30 years after starting out as a financial planner and 25 after bringing his business to Waseca, hometown money guru Brad Connors and the financial management firm iWealth are celebrating their successes, including particularly rapid growth in recent years.
Connors and iWealth welcomed several hundred community members and satisfied clients to the Starfire Event Center for an event celebrating the occasion earlier this month, with clients coming from across Southern Minnesota and the south metro.
In addition to Connors, the iWealth team in Waseca now includes financial consultants Johnathan Eykyn and Shawn Pomeroy, and the firm recently added an office in Mankato which is home to retirement, investment and estate planner Gary Guentzel.
A founding partner of Estate and Financial Services, Guentzel brings even more experience in the financial planning industry than Connors, having begun his practice in 1978. As he nears retirement himself, Guentzel’s search for a succession plan led him to join the iWealth team.
iWealth also has an office in Bloomington, which the firm opened in the wake of the pandemic. Connors said that with a growing number of clients based in the south metro, it made sense to add a location convenient for them, located near the Mall of America and the MSP Airport.
Connors said that as iWealth continues to grow, offices elsewhere in southern Minnesota and the south metro are likely to open in the coming years, providing clients with iWealth’s signature combination of financial savvy and a personal touch.
When he started out in the financial planning business, Connors said that things were much simpler, with all the information one needed to open a new account fit on a single page. Now, a new intake form can run 40 pages or more.
Along with that increased complexity has come ups and downs, including three recessions — overall the DotCom bubble burst, the Great Recession and the COVID recession. However, Connors said the most remarkable thing has been the incredible growth of the market.
“The Dow was at 3,908 when I started in the business, and the Dow is now at 42,500, which is about a 10 percent return annually,” Connors noted. “If you can just have some time in the market, you can do really well.”
As Connors noted, only a relatively modest share of small startup businesses manage to survive for a decade, let alone three. To show gratitude for the community’s support, iWealth has been active and engaged in supporting charitable efforts in Waseca.
To give young people a hand up, iWealth annually sponsors two $1,000 scholarships for Waseca High School students who embody its core values — integrity, humility, hard work, trustworthiness, and a servant’s heart — and plan on pursuing a career in business.
One percent of iWealth’s annual revenues are also donated to the iWealth foundation, which supports a wide variety of charitable endeavors. The firm is a particularly generous donor to the Waseca Neighborhood Service Center and an active member of the Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber Director Ann Fitch said that iWealth is very generous and an active leader within the local business community, its contributions often come with little fanfare and can sometimes don’t get the credit they deserve.
“They don’t always get the recognition for what they give to the community because sometimes they do it very quietly,” Fitch said. “They’re not in it for the recognized they’re just there to help those around them and make Waseca a better community
As Connors sees it, the job he and the iWealth team do is a form of public service as well, built above all on building personal relationships with clients. He predicted that artificial intelligence won’t be replacing human financial advisors anytime soon.
“Maybe AI can help you buy life insurance online, but what AI can’t do is know what the right questions are to ask and ask those right questions,” Connors said. “When it comes to financial planning, people matter and having a connection matters.”
As he continues to help families guide their finances through different stages of life and oversee iWealth’s growth, Connors said he won’t be retiring anytime soon. Every day, he said he feels a sense of gratitude for the opportunity to be able to serve his clients.
“I think it’s a very, very noble business, and I want to be able to help people,” he said.
