Meet Evan Brandsma

When I was 12 years old my dad helped me open a TD Ameritrade account. He told me to learn everything I possibly could using the free online courses available. I instantly got hooked. I learned about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, forex trading, options trading, real estate, and more. I wanted to invest my lifetime savings of $250 into bitcoin, but the bank wouldn’t let me. Sad day… you could buy a whole bitcoin for that price back then.

Once I was 15 years old my parents admitted that I knew more about the stock market than they did. Using my UTMA account(an investing account for minors), I began trading options. I won some and lost some on my trades. I was playing with a few thousand dollars I had earned from doing construction with my Dad. What could it hurt?

Apparently having an obsession with the stock market is a good thing. Every dollar I ever made went into the stock market, minus my expenses of course. By the time I graduated high-school I had over $60,000 in liquid net worth. This would be enough to get me through the next 4 years of college even if I didn’t work. I didn’t do anything fancy. I worked the same jobs as my other friends, but I didn’t spend my money like they did. Instead, I put my money to work right away.

At the end of my high-school career I was able to look at my transcripts and see that I had an associates degree finished. Something only a handful of us in my school accomplished. Funny thing is though, the same resources were available to the other 150 students in my class. Either they didn’t know, or they didn’t want to put in the work. I am going to assume the best, that they just didn’t know how to do what the handful of us did. (We took advantage of our college advisors at the school)

As a “Freshman” in college, really beginning college as a Junior, I obtained my Series 7, Series 66, Life, Accident, and Health Insurance Licenses. This allowed me to begin performing as a financial planner with a local investment firm in Branson, Missouri.

January of 2024 is when I started spending my time talking to everyone I possibly could. I went from 80 contacts in my phone, to 800 different people I had conversed with for at least an hour. I learned a lot about life in my first year as a financial planner. I learned that to lead other people, I must help them do something I understand how to do. I learned that I must be self-sufficient. Not needing to make a sale in order to stay in business is the best way to make sure that I am acting in the best interest of my clients.

May 5th, 2025 was my last day with my previous firm. Now I am headed into the wild west of starting my own financial planning firm.

The reason for doing this is to provide my clients with better technology, better prices for service, and creating a company that can help people live better lives than they could without us. I am creating a culture that will take your feedback and use that to build our company and serve people better every day. This company exists for you. I don’t need the money, and my employees won’t be needing the money from this company.