Top Ten Financial Advisors in Kansas City

Finding a Kansas City business broker, trusting an individual within a firm, or hiring Financial Advisors in Kansas City to invest and protect your money for retirement or wealth accumulation is a big decision.

Knowing what asset management company or wealth advisory service to hire can be a tough decision to make. How do you know your money is in the right hands? How do you know about their fees and how it affects your retirement or savings long term?

In the financial planning business, reputation is one thing. But the philosophy and how they go about managing your portfolio is much more important.

Many seek the advice of a financial planner to navigate sudden changes in life such as marriage, divorce, death or switching a career. Selling a business can often result in needing a new approach, with a good business broker and a financial planner needed to take the seller to the next level of success.

Every stage of life calls for a different approach to saving and planning. If one started investing at age 21, the needs of that person are drastically different than one who starts at 65 years of age. The approach, how aggressive the investment portfolio is and the current income of the different individuals, are all things to consider.

Many options are available for those who wish to invest and plan for a final destination—whether it’s freedom from the work force or for a very comfortable eventual retirement.

The success or failure to reach the ultimate destination largely depends on the firm chosen and the performance of their services.

Let’s not forget that the political climate, the state of the economy and how dedicated the investor is at staying with the market ups and downs are factors that can impact the lifetime results of your long-term financial strength.

Financial planning can be accomplished in several ways. Signing up with an online do-it-yourself investment company is one way. Another is to hire an actual advisor. Both strategies come with their pros and cons.

An online do-it-yourself firm lets you do it without human advice and usually comes with a lower price or cost to invest. After all, another human is not paid for doing research or making transactions in the investment.

The option of hiring a wealth manager or financial planner comes with higher costs, but proven to have more lucrative results.

Analysts say you can anticipate 2% to 4% higher results when you have direct involvement of an active financial planner versus going it alone.

What Will That 2% or 4% Cost?

Just like Kansas City CPA, hiring a financial planner comes with greater returns but at higher costs? At which point is it beneficial? To know that, it’s crucial to understand how your advisor makes money. It will determine how they work to make you money.

This means it is important to understand the various options and payment structures. Here are the most common choices:

Hourly: The investor is charged for time use on his behalf, regardless of assets.

Retainer: A scheduled (usually monthly or annual) fee makes the Financial Advisor available, on-call for the advisory services the retainer covers.

Flat fees: A set price for financial planning and asset management services. The fees have nothing to do with the amount of the investor’s account, big or small. It’s like ordering off a menu of services.

Commission: The financial advisor receives a percentage of the money spent buying high-performing investments, usually charged per transaction.
Asset management: The investor is charged a fee based on how much money is invested and fees usually are paid directly from the investor’s account.

If a financial advisor is less motivated to make you more money—for example, an hourly fee—that advisor is more likely to spend time on another account. They make more money the more investments and assets grow in an Asset Management account. But also be aware that conflicts of interest can arise, depending on the fee structure.

For example, advisors in Kansas City might move money around needlessly if they get a flat fee per transaction. Taking a portion of the growth of the investment (commissions) may encourage more thoughtful transactions. 

Financial Responsibility

How do you know an advisor isn’t pushing you into investments that benefit someone else’s interests more than your own? Be sure to ask a financial planner you plan to work with, “Do you have a fiduciary responsibility to my investments?” The question will tell you if he is licensed in Kansas City or not.

If he is, that means the financial planner must invest in your best interest first, even if it doesn’t benefit the financial planner. They are bound by ethics and regulations to do so.

If the planner is not operating with a strict sense of fiduciary responsibility, he could lead you down a path that has more risk. But that riskier path can also offer a higher pay off for you, as well as him.

Who can say which choice is better? It would be hard to determine. Safer? Or bigger and better results? Like anything else, depending on your unique situation, you may be wise to try it both ways to find which approach is better.

The wisest course? Get to know your financial planner and make sure you feel comfortable with the road he or she has planned for you, tailored to the results you desire.

The following are the best financial planners in Kansas City

Creative Planning

“Creative Planning is at the vanguard of a profound shift in personal finance,” Barron’s declared of one of the top independent wealth management firms in America, with over $55.5 billion in assets as of October 31, 2020. Creative Planning’s advisors serve clients in all 50 states.

Creative Planning is nationally recognized for their commitment to excellence in wealth management. The team of credentialed, educated, experienced and action-oriented advisors, including CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ practitioners (CFP®), certified public accountants, insurance specialists, attorneys and other professionals, is dedicated to helping clients to achieve their goals.

Creative Planning garnered a No. 1 ranking in Barron’s as the top Independent Wealth Management Firm in America in 2017 and was featured twice as the No. 1 Independent Wealth Management Firm in the U.S. by CNBC (2014 and 2015).

Peter Mallouk, President of Creative Planning, was on Worth’s list of 100 Most Powerful Men and Women in Global Finance both in 2017 and 2018 and was featured as the No. 1 financial advisor for three years in a row (2013-15) on Barron’s list of ‘Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors in America.’

According to Mallouk, “The wealth management industry is starting to go independent, avoid proprietary products, reduce tax consequences, and focus on needs-based investing. Creative Planning started doing that 15 years ago.”

The firm’s job is to help clients select the investments that have the highest probability of getting them the outcomes they want. The job is not to sell investment products.

The firm’s advisors believe a client’s portfolio must not only consider the current financial situation and long-term goals but but it also must consider the unique circumstances in each client’s life.

Creative Planning works with individuals and institutions to design and manage customized financial portfolios that optimize the probability of success. And they’ve been doing that for more than 30 years.

Creative Planning assigns each client a comprehensive advisory team that has a strong business background, including degrees in business, finance and economics, plus MBAs and law degrees.

The client’s advisory team is educated and properly credentialed. The firm’s legal team have drafted and reviewed over 12,000 estate plans and documents, which along with tax planning, are critical components of wealth management. They deliver a comprehensive and holistic approach to money management and financial planning.

Creative Planning exists because the financial-advising industry is broken. Their service is completely in their clients’ best interest, not their own. Creative Planning cannot change Wall Street, but they can offer something different.

The firm’s portfolio management processes are tailored to provide the right investment mix that suits the right client. They believe each client’s investment portfolio should be as unique as each client’s DNA. 

Creative Planning

5454 W 110th St.
Overland Park, KS 66211
creativeplanning.com
(866) 273-2848

Prevail Innovative Wealth Strategies

Prevail is currently ranked as the top Kansas City financial planners by at least one national review site.  The local financial advisory firm believe the financial services industry has placed too much emphasis on the accumulation phase of the financial lifecycle with little regard to the planning and distribution phase. They challenge the industry status quo by focusing on what you keep so you can take control of your financial future.

The Power of Zero is a wealth-building strategy championed by Prevail that allows retirement income to be withdrawn at, or nearer to, a 0% income tax rate. It’s an approach that puts you in control of your tax bracket and allows you to keep more of your hard-earned money.

Their Corporate Capital Strategy is for business owners who want a better way to prepare for retirement than hoping their business continues to be successful. It also offers an alternative to funding growth, equipment purchases or daily operations that builds wealth as if the borrowed funds never left the investment.

Prevail
4745 W 136th St
Leawood, KS 66224
Phone: (913) 295-9500
https://prevailiws.com

Werth Wealth Management

Werth Wealth Management has given a name to investment confidence: Client-Centered. Whether clients are investing to build wealth, protect their family, or preserve their assets, Werth Wealth Management’s personalized service focuses on client’s needs, wants, and long-term goals.

The Werth Wealth Management team of professionals have years of experience in financial services. They address the needs of today and for many years to come. Understanding where clients are and where they want to be–and how to fill any gaps–is essential to a client’s financial aspirations, especially when those aspirations are building multi-generational wealth for the benefit of families, churches, schools, and the greater community.

Clients face a seemingly endless stream of financial questions at every stage of life. Although the situations and questions are sure to be complicated, financial planning doesn’t have to be. Through comprehensive financial planning, Werth Wealth Management makes the answers manageable, enhancing life by allowing clients to live with confidence.

Werth Wealth Management started as a small investment group serving Western and Central Kansas and has grown into a nationally respected wealth management practice servicing individual investors, corporations, and foundations. The firm’s experienced team helps implement investment strategies created to meet client’s long term goals.

Werth Wealth Management takes it as a solemn obligation to empower small business owners, physicians, ranchers, accredited investors, and retirees to live with confidence, knowing their investment, fiduciary, and legacy commitments are cared for with the highest level of integrity, accompanied by trustworthy advice.

Werth Wealth Management
11551 Ash Street Suite 205
Leawood, KS 66211
www.werthfinancial.com

Buttonwood Financial Group

Buttonwood Financial Group is a comprehensive wealth management firm that serves as Family CFO. The firm coordinates and integrates their clients’ financial life – including taxes, insurance, estate planning, investments, cash flow, retirement, education, and business strategies.

The office also operates as a community art gallery, fulfilling Buttonwood’s philanthropic passion to give back to the community. The firm is uniquely dedicated to supporting the arts, education and other charitable causes.

With a holistic team approach, Buttonwood Financial Group is dedicated to proactive engagement with their clients. They are a fee-based wealth management firm and make a fiduciary commitment to their clients to always act in their best interest, to be completely transparent.

Key factors enabled Buttonwood Financial Group to rank as a Top Financial Advisor in Kansas City. Their tailored plans cross several services, including Business Strategy, Wealth Management, Lifestyle Enhancement, Family Continuity, Insurance Planning, Tax Strategy, Lifecycle Roadmaps and Estate & Legacy Planning.

Whichever services clients choose, the financial advisors at Buttonwood Financial Group will custom-tailor a plan to any client’s needs and goals for the future.

Buttonwood Financial Group allows clients to work with one expert team for about all of their financial needs. The team takes the time to really get to know their clients and their unique needs. With that focus on relationship-building, Buttonwood Financial Group serves in a unique niche.

While asset managers focus only on investments, our fiduciary role ensures client’s best interests remain top of the priorities as they firm implements a holistic strategy.

Buttonwood Financial Group

3013 Main St.
Kansas City, KS 64108
buttonwoodfg.com
(816) 285-9000

Searcy Financial Services, Inc.

Searcy Financial Services, Inc was founded in 1976 and is a Fee-Only, NAPFA Registered Financial Advisor. Searcy Financial Services, Inc. is an independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The firm is passionate about viewing its clients’ wealth from the client’s perspective, to help them achieve success on their terms.

Searcy Financial Services, Inc does not assume to know what “success” means to any client but works together to find better ways to make life and wealth more enjoyable and intentional.

You could say helping clients enjoy life is the firm’s ultimate goal. They make a client’s wealth simpler to manage, more secure, better understood for future generations, and more connected to the life they lead. Searcy Financial Services, Inc considers that accomplishing something worthwhile.

Clients choose Searcy Financial Services, Inc because they ask questions and take the time to understand each client’s perspective on wealth and life. They help families marry their values with their money so they can make better decisions. They educate the client’s family on the true value of their wealth and show them how to leverage it.

They show a business how to develop employee loyalty through thoughtful retirement programs. They introduce and collaborate with other expert advisors when needed. They are available, when needed and how they are needed. Searcy Financial Services, Inc stands where their clients stand.

Searcy Financial serves successful individuals and families, business owners and retirement plan sponsors. Each client has their own needs, desires, roadblocks, and big picture goals. What they have in common is a desire to do the best for themselves and those around them.

Searcy Financial Services, Inc helps address the financial needs so clients can spend their limited time nurturing relationships and exploring passions. The firm has a compassionate understanding for the needs of clients and spends time walking them through any specific concerns they may have.

Searcy Financial Services, Inc

12980 Foster Street, Suite 160
Overland Park, Kansas 66213
http://searcyfinancial.com
(913) 814-3800

Sterneck Capital Management

Sterneck Capital Management has been offering clients investment management and financial planning insights for more than a quarter century.

Founded in 1989 as a New York City based hedge fund, the firm moved our practice to Kansas City in 1999 and transitioned to offering individuals and families access to institutional level financial planning and asset management.

Today, the firm is proud to be a fee-only firm with a fiduciary responsibility to put clients and their needs first, always. Sterneck Capital Management views every relationship as long-term and is proud to serve multiple generations of families.

From Wall Street to Fortune 500 management, from MBAs to CFP® professionals, the team of advisors brings a wealth of diverse experience to the firm and its clients.

The firm completes a comprehensive review of a client’s finances and creates financial statements to assess monthly income versus expenses (an income statement). The firm then evaluates the client’s current net worth.

Sterneck Capital Management finds ways to make sure the client “pays themselves first,” meaning making it possible to not simply save what is leftover after expenses. Then, savings could be put aside first, and the excess became the basis of the client’s monthly spending plan. 

The firm continues to be the client’s sounding board on all things career and financial. They can evaluate and recommended ways to achieve goals, such as buying a new car and auto financing options.

When clients have questions about things, such as taxes, the firm recommends other professionals, such as an accountant. Sterneck Capital Management looks forward to providing services that help clients continue to advance in careers or reach goals or in life in general.

Sterneck Capital Management
4510 Belleview Ave., Ste. 204
Kansas City, MO 64111
sterneckcapital.com
(816) 531-2254

Open Road Wealth Management

Open Road Wealth Management is a fee-only financial planning and wealth management firm, based in the Northland of Kansas City. The firm is an asset to clients across the country and uses time-tested strategies to help clients meet their goals.

The founder is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Certified Trust and Fiduciary Advisor and has put in the work to be a well-educated and experienced financial advisor, working in the financial services industry for over 20 years, including corporate settings as well as small-firms.

He left the corporate world and founded Open Road Wealth Management to deliver financial planning and investment management that focuses on the needs of individuals and families. His home has been Kansas City his entire life. The firm follows the Golden Rule.

The principal has the experience and character to help clients move along the Open Road to financial success.

The firm creates great client experiences by focusing on listening, providing exceptional and unbiased financial plans, creating and managing tax-efficient, low cost, and well diversified investment portfolios, operate in an environment of fee transparency, staying up-to-date by continually learning and becoming client’s trusted advisors, acting in a fiduciary capacity.

Open Road Wealth Management

9100 N. Lewis Ave.
Kansas City, MO 66214
openroadwealth.com
(816) 507-5237

Financial Advisory Services, Inc.

For more than 3 decades, Financial Advisory Services, Inc. has offered exceptional financial advisory services to clients in Kansas City and surrounding areas. The employee-owned and independent financial advisor firm tailors its products to suit each client’s financial goals.

The team of professionals is ready to manage client’s investment portfolios according to their desired goals. The unique quality of employee firm, independence and real team concept contribute to an amazing overall customer experience.

The firm has developed its expertise and objectivity for almost 40 years and the services are fixed fee and fee-based. The focus is on their partnership with clients, not products.

Financial Advisory Services, Inc. believes the client relationship is the firm’s most important asset. Clients get direct access to a passionate team of professionals who are committed to developing and implementing solutions to help them achieve goals.

Prior to recommendations from the team, they conduct a series of meetings to gain understanding of client’s goals and financial objectives. From those meetings, the team develops custom plans and set a path to follow. 

Clients trust FAS to make recommendations and investment decisions which are suitable and aligned with their plans and goals. Clients do not meet with ONE person but a team of professionals at Financial Advisory Services, Inc. The professionals each have a unique skill set and many years of industry experience and the real team concept contributes to the overall client experience and success.

In 1979 Founding Director, Max Greer, designed FAS’s guiding principles. He, like the team today, wants client goals to drive the experience and process. Simply stated, the client sets the goal(s). The team of professionals work to help achieve them.

Financial Advisory Services, Inc.

4747 West 135th Street
Leawood, KS 66224
www.faskc.com
(913) 239-2300

Frontier Wealth Management, LLC

Frontier Wealth Management, LLC was established in 2007 with a team-centric approach. This Kansas City, MO wealth management firm has additional offices in Wichita, St. Louis, and Denver. The firm is a fee-based financial planner and is included in our top Kansas City financial advisors list due to their client commitment, team-based approach, and their wide range of financial services.

Frontier offers a full range of financial planning, investment, insurance and other wealth management solutions for individuals, families and busy professionals. They create customized plans tailored to clients’ unique circumstances and their purpose is to identify and create solutions that will simplify our clients’ lives and empower them with confidence.

A firm like Frontier that takes a team-based approach gives clients the added value of the additional perspectives and experience from a wide variety of team members. This makes for a robust portfolio strategy. The team’s of financial advisors puts their collective knowledge to work to give the client the best chance of success with a plan that is a precise reflection of the client’s financial needs and objectives and better accommodates reaching goals.

Frontier Wealth Management, LLC offers the benefit of multiple financial services under one roof and the full suite of services, includes Financial Planning, Risk Management, Tax Planning & Services, Alternative Investments, Corporate Retirement, and Investment Agency.

Frontier Wealth Management provides clients with these multiple services as well as a wealth of financial information and resources. With their fiduciary commitment, independent structure, and full range of complimentary financial services, Frontier Wealth Management solidifies a top rating as one of the best financial planners in Kansas City.

Frontier Wealth Management, LLC

4435 Main Street, Suite 650
Kansas City, MO 64111
frontierwealth.com
816.753.5100

Atwood & Palmer, Inc.

William Atwood and Steven N. Palmer co-founded Atwood & Palmer, Inc. in 1990, and one of the most common and rewarding comments the firm receives is that clients see them as an extension of their family. They know Atwood & Palmer, Inc. always has their best interest at heart. Transparency and discretion are the hallmarks of Atwood and Palmer. It’s the only way the firm knows how to build trust to build our generational client relationships.

Client’s searching for the right fit, individuals and families, embrace a mantle of leadership and responsibility in their communities. They think and plan in terms of generational wealth, not quarterly returns. Atwood and Palmer helps them manage their personal and professional assets to build for the future – while living the life they’re earning in the present.

Atwood and Palmer doesn’t pitch products and services. Instead, the firm creates and implements an investment plan, utilizing publicly traded securities, based on each client’s unique financial goals and objectives.

At Wood and Palmer’s services also include collaboration with other professionals (estate attorneys, accountants, insurance representatives, bankers, etc.) to make sure all aspects of their client’s financial life are in sync.

Clients who do not already have these relationships in place will be assisted in finding the best professionals to meet each client’s specific needs. Atwood and Palmer are there to find custom solutions to each client’s goals, not mire you in pre-packaged investments and services.

Atwood & Palmer, Inc.

4520 Madison Ave, Suite 200
Kansas City, Mo 64111
www.atwoodpalmer.com
816.931.2266

True Wealth & Company LLC

Bryan Sarff, a Certified Financial Planner, is the President and a Personal Wealth Manager at True Wealth & Company, LLC and has served clients’ financial needs since 2003.

Bryan is a locally based thought leader in wealth management and financial advisory services for professionals, retirees and business owners. His firm’s services cover all areas of the wealth management process from investment strategies, retirement planning, risk management, estate conservation, and insurance planning.

True Wealth & Company’s team are top-rated Kansas City financial advisors primarily for a select group of successful business owners and retirees, who aspire to a work-optional lifestyle. The firm has developed and refined a process that puts all the pieces of a financial puzzle together. It’s called the Work Optional Formula™.”

The firm manages assets for business owners, professionals and retirees/pre-retirees.

Bryan is also known for his public speaking, which includes hundreds of wealth management workshops on investing for retirement, protecting your assets from these Turbulent Times, maximizing social security, and will & estate planning. He has been the host or co-host of a financial talk radio show for the better part of seven years on News Radio 980 KMBZ, Talk Radio 710, and Hot Talk 1510 and is the host of the popular podcast Let’s Make Work Optional.

True Wealth & Company helps business owners, professionals, and retirees who want the freedom to work when they want, for whom they want, and when the time is right, retire on their terms. Through the firm’s proprietary process, the LifeMap FORMula, advisors partner with client’s to define their plan, which is centered on family, occupation and recreational goals, and of course, focusing on all aspects of the client’s financial life.

True Wealth & Company™ understands that each client’s wealth needs are unique to their place in life. In the world of financial planning, many families struggle to make financial decisions because they try to puzzle together their financial life without first painting a picture.

The team works client’s to paint a panoramic picture that captures the vision of the life each client wants to create. Their proprietary process, the Work Optional Formula, guides clients from where they are today to where they want to be in the future. The process never loses sight of the client’s most important goals.

True Wealth & Company LLC

7450 W 130th St, Suite 300
Overland Park, KS 66213
retirewithtrue.com
Phone: (913) 653-8783

The team providing this Top Ten list believes smart people make smart decisions because they educate themselves on the choices they are preparing to make. We hope we’ve helped you become smarter about choosing a financial advisor that meets your unique and specific needs. We try to provide readers with up-to-date information that will help make those good decisions. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading the information we’ve provided and learning about some of the choices for Financial Advisors in the Kansas City area.

No content is intended to constitute professional advice. This content is not responsible or liable for any consequences relating directly or indirectly to any action you take or fail to take based on the information provided. It is very important to do your own analysis, based on your own personal circumstances, before making any investment. Consult with your own investment, financial, tax and legal advisers. Readers agree to indemnify and hold harmless the providers of this information, from and against any and all liability, losses, claims, demands, disputes, damages or costs of any kind.

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