About
I came to this work
the long way.
The conversations I have with clients are not the ones most advisors have. Here's why.
The conversations I have with clients are not the ones most advisors have. Here's why.
I came to the U.S. at 12 with my mother. We lived in Queens, New York. She didn't speak English. She made it through with a kind of stubborn persistence I didn't appreciate until much later.
I couldn't play sports in high school because we didn't have health insurance. The school required it; we couldn't afford it. That's what money looked like growing up — something that decided what you got to do, not just what you got to have.
I went to community college for about a year after high school, then joined the U.S. Air Force. I wanted to serve. I also needed a path that didn't depend on what my family could afford.
The military was where I first understood how money actually moves. Building a credit score. How life insurance works. Why an asset is different from a paycheck. The discipline I learned wasn't about being austere — it was about clarity. Knowing what every dollar was for.
I served five years.
Most financial advisors I've watched do this work treat the technical part as the work. The investment selection, the tax form, the insurance contract. The math.
The clients I work with — many of them Asian American families navigating intergenerational money decisions, but not only them — taught me something different. The math is the easy part. The hard part is the conversation around the math.
Parents who immigrated and still need support. A child with special needs. A spouse who wants to retire three years before you do. A business that's also a retirement plan and also your identity. None of that fits in a planning template. All of it shapes whether the plan works.
That's the work I came here to do.
Five areas, working together. None of them in isolation.
Portfolio construction, tax-efficient allocation, rebalancing. Custodied at Kestra's custodian.
Drawdown strategy, Social Security timing, healthcare bridge, Roth conversions.
Tax-aware decisions, not return preparation. Coordinated with your CPA.
Beneficiaries, account titling, gifting strategy. Document drafting stays with your attorney.
Qualified plans, succession, buy-sell coordination — for owner-clients who need it.
The plan is what ties them together. The plan is the work.
Stated honestly. Standards I'm held to, not claims I'm making.
I practice alongside Cory McCune and Bret Whiteley at McCune Whiteley Wealth Management, a Fort Worth firm they founded in 2009. The firm has worked with more than 300 households through every major market cycle since. When I look at a complex situation, I have senior advisors to consult — not a script to read from. That's a meaningful difference for clients, especially in moments that don't show up in a textbook.
Meet the team30 minutes. By phone or video. No paperwork. No homework. If I'm not the right fit, I'll tell you and point you somewhere better.
Or start with how I work →