time was
basically flat.
Don Patrick: That's impressive. They had to be a value shop because that's
when it flipped.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah, high-quality dividend growth, that kind of thing. And
you know what was funny is that this advisor said, "Can you send me your
three-year return? Can you print me off like 50 pages of just your
three-year return?" Compliance wasn't quite what it was back then, right? So
I just did it. And he said, "Well, I subscribe to the Toadstool Theory."
Excuse my language, well, I'll say the nicer way, "You keep your clients in
the dark and feed them bull crap."
These kinds of stories were a dime a dozen, right? So it's one of the
reasons, and I’m going to segue into this in just a second, but it really
had a meaningful impact on my decision to join this side of the industry.
When I think about my career and how I got started, at least on the
financial side, one of the advisors I called on, Mark Cross, probably from
2000. I started calling on Mark Cross, and of course, he does it the right
way. But again, most people don't.
It took me probably—so I've been on the financial planning side now for, if
you want to call me that, right, I’ve been doing it now, I guess, about
seven years. So in 2019, I just quit cold turkey. Matter of fact, not only
did I quit cold turkey, I literally didn't even start looking at what I
wanted to do on the financial advisor side until I told my boss that I was
done.
So in 2019, once I quit, I started talking to a whole bunch of people, as
you might imagine, having called on wholesalers for 20 years. I talked to a
ton of people about the things that they could offer me and how they could
help me and stuff like that. And so, I know you've asked the question a lot
of how you found IFG. Well, I really didn't "find" IFG, frankly. I mean, I
interviewed with Landon and stuff like that, but to me, that was really kind
of a formality. I mean, I appreciate y'all accepting me, by the way.
But really, I knew Mark, and he was kind enough to let me jump on board at
Highland Trust and help me out in that area. So I did that. I really kind of
found Mark, not found IFG. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a
second. But I think the other thing is that for me, I really feel like even
though I've only been doing this for seven years, I really feel like I have
been preparing for this my entire adult life.
Don Patrick: Fascinating.
Troy DeCastro: When you think about my actuarial time, right? I have a
pretty good working knowledge of what benefits mean, pension plans, and
asset-liability modeling, stuff like that. When you start thinking about the
CFA charterholder and the time at the investment firm, I got to see
firsthand how people manage money and the relationships that are built
there. And of course, I was calling on advisors for 20 years. I got to see
good ones and I got to see bad ones. So, I just really soaked it all up.
And then I would think too, maybe I should slow down and let you ask a
question, Don, but just wave your hand or something. I'm going to keep
rolling here. I've listened to a bunch of the podcasts. They've all been
great. It'll be fascinating to see if you get any value out of anything I
have to say.
Don Patrick: So far, I have.
Troy DeCastro: I hear so much about people talking about Centers of
Influences, right? People are talking about, "I've worked in the community
all my life and I'm on these boards." I'm sitting here going, "I don't do
any of that." I don't volunteer, at least at some organization. I don't call
lawyers, I don't call CPAs.
But as I started thinking about it more and started reflecting on my
business, my community has really been my neighborhood. Oh, by the way, I
guess I did not mention, yeah, I should have done this, so slap me later,
Don, but I am married, by the way. I guess I should have said that.
Don Patrick: Don't worry. I was going to take you back there. I know you're
married, you've got kids, and I want to know what position you played in
football.
Troy DeCastro: Okay, yeah, I should pause a little more. This'll come back
again a little bit later too, but
Don Patrick: Just don't let your wife hear this podcast.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah, exactly! So, no. I've been married for 33 years. It'll
be 33 years in August, so I've been married for quite some time.
Don Patrick: Congratulations. That's fantastic.
Troy DeCastro: Best decision of my life. I've got two great kids. One went
to Auburn and she's now in PA school at Samford, and one went to TCU and
she's now up in New York and is about to make her way back to Georgia. I
think she wants to maybe be an ESL teacher. She's still trying to figure it
out, but both great kids, got a great family, all that stuff. So, now I got
that out of the way.
Don Patrick: What position did you play in football?
Troy DeCastro: Well, I started my freshman year playing defensive tackle,
and then they moved me to offensive line because I wasn't very good at
defensive tackle. Right? One thing you learn about college football pretty
quickly is you're just a number. You're not as good as you think you are.
You, you're not as good as you think you are is I guess what I'm trying to
say.
I was "all-everything" in high school, but when I got up there in college, I
just became a number. The athletic people are on defense, right? The smarter
people are on offense, the athletic people are on defense. So I got moved to
offensive line and I played guard. I started all my junior year, all my
senior year, and was a part-time starter at various points my sophomore
year. I will shout out that my senior year we beat NC State. Sorry, John
Franklin, I just had to get that out there. So we had some good moments. But
you talk about grit, right? Like my sophomore year, we went 0-10-1.
Don Patrick: Oh.
Troy DeCastro: So that changes your perspective on things when you don't win
a game. When you do the things you do to be a football player and then you
don't win a game, that stinks. So, that's a little bit about football.
Don Patrick: Alright, well let's fast forward back to where we were and
Troy DeCastro: Yeah, thank you for keeping me on track here, Don.
Neighborhood. Right. So, I was thinking about this community, and I realized
if you define my community as my neighborhood, then I've been very involved,
right?
I've been the president of the Homeowners Association. We have about a
300-home neighborhood. I've lived here since '95, so I've lived in the same
house for 31 years on Memorial Day. 4th of July parades, tennis teams,
horseshoe tournaments, cornhole tournaments, golf tournaments. You know, I
think I've already said parades. I mean, we have this progressive dinner
thing. So I've been very, very involved in our neighborhood and, as a
result, that has really propelled my career on the financial planning side.
And I keep saying financial planning. I feel like I should be, you know,
again, I think one of my strengths is I'm very open and transparent. I would
probably consider myself a 5% financial planner when we first started. I'm
getting better. I'm doing more of it. I think it's a higher percentage
today. I don't know if I can say 50/50, but I am trending that way. I love
learning about this stuff.
What's interesting about my business is virtually almost 90% of my assets
can be attributed to this neighborhood. I counted as 36 families. That’s the
way I describe it. I work with about 35 or 36 families, and I'd be willing
to bet you that 85% of the assets I manage are for people who have or
currently live in my neighborhood. The vast majority after that would be
employees, people who lived in my neighborhood, or family of mine.
I was on a call today that IFG put on with, I think it’s TL, and he was
saying—I find this hard to believe actually—but he was saying that 75% of
advisors don't even know the kids of their clients.
Don Patrick: Seriously?
Troy DeCastro: That's what he said. I find that hard to believe.
Don Patrick: Yeah, they're not financial planners.
Troy DeCastro: Well, the other thing too is, and it’s not IFG, that’s the
thing, right? When you answer a question, are we talking about advisors at
large or are we talking advisors at IFG? One of the reasons I got into this
business was I felt very confident that I could be above average, right? I
mean, the bar I saw was so dang low. I was not scared at all to make the
switch. Now, my set of circumstances are different. At the time, I was 53, I
guess, when I made the switch. But I wasn't scared at all because I felt
like I knew, well, not felt, I knew I could be above average.
Don Patrick: I love it.
Troy DeCastro: I mean, then you go meet all the IFG people, whether it's the
people at Highland Trust or people in my mastermind group, and good Lord,
I'm below average! But the best thing that ever happened to me is that an
IFG advisor never got into my neighborhood. Because if they had gotten into
my neighborhood, I don't think I'd have such a—I might be doing something
different right now.
Yeah, so long story short, my business is such, from an asset perspective,
it’s very, very, very family and friend-dependent from an asset perspective.
I probably only have literally two clients that I didn't know for multiple
years before I decided to make the switch over. I virtually have known every
one of my clients for quite some time before they became a client.
Don Patrick: That's fascinating. Now, I assume you had some capital set
aside to make this transition?
Troy DeCastro: I did. I was fortunate enough with my—One thing about the
wholesaling business is you can actually make some good money in that.
Don Patrick: As long as you don't spend it all.
Troy DeCastro: Well, and I think that's a great point, right? It helps when
you don't move. I think the single best financial decision, besides marrying
my wife, in all seriousness, is probably not moving. I could have moved and
had a better house. We've remodeled along the way and added on, and stuff
like that, but not having a house payment gives you a lot of freedom.
I've always been smart with my money. I've never spent outside of my means.
But I did work for a good company that had a very, very generous benefits
package. It was a little bit of culture shock when I came over to IFG
because
Don Patrick: Health insurance.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. I never paid a health premium. I never paid an
insurance premium at my former job. They had a profit-sharing plan. I got
anywhere from 15 to 25% of my total comp, up to the federal allowable
limits, that they put into a profit-sharing plan, and I put nothing in it.
Don Patrick: Wow, that's impressive.
Troy DeCastro: So yes, I did have some capital. I had enough capital where I
didn't have to worry for a few years about where money was coming from. But
like I said, maybe this is arrogant, I don't know, but I felt pretty good
that I was going to be able to raise some assets fairly quickly and not be
drowning for too long.
Don Patrick: And you did. I mean, you just came out sprinting.
Troy DeCastro: I did. And once again, it's really just friends. I think, for
me, people along the way—my family was small, I have a very small family,
and my wife's family was mostly out of town, so we didn't really do a lot of
stuff with family on a regular basis. So we really got involved with
friends. Along the way, you have conversations: "Oh, you're an actuary," or
"Oh, you're a CFA charterholder." People sometimes think you're smarter than
you really are.
But along the way, you build up these friendships and trust. I know one of
the things you've been talking a lot about, what's your process, right?
What's your process to get somebody onboarded or how do you go about getting
business? I mean, Don, for me, it was just go tell my friends what I was
doing. Amazingly, they all had issues with their current advisors. And they
didn't like them for this reason or that reason, and they trusted me. And
they came onboard.
I think part of it for me was—and I won't go into this until we have a
chance to take another breath—but I have been doing my own models, right?
And I eat my own home cooking. So they're literally a client—I don't have
any fixed income in my portfolio, my personal portfolios, okay. But a client
that I've invested money for, you know, wasn't inherited or, you know, for
some tax, cost basis reason. But if I've invested money, anything equity
related to my clients, I own it too.
Don Patrick: As it should be.
Troy DeCastro: I tell them that. I'm very open. Nobody's called me on it
yet, but I've literally said, "I will show you my portfolio if you ever want
to see it." Now, unfortunately, nobody's ever said yes.
Don Patrick: Two comments. I know a number of former wholesalers who came
over to this side. They've all been successful. One, they saved their money,
they didn’t spend it all. But two, more so than many financial planners I
know, they knew how to sell. They knew how to prospect and how to bring it
in. And you, you don't fit that mold. In fact, you're spoiled. You just
said, "Hey, I started a new business, you're my buddy."
Troy DeCastro: No, I have been spoiled in a lot of ways. I'm really, in a
lot of ways, at a crossroads right now because I am 60. Yes, I'd like to
grow, but what's the best way for me to grow in terms of my business?
And so one thing I spend a lot of time talking about with my clients is, you
know, I try to get my clients not to think about the amount of taxes they
pay in a single year, right? I've been growing into this thinking: "Let me
help you figure out a way to pay the least amount of taxes over your life,
not just a given year."
I think in a lot of ways, your income is similar. I was starting to get
burned out at my previous job. When I first told my wife I was going to
quit, she was like, "Are you fricking crazy?" and I said, "Yeah, maybe."
Then three or four months later, I just wasn't happy. She signed on and
said, "Let's do it."
But I basically told her, I was like, "I have no doubt that I'll be able to
make more over my career doing this than I would if I stayed there."
Wholesaling, it was a small, family-sized firm. My region was, you know, on
a regular basis, I'd go out to Texas, up to Chicago, and pretty much
anything east. On occasion, I'd go out to the West Coast. I was just all
over the place. That's fine for a while, but it just got old.
Don Patrick: 20 years of that.
Troy DeCastro: There's no way I could keep doing that, for sure. But one
thing I'm constantly thinking about is how, ‘cause I’m really fascinated
with this whole industry. I got bored at my previous job because when you're
managing money, you can't change your stripes. You've got a product, you
can't all of a sudden be growth-oriented when you are value, or go small-cap
when you're large-cap. I said the same thing every day: "We like
high-quality dividend-growing companies that raise their dividends every
year for 10 years." I could say it in my sleep.
The great thing about this industry for me is that I love the fact that I
don’t know—it's going to sound weird—but I love that I don't even know half
the stuff I should. It's so cool to wake up almost every day and try to
think about how you can learn something else about this to help your
clients. But again, getting back to the whole career thing, I really just
was like, “What can I do to allow myself to have a business that could grow,
help people? Yes, I could get paid, but over the life of that career that
I'd be better off.” More encompassing than just moneywise. Right. And so I
feel like I found that, and that's been exciting.
Don Patrick: So, couple of questions. The first one's probably not relevant,
but you sold a product for 20 years and now you're selling an intangible.
Although it doesn't sound like you had to sell much, but there is a big
difference between selling a product and an intangible. Some of the advisors
I talked to, in terms of a prospective client, they'll actually show them on
a screen a sample of what a plan actually looks like. Which, to me, is like,
“Okay, here's the shiny new car, the new leather smell,” to actually make it
a little more tangible. So has that been difficult for you or easy breezy?
Troy DeCastro: Well, so far it's been easy breezy. For me, when I talked to
what soon became new clients, when I go in for the first conversation, I
didn't show them anything. Don, you realize most of my life has been
investments, right? Even when I was a wholesaler, you're told every year
about how nobody cares about performance. You just don't believe it. Now I'm
living it. The only reason I have conversations about performance is so I
can tell your compliance team that I talked about performance because it's a
box I'm supposed to check. Nobody wants to talk about performance and
really—
Don Patrick: They just want to know they're doing okay.
Troy DeCastro: That's right. So for me, right, so I keep mentioning kind of
at a crossroads. I've kind of taken the low-hanging fruit. That's done. If
you're a good friend of mine or a family member, we've already had the
conversation about working together, and that’s done. Fortunately, that's
been very good for me and my family.
Don Patrick: You’ve got a nice business.
Troy DeCastro: So, I don't have a website. I've never had a website. I don't
post on LinkedIn. I have a LinkedIn page, but I don't post on it. I don't
post on Facebook. I don't send out emails. I don't send out mailings. I
mean, literally, Don, like three months ago, I finally bought some hats,
some baseball caps. I mean, I've been doing this for six years. I have some
baseball caps now and some notepads. It took me six years to do that, right?
So, it’s interesting. My definition of "high touch" is completely different
than I think most advisors’, right? My definition of high touch is really
kind of accessibility. I tell my clients, right, the best financial advice
if you're not retired, right? The best financial advice you can give anybody
is just keep your job. I mean, that's basic stuff. And it's not rocket
science. So when I have a client that talks, and again, I can do this, my
business is a lot different, right? But, for me, I will talk to my clients
and they know this. They can call me at night, they can call me on the
weekends. They can call me whenever they want to call me.
Now, it's easier for me to do this because I don't have as many clients. But
I like to tell people, even my friends, right? “I work for you now. You
don't work for me. I work on your hours,” and I truly, for me, you talk
about what works, for me, this is what works. And this is part of the
reason, there's a variety of things, right? But I think for me, this is why,
up to this point, I've done things the way I've done. And so I really
haven't had to—I mean, again, I don't have a pitch book. I don't do agendas,
right? I mean, and I'm not saying this is the best way to do it, don't get
me wrong. I mean, I can improve in so many areas, but it's just for me, I've
never had to do that. But it'll be interesting to see what happens going
forward. That'll be the real question.
Don Patrick: So I guess my next question, so you have your friends and
family, you're still thinking about, it sounds like, growing some. What does
that look like? How are your referrals? I mean, have you given that, I know
you've given them a thought.
Troy DeCastro: Well, yeah. No, I've given it thought and it's kind of funny.
This is, I mean, first of all, again, I very much appreciate you inviting me
on this thing because one of the things that’s done for me is, you forced
me, you sent me the agenda, right? Or a rough outline of what might be
talked about. And frankly, it's kind of forced me to think about things. And
so, one thing I've really not done, I've really actually not asked my
clients for referrals yet.
Don Patrick: Uh-huh, that's pretty normal.
Troy DeCastro: So I think, like I said, it's pretty normal, but that's one
thing that I can do, right? I already have a very close group of clients,
right? And I've got the generational stuff. I've got that pretty much taken
care of. My 10 largest clients, I already have accounts that I manage for
the kids. One of my clients I have, the grandfather, the father, and then
the daughter and the in-laws and stuff like that. So, I mean, I've already
done a pretty good job of infiltrating the families.
But how do I want to grow? Probably referrals. I want to be very deliberate.
I've put together this business with friends that meet a certain criteria. I
enjoy working with my friends. That doesn't scare me, right? I mean, there's
risk, right? If I screw something up, maybe I lose the friendship, but I
don't really worry about that. I probably should.
But anyway, I've enjoyed working with my friends because, yeah, I see them a
lot. And a weakness of mine is time management. A weakness of mine is
efficiency. So I will guarantee you I have the least efficient meetings of
anybody in the consortium. I mean, it's almost impossible for anybody to be
less efficient than me.
Don Patrick: But 35 households, families. I mean, you can do that and that's
fantastic.
Troy DeCastro: Right. So I can do that. So we'll see. But how am I going to
grow? So this is kind of a segue, I think, Don. I really have come to the
decision. I've been talking to Bryce a few times this past week or two, and
I have been managing my own models, but I have come to the decision that I'm
going to start transitioning away from that.
Don Patrick: Outsourcing.
Troy DeCastro: And so, it started out thinking about outsourcing trading,
but then it's now kind of delved into I’'m going to start giving up actual
portfolio management as well. So hopefully that'll free up some time to
allow me to do some things to be more value-added to my existing clients,
and that might generate some new opportunities in other places, or give me a
chance to think about how I want to grow and have the ability to grow a
little going forward.
Don Patrick: So, I think the close relationship and the high-touch service
you have with your clients, getting introductions, I mean, they're not all
going to be advocates and give you introductions, but people like helping
their friends. And we used to call it "friends helping friends," and we
actually used to have a little card, "Friends Helping Friends," because
people like to help their friends and they're having a fantastic experience
with you. I think you're going to be extremely successful. Some percentage
of them are going to be advocates for you and are going to love to give you
introductions.
Troy DeCastro: Well, we'll find out soon, I guess.
Don Patrick: Okay, so you just mentioned, so you're even turning over some
of the portfolio management to add other things for your clients,
value-added things. What are you looking at doing? Or have you already
implemented some of these things?
Troy DeCastro: Well, like for instance, I'd already had this witty response
when you said, "What's your tech stack?" Right? Like, well, what do I pay
for? Or what do I use?
Don Patrick: Oh, we all deal with that.
Troy DeCastro: Like Holistiplan. I'm paying for Holistiplan. I'm not using
it. Why? It’s just stupid, right? So, I'm spending too much time agonizing
over putting 4% in this mid-cap fund versus 3%, and so I'm looking forward
to giving up some responsibilities that will allow me to better assess the
tools that I'm currently paying for, like Holistiplan that I'm not really
using. Wealth.com I just signed up for, haven't really used it yet. So it's
things like that, to be a little more proactive, a little more forceful
about getting some of those kids that don't have the will, getting those in
place and being more "bugging them" about it as opposed to just saying, "You
can do it," right?
Hopefully, we'll see. I mean, I think I've done a pretty good job. I mean, I
listen to you guys, right? I listen to you guys. I listen to my peers. I
don't always like being told what to do. I do like to go it alone sometimes.
So, it's kind of funny getting back to sports, right? I played the—in my
mind—the best team sport ever, and that's football. But I also played the
best individual sport ever, and that's wrestling.
I got third in the state in wrestling my senior year and loved it. Well,
yes, I'm a team player, but I also like to do things on my own. But I do
listen ultimately, right, to anything that people say. And I do like to
think that I'm open and honest. So, for instance, about my models, like, I
have a couple of models I run. What my main model has actually done pretty
well, but not so well that it's probably worth the time for my clients,
right? And the other two models that I run, they've done okay. I mean,
they're not embarrassing, but they really haven't added that much value. So
it's like it's really a no-brainer for why am I continuing to do this. I
finally got enough history under my belt where I can really assess what I'm
doing.
And so, it'll be interesting to see how long it takes me to make the switch.
I'm definitely moving that way. Gonna have a call with Javal here, hopefully
in the next day or two, about getting that moving. So, we'll make some
progress and again, hopefully that'll free up some time to do some of these
other things. Last thing I'll say on this round, hopefully, is that I do
enjoy the growth trend I'm taking as it relates to my ability to be a better
financial planner. Once again, I'm so far behind most of the people that you
have in your firm, but at least I'm gaining ground, I guess.
Don Patrick: Well, I do hope you implement Holistiplan. It's really powerful
because accountants are just historians. They don't do planning. And it’s so
powerful. I think you're going to love it once you dig into it, everybody
who's implemented it. But nobody tells anybody in the consortium what to do.
You're all independent. That's what we fight for, and it's choice. IFG could
have done a tech stack years ago and you'd say, "Well, I want Wealthbox."
"No, you've gotta use Redtail." That is not what it's about. And it's the
mastermind groups, the retreat, meet the experts, podcasts, all these
things. That's how we learn from one another and say, "Well, I like that, I
don't like that." And that's the beauty of it.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. I mean, look, again, in the beginning I started out
joining Highland Trust and they were kind enough to open up their firm to
me, and the mastermind group, shout out to my mastermind group. My God,
those guys have been awesome. So it’s the, like you said, the openness. It
took me a couple years probably to realize it, frankly, Don, because when I
first came over, I was just trying to raise assets. I really wasn't thinking
about too much outside of it. But y'all have built something special and
it's not lost on me. And I'm glad to be a part of it, that's for sure.
Don Patrick: Well, you've also raised some, built something special. I mean,
and I've sat in your mastermind group a couple of times. The last one you
were leading. You're really good at running these things, by the way.
They're fun.
Troy DeCastro: Well, thank you.
Don Patrick: Energetic. But it's been a lot of fun watching you grow and
what you've done. And you're just curious by nature, I mean, you really are.
Troy DeCastro: Well, I think that's right. I do think that's right.
Don Patrick: So I'm going to share one other thing. Most people that have
gotten in this profession, anybody who breathed became a client. So now
they're sitting with hundreds of clients trying to figure out what are they
going to do, going to segment and do all this. And you are in, like, the
sweet spot that everybody would love to have. In fact, a lot of the more
senior advisors who are thinking about succession and things of this nature,
most of them, their goal is to get to 50 clients.
Troy DeCastro: Right.
Don Patrick: And you're there. I mean, that's pretty cool.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. I mean, like I said, I've been fortunate. I'm pretty
sure you don't like the word "luck," if I remember right.
Don Patrick: Oh, no. Luck is always a part of it. But you've gotta be
prepared. If you're prepared
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. I think that's the reason I said early on that I really
have been my whole life, well, adult life, has been geared toward this,
right? I mean, building relationships I built when I was doing other things
and having conversations with people about finances even before I was doing
this and building up trust. And so I'd laid the groundwork to where, when I
finally did it, that it wasn't—the hard part for me has been kind of this
"drinking from a fire hose," right? Like, I am curious, I know I have a lot
to learn still. That's been both good and maddening sometimes, because,
just, you don't know something. But most of my friends know, right? I'm not
bashful about telling people I don't know something, and I really don't try
to act like I do when I don't. So my clients, if my clients trust me, they
trust me to figure it out.
Don Patrick: Yeah, I share this with younger advisors who were, man, they
thought they've gotta know all the answers. And the old days when we had
books, you go to an attorney's office or a CPA's office, they had all these
books. Well, why were they there? Because nobody can know all this stuff.
You go get the answer.
Troy DeCastro: That's exactly right.
Don Patrick: It's always been that way.
Troy DeCastro: That's exactly right.
Don Patrick: So helping people in their lives versus selling a product for
20 years, much more rewarding, I assume?
Troy DeCastro: Significantly.
Don Patrick: I mean, you wanted to be a teacher. You're built for this from
the beginning. Most good financial planners, they like helping, they like
teaching.
Troy DeCastro: Well, that's right. I mean, I'm not an expert on women,
right? But I've done a seminar for two
Don Patrick: You’ve got 30-some years.
Troy DeCastro: I did a seminar for two years in my neighborhood where only
women were invited. And most people, if you know me, if you know me well, if
you can't tell on this podcast, I love to talk. So I love talking about this
stuff. I love answering questions or trying to answer questions and
educating clients. Transparency on fees, telling my clients or telling
people what my biases are. Like, I think it's important when you get advice
from somebody, I think it's actually important that they know what your
biases are.
Don Patrick: Absolutely.
Troy DeCastro: So I'll tell the IFG universe, I'm the only person I know,
I've had two pieces of property outside of my primary home, and I've lost
money on both of them. I'm like the only person I know that's lost money
twice on real estate. So when somebody says, "Should I buy a lake house?" I
go, "Hell no." Then I tell them, "But by the way, I lost money on my lake
house. So, maybe you shouldn't do that." But anyway, I think education's so
important and transparency, and stuff like that. And so
Don Patrick: Well, you're using a financial planning tool, great. Are you
using, like, eMoney or something?
Troy DeCastro: I'm using WealthVision.
Don Patrick: WealthVision. So, and I share this all the time, and I'll never
stop, because when I started, literally we had a typewriter and had a 10-key
calculator and we'd give them a hundred-page, "Okay, here it is, here's what
you're going to do." It was horrible. And today, with technology, we're not
telling clients what to do. It's up there on the screen. It's their life.
"But what if I retire a little later? What if I do this? What if I do this?"
You go click, click, click. Both husband and wife see it instantly and they
get it, and they make the decision. They are empowered. They're driving the
car. That's the biggest transformation of technology in my career, in this
profession. It's been the biggest. And that's what you're doing. You're
guiding them and educating them, and they're making the decisions. They can
see the impact of what they might want to do.
Troy DeCastro: No, that's right. I agree. And when I do financial planning,
at least my version of it, right? I don't show my clients anything. We just
sit down and stare at the screen and I go, "Am I missing any income sources?
Am I missing any income? Am I missing, does the balance sheet look right?"
Walk through the assumptions, and then you push a button and say, "Well,
this is what it says." Then we play an hour or two of shocking the system.
"Well, what if this?" or "What if that?" And it's like you said, they get to
see it live. And so this industry is so fun. I mean, it's just so fun, the
stuff you get to talk about and the tools you have available and the kind of
stuff you can help your clients with, right? It's just so cool.
Don Patrick: And the impact. I've always said, and I've always said it over
and over in these podcasts, but it's so true. I've always told clients that
we have a bigger impact on their lives until they get older and their
primary physician. It's everything from weddings, divorce, death,
disability, college. I mean, big, big things in people's lives. And I would
bet that we saved a lot of marriages because money's one of the biggest
issues in our marriage.
Troy DeCastro: Well, yeah. I've got one client that just went through a
plan, and she, again, of course, she's a friend, and she's like, "Troy,
don't tell me I can't spend money." And I was like, "Hey, I'm not saying you
can't spend money. I'm just saying, how about thinking about, if the
market's down, you just defer that expense? Just wait till later to spend
it."
So now look, the tools have been great. I use YCharts right now a little
bit. Of course, if I turn over the models, I don't know how much longer I'll
use that. You know, I use ChatGPT. I use that like crazy.
Don Patrick: How do you use it?
Troy DeCastro: I apologize. RepChat. Apologize. I actually have been using
ChatGPT more. I've actually done a decent amount of work with it as it
relates to setting up some of my models and trying to look at the pros and
cons of this fund over that fund. So I've been using that a little bit more.
But I use my RepChat like crazy. The only problem with my RepChat is because
of my goofy friends, I'll get a friend of mine, he'll—the market's down and
he'll go—he'll text me on my RepChat going, "Hey, my portfolio's down. You
suck." And I'm like, "Man, you can't be doing that, right? This is
recorded." And then I call him, I'm like, "Man, don't—"
Don Patrick: Here we go.
Troy DeCastro: "You can't be doing that."
Don Patrick: "It's illegal."
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. And then I'll get a text five minutes later: "I love
Troy. He's the best financial advisor anywhere." I'm like, "God, you—" But I
use my RepChat, use the AI stuff a little bit.
I have Jump. Jump was really a lifesaver before we got the news we're not
supposed to record phone calls, which I won't go into that on the podcast.
Don Patrick: They'll get that figured out.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. One of my weaknesses has been documentation. I'm
getting better, right?
Don Patrick: All of us struggle with that.
Troy DeCastro: Jump has really helped me with that a lot. And I use
Wealthbox on the CRM side. I buy Holistiplan. I pay for Wealth.com at the
moment, so. What's that thing? Nitrogen. I had that, yeah. But I stopped
using that, so I whittle it down if I'm not using it after a while. But I
have low overhead because I work out of my house and I'm a one-person shop
plus the virtual assistant plus the future investment solutions group. So
I'm a one-man shop, so I have pretty much low overhead, so I don't
really—doesn't really concern me.
Don Patrick: High-margin business.
Troy DeCastro: So I'm not as concerned about paying a thousand dollars just
to try it out and figure it out. And then next year I'll cut it if I don't
use it. So that's kind of how I've done the tech stuff.
Don Patrick: So with your existing clients, I get. Do you actually do
a—well, it sounds like you do a formal progress review meeting, but you're
interacting with them all the time, right? So is it just kind of random or
what does that look like?
Troy DeCastro: I should have said this in the beginning, Don. If some of the
advisors are looking for input on processes, they should just stop. Just
hang up, man. But no, I don't have anything formal. I really don't.
I formally want to meet with my clients more than once a year. When I say
formally, I make it a point to make sure I have at least somewhat of a
meaningful conversation more than once a year. Timing of that, but I was
talking to some of my clients recently and one client told me, it was like,
"Well, I know I can just call you whenever I want to call you" And so I
don't really have a set time. I don't say I do everything in April and
October. It just varies throughout the year.
I mean, it's just crazy really, how my business is, because the overwhelming
majority of my clients, like, I mean, like I travel with. Like, I travel out
of state with, I travel out of, I mean, 60% of my top 10 clients I've
traveled out of the country with. The downside of that is making sure that
you don't let it always be too relaxed, right? Making sure that you actually
do cover something meaningful and keep them on track or do the things they
want you to do. And so that's a little bit of a risk I run with my clients,
but I try hard not to fall in that trap. And I mean, so far I think it's
been pretty successful.
Don Patrick: Do you train them? I haven't had many friends or relatives or
clients. I've had a few, and I tell them right up front, I say, "We've got
two relationships. We've got our friendship and we have a professional
relationship. I've been doing this a long time. This is very serious. It's
about your life." And so that's how I've trained my friends in what the
future—
Troy DeCastro: Well, once again, maybe how not to do it, but I actually take
the opposite stance, right? Like, I don't train them. I don't train them at
all. I mean, matter of fact, like I said, you call me anytime you want. I
work out twice a week with two of my clients, and they're talking with me
while I'm rowing. I'm on the rowing machine, right? And my friendships with
my clients is what led them to be clients. So for me, I'm not going to take
that away, right? That's just an important part of, that's just an important
part of who I am and how I built the business.
So, no, I don't. Literally, I told my clients, "If I don't want to talk,
call me anytime. If I don't want to talk to you, I won't answer the phone."
That's literally what I say and I absolutely mean it. So, no, I don't train
my clients, but they, my friends and family, they're not calling me. I'm not
getting phone calls from them when the market's down. If I get a phone call,
it's from somebody who's actually outside of that group.
Don Patrick: Well, like I said, you are in the sweet spot. I can't tell you
how many financial planners would love to have 35 families and just be so
open like that. I mean, and I think even most financial planners I know,
even with large amounts of clients, they'll still take calls. I mean,
they're going to get back to their clients typically same day.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. Well, and again, well, let me say this: all the IFG
advisors will, but I literally, Don, I've had clients who have told me, with
a couple million dollars, they're like, "Hey, my advisor won't call me
back."
Don Patrick: What?
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. I mean, listen, I'm not spoofing you here, right? Like,
this is, I've had clients tell me, actually, this one person, she actually
wasn't a client, but she was a family friend. She didn't turn into a client,
but she literally said, "Yeah, I don't like that my advisor buys all these
little pieces of all this stuff." And I was like, "Well, did you talk to the
advisor? What'd he say?" "Well, he told me not to worry about it, that this
was his job." And I was like, "You've gotta be kidding me."
Don Patrick: Oh my God.
Troy DeCastro: But she's still with him. But I think we have to celebrate,
and I'll say this "we" collectively, right? I think most IFG people know
this. But I mean, I have talked over my career. I have talked to a lot of
advisors. I mean, a lot. And I'll tell you unequivocally that the group at
IFG is just so much above average. It’s awesome. It's just so much, and I'm
not, again, I'm just being as honest as I can. Yes, there's a lot of good
advisors, but there's a lot more that are not good.
Don Patrick: Yeah. And I know that for a fact. You and I have seen it. And I
mean, we've always, it's strive for excellence, strive to be the best. And
you mentioned about learning. We have some folks, we call them "lifestyle
practices." They're just cruising. All we ask is they don't stop learning
and continue to be professional and be one of the best in the profession.
That's it. That's what it's about.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. And I'd like to. I'm not prepared to say I'm a
lifestyle practice. Other people might say that, but I will say that the
learning part is never going to go away for me, right? That's the thing
because, again, good news, bad news, depending on how you look at it, right?
Like, if I don't learn and keep, or get better at what I do, then I have the
chance of losing more than just a client. And that puts a little bit of
pressure on you, right? I mean, again, I love it. I love it because I don't
have any doubt that I'm not going to improve. So you better treat your
clients right, obviously. Particularly if they're your good friends.
Don Patrick: Yes. Puts a little more pressure on you.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah.
Don Patrick: Yeah. That's always the challenge. Like, people will get into
nesting, like a particular company or whatever. Well, all their clients are
talking to each other. She said, "Man, you screw one up and you could really
impact your business."
Troy DeCastro: Yes. It's good and bad, right? It's good and bad. I mean, I
have clients who have, I mean, friends of mine that have said, "I am doing
business with you. I want to hire you because I know you work with another
friend." And yes, they trust me, but they also trust the other friend. And
they're like, "If you're working with him, I'll work with you too." And I
mean, that was the extent of it. And so it can go the other way if you screw
it up.
Don Patrick: True. But once you start focusing on introductions from
clients, I think you're going to do extremely well.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah.
Don Patrick: So in terms of how people pay you, is it asset management, AUM
fee?
Troy DeCastro: All advisory. I don't do any, you know, the only brokerage I
have is if I'm doing a long-term care or some kind of insurance, something
like that. But from an investment account-related, it's all advisory. I have
one MAS account. But again, most of it's swim. The MAS account I'm going to
get rid of here shortly. So I'll be 100% swim. And I think one thing I do
that I think has been instrumental, at least for me in my business, is I
household vertically. So the one family I have where, you know, grandfather,
the father, the wife, the daughter, the son-in-law, I do it all together.
Don Patrick: Do you have tiers?
Troy DeCastro: I do have tiers. So I have a—
Don Patrick: So they hit different.
Troy DeCastro: That's correct.
Don Patrick: The whole family benefits.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. And most people probably say I'm charging too little,
but it's comfortable for me. I do have tiers and it's comfortable for me
where at least the way I view my business, it's comfortable for me. But it
is tiered. I do have some flat fee, but I've definitely been getting away
from that.
Don Patrick: Okay. So in terms of building your models and such, mutual
funds, ETFs, active, passive, kind of, how does that look?
Troy DeCastro: Active, passive, combination of mutual funds and ETFs. I have
been trying to slowly shift toward, well, in the retirement accounts, not so
slowly, but been moving toward the actively managed ETFs whenever I can. And
taxable accounts, obviously, a little bit more of a slower pace to that
switch. But I really follow heavily what LPL says. I use a lot of their
guidance as it relates to asset allocation. I tend to put a little bit of a
different twist, like maybe, let's say, the foreign or the developed or
emerging market piece of it. But I mostly use recommended funds, but not
always.
If I think there's something, like, I don't think the mid-cap space for
LPL's recommended list is all that great. I found a couple of things outside
of it in emerging markets that I like, so I'll go away from the recommended
list if I think it'll be value-added for the client. Go from there. And then
I do, I use FI360. I've got, I look at Morningstar. I got the recommended
managers. I got YCharts. I mean, I've got all sorts of things that I look at
to make sure that I'm doing a good job for the clients. And like I said, so
far, my models have been pretty good. But like I said, this process is going
to start going away because it's become evident to me that I need to start
spending more of my time on other things.
Don Patrick: I love it. I went through the same evolution about 35 years
ago.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. Well, that’s where, you know, everybody talks about it,
right? And I listen. But then I'm like, "Eh, I'll just do it myself." But I
feel like I've gotta learn the hard way.
Don Patrick: We all do.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. Yeah.
Don Patrick: Troy, this has been fantastic. I'm going to ask you just a
couple of questions before we wrap up. This is wonderful, a lot of fun. So,
can you use three words to describe your talents and strengths? I think
you've already shared them with us, but I'll let you go.
Troy DeCastro: Well, I think, first of all, this was an interesting exercise
for me. I immediately thought about three weaknesses: efficiency, time
management, lack of organization. But building relationships, trustworthy,
open, and transparency are probably the three that I would, maybe are just a
little bit distinguishing. But I will say this, I actually, I did a little
different twist on this. I was having such a hard time narrowing it down to
three, frankly. 'Cause, I'm good at everything. I'm kidding.
I was sitting there going, "Why don't I just ask my clients?" I actually
sent this to 10 of my clients.
Don Patrick: That is great.
Troy DeCastro: They came up with, which, the last one, I think I laughed at.
It cracked me up, actually. They said number one was critical thinking. So I
actually had to look that up, Don. I was like, "What the hell is critical
thinking?" So I looked it up, and when I got that on, you know, ChatGPT told
him what that was, I was like, "Oh yeah, I think I do a pretty good job of
that." The second one was building relationships, and I was like, "Okay, I'm
cool with that one." But then this was the funny one: the third most often
answered was listening.
Don Patrick: That is powerful.
Troy DeCastro: I was like, "Seriously?" Was it Zox, that gave you the—
Don Patrick: Yes, it tells you how much you're talking versus the clients.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. Oh man. Before I moved to Jump, which, I had to go to
Jump because Jump doesn't tell you that. Zox was like, "Oh yeah, you're
talking 90% of the time." And I'm like, "Dang, I've gotta shut up." And I
was actually floored that they said that, the group said listening. But you
know, at least they think they're being heard. And that's... at the end of
the day, that's what matters, what they think. And so that's the three they
gave me.
Don Patrick: That is great. Perception's everything, right?
Troy DeCastro: Yeah.
Don Patrick: But clearly you're a listener. That wouldn't have been so
common. That's powerful. That's fantastic.
Troy DeCastro: Surprising. But yeah. Nice.
Don Patrick: I love how you did that. One of these podcasts, they had their
spouse answered for them.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. Yeah. I didn't do that. I probably wouldn't like the—
Don Patrick: I’m gonna ask one more question before you wrap up, Troy. So
actually, I'm gonna say a lot of what you shared, a lot of us didn't know. I
knew a lot of it, but anything else that would surprise people that they
dunno about you?
Troy DeCastro: Surprise. Let's see, actually, I had two about an hour and a
half ago, but I forgot the second one already, Don. Alright, I'll start
with, well, first of all, I shall say that I think Brad Williams, he is
leading our mastermind group this year. I think he stole this from you. So
he had everybody send his wife three things that we had never, that people
would know.
We're gonna guess them at every mastermind meeting. So, some of my good
stuff, I've already, I can't share because it'll give away the mastermind
group.
Don Patrick: I agree.
Troy DeCastro: So that's kind of disappointing. But I guess I would say, I
have seen or played a football game in 49 college and/or pro stadiums in 17
states.
Don Patrick: That's incredible.
Troy DeCastro: So. I guess that's somewhat interesting.
Don Patrick: Very. That's amazing.
Troy DeCastro: And like I said, I still can't remember the second one, so.
Yeah. maybe, I'll spare y'all from that.
Don Patrick: We can always do an outtake.
Troy DeCastro: Exactly.
Don Patrick: Well, Troy, I wanna thank you. Thanks for taking the time,
preparing for this thing. You were fantastic. I knew you would be
interesting and I'm telling you, there's so many planners in IFG that would
love to be where you're at, 35 clients. I mean, that's fun. That is
fantastic.
Troy DeCastro: Well, I appreciate it, Don, and I appreciate letting me—and I
appreciate all the support and again, to the IFG community, I just say thank
you.
Don Patrick: It's our pleasure. We help each other. It's the brain trust.
Troy DeCastro: Yeah. That's really good, man. Really good.
Don Patrick: All right, I'll see ya.
Troy DeCastro: Alright, have a good day. Bye-bye.
Well, that's it for today's show. Thanks for listening.
If you've got something to share, send an email to
dpatrick@thebraintrust.net. We want to know what works.
Until next time. See ya.