Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with

financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading

financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success

and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next

level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsas. Welcome, everyone.

Welcome to the 240th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is

Thomas Gow. Tom is a financial advisor at Mataretsky Financial Group,

a hybrid RIA located in Boynton Beach, Florida that manages $525 million in asset center management

for just over 500 clients. What to neat about Tom, though, is the way he translates abstract

financial planning strategies into very concrete and practical terms that he can enthusiastically

communicate to address the very specific tax and estate planning needs of his niche retiree client's

health. In this episode, we talk in depth about how Tom's quintessential communication and

persuasion skills landed him on the radar screen of Malcolm Gladwell,

who profiled Tom in his book, The Tipping Point. How early in his career as he was expanding his

focus beyond his accounting services as a CPA, Tom decided that he needed a niche, focusing first

on retirees and then niching down even further to a concentration on the tax ramifications

of retirement distributions.

And why Tom feels that the best way for financial advisors to differentiate themselves to

prospective clients isn't by discussing investment solutions, but by offering help with very

specific tax planning issues. Because as Tom points out, investments are a matter of opinion,

but taxes are a matter of fact.

We also talk about how Tom utilizes educational workshops to get in front of prospective clients,

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