Filling a financial need in West Central Wisconsin

Rich Palzewic

Staff

October 28, 2024

WEST CENTRAL WISCONSIN – Having a sound retirement is something Tom Greylak said he aims to help people with in his role as a financial advisor with Schamberger, Greylak & Utterback Wealth Management LLC with offices in La Crosse and Winona, Minnesota.

To further meet that demand, Greylak said he felt there was a need to open a new office in Trempealeau.

“It made sense,” he said. “I live between Trempealeau and Arcadia, and my wife and I have four little kids, so it was hectic trying to drive back and forth to La Crosse every day to that office (a daily commute of 50 minutes) – that was getting old.”

Partly due to his growing family and his desire to help those in the Trempealeau area, Greylak said he began looking for a potential new location “quite some time ago.”

“I just happened to bump into a buddy of mine that owns a building in Trempealeau, and I asked him, ‘Hey, do you have any office spots available?’” he said. “He happened to, but I had to do a little work on it. I’ve been working on getting things set up for the last couple of months.”

Greylak said the new office is located at 11558 Freemont St.

It joins Schamberger, Greylak & Utterback Wealth Management’s locations at 3143 State Road, Suite 101 (La Crosse) and 902 E. 2nd St., Suite 102 (Winona).

How it’s set up

Greylak said he, Larry Schamberger and David Utterback created an RIA (registered investment advisor) in 2022, which was the beginning of the firm.

“Each one of us owns our practice, and we co-op together to share office space, staff, operations, etc.,” he said. “Larry and I share a DBA (doing business as) for Schamberger-Greylak Wealth Management, and we each have our own DBA. I’m focusing more on my personal DBA Greylak Wealth Management for the new office and advertising, etc.”

From teaching to financial services

Greylak said what inspired him to get into financial planning “is an interesting story.”

Interestingly enough, he said, his first career path was as a history/social studies teacher.

“I graduated right when Act 10 (2011) went through in Wisconsin, so there was a big hiring freeze at the time,” he said. “I’d go out and apply for these jobs, and there would be like 120 applicants – it was a rather rough environment.”

Around that same time, Greylak said his father gave him and each of his siblings some money to start a Roth IRA (individual retirement account) and said, “go see my financial planner.”

“I went to his financial planner – his name was Larry Schamberger,” he said. “I ended up chatting with Larry for two or three hours, and he said, ‘Geez, you have a lot of interest. Have you ever thought about being an advisor?’”

Greylak said he didn’t think financial planning was an option “because I was doing the teaching thing.”

“Larry said if I was ever interested in pursuing (financial planning) to let him know,” he said.

Greylak said that conversation planted the seed and started ”the balling moving.”

“I started to do my own self-study and studying for my Series 7 exam,” he said. “Then Larry hired me as a research assistant, and I eventually passed my exams and was able to start my own small practice within his office.”

Double-majoring in history and criminal justice, Greylak said he had no financial planning background before that.

“When I started to go the financial advisor route, I went through the College for Financial Planning (CFP) online,” he said. “A lot of younger advisors tend to have a finance or accounting background, but we also see a lot of advisors in the business who were teachers or salespeople. I would say that is kind of your older generation – they were formally trained in college in finance, but they migrated over to the industry later in life.”

‘Time is your friend’

As a financial advisor, Greylak said he encourages folks to start planning for retirement at an early age.

“It’s probably not something you immediately want to think about after you first start your career – whenever that may be – but it really is true: ‘Time is your friend,’” he said. “I think that’s one area that is kind of left out in a lot of schooling. There isn’t a lot of personal finance or investment education out there.”

Greylak said the sooner someone “gets their ducks in a row” and starts saving, the better off they’re going to be.

“It’s so much more difficult to catch up later in life,” he said.

As an example, Greylak said if someone starts putting $100 per month into an investment account starting at age 20 – “you’d be astounded by how much is in that account by age 60.”

“I’ve even had these conversations with my eight-year-old son,” he said. “Here’s what a stock price is, and here’s what compounding interest is. If you put in a small amount every month and you’ve got 50 years to invest it, here’s what that number looks like – that’s investing 101. Time in the market is so much more important than timing the market because you can never really time it right. You’re in it for the long haul.”

History says it will grow

Greylak said he feels his background in education gives him a leg up when dealing with clients.

“I think that’s kind of where my history background comes into play because you have to have a long-term outlook on investments,” he said. “I don’t care if you’re 70 years old, you can still have a long-term outlook because you’re looking at maybe 20-30 years of life yet, right? Framing that in a perspective of the day-to-day doesn’t matter so much – it’s being consistent and staying in the market that’s really going to get you through the rough times.”

Greylak said he uses a lot of historical facts and information with his clients to help ease their minds.

“In 2008 (during the Great Economic Recession) in our country, the S&P was down 55-60% at one point during the year,” he said. “In 2009, it was up 40%, and the year after that, it was pretty much back to where it was (before the recession).”

Greylak said the Great Depression is a good example, too.

“The Great Depression was roughly 10 years long, but right in the middle of it, there were two consecutive years where the market was up 30% one year and 40% the next year,” he said. “Bringing out those historical examples and saying, ‘here’s the chart, take any 10-year clip you want, and you’re going to see positive changes, but it’s a matter of having the guts to stay in that market even when things are rough because, over time, time is your friend.’”

Greylak said the COVID-19 pandemic was also scary for a lot of folks – not only personally but also financially.

“We were dealing with something we hadn’t really seen before, and there was no real light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “The economy was kind of shutting down, and you didn’t know what was going to happen. But if you got out of the market in March 2020 when the market was down 28-30%, by April, it was already starting to come back. If you missed out on that rebound, you were never making that up.”

Greylak said since the pandemic, the last two years have been “solid.”

“With the Feds cutting interest rates and inflation coming down a little bit, I think 2025 is setting up nicely as well,” he said. “It’s so cliche and boring to say, but you need to stay the course. (Because again), time is your friend.”

Greylak said it gives him a lot of satisfaction when a young individual comes to him for financial planning.

“When I was graduating high school and even college, very few of my peers did anything with investing,” he said. “(Now), with the advent of technology and social media, I think there’s a little more awareness out there. It is encouraging to see some of these younger people say, ‘Hey, what about setting up a Roth? What are the rules? How much can we put in? What am I going to have in 30 years?’ It’s really exciting to see that.”

Greylak said another aspect of financial planning he enjoys is when an older person is getting ready to retire and he works through a retirement plan with them.

“Looking at all of those factors and then getting them to that retirement day when they actually retire, it’s super exciting,” he said. “You help them get to this big life achievement and help them get them across that finish line.”