Birmingham financial planner Greg Powell wants you to build a sound financial house with a realistic blueprint. Translation: create and stick to a plan of where you want to be in five, 10 or 20 years that protects your assets and loved ones.
Drawing on his 30-plus years in financial planning management, Powell has written “BETTER, RICHER, FULLER: How Building Your Financial House, Can Help Protect Your Loved Ones, Grow Your Assets, and Free You to Live the American Dream,” released in March by Fi Smart Publishing.
“Financial planning is the ability to sit down and map out a strategy and a blueprint to tie your financial goals to life’s goals,” said Powell, president and CEO of Fi Plan Partners in Birmingham and a Business Council of Alabama board of director’s member. “You’d never build a house without a blueprint and you’d never work with a builder who doesn’t use a blueprint.”
Powell and his team left a major investment firm in 2005 to form Fi Plan Partners, an independent, fee-based financial planning firm with 10 employees. He didn’t coin the phrase “the American dream,” but he says the dream can be realized by sticking to a realistic blueprint and reviewing and updating when needed.
“This process enables people to move forward and overcome anxiety and fears and to meet their goals,“ he said. “That’s why I developed the ‘Your Financial House’ process.”
Powell speaks to organizations, businesses, families, and individuals who want to enhance and preserve their wealth. “It’s all educational,” he said.
“I speak four or five times a month to different groups and walk through the financial house process and address questions they should be asking themselves,” Powell said. “My objective is to make a difference in people’s lives.”
Powell said as a fee-based firm without commissions, Fi Plan only earns money by helping clients with long-term goals and priorities to succeed. His management tool, “Your Financial House,” helps people make sound, practical decisions with their money versus emotional decisions just like the builder of your home.
Over the years, clients would tell Powell they wish his advice had shown up earlier in their financial lives to help them create a blueprint. “I was encouraged over several years to write a book for people who said, ‘I’d like to give this to a colleague at work or I want to give this to my children or grandchildren’,” he said.
“I had white papers I had written and I finally said I’ve got to do this,” Powell said. He created a team to help him and put together an informative and inspiring book.
“When someone reads this book, it’s not a bunch of charts and tables,” Powell said. “I wanted a book that talks about real-life situations and dialogue and solutions and answer questions people have in their lives.”
Powell said he supports teaching financial literacy in schools to help people to learn how they can improve on their financial success, regardless of their financial background.
Originally from Chattanooga, Powell attended Samford University and after graduation remained in the financial hub of Alabama. He always loved economics, business, and history and how they affect lives.
He remains active in Samford University, is on the Board of Overseers, and on the Samford Athletic Council. He’s a past chairman of Samford University’s Brock School of Business Advisory Board, former president of the Samford University Alumni Association and an active member of the Athletic Foundation.