Episodes

Advisor Joseph R. Biondo Sr. just recently celebrated 60 years in the financial services industry, but his path to success was not a linear one. In his 83 years, he has experienced his fair share of struggles—both personally and professionally. In fact, his life began with tragedy. Just three weeks before he was born, his father passed away, leaving his mother a widow with two young boys at age 30 in Canarsie, Brooklyn. His family ended up on welfare, struggling to make ends meet, so he would he...

A little over a year ago, advisor Jonathan DeYoe was in a healthy place; he was meditating on a regular basis, working out, eating and sleeping right. But in the summer of 2021, he tragically lost his only brother and business partner when he drowned in the Pacific Ocean. He says his life came to a “screeching halt” that day. While coping with grief, he struggled to stay healthy. Since then, he has been on a journey to rebuild healthy habits after experiencing this huge loss. In this episode, Di...

On average, there are 130 suicides per day, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and individuals who work in financial services are 1.5 times more likely to commit suicide than the national average, according to the National Occupational Mortality Surveillance. Right before advisor Larry Sprung was set to break away and launch his own firm, his brother-in-law Keith Milano, who had suffered from bipolar disorder, died by suicide. Now Larry’s dedicated much of his time and ...

In 2020, Danika Waddell’s prior firm was audited by the State of Washington, and the state found that her U4 was never filed properly, after four years of working with clients. The whole ordeal was traumatic for her. In this episode, WealthManagement.com Managing Editor Diana Britton is joined by Danika Waddell, president and founder of Xena Financial Planning in Seattle. Danika shares how the filing error caused her to lose over half her income, created stress over her future as a financial adv...

The loss of a loved one can lead to a tidal wave of emotions before reaching acceptance and continuing on in life without them. Before starting his own practice, advisor Vance Barse experienced profound grief after losing five family members, including his biological father who he had never met. However, this darker time in his life was followed by a period of life-changing introspection, which forced him to rethink his personal and professional life. In this episode, WealthManagement.com’s Mana...

Managing employee burnout is key to creating a healthy workplace environment. But what steps should advisory and financial services firms be taking to reduce stress and burnout in the workplace? In 2022, ActivTrak released a benchmark study on productivity and wellbeing within the financial services industry, revealing that this space is, in fact, better at managing burnout risk than other industries. For instance, compared to a cross-industry sample, 19% more employees have a healthy workload, ...

Early in his career in financial services, Matthew Grishman was working as a wholesaler, making a lot of money, and on the outside, he looked as though he was living his best life, with the Rolex watch, the shiny Allen Edmonds shoes, the Hickey Freeman suits. But on the inside, he was empty and trying to fill a hole with money, alcohol and other things. But one day his money addiction got so out of control that he was broke. He had hit rock bottom and was faced with a critical decision: make mas...

Jess Bost found CrossFit during a traumatic time in her life. About her workouts, she says, “I went to the darkest place I could, and I fought my demons in that place.” CrossFit, which stands for cross-discipline fitness, became her bridge to healing. In this episode, Diana Britton is joined by Jess Bost, the vice president of brand partnerships at Alpha Architect and part-time CrossFit Coach. Here, she opens up about how her experience with intense workouts and a supportive community gave her t...

In 2011, Jeff Martinovich was barred by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority from any role in selling securities or associating with FINRA members, and he’s currently serving a 16-year prison sentence, with about 2.5 years more on home confinement in Norfolk, Va. An ankle monitor on his left ankle keeps tabs on his movements. But Martinovich has few regrets with the decisions he made, including rejecting three government plea deals. He hasn’t let his experiences defeat him, as many barred...

Our experiences throughout childhood can have a major impact on the way we live our lives into adulthood. But after meeting Marc Nichols, you might never have guessed the trauma that he experienced growing up, one he describes as “inconsistent.” In this episode, Diana Britton is joined by Nichols, product director at Arbor Digital, who opens up about being the victim of sexual and mental abuse by people he was supposed to look up to and trust. During much of his childhood, he lived in an all-fem...

Dr. Travis Parry started his career as a financial advisor. But when Parry was just 26 years old, his father died of a sudden heart attack while mountain biking, and he had to clean up the financial mess left in his wake. That included processing his father’s death claim, paying off his mother’s house, helping her relocate and covering the funeral expenses. That changed the course of his career. He fell into a workaholic trap, as many advisors do. Parry realized that while many advisors mean we...

Stevyn Guinnip has seen secondhand the toll this industry can take on a person’s health and wellbeing; her father, after all, was a financial advisor with Edward Jones for several decades. Advisors, she says, come into this industry and are told they have to hustle for the first five to 10 years and then will be able to coast. But that’s a lie. Instead, she says, many advisors work themselves ragged, and end their careers in burnout. Take the fact that stress for this industry is currently 31% h...

With several business ideas and capital secured from investors such as Mark Cuban and Mark Burnett, Anthony Zhang had an impressive path towards a bright future. That is, until a terrible accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, changing his life forever. In this episode, Diana Britton, managing editor of WealthManagement.com, is joined by Anthony Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Vinovest, a platform aimed at democratizing access to investing in fine wine. Zhang shares his experience of being...

A Note to Transparency Listeners: In 2022, the podcast is going to be changing its name to “The Healthy Advisor,” to give a clearer idea of what the podcast is about. Transparency with Diana B. was not quite as transparent a title as we thought. Julia Carlson got married at age 19, and right out of high school took a job at a local bank. She learned that the glass ceiling in the financial services industry comes quickly, so she left the bank after just four years and launched Financial Freedom W...

Eric Arnold is no stranger to failure. In fact, he failed out of college, got fired from two companies, failed at nine different startup ventures and lost everything on a bad investment. In this episode, Diana Britton speaks with Eric Arnold, CEO of Planswell, about how he has learned from those failures and has been given a second chance with Planswell. Toronto-based Planswell, which was founded in 2015, was humming by late 2019 and was in the middle of another funding round. Then accusations o...

Advisor Gary Schwartz was always able to make money; at the young age of 12, he started delivering newspapers in the Bronx. That’s also when he discovered drugs and alcohol, which became a way for him to self-medicate and cope with his self-esteem issues. From there, the addiction progressed; cocaine and speed were his drugs of choice. In this episode, Diana Britton, managing editor of WealthManagement.com, is joined by Schwartz, president and CEO of Madison Planning Group in White Plains, N.Y.,...

Advisor Robert Schein’s father worked hard his adult life to provide for his family, and just four months into retirement, at the age of 70, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 stomach cancer. After about three years battling the disease, his father ultimately passed, thrusting his mother into having to take over the family finances. Luckily, Schein and his brother stepped in to help and set her on a positive financial path. But many women aren’t as lucky. The experience inspired Schein to launch The ...

Advisor Anne Marie Stonich was just 28 years old when she and her two partners started building their own wealth management firm from scratch. For anyone in the business, that first year can be brutal. But she did it while also caring for her newborn baby, and shuttling to and from the hospital to see her mother, who’s health was deteriorating. Later that year, her mother passed away. And just six years later, her older brother died suddenly of a heart attack. In this episode, Diana Britton, man...

Silvia Tergas has been fortunate to pursue her passions and use her differences to her advantage within the financial services industry. Silvia’s father, who escaped from Cuba during the Cuban Revolution, paved the way for her to get educated in the U.S. The values he taught her and the rest of the family led to several opportunities throughout her life, including her pursuit of a career in financial planning. It wasn’t an easy path, however. In this episode, Diana Britton, managing editor at We...

Growing up in inner city Baltimore, Denika Tokunaga and her family struggled financially and couldn’t afford many of the luxuries that others had. That racial wealth gap affected many in the Black community, but she was determined to work hard and get educated so that she could get out of the inner city and overcome that wealth gap. At the age of 18, with the help of her grandmother, she was able to enter school to become a nursing assistant. She eventually found financial services and a passion...

When he was about six or seven years old, Rob Bartenstein’s parents got divorced. The rest of childhood had its ups and downs, with some emotional and, at times, physical abuse caused by the men in his mother’s life. His family also faced financial hardships, especially when his stepfather declared bankruptcy. Living on government cheese, processed cheese provided to welfare beneficiaries, the family had very little money to get by, putting further strain on the adults raising him. He eventually...

Sept. 11, 2001 is a day most Americans can’t forget, when Al-Qaida coordinated four terrorist attacks against the United States, including on the Twin Towers in downtown Manhattan. But for Chloe Wohlforth, managing director of Angeles Wealth Management in New York, it was the day she lost her father. Chloe was a junior in high school at the time, and that day her father went into work at Sandler O’Neill, an investment bank with offices on the 104th floor of the South Tower. He didn’t come home, ...

Every FINRA-registered rep is required to publicly disclose on their BrokerCheck profile certain events, such as regulatory actions, client complaints, and terminations. But the regulator also requires reps to disclose certain personal financial events, such as tax liens. Advisor Justin Reckers has always been transparent on his U4 about his troubles, which included a short sale on a home by his former wife, an employment separation and tax liens. But despite the disclosures, those things hurt h...

Growing up the son of a firefighter, Brian Walsh Jr. was taught to give back to the community and help others, and that led him to pursue one of the most difficult jobs in the U.S. military as a Navy SEAL (Sea, Air, Land), the country’s special operations team. But, just days before he was set to enter the SEALs’ training program, he got into a serious car accident while driving home from Baltimore, and his life suddenly changed. Walsh survived, against all odds, and went on to become a police o...