The What Works: Over 2500+ Years Experience in Financial Planning podcast is a feature of the IFG Consortium, a community for independent financial advisors that pools together a vast amount of collective wisdom and experience. Founder of IFG and host of the podcast, Don Patrick, guides conversations with experienced guest advisors, sharing valuable insights on successful strategies for growth.
In Episode #09, Don is joined by Bain Nickels, President of Nickels Wealth Management, a firm founded by his father in Columbus, Mississippi. Bain’s journey offers a compelling narrative for independent financial advisors seeking growth, evolution, and a deeper, more meaningful way to serve their clients.
Don’t feel like reading? To listen to the full conversation, find the What Works podcast here.
His connection to the IFG Consortium and Don’s podcast speaks directly to the consortium’s mission: sharing proven strategies to help independent financial planners thrive. The following article recaps the conversation on how Bain pivoted from a product-driven sales model to a client-centric financial planning practice. We’ll explore the evolution of an independent financial planning firm and the insights that transformed his career.
How to Find a Niche and Start Your Financial Planning Career
Bain Nickels’ early career illustrates a common challenge for new financial advisors—building a business from scratch with limited resources. After graduating from Mississippi State University, where he focused his studies on insurance, risk management, and financial planning, he joined his father’s firm in 2005. His father offered a modest guarantee to cover basic expenses but essentially told Bain, “you gotta make it happen.”
The initial struggle was real: young advisors often find that the only people willing to trust them with their life savings are other young people with minimal assets. To generate revenue and build confidence, Bain pivoted quickly and found a lucrative niche: Medicare product sales after the Health Modernization Act of 2003.
“I really dove into insurance and in particular, back in 2005, that’s when Bush and the Congress enacted the Health Modernization Act, which as you know turned Medicare upside down, gave us a lot of new opportunities… I really made a living probably the first two or three years just selling Medicare products.”
This focus provided a stream of income and valuable experience being in front of people, creating open doors that led to additional opportunities. It was an area most seasoned financial advisors weren’t interested in pursuing, which gave the young advisor a distinct advantage. This early success showcases the value of identifying lucrative niches for IFAs to quickly establish themselves.
Pivoting Your Firm: From Sales to True Financial Planning
Around four or five years into his career, Bain found himself unhappy. The firm’s culture, inherited from his father’s insurance background, was heavily sales-oriented and product-driven. The focus was on meeting with wholesalers and constantly hunting for the “best product,” which resulted in an “eclectic mess” of disparate investments for clients.
The turning point came with the discovery of Nick Murray’s philosophy for financial advisors.
“What really got me over the hump was Nick Murray and learning his philosophy and that just kind of broke down things for me and opened my eyes to see things in a new way and really helped me transition from a sales guy to more of a financial planner, which certainly we consider ourselves today.”
Bain realized his true value wasn’t in active management and picking winning investments—a goal he admits he often failed at—but in something more profound and controllable. Murray helped him see that the most dominant factor in long-term investor success is having a plan and the discipline to stick to a financial plan through all market cycles.
This mindset shift led to the firm’s significant transition to a fee-based advice model. Bain and his team made a conscious effort to simplify everything they couldn’t control (like investment selection, moving to model portfolios) so they could focus intensely on what they could: tax, estate, insurance, and comprehensive financial planning strategies.
This move created tension with his father’s “old way of doing things,” which prioritized upfront sales commissions. However, Bain’s persistence and the eventual success of the financial planning model—even if it was a slower build—demonstrated its long-term value and allowed his firm to thrive.
The Power of Simplification: Whiteboard Financial Planning
A key part of Bain’s successful pivot was his radical approach to presenting the financial plan. He found that the typical 20, 30, or 40-page financial plans that took hours to compile often failed to resonate with clients. Inspired by Carl Richards’ simple, visual approach, Bain embraced the whiteboard financial planning strategy.
“I have very, very much simplified our process and our planning to a whiteboard… We just kind of put it all, all on the board so that I can see it, they can see it, and we kind of worked their financial plan from there.”
This simple, highly visual approach helps clients grasp their entire financial life—from cash management and asset buckets (Non-Qualified, Roth, IRAs) to debt, insurance, and income streams—in a single, unified view. Clients appreciate the simple visual aid for financial advice, often taking a picture of the whiteboard with their phone as their “plan.”
“We spend no more than five minutes actually talking about the investments and I would say 90% of our annual meetings.”
This simplified methodology frees up the advisor to focus on the client’s life, goals, and the planning topics that truly “move the needle,” such as tax and estate planning. To maintain organization, Bain tracks all the whiteboard details and client nuances manually in their CRM (Wealthbox) in an internal Investment Policy Statement field, ensuring the most updated information is ready for the next annual meeting. He is also exploring Asset-Map for simplified client reporting to provide clients with a professional one-page summary to take home.
Expanding Your Reach: Generating Referrals Through Exceptional Client Care
While Bain Nickels admits that proactive advisor marketing has historically been an area of “room for growth” for Nickels Wealth Management, the firm has achieved remarkable success through a passive, yet powerful, strategy: referral growth through client delight.
This passive strategy works because the entire team is dedicated to providing value that goes far beyond the basic assets under management (AUM) fee. They ask a crucial question: “How can we benefit this client in ways that have nothing to do with the assets under management fee?”
This commitment translates into high-touch, holistic client services, including:
- Handling administrative burdens: Accompanying clients to the Social Security office or managing COBRA paperwork during retirement.
- Life services: Even helping a client purchase a vehicle.
- Personalized recognition: Suzette, the relationship manager, meticulously tracks major client life milestones (births, surgeries, anniversaries of loss) using the CRM (Redtail) and ensures personalized gifts or flowers are sent. Recurring events, like the anniversary of a spouse’s passing, are automated in the CRM for consistency.
This philosophy of going the extra mile for clients fosters an environment where happy people naturally tell others, making high-quality referrals a reliable engine for growth.
Implementing a Mutual Selection Process for Ideal Clients
Once a prospective client is referred, the firm has a clear, refined onboarding process. It begins with relationship manager Suzette, who handles the initial call, answers questions, and sends out a “financial profile” (a three-page fact finder) to collect essential data.
The subsequent initial meeting with Bain, Tracey, or both is crucial to their mutual selection process. Drawing from Nick Murray’s advice, Bain gained the confidence to stop trying to serve “everybody.” Instead, the meeting focuses on ensuring alignment between the client’s expectations and the firm’s core philosophy.
Key talking points for setting client expectations and boundaries include:
- Investment Philosophy: Being explicit that the firm practices long-term strategies and is not market timers.
- Liquidity and Time Horizon: Clarifying with clients that while their money is fully accessible and carries no withdrawal penalties for early access, they shouldn’t invest with the firm unless they intend to leave the money for at least three to four years.
- Communication Rhythms: Clarifying that the firm focuses on annual financial planning meetings instead of performance-driven quarterly investment reviews.
This transparency allows the firm to attract and retain ideal clients who trust the long-term plan and don’t require constant performance updates, ultimately leading to a more sustainable and enjoyable practice.
Building the Brain Trust: Team Structure and Culture
Bain’s firm operates with a strong internal team structure for independent wealth management. With a total of eight individuals, the team includes four advisors (Bain, Tracey Bryan, Danette Starks, and Ernie Blackburn) and four staff members.
Central to the firm’s operational excellence is Lucy, the Director of Operations (and Bain’s sister), who manages nearly every part of the business and is critical in the hiring process.
Bain views the team as a Brain Trust, prioritizing competence and an open-minded culture focused on continuous incremental improvement for financial firms:
- New Talent: Recent hires, like Shiloh (Director of First Impressions) and Spencer (a service advisor found on LinkedIn), reflect a strategic focus on bringing in strong customer service skills and high-potential young advisors to support the firm’s growth.
- Legacy Staff: Retaining experienced advisors like Ernie Blackburn and Danette Starks, who work part-time, speaks to the firm’s supportive culture and longevity.
The IFG Connection: Culture Over Payout
Bain Nickels’ decision to join the IFG Consortium in April 2024 provides a powerful concluding lesson for IFAs considering a move.
Though two other firms initially offered stronger economics, the decision ultimately hinged on culture and community. Bain was introduced to IFG through a chance meeting with Key Smith at an LPL conference. Following his team’s due diligence at the Focus conference, the difference was clear:
“It was just very, very clear and evident to them that IFG was different… the culture that you describe as the Brain Trust, we were able to see that in action and really more than that, more than the sharing of ideas, just the quality of people that we want to be associated with.”
This confirms that for established, client-focused firms, the benefits of joining a hybrid RIA like IFG extend beyond payout. The consortium provides a network of like-minded, high-quality individuals—a true Brain Trust—that promotes shared learning, mentorship, and a sense of shared purpose, reinforcing the firm’s commitment to long-term growth and advisor development.
Bain’s final three strengths—building relationships, honesty, and curiosity—perfectly summarize the firm’s success and its fit within the IFG model. The story of the CPA who became a major center of influence because Bain didn’t sell him a policy proves the central thesis of his career: genuine relationships, honesty, and a constant curiosity for improvement lead to both personal freedom and lasting professional success.
To hear the full episode and more empowering conversations from IFG members, listen to the What Works Podcast with Don Patrick here.
