How Sonoma Wealth Advisors Thinks About Risk: "Your Head Sleeps Really Well on Your Pillow at Night"

What separates a planning-led wealth management firm from one that leads with products? That's the question at the center of an interview between Echo Trade's Jeff Roth and our Managing Principal, Daren Blonski, CFP. Speaking about how Sonoma Wealth Advisors approaches client relationships, Daren explains, "We're a planning-led firm — means we plan first and then the assets support the plan." He's equally direct about what the firm won't chase: "If you're looking for the latest IPO, that's not us. If you're looking for a super high-performing portfolio, it's not necessarily going to be us... we believe that people take on too much risk in their portfolios, and that's the issue with people's portfolios." Instead, Daren says the firm calibrates risk around a simpler measure of success: "We want risk in portfolios to be allocated so that your head sleeps really well on your pillow at night, and the only way you get to know that is you get to know your clients, you connect with them, you spend a lot of time with them." That client-first approach extends to how the firm positions itself day to day. "We try to be approachable, we try to be that first call when you're buying a car, when you're getting the house, and you need someone to look at the mortgage statement," Daren says. "We want to really be intimately involved, but we don't want to invite ourselves either."

Watch the full interview on Echo Trade's YouTube channel