Episode 103 - Dan Maroney

In this episode of The Cannon Curve, Phil sits down with Dan Maroney, founder and managing director of Family Wealth Solutions. Dan shares his journey from a pre-med track to building a financial advisory firm with his father—and the impact of working across generations.

They explore how family-run firms can offer unique insight, especially when guiding clients through succession planning and long-term wealth strategies. Dan also highlights how his firm blends experience with fresh perspective to build lasting, multigenerational client relationships.

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Transcript 

Greetings, Cannon Nation. It is Phil here with the Cannon Curve for March, 2025. Wow. We are three months into 2025, and the hits just keep coming. You know, you have heard me talk in the past about the great nature of the family wealth advisory business that we are in the business of, not just helping.

Matriarchs and patriarchs. Not just the one aspect of a family, but the entire family household to work with multiple generations. And today we've got a very unique opportunity to hear from Dan Maroney. Dan runs a company that is focused on. The business of family advice, and he gets it naturally. Having grown up in a family that included financial advisors, he actually had the opportunity at, at one point to start a business with his father.

The business that Dan now leads to today, Dan Maroney, welcome to the Cannon Curve. Phil, thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be with you. And yeah, this, this first three months has definitely flown by. That's for sure. Yeah, I, I was, I was told at one point that the older you get, the faster time flies. And I actually heard a podcast as to, as to why that perception is so real in our more mature years, I guess.

But let's, let's focus in on what's going on with you. You are the founder of Family Wealth Solutions. Beautiful name. Given the topic that we're focused on today, give us a little bit of your background. How'd come to be a. A wealth advisor. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, yes, that's right. I, I grew, grew up in the business.

My, my father started as a stockbroker with a penny stock firm back in the, in the late eighties when I was about 10 years old. So from an early age, I, I, I got a chance to see the wealth management business just evolve over the years. And I just learned a lot, you know, in my early to teen years, you know, living at home and, and seeing what it was like to be a stockbroker and a business owner, you know, early, early on.

And turns out that when we, when I left to go to college, my career track was a little bit different. I was a pre-med major in college, saw my dad transfer from a, being a stockbroker over to being more in the managerial role, managing advisors, uh, but wasn't my interest initially, to be perfectly candid, Phil, I was.

I wanted to start my own path and blaze my own trail, and I, I knew I always wanted to help people, but I wasn't, I wasn't quite sure that I wanted to get into the industry at, at, at first. I was a pre-med major in, in college. Went to the University of Florida, met my wife there in my junior year there at Florida and.

I got accepted to medical school and just decided not to go. I was just, I was just burnt out from being in school and I wanted to, to get out and really start working. So it took a little while before I, before I found my way over here to the wealth management view. Well, you know, your journey is not necessarily linear, but it's not really that different than many of those of of Gen Twos and Gen threes of.

Sure. Successful business people, you know, quite often we look at, we look at our, our parents or perhaps our grandparents' career, and we see a lot of what we perceive to be sacrifices or things that they have to do or had to do. Maybe they've missed a ball game. Maybe they, it, it just, it it seemed that, you know, that was just not what we wanted and we do in our mind that I'm.

You know, there was that, there was that theme that you've mentioned of helping people that, that kind of resonated through whatever story arc you were following at the time, be it pre-med or other. So you get outta the University of Florida, you had been accepted to med school. Make the determination that no, that's not the right path.

What path did you follow? I took my background in, in medicine and uh, I worked in medical sales for a few years outta school. And worked for some, worked for some great companies, was in pharmaceutical sales for a few years, and then the company that I worked for, they got sued on one of their patents and, uh, they settled their lawsuit.

And as a result of that, they had to trim off some, pay some, some of the payroll and some of the workforce. And I learned a valuable lesson. I was about 25 at the time. Coming outta school and I learned the lesson that what I really, really wanted to do was own my own business, be in charge of my own destiny, help people, but help people in a different way.

And my father, pat, you know, he was waiting for his time. I think he knew that this was gonna be a great call for me. And it was right around my birthday at the time. And he said, we went out and we had a. We had a beer and he said, you know, maybe now's the time, maybe now's the time for you to just take a look, see what it's like, see what it's like in this industry because I think you'd be a natural for it.

And I trusted him. Went in, took my series seven, and as soon as I finished, I sat down. There was a walkin, which back, back in the day, you kind of had those every now and then. But someone walked in and they brought all of their statements with them and they said, I really don't know what I should be doing.

Can you please sit down and help me? And 45 minutes later he's opening up an account with me. His name is Doug Johnson. I'll never forget him. And the fact that he trusted me with everything that he had saved his entire life. Wow. Just the most amazing feeling. And I was hooked from there. And that was, that was 20 years ago.

So I, I, I love the, I love the term I was hooked. What was it about that initial experience that hooked you? Was it the art of the chase of a prospect? Because, you know, we've, we've all been there as, as young professionals and, you know, hey, landing that, that, that first deal, or was it the, the, the, the chemistry, the bond that was, was created between you and your new client, or maybe a combination of all.

I think that, that's a great question. I think it's a little bit of everything. I think what resonated the most was that Doug sat down there and he asked a bunch of questions, but he, at the end of, at the end of that whole exercise, he trusted me and he trusted me with everything that he had ever saved.

And the fact that you can take your knowledge and help people for. For their own benefit, for their good and have them trust you with everything that they've ever saved before. It's just the best feeling in the world. It's the best feeling to, to be able to really help somebody and to take and use your knowledge that they'll trust you with something as important as money to them.

That was the hook. That's what got me sold on, on this wonderful business that we have. Gotcha. So you had an initial career with a couple of different major national international wirehouses, and then you, you hit an inflection point. You and your, your dad decided, Hey, you know, let's go start our own business.

Tell us a little bit about what led to you and your dad Pat, creating family wealth solutions. Well. Early on in my career, we both worked for a company called Lake Mason. If you remember, that fell back in the day. Lake Mason used to have a distribution channel up until the early two thousands, and then they had an asset swap with Smith Barney, and my father was in management.

I was in production. I was in their, it was in their retail side, and Pat was out of a job. He went immediately, got hired by Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo at the time. They still do, they have a nepotism rule. Where if you're in, if you're in management, you can't work with somebody that's related to you. So there was a nepotism rule.

We couldn't follow each other. I started as a trainee, separate from him at UBS and built my career away from him. So I worked at UBS for almost five years until I could build my practice up to the point where someone would, someone would recruit me in on my own two feet, and I, I wanted to come back and join him at Wells.

We could never work together. We worked in separate territories. Yeah, so I spent about 10 years there at, at Wells Fargo. And, uh, what, what formed Family Wealth Solutions was a desire for my dad and I to really get a chance to work together, to build, to build a firm together, to build a practice together where advisors felt, you know, advisors felt at home.

It felt like, it felt like a family type atmosphere and build a great culture and wanted to do it together. And that's where Family Wealth Solutions was the genesis of building our firm. Gotcha. Well, I, I, I certainly know from personal experience, and I know from having been working in this industry, you know, 35 plus years, the, the business of families, I.

Whether you are advising families, whether you are a family working together, there can be no greater bond. There can be no greater complexity. It, it's one of those very, very unique things. So Union Dad formed this business and you begin transitioning relationships. Tell me about the, the initial days of the, of, of the company and you stood it up and, and, and you got it going.

What did you learn through that process? Oh, that was fun. We made the decision to start the firm in November of 2019, right around the time that Covid started. So, you know, you're going through the exercise of, you know, like, like field of dreams where you're building that field and then hoping that people will, will come and join you and.

You know, those first few months of deciding do we get office space? How much staff do we have, how much staff do we bring and set up, you know, in anticipation for advisors that wanna come join us and hear our story and be a part of what we're doing. And we signed our lease at the, at the height of Covid.

We signed it when the world went home for two weeks. We signed a five year lease. Sick air times back then. But we had this belief that we were going to build something great that people wanted to be a part of. Help make the advisor's lives better so that they could take great care of their clients and do it in a, in a fun environment where they felt like their needs were being met and we felt like there was great value there to be able to, you know, to add to our clients' lives through our advisors.

So, you know, when you go out and you start your own organization, and the term that the industry uses is you and your father would be considered breakaways. You're, you're breaking away from the traditional, you know, wirehouse model and, and forming your own company. How did you go through the process of thinking through your technology stack?

Thinking through all of your, your systems you just mentioned, you know, signing a at the, something that. You and your dad just worked on together. Did you get outside help? What was the process? Yeah, that's a great question. When we made the move to go independent, we wanted to search out a partner that could help us with several of the items that are necessary with starting up your own firm, being a part of something greater than just yourselves that could handle some of the back office needs.

We have, so that the goal being that we spend, you know, we spend a majority of our time in this world, in the independent world, being a business owner and less time, you know, on, on, on clients historically speaking, how can we change that? How can we, how can we change that model to where a lot of the things that are needed as a business owner, that we have a partner that can help us.

And we were actively searching that out when we made the decision to, to start the business in 2019. So we, we met a company called Concurrent Concurrent Advisors back in 2019. And their solution set for, for our clients and for our needs as a business owner. They take care of and offload a lot of those non-differentiating things.

The compliance side, the vendor relationships, the tech stack, all of those things that they provide. It was turnkey for us so that we could just do what we do best, which is take great care of. Our advisors and our clients that are here in the office and having a team of people behind us that can partner in together.

So we actively searched for that, Phil, and we found a great partner. We've grown with them through the years with concurrent. You said something right there that I think is one of the most important things that True Wealth Advisors. Should spouse to, and that is a recognition that the highest and best use of your time is to be on the phone and in the face, whether it's face-to-face, in person or face-to-face, you know, virtual.

With clients, with prospects, and with the broader community of practice. And if you aren't spending 80% of your time engaged with clients, prospects in your community of practice, then you're, you're wasting some time someplace else and you, you've really gotta validate what's going on right there. And you are so right.

Whether it's a decision to remain in a traditional, national, regional setup, whether it's. You know, working for a, a trust bank or whether it's is starting your own business. If you are a, a client facing professional, your highest and best calling and, and use is engaging with clients. I. Get rid of all of the other minutiae and, and create that time that you can do what you do best.

And that sounds like exactly what you and your dad were all about. Did anything occur between the signing of the lease and the next? 24, 36 months that as you look back on it, you think to yourself, you know, didn't anticipate that. And that can be a positive surprise or it can, it can be a negative surprise.

Was there anything that you look back and say, you know, just hadn't seen that one coming? Any, anything come to mind? Oh sure. Yeah. A number of different things. 'cause you, you know, you're starting something new, you know, you're starting something new. You, you'd spent your entire career. Just focused on your clients and you're learning a new skillset.

So we've had some, some ups and downs. You know, some, you know, when you're trying to recruit other advisors, when you're trying to make sure that you have the right vendor relationships and you have one platform that we were using, it turned out to not be, you know, the, the best fit. We had to switch our, our CRM.

So we've just learned that. That things just kind of come, you know, come along the way. And, and what we've used as, you know, as a positive out of all of that is that we've gone through the, you know, the process of trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work. And we feel that the way that positions us as a wealth management firm, as a, as a destination for advisors to come join us is.

We've gone through this before, we've walked that journey, we can help you with taking a, you know, the shortcut path towards being over here because we've seen what works and what doesn't work, and we're able to share that, that, that knowledge to advisors to really help them. So, you know, one of the things that we all come to grips with it at, at some point in our journey, and I think if you don't come to grips with it.

Clinically go insane is that, you know, life is is not perfect. It's not a linear path. Things are going to occur and intellectually, you know that, and it's not necessarily. And, and you can't avoid, you know, every scenario. You can't preplan every scenario. But the, the key is the resiliency with which you've got the ability to bounce back or to, you know, take the, the, the deck of cards that you've been dealt and, and, and move forward in a proactive way.

Unfortunately, you, you had a bad life event occur for you and your family when you lost your dad, your business partner, the individual that had been your rock and your mentor. That's something that you had seen happen with with other families, but you know, firsthand experience for me, you know it. You can understand something intellectually, but until you know you're in that seat, it's a, it's a different, a different ball game.

Walk me through, and again, not the legalistic side of it so much, but, but you know, walk us through the steps that you've taken since your father passed away to not just. You know, honor the, the legacy that he left behind, not just to honor the, the business that the two of you have created, but the lessons that, that you take away, that you use to impart on others.

Yeah. We lost Pat tragically a little bit over, a little bit over a year ago. It was March of last year, you know, losing your best friend and your business partner. It was a devastating loss and a chance for this past year to really learn and grow from it. And the biggest takeaways that I've seen Phil in just this last 12 months was just the outpouring of love and the sense of community that there is out there.

There really is, there are a lot of people that care about you that wanna help you, you know, that wanna be there for you. The impact that my father had with. His colleagues all over the country. I, I knew it, but I didn't really know him. And that's a great part of, of the firm that I'm a part of with concurrent, you know, it has that family type atmosphere, not just within our firm, but all over the country.

You know, that sense of community is really there. I've really learned that to be a part of something and to be a part of people where you, you can rely on other folks in the independent world to talk through what your daily challenges are, that's really important over here on that side. So the sense of community has been really powerful.

Lessons on the business side. I've learned that the business will go, will go up and down. There'll be ebbs and flows, but character, character and integrity are important. I've learned that from my team. My other advisors that are, that are here with us, we've all rallied around with each other and we've rallied with the firm that we're a part of, and it's been tremendous to be a part of something like that.

You know, in our pre-conference conversations that you and I have had getting ready for this, you simplified. Most clients have in the back of their mind. Several years ago there was a company that, you know, ran a ad blitz. What's your number that, you know, in theory there was some magic number that, you know, we're supposed to be able to accumulate and be able to live the lifestyle.

And then we hear about this fear that people are scared of running out of money. Well, the fact of the matter is, unless you're a, a gambler or you get hit by a, you know. Tragic lawsuit or something like that. Folks don't run outta money. What they wind up doing is dramatically changing their lifestyles and standard of living.

And you know, with all the complexity that's out there of all of these issues, you boiled it down to a very simple question that you believe, you know, gets to the root of the concern and of clients. And that simple question, it's got four words. Will I be okay? That's, that's what it comes down to. Tell us how you came to that recognition that, you know, if, if you can answer the question for clients, will I be okay?

The trust factor explodes exponentially. Tell us a little bit about how you got there. In every question that I learned, learned this early on in my career, in any, in any question that clients are asking, you know, when you ask them why they're asking that and you keep drilling further and further and further down.

Their base fear is that whatever's going on, is that going to affect what's really most important to them is are, are they gonna be okay? Are they gonna be okay over the short term? Are they gonna be okay over the long term? And I'm a big picture, I'm a big picture person. I don't get really down too much into the details on things.

I like to keep things very high level and, you know, details are, are of course important, but. Big picture, are you gonna be okay? And, and if we can answer that question, everything else kind of solves itself. And if we're constantly as advisors, figuring out the why behind the questions that they're asking.

The why is about if they're gonna be okay, are they gonna be okay? Are they gonna be able to hit this goal? Are they gonna be able to buy this house that they're looking for, or are they going to be able to retire five years earlier? Whatever that might be. If we can find that out as advisors and be able to solve for that, that's in my belief why clients pay us.

They pay us for them to be there, for them, to make sure that we understand them and to answer that question, are they gonna be okay? That's the heart of. Everything that we do here for our clients and planning that we set, we're very planning focused. It's all designed around making sure that we're answering that question, and then from there things just kind of figure itself out.

I so love that, that thought process, you hear it from almost every advisor today, we take a planning centric approach to our client's financial life as if the plan itself is the Coda Gras and it's not, I don't remember what great military leader said it. Maybe it was Pat, maybe it was Dwight Eisenhower, but.

You know, the comment was, you know, war plan, once the, the first shot is fired, they're not all that good. But the planning process that led up to that is absolutely essential. And I think the takeaway that comes from that is. You know, you are going to have to pivot in life. Things are, things are, you know, they're going to occur.

It can be an influx of assets, it can be a desire to, to buy something, to, to invest in something. I mean, they're going to be things that, that occur that are gonna require a, a, a pivot. But it is all of the work that, that leads up to that. Instills that confidence that we've got a, a, a way to make this happen.

It comes down to, you know, am I gonna be okay? I mean, it just, it just, it, it, it comes down to that and it is, it is so simple that many would dismiss it, but you know, when you think about it, that's the crux of the human existence. Since we left the Serengeti, we have recognized as a society that we are.

Safer in, in groups and packs than we are alone. Well, you know, we've got extroverts and introverts, but. The fact of the matter is the reason that we're better off in groups, not just the community aspect. We're safer. We're, we're going to be okay. We're gonna be okay physically, we're gonna be okay emotionally, all of those things.

So again, I, I, I think that's just a, uh, beautiful thing. Before we close, I do wanna go back to, to Family Wealth Solutions and the, the naming right here, because that indicates. That you and your, your practice is highly focused on the family. What are the things that families tell you that they value and appreciate most about the experiences that they have with your company?

Yes. You're gonna do investment management. Yes, you're gonna do planning. Yes, you're gonna do risk management, legacy planning, all those types of things. But you know. To me, those things are table stakes. It's the experience that clients have with you that really sets you apart. What are they telling you, Dan, when they, they talk to you about your business that they say, you know this, this is a differentiator.

We, we value this, we appreciate this. What would you highlight? Immediately? What comes to mind is that we are very focused, not just on. Them themselves, their generation, but also the generation, you know, their kids and their grandkids. When you talk to clients, they wanna make sure that they're, they're okay of course, but they also wanna make sure that their family is okay if something were to happen to them.

Does their family have the financial wherewithal to be okay? The education in understanding what they've learned and being able to pass that on to others. And here at Family Wealth, what we've really tried to do is focus on not just them, them, but we're hearing them. The other things that are important to them, the education of the clients, of their kids, of their grandkids.

We have educational workshops for their kids and then for their grandkids as well. We set up a number of clients recently, Phil, that have got, had their bar mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs, and if as soon as that happens, we have a sit down with them and we talk to them about. Here's what a stock is. Here's what a bond is.

I want you to go around the house. I want you to find five things that you have. Find the your favorite car company. Find who makes your toothpaste. Find your favorite piece of clothing, find what type of uh, phone you're using. I. So we, we come up with a number of different items where they can translate what a stock is to something that they actually like, and then we talk about how can we set that up and, and, and start an account where you're investing into those companies so that they learn what that process is like.

And clients just love that. It's about hearing them and understanding that this is what's important to me. It's important to me that my client, that my, that my kids. Understand things and become financially literate and educated and self-sufficient that when they're out of the house. So when you take that level of interest and detail and time, getting back to what we were talking about earlier, Phil, having that time to be able to dedicate towards that.

Really elevates the experience, and I always say my goal as your relationship manager to make sure your experience gets better and better and better here. Whether you're an advisor, whether you're a client, to make sure your experience continues to get better and better everybody years. Oh, that's awesome.

That is awesome. Awesome. All right, so penultimate question. You and I are having this conversation in April of 2030. Five years down the line. Forecast for us a little bit about what you would like to see Family Wealth Solutions doing at that moment in time. I think it's continuing to, to help the masses, continuing to help our advisors, educating the next generation.

There's a huge talent gap right now between the advisors and what their average age is now and the next generation. I look to be really championing the effort here within our firm, towards educating the next generation, getting them more involved. You know, being a, being a source where I continue to help people, it's, it's, it hasn't changed since day one.

I love taking the knowledge that I have to and learning from others, of course, by helping, helping people. And so it's going to be in, in that same capacity, and as we continue to grow and evolve, still staying true to that. Love it. Absolutely love it. All right, Dan, final question. If you had, and this is the, the question we ask all of our, our guests on the curve as their final question.

If you had the opportunity to go back and provide a little mentoring, a little coaching, a little guidance to the 22-year-old version. Dan Maroney, that guy that had finished up undergrad at the University of Florida and I assume was just out in the medical sales business. If, if you could go back and offer a little mentorship, few words of wisdom, what would you share with that young man given the experiences that you've had over the course of your life?

Don't be afraid to take risks. Don't be afraid to, if your gut's telling you to, to do something, but your mind isn't. Trust your gut. Take that risk, make that second call. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid to, to put yourself out there. And every time I've done that in my, in my career, Phil, I've always looked back and said, I wish I would've done that sooner.

I've had the most amazing career, you know, the most amazing, you know, journey with my dad in building this firm. Continuing on this journey here, you know, without him and in his honor. And if I was talking to 22-year-old Dan, I would say that, you know, trust your, trust your gut, and follow it. Always. Words to Live by Dan Maroney.

He is the CEO of Family Wealth Solutions. He is also a, um, soulful individual who gets the real nature of what it means to be a, a trusted advisor. Dan, it's been a pleasure having you on the Cannon Curve. Bill, it's been an absolute pleasure as well. I appreciate the opportunity. It's great to get the chance to, to speak to you in this format, and thanks again for the opportunity.

Absolutely. The Cannon Curve is production of Cannon Financial Institute. Executive producer of the Cannon Curve is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner. Until next time, I'm Phil Buchanan thanking each of you for staying ahead of the curve.

*The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of concurrent investment advisors. LLC Family Wealth Solutions provides all investment advisory services offered through concurrent Investment Advisors, LLC and SEC, registered Investment Advisor.

Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC and Family Wealth Solutions are not affiliated companies*