We had the good fortune of connecting with Scott Bishop and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Scott, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
When I started in the financial planning business back in 1998, I saw how it worked in large firms in terms of the bureaucracy and the types of services they wanted you to offer and how they wanted you to do it. Early in my career, that was good training, but as I grew in both maturity and experience, I really wanted to be able to better use my business (MBA), tax (CPA) and financial planning skills (CFP) to help clients in a more comprehensive manner.

With that in mind, my prior partner and I left that firm with a few individuals (including my current partner, Cy Cattan) to form our own independent firm. After 7+ years at that firm, Cy and I left to form our own team here at Avidian Wealth – the Vantage Financial Group (I think I sent you our team brochure). We now, as a Fiduciary RIA, have the ability to offer our clients a more comprehensive and customized outsourced family office experience that allows us to aid in complex estate planning, business succession and exit strategies, charitable legacy planning and investment management in both traditional investments and in sophisticated and well reviewed private deals (I can send your our family office brochure as well if you like).

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I mentioned some of this earlier, so I won’t restate that, but here are some additional thoughts.

When approaching a financial planner, a prospective client really does not know what they are going to get in terms of outlook, services, perspective and team depth. It has by my team’s goal to truly give a more comprehensive and customized approach to clients. We have two distinct niches that we focus on in addition to traditional financial planning: comprehensive multi-generational estate and wealth transfer planning and business exit and succession strategies for our business owner clients. Our experience in these areas, along with the clients we have served, have served us well in term of our growth. We grow through referrals from existing clients an other professionals such as CPAs, Attorneys and Investment Bankers. When they see the level of service we bring, we many times hear how different and better it is vs. what they had at their prior financial planning firm.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
When people think of Houston, they think of an “oil town”. However, Houston is a booming and growing multi-cultural city with the arts, sports and culinary scene. So depending on their interest, we can go to a concert, symphony or the theatre district…or even the museum district. If they are into sports, we can go see pretty much any sports they like. If they like food, bars, etc…we have everything.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
As with any career change and starting your own business, it takes time an includes stress. When I left my prior career in 1997 to begin a financial planning career, I left a 6-figure secure income job to go to a firm that paid me a $2,000 per month draw. The support and encouragement of both my wife, Geri Bishop, and my father, Mel Bishop, allowed me to really take a leap of faith in the move that has paid off well, both financially and professionally.

I’d also like to shout out to my partner Cy Cattan. You really will never meet two more different people between me and Cy. However, our different perspective and skill sets really compliment each other and has led us to tremendous growth since we started our own team back in 2013.

Website: https://avidianwealth.com/team-member/scott-bishop/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottbishopcfp/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ScottB_CFP

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scott.bishop.houston

Other: https://avidianwealth.com/category/scotts-solution-center/

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