Tyler Cleveland • Delray Beach, FL
Impact Wealth Group • IWG Investment Advisors LLC
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Proactive Advisor Magazine: Tyler, talk about your experience and path to becoming a financial advisor.

I joined my father’s firm, Impact Wealth Group, in 2022, after working for almost 20 years in a variety of positions in the investment industry. My interest in the financial markets started at an early age. My father, Clyde, had a big influence on me through his career encompassing different financial-industry roles.

I majored in marketing at the University of Iowa, studying different areas of business management, including several finance courses. My brother had started an investment trading company a few years earlier and had several traders working with him. I was very interested in what he was doing. The late 1990s and early 2000s were exciting and evolutionary times for the markets. By my senior year, I was working part-time as a trader, going to my classes, and playing highly competitive college tennis. It was a challenging schedule, but I loved every minute of it. When I left college, I joined my brother’s trading firm full-time. I felt that it was a great fit, a combination of employing analytical skills along with a lot of the competitive intensity that you get from sports.

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After about four years of working with my brother and then another proprietary trading firm in Los Angeles, I decided to get back into competitive tennis and joined the ATP Tour. While I had some success, with wins over players ranked in the top 100, I concluded I might never get established in the upper tier myself. I went back to the financial field and worked as head of trading operations for one firm for five years. I left to become a managing partner for a hedge fund, where we specialized in asset management for high-net-worth individuals.

Across all of this experience in the financial industry, I have developed a deep knowledge of investment strategy and implementation, risk management, and—importantly—how to effectively address the objectives of clients and other stakeholders. I think that background is invaluable in working with our clients at Impact Wealth Group. I have worked hard at making a successful transition from serving clients in an investment capacity to now addressing the full scope of their financial-planning needs. I appreciate the mentorship of my father and others in our firm—and I am also building my knowledge base through a wide variety of other resources.

Describe your broad approach to the financial-planning process.

​We take a team-oriented approach to working with clients. My father and I usually attend most client meetings together and collaborate on their specific planning needs. We also will consult, as needed, with one of our other highly experienced advisors if we feel it is a particularly complicated client case involving complex tax or estate planning.

We take a comprehensive approach to planning as it relates to our core competencies of repositioning and allocating assets, providing strategic investment guidance, assessing risk and liability strategies, and developing a specific road map for retirement income. We place great emphasis on client education and helping our clients improve their overall financial literacy. We are also dedicated to helping clients maximize their after-tax income in retirement.

The planning process starts at the first meeting, where we begin both a qualitative and data-driven discovery session. First, we really want to find out how the client feels about their current financial situation, what is important to them on a personal basis, and how they view their future goals and aspirations. This can be a far-ranging conversation, and we want to learn as much as possible about their family situation, career, and history with investments or other aspects of financial planning. We also want to understand their attitudes about investment risk, which usually involves a good deal of probing, as well as going through a suitability questionnaire. The data collection involves building a comprehensive view of their current financial condition and reviewing all of their existing accounts, retirement plans, and personal or family balance sheet.

After we have completed the first phase, we begin the plan development, which starts with identifying goals and priorities. We then analyze asset management and growth strategies, retirement funding and distribution strategies, risk and liability management, and tax and legacy planning. The software we use in the planning process helps provide sophisticated cash-flow analysis, with the goals of maximizing net worth and efficiently employing a client’s assets to produce retirement income. Our primary goal is to help our clients identify misdirected assets and reallocate those assets in a plan that seeks growth and increases after-tax retirement income. Our firm, under my father’s direction, also uses a process called the “Zero Tax Roadmap”—which features specialized tools and customized use of investment vehicles to provide as much tax-free income in retirement as possible.

“We have consistently demonstrated the ability to build income and preserve assets. …”

What is your overall philosophy on client investment planning?

I believe my two decades of experience in proprietary trading, risk management, and investment management can deliver great value to our clients. I have an extensive understanding of the structure of the markets, multiple asset classes, and strategic analysis. I also have demonstrated success in evaluating and working with third-party investment providers and implementing sophisticated investment strategies.

First and foremost, I believe in the guiding principles of sound diversification, which may include using both active and passive strategies, building an investment plan that meets the unique needs of each client, and achieving capital growth through the significant use of strategies that seek to avoid steep drawdowns. The power of compounding will have a greater impact over the long term if a client’s strategic and tactical allocations are designed to mitigate the losses seen in unfavorable market conditions. The overall goal is to seek managed growth—taking advantage of market opportunities when they are present and playing defense when it is appropriate. We definitely do not want to expose clients to the kind of catastrophic losses that can destroy a retirement plan.

We have many tools and strategies that may be appropriate for any given client—across a wide variety of asset classes, including alternatives, fixed- and guaranteed-income products, and insurance solutions. Impact Wealth Group utilizes asset management services for our clients through an affiliated company, IWG Investment Advisors LLC (IWGIA)—a licensed registered investment advisor. IWGIA has a relationship with a highly experienced third-party investment management firm that is a leading provider of risk-managed investment services and investment strategies. This firm strives to provide investors with competitive returns while working to reduce risk through the use of diversified investment products and cutting-edge technology. They focus on preserving and growing capital through a robust active management approach combined with investment risk management. We are very pleased with this relationship and the benefits that it can deliver for our clients.

How would you summarize the advantages of working with your firm?

We have many years of experience and a proven track record of meeting the customized needs of clients from all walks of life. We have consistently demonstrated the ability to build income and preserve assets via our planning approach. We think clients will see us as effective educators and trusted advisors—placing the client’s interests at the forefront. My father has always believed the success we achieve as a firm will be solely based on the success of the work we do with our clients and their level of satisfaction. I share that belief and look forward to continuing and enhancing that mission.