Gordon Bernhardt

Gordon Bernhardt

Gordon Bernhardt of Bernhardt Wealth Management comes from a farming community in Nebraska. His community-oriented approach has led him to adopt wealth management as a way to serve his clients, using a best-practices-driven financial methodology.

Founded in 1994, Bernhardt Wealth Management has evolved as Bernhardt has searched for industry best practices to support his clients. The result has been the discipline of wealth management, which supports individual life values with resources, and asset-class investing.

As a child growing up in a Midwestern farming community, Bernhardt saw how rural values such as independence and interdependence helped build a successful local culture. Such values have helped him in business as well, as those same values are shared by many of Bernhardt's clients. He specializes in addressing the needs of successful professionals, entrepreneurs and retirees, but also works with a number of women in transition (those who are either going through a divorce, entering retirement or facing the death of a loved one). In fact, women now make up approximately 30 percent of his total client base.

Women face special challenges in today's investment environment, Bernhardt points out. Even though women are almost 30 percent more likely than men to go to college, they often end up doing less well professionally than their male counterparts. Women often have children rather than continue their careers, and they live about seven years longer than men do; thus, their savings have to go farther. Additionally, some women still feel social pressure to defer to the men in their lives, which can complicate financial recovery from a divorce or widowhood. "Investing and planning for one's retirement is a fact of life," Bernhardt explains. "But often it is seen as a difficult and aggressive arena that takes bold action and constant monitoring. We can show people, especially women in transition, that there are ways to approach finance and investing that get the job done yet provide peace of mind."

His client base runs beyond women, of course. "Wealth management and asset-class investing appeal to many people in many professions," Bernhard explains. "Not just women in transition, but all types of individuals from entrepreneurs and successful executives to those with family wealth who are ‘stewarding' resources from one generation to the next."

As a result of his wealth management emphasis, Bernhardt has seen his practice more than double in the past few years. Today, he has nearly 100 clients and almost $115 million under management—a significant increase from the beginning of the decade, when he had fewer than 50 clients and less than $35 million.

It's been a long, successful trip for Bernhardt in numerous ways since he left his native Nebraska in the early 1980s for Washington, D.C. and his first job, assistant to Representative Virginia Smith. From there, he went to work for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee when it was under the leadership of Sen. Bob Dole, then left

D.C. to earn a degree in commerce from the University of Virginia. On entering the financial industry, he worked for Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) and then spent the next three years in the corporate world in an accounting role. Next, he worked for Acacia and American Express Financial Advisors (now Ameriprise). Seeking to more closely control his professional destiny, he started his own firm in 1994—with a focus on providing his clients with high-quality service and independent advice.

Upon reflection, Bernhardt says that his past political involvement stemmed from his focus on community values and on "giving something back." The difference between what he was doing then and now, he adds, is that the "giving back" is performed on an intimate and everyday level. "I still have an interest in politics," he explains. "But I also see that at the national level a lot of politics is impersonal and leveraged by special interests. I'm fortunate that in my career, I'm able to find a way to help people in a one-on-one situation and make a living doing so. It's gratifying, and it allows me to align my own values with how I want to lead my professional career."

Bernhardt attributes a great deal of his current success as a wealth manager to the professional and personal coaching he's received over the years. One of the most important of these relationships, he says, is with leading advisor-coaching firm CEG Worldwide. Bernhardt says he had been aware of CEG Worldwide's expertise in the field for some time, and after enrolling in the program several years ago, he began to understand that certain kinds of strategies and systematization of business processes would make his practice even more profitable and responsive. "Success gives you resources that you can use to provide an even better support environment for clients," he points out. "Wealth management is a critical key, and CEG Worldwide shows you how to unlock its power. Our clients benefit every day as a result of our wealth management emphasis."

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