About The Show
Brad Williams has over 30 years of experience helping clients create successful retirement plans. He is specially trained in the unique aspects of retirement accounts. Brad is a Financial Educator and has had many years of experience teaching classes at local colleges and other venues. Brad hosted “The Ask Brad Show” weekly on WVNN for over two years and recently added the WBHP station. Brad is an A+ member of the Better Business Bureau.
Recent Episodes
About The Host
Brad is an Investment Advisor Representative specializing in Retirement and Estate Planning. He has been an independent financial advisor and President/CEO of Brad Williams Financial Services, LLC, since 1987. Brad’s wife Robin and his daughter Bonnie also work for the firm, marketing, coordinating, and planning Brad’s many free educational seminars and events throughout the area.
In addition to owning his own company, Brad is a two-time past president and active member of Huntsville’s oldest and best-known Business Networking International (BNI) affiliate, Heritage BNI. He is also a past member of the Board of Advisors of Senior Market Advisor magazine.
From Corporate Upstart to Independent Financial Advisor
In 1979, Brad Williams was a part-time clerk and package handler on a conveyor line for a small start-up package-delivery company. By the mid-1980s, he had worked his way up the corporate ladder into an operations manager position in Birmingham, AL. Having made enough money by age 29 to seek advice from a financial advisor about his long-term financial goals, he found a mentor in his financial planner who believed Brad had a natural instinct for the business.
Today, that “little start-up” is Federal Express, and in spite of being drawn to the strategic aspects of investment and retirement planning, Brad admits he “bled purple and orange” at the time. However, after a couple of years, FedEx began maturing into a huge company, and Brad began having his own growing pains. Under constant coercion from his financial mentor to join him as a financial advisor, Brad decided a career move might give him more independence.
In 1987, still single at the time, Brad decided that if there was ever a time to do something crazy with his life this was probably the time to do it. He left his salaried corporate job with FedEx to embrace a commissioned job as an independent financial services representative, and he never looked back.
Advice From a Mentor
It didn’t take long to realize that the rules and regulations in the financial services industry were ever-changing and that in order to survive, and most especially to succeed, he was going to have to be willing to change with it.
“I received advice from my first boss that not only helped my career through the years, but has helped me help my clients over the years as well. He told me, ‘Brad, when you look back over the first twenty years of your career, make sure you are providing twenty years of financial planning experience and not one year of financial planning experience, twenty times.'”
Inspired by that advice, Brad made the commitment to participate in educational opportunities and training as often as possible. This willingness to stay on top of the changing atmosphere of his industry is something that helps to educate his clients as well.
Investment Advisor Representative
