What makes someone the “perfect” client for a financial advisor? For Michael Brady, founder of Generosity Wealth Management, the answer has much less to do with the size of a portfolio than it does with the kind of relationship you want to build around it.
Michael recently joined Frank LaRosa, CEO of Elite Consulting Partners, on Advisor Talk with Frank LaRosa for a conversation about the philosophy behind Generosity Wealth Management, how his own experiences shaped the firm, and why he has intentionally built a financial planning practice around people who value meaningful relationships and want their success to create possibilities in their lives and the lives of others.
Michael Brady joins Frank LaRosa on Advisor Talk to discuss building Generosity Wealth Management around shared values, meaningful relationships and a belief that financial success can create possibilities far beyond a portfolio.
When Financial Planning Becomes About More Than the Numbers
Early in his career, Michael came to believe that great financial planners combine deep knowledge with genuine care for the people they serve. That philosophy shaped the way he approached his work, but one longtime client helped him begin to see another dimension of what financial planning could make possible.
When that client—an early AIDS physician in Boulder—retired, he used some of his newfound freedom to travel to Uganda and help train doctors. Watching that next chapter unfold changed the way Michael thought about the work he was doing. Financial planning had helped this client prepare for retirement, certainly, but it had also helped create the freedom and resources for him to decide what he wanted that next stage of his life to mean. In this case, it meant taking decades of knowledge and experience and using them to help people on the other side of the world.
That experience stayed with Michael and eventually became part of the thinking behind Generosity Wealth Management. Financial success matters, but what becomes possible because of that success can be just as important.
Building Generosity Into the Business
Before founding Generosity Wealth Management in 2008, Michael and his wife stepped away from their traditional careers for two years to travel and volunteer. When Michael returned to financial planning, he knew he wanted to build a practice that reflected more of what he had learned through those experiences. Generosity wouldn’t simply be a cause the company supported outside the office; it would become part of the way the firm thought about wealth, relationships and the people it hoped to serve.
That doesn’t mean every client needs to support the same organizations Michael does, volunteer internationally or define generosity in the same way. Quite the opposite. One of the ideas at the heart of Generosity Wealth Management is that each person gets to decide what a meaningful life looks like for them. Once you’ve worked hard to create financial security and opportunities for yourself and the people you care about, the conversation can begin to expand beyond what you have and toward what you want those resources to make possible.
For one person, that may mean supporting a nonprofit or establishing a charitable legacy. For someone else, it could mean helping children or grandchildren, traveling while they’re healthy enough to enjoy it, starting another business, caring for family, volunteering more of their time or simply having the freedom to spend their days differently. The financial plan helps create and clarify those options, but what someone chooses to do with them is deeply personal.
So, What Is a “Perfect Client”?
One of the more interesting moments in the conversation comes when Frank challenges Michael on something he says about Generosity Wealth Management: that the firm has “perfect clients.” Michael isn’t suggesting that every client is the same, or that there is some universal definition of a perfect investor. He’s talking about something much simpler and more important in a long-term advisory relationship: fit.
From the beginning, Michael has tried to be clear about what kind of advisor he is, what Generosity Wealth Management values and what clients can expect from the relationship. Frank describes that approach during the episode as creating “positive friction.” Rather than trying to appeal to everyone, being clear about who you are allows the people who connect with that approach to recognize it, while giving people who want something different the same opportunity to recognize that too.
That kind of alignment matters because financial planning is an extraordinarily personal relationship. Conversations that may begin with investments, retirement projections or tax strategies often become conversations about family, fears, opportunities, major transitions and the kind of life someone hopes to build. Shared values don’t require shared opinions or identical priorities, but there does need to be trust and a common understanding of what the relationship is designed to accomplish.
Generosity Is Something We Practice
The conversation also explores how intentionally community involvement has been incorporated into the culture at Generosity Wealth Management. Michael talks about inviting clients to become involved with nonprofit organizations, introducing people to opportunities to serve and encouraging advisors within the firm to participate on nonprofit boards themselves.
Part of the reason for that is that generosity looks different when you experience an organization from the inside. Serving on a board, volunteering, mentoring, fundraising or lending professional expertise can offer a much clearer understanding of what a community needs, what an organization is trying to accomplish and where different kinds of resources can make a meaningful difference.
It is also a reminder that generosity isn’t reserved for the person who can write the largest check. Money is one resource, but so are time, knowledge, relationships, experience and influence. At different stages of life, we may have more of one to give than another. The important part is thinking intentionally about what we have available and how we want to use it.
What Do You Want Your Wealth to Make Possible?
Ultimately, Michael and Frank’s conversation comes back to an idea that has shaped Generosity Wealth Management from the beginning: money is a tool. Financial planning can help someone understand what they have, prepare for what they may need and make informed decisions about the possibilities available to them. What the numbers cannot determine is which of those possibilities will make their life feel meaningful.
For some people, financial success may create the freedom to retire earlier or work less. For others, it may mean helping family, traveling, supporting a cause, starting another business or creating a legacy that continues long after they’re gone. Those goals can also change over time, which is one reason financial planning is an ongoing conversation rather than a single plan created at one point in someone’s life.
It’s also why we believe some of the most useful financial conversations eventually move beyond, “How much do I have?” and begin asking another question: “What do I want what I’ve built to make possible?”
Watch or Listen to the Full Conversation
Michael and Frank cover much more in the full episode, including how Michael entered financial planning, the experiences that influenced the founding of Generosity Wealth Management, finding the right client relationships, incorporating philanthropy into the firm’s culture and why community involvement continues to be an important part of how Michael thinks about living generously.
You can watch the full conversation above, listen through Apple Podcasts or visit Elite Consulting Partners for the complete episode and additional information.
Listen on Apple Podcasts: Perfect Clients: The Financial Advisor Who Built a Practice Around Giving
Visit Advisor Talk: View the episode at Elite Consulting Partners
Discussions in this show should not be construed as specific recommendations or investment advice. Always consult with your investment professional before making important investment decisions. Client stories may not be representative of the experience of other customers that are no guarantee of future performance or success.