Shownotes
- Growth through Every Role: Yanni’s journey from unpaid intern to executive team member highlights the power of curiosity, adaptability, and patience in career progression—valuable lessons for any professional aiming for leadership.
- Embracing Complexity: His passion for complex financial and business planning, especially for entrepreneurs and family businesses, shows how diving into challenging territory can fuel a rewarding and meaningful career.
- Culture Matters: Office culture and shared laughter—like wagers, crop tops, and interpretive dances—create lasting bonds that make hard work and long hours enjoyable and sustainable.
- Succession & Transition: Yanni’s move from CIO to CFO is a model for “graduating” from one role to another within a growing firm, and demonstrates the importance of recognizing team strengths and supporting new leaders.
- Advice for the Next Generation: Yanni’s top guidance? Don’t rush. Take time to learn and develop before seeking instant advancement, and embrace the opportunities to grow in both skill and confidence at every stage.
Transcripts
This is Eric Brotman, the host of Don't Retire Graduate, the podcast that asks you what you want to be when you grow up so you can graduate into retirement with purpose and with passion. Welcome to our Diary of A Financial Advisor segment where we interview financial advisors about their professional journeys and their passion for helping others succeed. Today, I'm pleased to be joined by my dear friend and business partner, Yanni Niebuhr. Yanni's been with BFG for over 14 years and started as an intern while at Towson University here. Locally, he's been serving as our Chief Investment Officer and is responsible for understanding, managing and monitoring the assets of the firm and ensuring that all due diligence is carried out regarding the portfolios managed for clients. In 2021, Yanni was instrumental in the development and implementation of the firm's Financial Planning for All program, a new offering that made financial planning services accessible to more families throughout the country. He's also a leading force in the firm's corporate financial wellness programs that help companies across the country provide valuable financial guidance and advocacy for their employees. Yanni, welcome to Diary of a Financial Advisor.
Yanni Niebuhr [:Thanks for having me.
Eric Brotman [:This is fun. I mean, having you in the hot seat after all these years is something I've been looking forward to and I can't tell you how nice it is to have you here. And it's interesting because not only did you start and help us build the financial planning for all programs, but now you're getting involved in some really sophisticated and interesting planning. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the journey you've had over these 14 years. From college student to principal and leader in our clubhouse.
Yanni Niebuhr [:It was really surprising on Friday to get notified that it was my 14 year anniversary, which made me feel old. So thanks for that. As you mentioned, I started as an intern. In fact, one of your colleagues in the industry sent you an email, said, hey, I know someone that needs to graduate and needs an internship to graduate and would you take them on? And you kindly said no. I said, oh, by the way, it has to be unpaid. And you responded, sure. Perfect. He sounds fantastic.
Yanni Niebuhr [:Started there as an unpaid intern, then to paid intern, begrudgingly on your end, then to operations, then to the lead trader of the firm, then to an associate assisting you as second chair, then lead advisor, then to chief investment officer, principal of the firm, and now moving into a CFO role.
Eric Brotman [:It's been an amazing journey and watching you grow up has been grow professionally has been a ton of fun. You know you like the Joke that you were an unpaid intern and that that is when you truly earned your keep. And you know, I'll be saying that for as long as I know you. But, but the truth is you have, you have revolutionized so many things within our office. You have, you've embraced a lot of technology, you've embraced a lot of investment management responsibilities, you've taken a leadership role on the executive team and management, and you've managed an incredible, an incredible group of clients and families from ranging from, you know, young families to very sophisticated multigenerational planning. So what is it that's kept your, your fuselage, so to speak, over all of these 14 years? I mean, I, I don't mean to make you feel old. You've still been here less than half as long as I have, so that should make you feel better.
Yanni Niebuhr [:I do have a little bit more gray in my hair now though. But that's why I love working here. Every day is unique. All the families that we represent, they're all unique. And so the thing that keeps my fuse lit is that every day it's going to be something different. There's always a new challenge to be had, whether it's assisting on some of the old programs that we've created and developed or looking to implement something new. So for me, it's an ever growing and evolving career and that's what I love about this firm as well.
Eric Brotman [:So you have taken on a role with sophisticated business planning, succession planning for entrepreneurs, business owners, family businesses, and it's sort of developed into a niche for you. What attracted you to working with specifically business owners and family business owners and just being in that space because that is a different skill set than some advisors have.
Yanni Niebuhr [:It's, it's complex. Again, it goes back to the uniqueness. Every firm is different, every business is different. And what you find with most business owners, they're wildly successful in what they do, but when it comes down to looking at the financials, figuring out how to monetize their business at some point, that's not what they want to do. They want to focus on continuing to grow and do and the artistic side of things. And so for me, I love the complexity. I'm a self proclaimed nerd. The joke I tell everybody there is that, you know, I have a spreadsheet for every month until I'm 65.
Yanni Niebuhr [:Right now, that's where it's at. And then when I'll bring my wife Brittany in and say, look, the four changed to a five. When we're 63, she's already, you know, walked out of the room. But it's the type of thing that I like to do. And so those complexities are the things that really get me going. And again, go back to, you know, making me move forward, making me grow, and continue to be excited every day I come in.
Eric Brotman [:Now, your role in the firm is not all work and no play. And I have to throw this out there, that if anytime there's going to be an employee challenge or some kind of shenanigan that makes it fun, a fun place to be, you tend to be a leader in that clubhouse, too. Whether it's silly wagers on. On fantasy football or whether it's other types of wagers on physical activity or other things. Do you have one. One moment like that, that. That. That you can conjure up? I know I've got a couple I'm thinking of, but are there any specific that you would be interested in sharing as part of your diary?
Yanni Niebuhr [:Oh, boy. Do I want to put any of these on the record? That's. That's the problem here. Well, I've also learned I'm never taking any more bets, period, because I seem to always lose. But there's been a few that. That stand out. There was one years ago where after one of our wagers, the. The loser between myself and another coworker, the loser had to get their name stamp on their back and then walk around with a crop top on the Ocean City boardwalk for the entire day.
Yanni Niebuhr [:So that one was interesting. And then there was one specific with you, which I'm not too proud about whatsoever. It was the World Cup. I don't remember how long ago it was. And it was Greece versus. Who was it?
Eric Brotman [:Costa Rica.
Yanni Niebuhr [:Remember Costa Rica? And I was very excited because, you know, Costa Rica took a red card. I was like, oh, there's no way we're losing this. And Greece lost, and I had to serenade you with an interpretive dance while feeding you grapes. And there's a video of that somewhere, and I want to find it and delete it in the worst possible way.
Eric Brotman [:For the record. For the record, you had to sing the American national anthem, and you had to sing it in Spanish, which is not easy for you. And grapes.
Yanni Niebuhr [:All I got it was, it was.
Eric Brotman [:Pineapple and cantaloupe, by the way, because.
Yanni Niebuhr [:Those were props from trying to take it out of my mind.
Eric Brotman [:I remember it well. And I. And I have photos of the Hann tattoo as well, if anyone would like to see them offline. I'm not going to post them with the episode. So let's get back to talking about. Let's get back to talking about business. You have, you've been on the executive team now for a number of years. The executive team is growing and actually you're getting ready, as you mentioned in the intro, to take on more of a Chief Financial Officer role and to actually hand the reins off come January 1st of 26 for the Chief Investment Officer role.
Eric Brotman [:Can you talk a little bit about that? Well, let's call it a graduation between one role to another.
Yanni Niebuhr [:Nice shameless plug. So for me it was saying, look, we have someone who's incredibly talented and wildly smarter than I am, and Claudia Glover, you can delete that portion there for me, Eric, if you don't mind. And so that has been her skill set since day one of coming on. Claudia is a unicorn and her passion, and so that that makes perfect sense for her. On my side, looking at the cfo, it made a ton of sense because it helps me further do the business building of our firm, but also helps assist when we're looking at financials for other firms in terms of whether it's a client that we're working with or when we're looking to grow as ourselves and acquire other firms.
Eric Brotman [:It's definitely something that I can see us being involved in. And as all of us, I'm not going to say we mature, but we definitely graduate from one role to the next. So many exciting things are happening in 2026, but let's look out 5, 10 years on the horizon. Do you have a vision for where you think not only you'll be professionally, but also where BFG's possibly going to be in the next five to 10.
Yanni Niebuhr [:Years, where I'll be professionally. Ideally, I love to be doing the role that I'm doing right now. As I mentioned, it's an amazing thing where you come into work every single day and it truly doesn't feel like work. Yes, there are some days that are slogs. And you know, everybody says that, but been doing this now for 14 years and I'm excited every single day because it's unique. When I started, there were four of us and we're in the mid-20s now and we're growing. And so what I see for us is continued growth, but at the same time never losing that small company feel. It's a thing that I wear as a badge of pride when I say to a new client coming on board that you're going to call in.
Yanni Niebuhr [:And unlike when you call up a larger institution and you're on hold for 30 minutes trying to talk to somebody. You're going to get someone by the third ring. And then what will happen is you'll spend 15 minutes talking about life and what's going on, and then you'll eventually get to who you really wanted to talk to, but you'll always have that small company feel. I love that.
Eric Brotman [:Well, what advice would you give the G2 and G3 advisors, the up and coming advisors not just in BFG but in the industry? What advice would you give them? Having done this yourself, from really being fully green to now being fully one of the key members of the organization?
Yanni Niebuhr [:Don't rush. It's you come in here thinking that you've known and seen everything through college and then you realize really quickly and this is, you know, again, something I don't want on video. But you did an incredible job creating a path and design book to say, okay, this is where you start. This is where we need to get you through so that you are going to be comfortable and ready to go in the next phase of your career. And everybody wants to come and have that instant gratification. Take your time, grow and learn what you need to learn before you go and start jumping off the deep end.
Eric Brotman [:I'm not surprised, but this was sage advice. That's a great piece. I want to thank you for taking the time to be on Diary of a Financial Advisor. I know you were patiently waiting your turn. When you say be patient and don't rush, we'll definitely have to have you back because I now know that you're a terrific interview and that you have some fun with it. But thanks for doing this today. I appreciate it. And for listeners who want to check out any of your information, it'll be posted in the show notes and folks can get in touch with you as well.
Eric Brotman [:So thank you.
Yanni Niebuhr [:Thanks for having Eric.
Eric Brotman [:I'd like to thank everyone for listening and watching today. If you enjoy our show, please subscribe, leave a rating on your favorite podcast platform and share it with friends and family so they can join you on your journey to financial freedom. If you'd like to send us a topic or idea you'd like us to discuss in a future episode, or don't retire Graduate. Post it on our Facebook page. We'll be back next week with another engaging guest and in two weeks with another entry in our Diary of a Financial Advisor. For now, this is your host, Eric Brotman reminding you don't retire Graduate.
Unnamed Voiceover [:Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, llc. Kestra is member FINRA SIPC Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, llc. Kestra as an affiliate Advantage Kestra is Kestra is or Kestra as are not affiliated with Brotman Financial or any other entity discussed.
