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Well, with us today we have a very special guest. He is the president, the founder of Brookstone Capital Management, Dean Zed. And Dean, you have an entrepreneurial mindset. You founded Brookstone to help individual advisors with the tools and everything that they need to provide their individual clients the service that they deserve. Can you can you give us a little bit more background though? What is Brookstone? Who is Brookstone? And and how do you help those adviserss provide everything that clients need?
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>> Oh, sounds great, Peter. Always a pleasure. I’ve known you and worked with you for a long time as you know, so this is just going to be great fun. Um, >> great having you on, Dean. >> Yeah, we can go back in time together, uh, 20 plus years, but essentially I am an attorney turned financial advisor close to 30 years ago and built a private wealth management practice side by side with my estate planning law firm. Um, so Brookstone comes into play. It was really born out of the success I
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had as a financial adviser in my own practice working directly with clients. And so about 20 years ago, actually, we’re in our 20th year anniversary. Um the opportunity came, you know, presented itself to me in the format of meeting hundreds if not thousands of other independent like-minded adviserss that I thought needed a very friendly, sophisticated platform. and that’s the key word platform through which they can conduct their wealth management business um and and try to have some of that same
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success that I had in my own personal wealth practice. So the idea was born from my own personal financial advisory practice. I started Brookstone as this B2B platform. The industry usually calls us something more or less like a TAMP, a turnkey asset management platform. Um we call ourselves the first and only TAMP plus in the industry. we add a plus because uh we do all those things that a normal tamp does which we can talk about and then there’s a bunch of other things that we do that are unique to Brookstone
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but essentially if you fast forward here we are we have uh five to 600 advisors that utilize the Brookstone platform and we support every aspect of their wealth management practice from compliance and marketing investments trading intelligence it’s a comprehensive suite to allow that advisor who partners with Brookstone to really focus his or her efforts on building their business properly, using their time in the most advantageous manner and really then partnering with us to do some of that
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real heavy lifting behind the scenes. That’s the Brookstone story. >> Well, Dean, I I can’t agree more with all of that and thank you for the history. the way I describe it to my clients, one of the best affiliations of independent advisors across the country or anywhere in the world and given us independent advisors all of the tools of a big box financial firm but with the individual touch. And I think with your recounting the story of of your own beginning and and interweaving the
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estate planning practice with the financial and and asset management, uh I think that that begins to tell the story that clients need so much more than just access to the market. And when they call their source for financial advice, they want to be more than just an account number to a random customer service person. So that I think is is really where you were ahead of the curve in recognizing the need for individual clients and and where the business was evolving too. >> Absolutely, Peter. No doubt about it.
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And you know, the two words I use more than any other words probably uh in client conversations are the words independent and fiduciary. I think you know that. But it’s important even after you know 30 years of doing this. independence means a lot to us because it really does take off those uh traditional Wall Street big brokerage shackles. We are free to literally navigate the entire marketplace in the entire universe of investment options and vehicles and products that we deem to be best for the clients. And then
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fiduciary of course means we have the highest standard of care in the industry both morally, ethically and legally to always do what’s in the client’s best interest. Not all advisors are fiduciaries. You take these two words and put them together and you have the makings of a very special way that we can interact and help clients and retirees, independent fiduciaries. >> I’m going to throw one more word in there, Dean, that I know is really important to you, which is family. And
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and uh your entrepreneurial mindset, I know drives you, but I know you’ve got another big drive and motivation behind that. And I’ve I’ve always really respected how close you are able to be and stay with your family while still maintaining the growth of of such a phenomenal organization. No doubt. I mean, Peter, you know, family is everything. Obviously, I know it sounds pretty, you know, uh pretty cheesy and pretty predictable, but uh you know, when it comes down to it, I was raised in a very very tight-knit
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family. uh not just my my my I have three siblings and you know great parent structure but my my more immediate family outside of that lots of aunts and uncles and I was raised really in an environment that was so conducive to just loving your family being close um and making sure that that was the top priority. Uh look, business is great. We’re all in business in some format. Um and it’s great to make money. We’re all, you know, successful in this industry. Uh but business and money are nothing
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without the love and the support of those that are you know in your life the closest ones. Uh whether it’s parents, siblings, spouses, kids, um all of them have contributed to the cause, you know, this Dean Zaya journey. I couldn’t do what I do without family. So it’s really good to look at the roots and the foundation. To me, of course, it is family. >> Well, I I’ve always appreciated and respected that and often marveled at how you strike the balance. I mean, I know you’re up. you’ve got drive and and and
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motivation to get out of bed and hit the ground running every morning kind of early, Dean, but uh that you you always make time for the individuals who have made all of this possible and especially for for those uh in your family, which I think that we all from time to time need a reminder of just how important that is. Ultimately, Dean, the money is the tool to support what’s important to us, right? >> Yeah. No doubt, Peter. And I I’ll say this, I I’ll be honest. I mean I feel
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very lucky and very blessed uh that I found myself as a as a recovering attorney as I say you know current financial adviser and wealth manager and this journey that I’ve been on in business within the wealth management space and I say lucky and blessed because it really is something that I absolutely love to do. I have a deep sincere passion for the wealth industry for helping clients working with advisors all the above everything I’ve done. So, it makes it really easy to balance and prioritize and wake up early
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like you said. Uh because I truly truly love what we do. Um it’s a calling for me and I’m lucky that I, you know, look, I could have still been a lawyer drafting documents or going to court every day. But somehow someway this path took me to down a road where the passion is at an all-time level and and it’s growing. You know, I feel like we’re just getting started. I have no interest in doing anything else. um nor pivoting from what we’ve been doing together as partners. >> Well, to form this firm, I think again
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you were ahead of the curve in seeing the needs of the individual adi uh individual investors that they wanted to be more than just an account number. And over the last generation, access to the market has been democratized. You can get get access almost anywhere, but true advice and bringing all of the pieces of the picture together for cohesive recommendations on what’s best for the individual is really actually maybe even tougher to come by nowadays than before. Um, are there any specific things that
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you think individual investors are missing in today’s financial world? Well, let me answer that one way, you know, because it’s a great great segue to just talk for just a minute or less about sort of the transition, the paradigm shift in the industry. You know, in my dad’s generation, you know, your advisor was your broker who made stock picks or recommendations and that entire relationship was transactional and it was all about the portfolio just trying to make money, right? Picking
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stocks, stocks and bonds and and buying and selling, right? this paradigm shift, this world that we live in, fiduciarybased advice is not just like you said about just the portfolio, right? We’ve sort of democratized access to the market. ETFs have gone a long way towards that. And so to answer the question, your advisor today ought to not just focus on the portfolio and returns. It’s so many more things that we do at Brookstone and all the adviserss. I’m going to name just a few key ones, right? income planning,
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insurance planning, estate planning, cash flow analysis, tax optimization, social security optimization. These are all planning elements that are part of the relationship but don’t really relate necessarily just to that portfolio construction. If your firm or a firm out there today is just focusing on that sort of outdated 20th century brokerage model, they’re way way outdated. So today it’s about advice, it’s about planning. I think the missing link for the average American looking to retire
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is this idea around the complete planning suite that includes things like taxes, estate planning, insurance, annuity, social security. And that’s what we’ve been really really kind of at the at the pioneering forefront of at Brookstone. >> I agree. You absolutely have. Bringing those services to the individual investor has been, I think, a a a an a a very um big benefit to their outcome and and really helped them further their financial progress in ways that many investors really didn’t even know about
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uh 20, 30 years ago. That being said, I know that there are also some specific investment tools that you are very proud of there at Brookstone, giving clients access to things that they may never have heard about before, running on that theme. Can you talk to us about the evolution of structured notes and then the BAM ex fund specifically that Brookstone advisers have access to? >> Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It’s an interesting topic. So you know in an era where we had near 0% interest rates in bonds for
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you know a decade plus almost um structured notes are bankissued bonds or debt instruments with a twist essentially. uh the banks create an experience that gives you this defined outcome where they’re doing all the work and then packaging it up in this registered Qipped security called a bond a registered bond or a structured note uh that might have elements of both bonds and equities. So I’ll give you an example. You know they’re able to pay you a lot more interest in a structured note if you’re willing to lose some
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principle. Let’s say if you link it to the market and the market goes down by more than a a set barrier number like 30% over a term like a year, right? So, hey, instead of earning 4%, you can earn 12, but you’ll lose money in that 12% node or bond if the market goes down by more than 30% in the next year, right? That’s an example at a high high level. Of course, there’s more minutia to it. And so we’ve actually pioneered at the investment advisory fiduciary level uh the use of these very very modern
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sophisticated notes in portfolios getting custom notes done for Brookstone through the largest banks in the world building a whole strategy of lading around them and over a decade plus Peter it’s been an extremely successful sort of fixed income hybrid strategy that has vastly outperformed formed your typical average bond portfolio and that’s uh us owning individual notes and client accounts. We just evolved the strategy to now create the first and only mutual fund in the country. The ticker is BAMX
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BAMIX. It’s called the booster income opportunities fund that takes this laddered structured note strategy and puts it into a more easy to access convenient actively managed even broadly diversified fund that we are now a part of. And so it’s very exciting. You see structured products and structured notes are among the fastest growing vehicles in the country that nobody’s heard of. It’s gone from about zero to 250 billion of issu issuance last year issued by all the large banks that everybody knows all
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the big names and so Brookstone’s been kind of a pioneer in the space to be honest with you. Uh very proud of it but more importantly the results in the portfolios have been phenomenal. >> Well uh Dean I know you are a busy man. Man, I could chat with you all day here, but uh for the sake of time, uh you you mentioned pioneering and I’ve mentioned already staying ahead and being ahead of the curve. So, um final question wrapping up here, I do want to get your thoughts on where the industry is
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heading next. What do you think about AI in in the uh wealth management space and and how is it going to impact investors and advisors? I know that AI is the buzzword of the year if if not a little bit more, but do you see AI impacting wealth management, investing, and access to the market? >> I think AI is going to be awesome for the industry for this reason alone. Of course, we’ve always embraced technology and it’s just the latest series of just super sophisticated technology to
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enhance what we do as adviserss and more or less free us up to actually do more work one-on-one on a personalized basis with our clients more around that planning circle we’ve talked about here. So, I I do not believe AI will replace the human adviser. I am not worried about that. I think it’s going to enhance what we do. The most important thing, clients, investors, retirees, you know, 80 million boomers strong and the next generation coming, they want to work with a human fiduciary, thoughtful,
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personal advisor. If if we as advisers have these tech tools like AI that allows us to run our practice more efficiently to free up more of our time, I think it’s a win for everybody. I I think it’s really exciting development for the industry. uh certainly certainly been a boom to the market this year as well. So I think if we’ve been uh participating in that we we have appreciated that. But Dean, I I uh appreciate the time once again ladies and gentlemen. Dean Zed, president founder of Brookstone Capital
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Management. Um just a a pleasure having you on the program sharing your thoughts with us. Thank you very much, Dean. >> Always a pleasure, Peter. Thank you. Bye-bye. Hey folks, Peter Rashan here with Rashan Planning. So glad that you are enjoying the podcast Planning Matters Radio. You know, one of the tools that we’ve put out there that people really seem to appreciate and really are are finding of value is at 919.com. It is your retirement tax bill calculator. If you’ve got any kind of
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retirement account, your tax deferred 401k or IRA, this is the website. This is the resource where you can go, you can plug in your own numbers, your information. You can slide the the the tool calculator up and down for your tax rate or your amount of savings and see what your tax bill is likely to be if you default and defer to the IRS’s plan versus what you could potentially bring that tax bill down to. A lot of times it is a very significant savings. So if you have not yet, go to the website
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919retired.com. Run your numbers on the retirement tax bill calculator. >> This has been planning matters radio. >> The content of this radio show is provided forformational purposes only and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy. You are encouraged to seek investment, tax, or legal advice from an independent professional adviser. Any investments and/or investment strategies mentioned involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Advisory services offered through Brooks Zone
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Capital Management, a registered investment adviser. Fiduciary duty extends solely to investment advisory advice and does not extend to other activities such as insurance or broker dealer services. Advisory clients are charged a quarterly fee for assets under management, while insurance products pay a commission, which may result in a conflict of interest regarding compensation. Investment in notes involves risks not associated with investment in ordinary debt securities. The securities are not
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bank deposits and are not insured by the FDIC or any other government agency. Nor are they obligations of or guaranteed by a bank. The securities will not be listed on any securities exchange and there may be little or no secondary market for these securities and secondary trading may be limited. Accordingly, you should be willing to hold your note security to maturity. These securities are subject to the credit risk of the issuing bank and any actual or anticipated changes to its credit ratings or credit spreads may
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adversely affect the market value of the securities.
