Advisor Steven Wightman is building dreams, and doing it his way.
Soaring above the North Woods of Maine in a
homemade, single-engine airplane, a person might think that balancing
an investment portfolio would be the farthest thing from the pilot's
mind. But Steven D. Wightman, a CFP practitioner and an
instrument-rated pilot, could be mulling over a client's investment
options at the same time that he looks for a place to land.
In reality, Wightman cannot fly his homemade plane
as yet, because he is still in the process of building it, but he flies
other single-engine planes and one of his lifelong dreams is to fly one
that he made with his own hands. Achieving dreams is very important for
Whitman-and for his clients.
Wightman is the founder of Wightman Financial Network LLC, in
Lexington, Mass. He only accepts clients who are willing to let him
make the investment decisions and who agree with his philosophy of
life, which centers on achievements more than monetary goals. One such
dream for Wightman was becoming a pilot, and after
hours of training and flight tests he achieved that goal. Now he can
fly and land seaplanes, as well as conventional single-engine planes.
But the project that is consuming much of his spare
time now is building what he hopes will be one of the fastest
single-engine seaplanes in the world, a project that probably will take
3,000 to 4,000 hours to complete. Wightman is quick to point out the
difference between a seaplane and a floatplane. "A seaplane is
amphibious and made to land on its hull in the water. The hull is so
strong you could land it without the gear down on land and it would
only scratch the hull. It has the engine on top, so you cannot hurt it.
Float planes are just that-they have floats to land on water and are
much heavier, so they are much slower," Wightman says.
Once completed, he would like to use the seaplane to
volunteer for environmental missions in remote areas, or to fly
children and families from remote areas to city hospitals for needed
medical treatment. Financial planning, and building airplanes on the
side, is a third or fourth career for Wightman, who started developing
his sense of values early in life.
Growing up relatively poor, he joined the Army
during the Vietnam War and became an airplane mechanic almost by
accident, learning to fly on his own time during his military stint. "I
also had a dream that when I got out of the Army I would get an acre of
land and go to college," he says.
True to his promise to himself, he bought an acre of
land in New Hampshire for $250 and began saving for college, which he
paid for by working and taking advantage of veterans' benefits. It took
him ten years to obtain a liberal arts degree because "the more I
learned, the more I realized I wanted to learn," Wightman says. "I
bought my first stock when I was 22, just to learn what it was like."
Now he lives off of the income from his portfolio investments and he
says his conservative investment strategy "outperforms the big
companies" all the time.
The acre of land in New Hampshire, where he built a
small cabin, grew to be 30 acres, and the dream to build a seaplane and
fly it for environmental and humanitarian missions grew. A couple of
years ago he built a simple hanger on the property and began
constructing his plane, the Seawind. He says he does not have
misgivings about flying in a homemade plane. On the contrary, he will
trust it because he will know it was built correctly. The plane is
being built out of carbon and fiberglass, which makes it lighter and
faster and able to take on more fuel.
"I will know this plane is built better than any
other, and if I hear any noise or rattle, I will know what it is," he
says. "At this point, I have years of experience flying and maintaining
airplanes. My plane will have a GPS system so that I will always know
where I am, and the map will be so accurate I will be able to land even
if I can't see out the window."
Once it is built, grueling test flights will be
performed to try to make the airplane fail or a system to malfunction.
"This will be a 21st Century airplane that will run circles around any
other plane," Wightman brags, "and there is water everywhere, so I can
land anywhere."
He would like to enter air races just to see how he
and the Seawind perform. My dream is an around-the-world trip to break
the world's record for speed and altitude. Just for the fun of it, I
would like to go from California to Hawaii-no one has ever done that in
a single-engine plane. Financial planning and flying airplanes have to
be two of the most regulated activities in the world. People tell me I
am crazy to be involved in both."
That brings the financial planner back to the
subject of his dreams, which play a prominent role in his work as well
as his recreational pursuits. In addition to being a certified
financial planner, Wightman is a certified college planner specialist,
but he describes himself as a "life advisor specializing in money."
"But money is not the goal. You have to live your
life according to your dreams, no matter how ridiculous they may sound
to others. Without dreams, you cannot be passionate about life. Dreams
are first, and money is second. I always tell people their best
investment is the person in the mirror," Wightman says.
With his soft-spoken and low-key demeanor, Wightman
may seem like an unusual candidate to be talking about passion, but it
infuses everything he does, which is why financial planners such as Eve
Kaplan, of Kaplan Financial Advisors LLC, in Berkeley Heights, N.J.,
are drawn to him.
"When you first meet Steve, you do not get the
impression that he is doing all of these amazing things on the side. He
does not strike you as being aggressive, but it just shows you a person
can surprise you," says Kaplan, who is doing financial planning work
with Wightman. "I met Steve at a NAPFA conference. We had not talked
very long before he was already soaring away on what we could do
together. He is targeting a high-net-worth client base, and I look to
him as a model for where I want to go in the business."
Kaplan noted that Wightman has listened to her
concerns and helped her get her business off the ground. "He is
teaching me to be disciplined with clients," she adds. "But he wants to
spend more time on his plane, which is why we are working together."
Although he is willing to assist other financial
planners, Wightman does not consider himself a typical advisor. He will
work only with people who are willing to trust his judgment and turn
the decisions over to him. "People have to be willing to trust others.
Some people feel more comfortable with a big firm, but they shouldn't.
People who come to me are usually people who are older and more
confident in their decisions," Wightman says.
Wightman charges by the hour to create a financial
plan and then he charges 1% of net worth to do taxes, debt management,
risk planning, estate planning and comprehensive financial planning.
"I do not measure myself by the amount of assets
under management. That is ludicrous. Someone can have millions of
dollars under management, but that does not mean he or she is ethical,
or has high standards, or has received good peer review, or is
continuing his or her education," he says.
Less than 1% of adults have taken steps to create a
professionally written financial plan, which was one of the most
important moves Wightman says he has ever made. Because of it, many
people suffer from what he calls "money mania," which is "the inability
to have a functional relationship with money so that it supports one's
values and (gives you) the freedom to do, and simply be true to
oneself."
Wightman remained in the Army Reserves after his
active duty ended, and during the first Persian Gulf War his unit
received notice that they were being called to active duty and that he
had three days to try to put his financial life in order. Although he
never was deployed overseas, the memory has carried over. He and
other members of the Massachusetts Financial Planning Association now
work with active duty reservists serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to
minimize the financial consequences to themselves and their families.
He also is active in the movement to restore the
Maine North Woods and to create a Maine Woods national park. He works
with the organization Restore, which is working to preserve the North
Woods from loggers and developers, by helping to educate others on ways
to make financial donations to the project and ways to establish
charitable gifts. He and his wife of 14 years, Margaret, also have
contributed to the organization. In the meantime, he vows to spend more
time helping others.
"Today in America, the bottom 5% of our income
spectrum descend deeper and deeper into poverty with each sunset.
(Former) President Jimmy Carter says we need to be more compassionate,
and do more individually and as a society, for the less fortunate. I
plan to spend more time doing this," Wightman says. "Lastly, I think we
should make dreams bigger than our lives, and then try to live them. I
don't know if I'll ever get the Seawind off the ground, but I'm sure
going to have fun trying."