Advisor Spotlight:
Curt Stowers, F5 Financial Planning

Imagine developing a financial planning practice from the ground up by integrating holistic life values with smart financial management. That’s exactly what Curt Stowers, co-founder of F5 Financial Planning, has achieved. Transitioning from a senior executive position at Caterpillar to leading a successful financial advisory firm, Curt’s journey is a testament to the power of a values-driven mission. We sat down with Curt to explore his unique philosophy, including how he leverages Flourish Cash^† to serve not only his wealth management clients but local nonprofits as well.

Flourish: Your career path has been anything but conventional! What led you to wealth management?
Curt: I have a background in engineering and worked at Caterpillar for almost two decades. I loved every minute of it and had the chance to live and travel around the world. However, when the company sold my company unit to a private equity firm, it marked a transition point for me.

I've always done a lot of personal financial planning and had a lot of people asking me for informal help. I love numbers and helping people, so it was a natural transition. 

Flourish: Tell us about the history of your firm. 
Curt: After passing the CFP exam and working for a small firm for about a year, I launched F5 Financial Planning in February 2014. Since then, it's grown nicely. I now have a business partner, Josh Duncan, and a couple of employees.

Flourish: Why did you pick the name F5? 
Curt:  While I love numbers, there's a lot more to life. F5 stands for five things we believe are the foundation of a fulfilling life: faith, family, friends, fitness, and finance. I didn't want it to be just about money when building a firm. I wanted it to be about other important things, too.

Our primary focus is to serve clients as their financial advisor. But at the same time, we're comfortable having conversations about all of these dimensions because they are critical to having a balanced life. We really enjoy helping families achieve what's important to them.

 
Flourish: Tell us about the typical F5 client and how your team serves them? 
Curt: Our clients are primarily corporate executives and business owners. Interestingly, both groups ask similar questions, but the business owners require a more complex exit plan. This is where my background helps out. I've run several businesses under the Caterpillar umbrella as general manager. That experience helps me better serve those business owner families.

Flourish: That's interesting. Flourish Cash has a business account option that financial advisors use to help clients earn more on their business cash reserves. Of course, we've found that cash is an incredibly emotional asset, both on the personal and business side. What is your experience on that front?
Curt: We have found that many of our business owner clients have sizable cash reserves. Usually, it's sitting in a checking account earning minimal interest. I point out that their million dollars in a checking account is probably earning about 0% when it could be earning more like 5.00% APY,^§ meaning that they are missing out on around $50,000 per year.^#

They seem to not realize the impact until I frame it in dollar terms. That’s why I always do the calculation for them, whether it's a million dollars or even $100,000. It's been a good discussion point with our business owner clients and it usually yields action.

Flourish: Of course, rates are a huge motivator, but is FDIC insurance coverage also something that you're seeing top that list of client concerns?
Curt: Yes, definitely. Along with access and speed, we always are asked if the funds are FDIC insured. We tell them that funds are insured up to $5 million through your Program Banks^Ω for business accounts – far more than the FDIC $250,000 limit. When we first bring up the FDIC topic, business owners often tell me they have maybe $800,000 in one checking account. So I ask, did you know that only $250,000 of that amount is insured by the FDIC? We get a lot of questions about deposit safety. When the Silicon Valley Bank situation came up, we focused a lot on that. I know that you guys had a relationship with Signature Bank at that point as well.

Flourish: Yes, we did. 
Curt: And as we know, a lot of people were asking questions. All of you at Flourish did a great job of taking a potentially negative situation and turning it into a positive. As a result, we were able to communicate quickly with our clients and everyone was protected.

The other thing that's really critical with business owners is that they want to know they can get to their cash quickly. I tell them that Flourish Cash is just as fast as Chase, PNC, or your local credit union.^| At F5, we use Flourish, too, for our business cash reserves.

 
Flourish: You've also mentioned offering Flourish Cash to nonprofit organizations in your community. Can you tell us more about that?
Curt: I’m on the finance committee of my local Rotary club. I've been active as the Treasurer there, and I've always pushed to try to get them out of the checking account mentality. Once I was actively using Flourish and getting good results with it for clients, I brought it up to the Rotary club. Of course, they wanted to know how it worked and if it was safe.

After we discussed all of their concerns, they tried it out. It spread from there, and we have introduced several local nonprofits to Flourish Cash business accounts. Our plan is to offer it to clients, too, to help any nonprofits they are involved in or support. There's no fee, no expectations, just a way to help them out. When I describe Flourish Cash to other advisors, I use the term frictionless since the solution is so easy to implement.

It's a good way to give back to our community. And, of course, it’s great exposure for F5, regardless of where it leads.

Flourish: That’s a great way you’ve found to give back, and it sounds like it ties in really closely with your mission and work at F5. 
Curt: Yes, and it's been surprising how quickly it's taken off. When interest rates were half a percent, people didn't think about cash much. But now, it can make a big difference. Even a small nonprofit with $100,000 in cash reserves could earn an extra $5,000 a year, which can make a big difference in furthering its mission.

Flourish: Do you anticipate some of those attitudes toward cash will change as rates drop?
Curt: I don't think we'll see much change. Whether it's individuals, businesses, or nonprofits, there's always a high degree of nervousness when it comes to cash. People want to know their money is safe. Even if rates go back down to 2%, are they going to put it back in a checking account, making next to nothing and possibly not fully insured?

Flourish: Are you aware of any specific ways that clients have used the extra yield they’ve earned from using a Flourish account? 
Curt: One family who loved to travel was planning a vacation to Australia. When we calculated how much more they would earn through Flourish Cash, it about matched the budget for their trip. When I told them their additional earnings would now pay for it, their eyes lit up.

 
Flourish: We launched Flourish Annuities^* earlier this year and you quickly become one of our early adopters. Tell us about how you’re using fixed income tools with clients and what challenges the multi-year guaranteed annuities (MYGAs) from Flourish Annuities have helped solve. 
Curt: MYGAs have proven to be very valuable for us in specific situations. For example, clients who have an insurance policy or annuity that is structured unattractively. We want to get it into something that doesn’t have a lot of fees where they can earn a good interest rate and keep the tax deferral. MYGAs work great for that.

The other place we’re seeing some value is from the tax deferral standpoint. We have some folks who are retired and want to be able to qualify for Affordable Care Act subsidies. We’ve used Flourish Annuities to put some of their excess funds into MYGAs so they don’t have the interest on their tax return, but if they really needed the funds, they could withdraw them according to the contract terms. For advisors who work with clients in retirement, it’s an effective tool to control and structure income on tax returns. Just like we can do Roth conversions, look at tax loss harvesting, or time capital gains, now we have another tool to use.^{^^}

We can do the same with longer-term CDs and stretch them out, but the nice thing with MYGAs is that, when they come due, you can roll them into the next one.¹ We can structure where we want to see that income. From a cash management perspective, timing that income is something we’re finding very attractive. 

Thank you for your time, Curt!

F5 Financial Planning and Flourish are separate and unaffiliated firms. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. This material is provided for informational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the individual being interviewed and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Firm. The inclusion of any external party in this interview does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by the Firm. The information provided is not intended as financial, investment, or legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. This feedback may not be representative of the experience of other customers, and is not a guarantee of future performance or success.