Meet the Team Behind EWA: The People, Culture, and Roles That Drive Your Financial Plan

Speaker 1 – 00:00
We’re sitting here in quarter two of 2026. EWA has grown very rapidly, which we thank you, our clients for and we
wanted to do this podcast so you get a behind the scenes look at all the Team members at EWA, look at our
culture and specifically what roles each Team member plays and also which specific person to go to depending on
the question that you have or service that you have on an ongoing basis. For someone who does not work with you
every day, how would you describe yourself? As a person?
Speaker 2 – 00:26
Yeah, that’s a good question. I would say as a person, one of my biggest skill sets is just building a deep
relationship with clients and Team members. So that could be talking about things as far as family dynamics,
values for families, what their goals are, really digging deep outside of the technical financial stuff because I think
the technical skills of tax, estate investments, that’s all good and well, but that’s kind of table stakes and where the
real value is driving those deep relationships and really just like being there to solve any big problem that a family
has. So a lot of people on our Team and clients will bring some of their biggest problems to us and me specifically
with who I work with and we’re kind of there to solve that problem.
Speaker 3 – 01:13
Yeah, I think at the core of it, I’ve always been a relationship type of person. My philosophy’s always been to give
more than you get and I think that helps with building trust quicker. I’m a father of three to three beautiful children,
Vinnie, Salvatore and Liliana. I married a beautiful wife, high school sweetheart, her name’s Lauren. But I think
essentially how I’ve built my career is at a young age, my parents instilled in me to, I mean, right from being young,
they instilled in me to always respect people. And so I’ve had that and work hard philosophy my whole entire life.
And then in my teen years, well before my teen years, I started playing golf. And I realized when you’re playing golf,
there’s no Team, it’s basically you. So I build confidence in myself.
Speaker 3 – 02:13
And then in my teen years I had a car detailing business and I had over 150 clients. So I realized the value of
providing value to people and customer satisfaction. And then my wife, when we got married, instilled that one
work’s done, it’s family time. And so I love that because I needed to learn that being a father is one of the best
things ever. And then when I transferred to EWA, I think they’ve also built in being very efficient with technology. So
you know, over that period of time, I keep learning as I keep going, but I love building relationships and whatever it
takes to create an opportunity. If a client’s kid needs to play golf, I’ll play golf with them. Client needs a ride to the
office, I’ll pick them up.
Speaker 3 – 03:04
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So I believe every little thing could be an opportunity and then could extend and build trust and all the other things.
Speaker 4 – 03:11
Yeah, that’s a great question. On a personal level, I would say people just think I’m very friendly. Right. Easy to talk
to. I’m very rarely in a bad mood. Clients would probably echo the same thing.
Speaker 3 – 03:26
Right.
Speaker 4 – 03:26
I’m very easygoing, I get along with most people. Very unconfrontational. I’m always doing my best to make sure
we’re doing the best work for the clients.
Speaker 5 – 03:35
Yeah, I’d say like to have fun, easygoing, approachable. Really enjoyed working with the Team that we have here
and like getting together outside of the office, playing golf with everybody and also like learning new things.
Whenever it comes to work, there’s always no shortage of new situations, new people that we’re meeting and new
Planning. So all of that I think sums it up.
Speaker 6 – 03:59
I would describe myself as someone who is calm, level headed. It’s particularly important in the role that I’m in. A
lot of market volatility, stress, dealing with people’s finances. It’s important to be unemotional, unbiased, third
party. So those are two qualities that I pride myself in being strong at. I’m definitely a people person. I like
understanding what people care about, what makes them tick, what stresses them out, what they’re working
towards. Because that helps me ultimately build a plan that supports their life by design and helps me do my job in
the best way possible.
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Speaker 7 – 04:36
You get to know me quite the opposite. I have a pretty dry sense of humor. I use sarcasm a lot. I’m very serious
with my work. Tax is a serious kind of field to be in. So people that don’t know me that well, I would say thank you,
I’m serious. But once you get to know me, I like to keep things light, have humor involved. Yeah, Be kind of like a
laid back person.
Speaker 8 – 05:02
I’m pretty task and goal oriented. If there is something that needs to get done, I’m pretty much laser focused on
getting that from beginning to end in a, you know, professional but timely manner.
Speaker 1 – 05:17
What is your role at EWA and what do people usually come to you for?
Speaker 9 – 05:21
My role at EWA, I’m the Director of Investment Operations. The advisors come to me for a variety of things. My
favorite thing to do is the onboarding. So when clients are getting onboarded, the advisors will send me all their
information and I will open up all their accounts. I will initiate the transfers, the consolidation of assets. I will get
them set up on all of our internal systems. I also do a lot of the servicing work, so updates, any type of money
movement, so incoming, outgoing, and then I do a lot of internal work for the Firm. So I’ll do a lot of the audits that
need to happen quarterly and I process the bill.
Speaker 10 – 06:06
I’m the Director of brand and Firm Operations. So the great part for me is I kind of get to be a little part of every
department. I check in with everybody, make sure everything’s running smoothly. If they need anything, they’re
typically coming to me when we’re starting a new project or there’s a new plan that has to be put in place. And I
help to come up with schedules and plans again just to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Speaker 7 – 06:32
So my title is Managing Director of tax. And my role really, you know, that kind of explains it. Anything tax related, I
oversee here at the Firm. So my day to day changes. It’s pretty seasonal. I would say January through April. During
the compliance season, Most of my time is spent getting tax returns filed. And then starting now through the end
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of the year, it’s more of opportunity Planning season. So people come to me. Anything tax related, Oversee return
filing, oversee tax projections. If there’s any transactions that are.
Speaker 11 – 07:12
Affecting taxes, I’m the guy to come to.
Speaker 1 – 07:15
What are common tax mistakes that you see people make with RSUs, restricted stock units, or their bonuses?
Speaker 7 – 07:22
So I would say the number one word here is withholding. Just to be clear, this isn’t a mistake that a taxpayer or a
client makes. It’s more a mistake that occurs because of how the tax code’s written. I would say that when clients
have compensation that is outside of their normal base pay, the withholding rates can change substantially. It’s
usually a flat rate of 22%. And what happens here is when people receive this additional bucket of pay, they aren’t
aware that these withholding rates change. So they get a bonus. Whether it’s quarterly, annual, they get stock
awards, they aren’t aware, they don’t look at pay stubs and realize, hey, only 22% is taken out for taxes. And then
the end of the year comes, they’re in a 35, 37% tax bracket.
Speaker 7 – 08:19
Comes time to file their return, and all Of a sudden, they owe a big chunk of money because. So I would say that’s
the biggest thing to be aware of is withholding on. On that particular type of comp. Again, not. Not a mistake per
se that the client makes, but it’s just a kind of a result of how the tax code’s written. Something to be aware of. But
I would say biggest thing is when you receive this type of comp, always reach out to us. We’ll be able to project
your earnings and prevent any big surprises.
Speaker 5 – 08:51
Yeah. So I’m a senior Wealth Strategist here, so I’m one of our firm’s lead advisors. So whenever we’re meeting new
families or working with our existing clients, we’re helping coordinate the various financial decisions that are in
their life. So can reach a lot of different areas, but broadly, we’re at the center of their financial life, helping make
those big decisions with confidence.
Speaker 1 – 09:14
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What is something clients often overlook that you focus on in your financial Planning process?
Speaker 5 – 09:19
I’d say coordinating between the different pillars in your plan, whether it’s the portfolio, taxes, insurance. Many
people just have one person for each of those items. But whenever that happens, it’s easy for things to fall through
the cracks. So I think coordinating those moving pieces and having a cohesive plan is where we fit in. In addition, I
think the timing, whether it’s a big life decision with retirement, buying a second home, sending your kids to
college, really being proactive around those things rather than just letting. Letting them happen by default. So
having intention around the decisions that we’re making and having a really good reason why we’re going whatever
direction we decide to go.
Speaker 12 – 10:01
So I’m a tax Strategist here at uwa. What people come to me for is mainly tax projections, tax prepping tax returns,
entity tax returns, trust tax returns. What’s really important when clients come to me is probably the projections the
most. So during tax season, we’re filing returns. Everyone knows that. But during the off season, we do projections.
And that’s probably the most important part that clients come to me for.
Speaker 1 – 10:25
What are some proactive tax strategies that clients should be thinking of year round?
Speaker 12 – 10:29
So for 2026 is probably the big thing is the one big beautiful bill, the salt cap that increases in 2026 from $10,000
to $40,400. So in previous years, your accountants, like, don’t even bother giving us your real estate taxes because
you already hit the cap of $10,000 with your withholdings. But for 2026, you’re going to be able to use all 40,400.
So we want to make sure you’re getting all that information into us because there could be a lot of missed
opportunities if you don’t get us that information. Another thing is a senior bonus. What that means is if you’re 65
or older, whether you’re single or married, filing joint, you get $6,000 for single and $12,000 for married, filing joint,
you get an additional deduction on top of your return. This does get phased out.
Speaker 12 – 11:16
If you’re single, 75,000 dol thousand dollars you get phased out and $150,000 you get phased out married filing
joint. So if you’re retired just collecting Social Security in your required minimum distributions, you get this
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additional deduction. And it’s, I think it’s super neat. And then for business owners that the super important thing
here is 100% bonuses back for 2026, unlike Section 179, where it’s capped at, say you make a million bucks and
you buy a million dollars worth of equipment that zeroes everything out. And then if you have anything in excess,
that gets carried forward next year. But if you buy a piece of equipment for $1.2 million and you have income of a
million dollars, you can use that extra $200,000 as a loss to carry forward to next year, which I think is super
important.
Speaker 2 – 12:01
Yeah. My role at EWA, I’m the Managing Director of our Wealth Strategy. So what that means is really go to person
internally and then externally for clients as far as financial Planning, you know, relationships, how to solve clients,
big problems. So within my role, you know, I kind of have two sides of the role, one client facing. And then internally
I assist with our Wealth Strategy Team with, you know, meeting with them weekly, a lot of times daily to help them
solve some of their problems, client problems, as well as I drive a lot of the new business initiatives here.
Speaker 2 – 12:42
So working with new prospective families that come in the door and making sure that they’re right fit for us, we’re a
right fit for them, and making sure that they’re onboarded and matched, I would say with the proper advisor and
Team members to work with them based on their needs.
Speaker 13 – 12:59
My role at EWA is I’m in charge of Operations and I’m also in charge of compliance. So anything with the SEC
making sure we’re buttoned up, our clients are protected and their data is protected, their finances are protected.
So that’s the compliance side. And then on the Operations side, you Know, I’m responsible for making sure that the
systems are running well, the Team has what they need, and then we’re always, you know, in terms of current
services, those are running well and then new services, making sure, you know, we’re expanding our repertoire,
what we’re able to offer, and making sure that the capabilities that EWA has keep expanding.
Speaker 1 – 13:32
How do you ensure that the Firm operates at a high level for the service of our clients?
Speaker 13 – 13:38
Yeah, so with my role in Operations, I’m kind of responsible for just making sure everyone has what they need to be
able to operate at a high level. I think the two things that really make EWA different is both our speed and our
intensity. So being able to accomplish things fast. I’m responsible for making sure if we get something that we
need done, whether that’s a partnership with something else or a service that we’re trying to roll out, you know,
making sure that happens quickly and making sure it happens well. So whole Firm adoption, everyone does their
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part, everyone knows what their role is and making sure nothing gets dropped or left behind.
Speaker 8 – 14:11
So my role at EWA generally, because I’m probably two decades older than everybody here is if they run into case
specific situations, whether it’s from an estate Planning standpoint, a risk management standpoint, or as simple as
how to communicate something to a family, that’s really where my role is at EWA right now. And so I, I try to lend,
you know, three decades of experience to any client specific matter.
Speaker 1 – 14:41
What is something clients do not know that you do, but they would appreciate if they knew that you did it?
Speaker 3 – 14:46
Yeah, I’ve always been one not to brag, especially on the golf course of my father instilled at me a young age still at
the TV do its job or like the paper, write about you if you’re playing well. So I don’t like to brag, but if they don’t see
what I’m doing, I think the attention to detail before the meeting, doing my due diligence of knowing the person,
making sure if we go to lunch or if they’re coming into the office, making sure everything runs smoothly, follow ups
afterwards. I love following up quickly and then also throughout the year having touches as I go. So following up,
putting on my calendar month out, two months, hey, reach out to this person, making sure that we’re always
proactive.
Speaker 9 – 15:31
What clients don’t see us necessarily doing, but they would care about is we’re constantly monitoring the accounts,
any money coming in, making sure that gets traded any money going out, making sure that it happens in a timely
fashion and that there’s assets available, especially with the monthly outgoing distributions, making sure that’s
happening in an orderly fashion. And then trading obviously and working with our service teams, which are Fidelity
and Schwab are two custodians.
Speaker 10 – 16:06
A lot of what I do is invisible almost by design. There’s a lot of coordination and back and forth work that goes
between all the different departments. And so the different departments are typically bringing me information. I
take that information and then deploy whatever plan that we have. So the coordination and the timing and the
scheduling, there’s a lot that goes into it that we just try to keep on track all the time.
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Speaker 11 – 16:36
I think probably the biggest thing for this year because obviously tax is relatively new to uwa. This summer we’re
going to really be pushing proactive tax Planning. So I’ve been going through making lists of people to reach out to,
getting pay stubs. We’re going to annualize that and maybe talk about some other potential tax saving scenarios
for them.
Speaker 1 – 16:55
What tax Planning strategies make the most impact for our clients at EWA?
Speaker 11 – 16:59
Yeah, so I’ve counted two that are pretty easy that really anybody can do. The first point that I want to say is make
sure you’re maintaining communication with your CPA or advisor for things like bonuses, for things like stock
options, things like that, because often that’s significantly under withheld. They usually withhold those at 22%. You
know, you might be in the 35% tax bracket and if you get $100,000 bonus, before you know it, that’s $13,000 of
extra tax you probably weren’t expecting to owe. So again, keeping open communication with your CPA, your
financial advisor, that’s huge for things like that because it can help prevent those kind of surprises come March,
April and then one that requires a little bit more Planning and it might not fit for everybody.
Speaker 11 – 17:49
But something to consider, and again, nothing too crazy here doesn’t require a ton of time on the client’s part would
be to open a DAF donor advised fund and contribute some gains in your portfolios from that. The great thing with
that is so you get a fair market value deduction as to whatever the stock you contribute to it is and you do not have
to pay capital gains tax on whatever your gain is. So the example I have is say you have $100,000. We can just say
like Apple stock or whatever mutual fund and 50,000 that’s gained. So you bought it at 50, it grew to 100. If you
contribute that to DAF, you actually get $100,000 charitable deduction and you don’t have to pay capital gains tax
on the $50,000 increase, which that can be anywhere up to really 23.6, 23.8% tax.
Speaker 11 – 18:44
So two little small things that really anybody can do, you know, and as you get more into the weeds, there’s more
out there. But those are, I think are two easy things to kind of consider.
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Speaker 6 – 18:55
I think probably my answer to that would be all the work behind the scenes. So whether it’s analyzing different
policy trends, market updates, stress testing, different scenarios, whether it’s for someone’s education, Planning,
retirement Planning, all the prep work that goes into every meeting, every phone call, every presentation, probably
something that clients don’t see every day, but definitely adds up. And it makes sure that all the advice that I’m
giving is tailored and thoughtful and accurate.
Speaker 1 – 19:24
How do you guide clients through uncertainty in markets?
Speaker 6 – 19:28
Yeah, I think there’s really two things that I’m thinking about when I’m working clients through uncertain markets.
The first one is reaffirming that we can only control what we can control. So we have really no control over what
the market’s doing. We know it’s going to go down at some point, we know it’s going to go up at some point. So it
is helping clients make sure that they’re not making reactive decisions that could potentially cause more harm
than good during these uncertain times. And then the second part is making sure that we’re always bringing the
plan back to our clients goals.
Speaker 6 – 20:01
So understanding why we started this plan in the first place, reaffirming what’s important, why we’re working
towards the goals that we’re working towards, because if those are still front of mind and we can see the long term
vision, then we can look past market volatility and uncertain times and know that there will be.
Speaker 1 – 20:20
A light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 14 – 20:22
So here at EWA, we have a big attention to detail, something we pride ourselves on. So one thing that’s happening
behind the scenes that I think everybody would appreciate knowing is just how much the Team is monitoring the
accounts, how much we’re looking into, what’s going on, it’s on a daily basis, we’re tracking the accounts, we’re
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looking at the portfolios, and we’re.
Speaker 1 – 20:47
Always monitoring how do the trades and portfolio decisions get executed behind the scenes.
Speaker 14 – 20:52
So we do leverage the power of software which makes our jobs and our lives work so much better in finance. But
whenever we’re making detailed portfolio changes, we load up our trading software and we can manage the
portfolio trees so we can make all of the changes internally inside of these models. And then once the models
have been updated, they’re all assigned to our client accounts so we can seamlessly block trade. Everybody gets
the same changes happening at the same time, same price execution. So really leveraging the power of the
technology makes the portfolio changes very easy to enable and execute.
Speaker 2 – 21:33
Yeah, that’s a good question. So I really just love to learn and so that could be like I’ll go down weird rabbit holes on
whether that’s like some history thing, some new technology maybe in, you know, in our domain, in a tax code or
something. I just like love to dive deep on stuff and learn. So I’ll find myself now with AI on a cloud or chatgpt
rabbit hole, just learning something random. Could be useful for a client or could be just, you know, something that
I find interesting.
Speaker 1 – 22:03
What do you think makes the people at EWA different than your typical advisory Firm?
Speaker 9 – 22:08
What makes EWA different in my opinion is our advisors genuinely care about the clients. And same with Nick and
I in the tax Team. We’re there for all life decisions. Whether it’s something small or something big like a house
purchase, the advisors aren’t afraid of having the hard conversations with the clients. Whether it’s something that
maybe isn’t in their best interests, that will align with their long term goals. And when clients are getting
onboarded, the advisors aren’t just strictly looking at investments, they’re looking at and taking a deep dive into the
whole picture. So your insurance, your estate Planning, your taxes, they’re looking at everything.
Speaker 10 – 22:54
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What I really love about EWA is that as we’re still continuing to grow and get bigger, we’re staying away from that
big corporation feeling. A lot of the work we do is very intentional and coordinated and when a client calls, they
might not know who is answering the phone, but we know who they are, we know their name, we know their
families, we know things about them. So we really feel like we can connect with our clients. It’s really important for
us to know who we’re working with and really be integral part of that.
Speaker 3 – 23:28
I have to give credit where credit’s due. I think Matt Blockey is probably one of the best CEOs I’ve ever been around.
I think he’s created systems in place that creates extreme efficiency. You know, on Saturdays we’ll get emails from
him after a walk or what his self reflecting and just, he’s always empowering us and showing us, you know, what to
do, what could we provide for our clients. So he’s really an empowerer, if anything. That being said, on the
operation side, you know, we have a 12 to 12 to 24 turnaround philosophy, which I, I love, but I kind of relate it to,
you know, the Apple iPhone.
Speaker 3 – 24:15
A lot of people have, you know, and before the Apple iPhone, you had your, your cell phone and then you had your
calendar and then you had another camera and then you had an MP3 player. So I kind of relayed that to a lot of the
people in the industry, the clients, and have their own CPA, they have their own estate Planning attorney, they have
their own Wealth person, they have their own insurance person. But the issue is none of them talk to each other or
I should say majority of them don’t talk to each other. So that leaves a gap and that gap creates inefficiencies. And
so basically Matt created the iPhone here, that everything’s under one umbrella. And we know from the CPAs that
they’re running tax projections. Right.
Speaker 3 – 24:58
And so we could look at, can we do Roth conversions, what do they need done, vice versa on the Wealth side and
then the estate side as well. So it creates an environment that we all know what’s going on and there is no gap. So
if there’s no gap, then we really have efficient product. That’s what I see different from here versus 99% of the other
firms.
Speaker 4 – 25:23
Yeah, I think that EWA does a great job of not doing a one size fits all approach. So just to give a little background
on that, a lot of places might be like, hey, every single person is doing this and this. Well, if some of that stuff,
education, retirement is important to you, then we’re not going to recommend that for your solution. So we do a
good job at really fitting the shoe to the person or the plan to the person instead of just trying to fit everybody into
the same shoebox.
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Speaker 1 – 25:50
How do you help clients make confident financial decisions?
Speaker 13 – 25:54
Education.
Speaker 4 – 25:55
We do a really good job of the entire first part of our process is we learn about you, we spend a lot of time getting
to know you. And then the second call is really like an educational portion of the call where we let you ask
questions, we give our recommendations, and then sometimes we schedule a third and fourth call where it’s purely
like, here’s what went over, the first call, second call and third call. What questions do you have before we Move
forward, we really want to make sure everything’s crystal clear for the client.
Speaker 11 – 26:25
So I, I joined last August, so I’ve been here for about nine months now. And it’s honestly been very impressive. The
advisors are really geniuses about what they do. Having tax in house now, I think makes everything more efficient
from a tax perspective. From a financial perspective, we’re constantly collaborating, constant talking, doing what’s
best for the clients.
Speaker 12 – 26:47
Oh, this is easy. It’s definitely the communication. We had a tax survey that we sent out to our clients after tax
season, and they said that our communication with the advisors was. It was seamless. At any Firm you go to when
there’s separation between the advisors and the accountants, you’re waiting weeks, not even months, for the
advisors to get back to the accountants with the information that they need. With EWA, we can get that
information just like that, lickety split. And I think that’s the most important part is that seamless transition from
the advisor to the accountants. So we’re able to turn around your tax returns, or if the advisor, not the advisor, if the
client reaches out to the advisor and wants some tax stuff, they can reach out to us.
Speaker 5 – 27:28
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And we can get that done.
Speaker 14 – 27:29
I think what kind of separates us is just how well everybody gets along. Oftentimes in finance, you see not a lot of
collaboration. People tend to be on their own islands. If I have a client, I just work on my client. We don’t
necessarily interact amongst each other. That’s very different on our Team from the advisors interacting with each
other to the internal Team. Everybody’s pretty close on a personal level, but as it relates to the client situation,
everybody’s constantly bouncing ideas off of one another and collaborating. So I think that makes an interesting
internal structure.
Speaker 13 – 28:07
The factor that makes the people at EWA different is just the depth at which our advisors and even the back office
Team, the CPAs, at which they’re able to operate, you know, far beyond asset management or talking about any
kind of, you know, stocks. We’re able to do family governance, deep financial Planning, estate Planning, and the
services that we’re able to provide is what really makes EWA special. And the advisors behind that and the Team
behind that is what makes it possible.
Speaker 8 – 28:34
There are no egos at EWA, and I think that’s intentionally how Matt has chosen to build this Firm. There is
complete ownership from the CEO all the way down, and quite frankly, there is ownership of the Firm with
everybody here. So everybody’s got a hand in the pile, making sure they do whatever they can to make the client
experience as positive as possible.