Peter Wheeler

Peter Wheeler of WheelerFrost Associates, Inc., believes in being "of service" to his clients, his family and the community at large. When it comes to his financial advisory practice, this translates into providing industry best practices collectively known as wealth management.

Wealth management is an evolution of various financial and technology trends. Late in the 20th century, computers helped to usher in financial planning. In the 21st century, wealth management has built on the foundations laid by financial planning and technology. The result: a financial discipline that aligns client values with wealth, so as to better support what is important to clients in their personal and professional lives.

Wheeler firmly believes in wealth management because it supports his own key values. In fact, the provision and support of financial services has been a way of "giving back" to both clients and community, a value that finds acceptance in the marketplace and is important to Wheeler on a personal level as well. He began in the financial services industry as a very young man, providing life insurance products. Later on, while serving in Vietnam, he continued to support clients with the help of his wife, Mary.

He began to make the transition to financial planning during the 1980s, and today his firm's services primarily revolve around the implementation of wealth management.

Wheeler points out that he began by offering a product—life insurance—that, while useful to many people, was somewhat restrictive and limited in terms of how it could be put to use. By contrast, wealth management allows him to offer a broad and flexible range of services, mainly to high-networth investors with complex financial needs, and integrate those services into a comprehensive whole—one that covers issues such as estate and trust planning, insurance analysis, business transition planning and philanthropy. "I'd like to think we're giving clients a different way to see the world through the repositioning of wealth to support what is most important to them," says Wheeler.

This is not the first time that Wheeler has repositioned his firm, but he has come to believe that wealth management is more than a repositioning statement. "I've been in this business a long time, and wealth management isn't a realignment so much as an evolution that pulls together all the different trends that have been at work in the industry for several decades," he says. "That's why wealth management is such a satisfying direction for us. It feels like the culmination of something we've been working toward for years."

Clearly, Wheeler has come a long way from his insurance roots. He's accumulated 40 years of experience in the financial services industry, along with a number of degrees and certifications. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from The University of Arizona, is a CLU® (Chartered Life Underwriter), a ChFC® (Chartered Financial Consultant), a CFP® (CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™), CIMC® (Certified Investment Management Consultant), and a licensed life analyst.

All this experience has not slowed him when it comes to re-imagining his business. With 115 "legacy" clients and approximately 50 to 60 wealth management clients, Wheeler is well on his way to building a successful, independent and fully realized wealth management shop, along with his partner for 22 years, Ken Frost, and his wife, Mary, who runs compliance. "Wealth management provides us with a way of approaching clients that few advisors are prepared to offer," says Wheeler, who explains that by taking the position of chief financial officer for his clients, he can organize all the services they need and find legal and accounting expertise as well. "We think it provides us with the final stage in our development as professionals."

While the emphasis is squarely on wealth management these days, WheelerFrost Associates, Inc., also offers investment-related services. For example, the firm manages fully diversified portfolios using both active and passive investment strategies, including a wide variety of investment vehicles. A disciplined investment approach emphasizes low turnover, low trading costs and tax-efficient portfolios.

In addition, the firm has leveraged technology to help differentiate itself and provide superior levels of client service. It offers advisors professional websites, including one (familyofficenetwork.com) that allows legal and financial documents to be shared among clients' wealth advisory teams securely over the Internet, and another (wealthadvisoryconnect.com) that essentially serves as the "facebook.com of wealth management" by providing advisors with a forum to discuss a wide variety of wealth management-related issues and share best practices.

Of course, every success story is really the story of a number of contributors—and Wheeler's is no exception. He gives special credit to CEG Worldwide, the California-based wealth management coaching firm for advisors and financial institutions, for providing the viewpoint and resources that have proven vital in Wheeler's evolving wealth management vision. "Our goal is to provide service to our clients in a way that they can't find elsewhere. That's what CEG Worldwide has done for us, and I don't think there is a higher compliment I can pay them."

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