About Brian
& Iron Mountain Financial Planning
Experience gained working with a wide range of clients has taught me a lot over the years. It has shown me that I provide the most value to those preparing for, transitioning to, and living their best version of retirement. My retirement planning approach provides me with a deep understanding of what is most important to clients and allows me to be a trusted fiduciary partner throughout retirement.
Brian’s Professional Story
After graduating from South Dakota Mines with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, I worked with Navistar on the now world famous “smiling bumper” found on Medium Duty trucks. Four years in Fort Wayne, Indiana working with unionized engineers was enlightening and cemented the perspective that life really is better in the West. A good friend connected me with a mining company in Gillette, Wyoming, where I worked as a Maintenance Planner and Maintenance Supervisor for several years. Upon leaving the mines, a software consulting company reached out with an offer to travel North America visiting Mining and Transit companies training, implementing, and customizing the software that I had become an expert in.
It was during this period that I found myself helping my mother sort out her Social Security Retirement Benefit options after my father’s passing. The options presented by the staff at the Social Security Administration didn’t quite line up with what their website stated and a follow-up call with a different staff member yielded an additional option not originally presented. As most dramatic life events do, the passing of my father led me to re-evaluate where I was headed in life and the path I was pursuing. One year later I left my consulting position and began the journey to become a financial planner. Helping my mother with Social Security ignited a desire to help others in a similar way.
The only available first step that I was aware of was to become a commissioned financial adviser and, after interviewing with several firms, I sought out a position with a small independent, local firm. I now recognize that a large part of the friction and discontent of my time there was that I was paid for selling products and what I wanted to do was to provide financial planning advice.
After two years of struggle, I moved to a large, nationally known firm that would allow me to provide financial planning advice for a fee, in addition to selling products for a commission. This larger firm provided me the opportunity to discover a feasible path to start my own fee-only Registered Investment Advisor firm.
This was the holy grail for me. I could provide comprehensive financial planning advice for a transparent fee in an environment where I would be a fiduciary 100% of the time – legally required to work in the clients best interest at all times. This is what I was truly looking for when I started out in the industry.
After many sleepless nights and months of preparation, I launched Iron Mountain Financial Planning, LLC in 2017 with the faith and conviction that it was the right next step for my existing and future clients as well as my family. Both the firm and I have experienced unexpected growth since that transition. I attribute it entirely to the amazing clients who let me into their lives into a very personal way and the sustaining conviction that doing what is best for the client is simply the right thing to do.
In your service – Brian
“We are all called to serve in our own way. My gifts and talents are best used helping clients with the often tedious and emotional work needed to provide confidence in retirement planning.
Having done this work, clients are free to focus on what is truly important in their lives – which really doesn’t have anything to do with money.”
Why Work With Me?
What an important question. The internet provides access to endless financial and investment information and opposing views on any subject are readily available. I believe that more information is not helpful, that is not really what you are looking for.
What is helpful is understanding how and when to apply proven strategies to make your financial resources most useful in the pursuit of what is most important to you. For my clients, this coalesces in my retirement planning process and results in the freedom to pursue what is most important to them.
Professional Designations & Affiliations
Brian Bickett is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional – Click for Verification
CFP® professionals are held to strict ethical standards to ensure financial planning recommendations are in your best interest. What’s more, a CFP® professional must acquire several years of experience related to delivering financial planning services to clients and pass the comprehensive CFP® Certification Exam before they can use the CFP® designation.
Brian Bickett is a NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor
The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) is a leading professional association of Fee-Only financial advisors—highly trained professionals who are committed to working in the best interests of those they serve.
Brian Bickett is a CERTIFIED KINGDOM ADVISOR® (CKA®) – Click to Verify and Learn More
The CKA® is a designation granted by Kingdom Advisors to individuals who have demonstrated themselves to be able to apply biblical wisdom in counsel, technically competent ethical, accountable, and a biblical steward.
Brian’s Personal Story
Brian met his wife Nicole when the two of them happened to make their way back to Gillette, Wyoming at the same time. They relocated to Rapid City, South Dakota in part to make Brian’s weekly travels as a Software Consultant simpler. It didn’t take long to realize that the Black Hills is where they wanted to stay and they made it a part of their personal mission to do so.
Ellie and Jackson joined the family on Flag Day, four years apart, and Dottie Dog was added just after Christmas, 2017. Outside of Iron Mountain Financial Planning, LLC, you will find Brian spending time with his family, enjoying a ride on his motorcycle, camping, hunting or serving at his church.
What We Can Help You With
Financial Planning and Priority Setting
Social Security Timing Strategy
Efficient Tax and Estate Planning
Employer Benefit and Retirement Plan Reviews
Retirement and Life Planning
Insurance Optimization Reviews
Investment and Risk Management
Real Estate and Budget Support
Iron Mountain Financial Planning & Charles Schwab
Where do you invest my money?
We partner with Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., a publicly traded company with more than 50 years of putting clients first. All of our clients accounts are held with Charles Schwab. So that means they hold your money and investments, produce your account statements, and tax forms every year. They also provide us access to some of the most effective investment analysts, a dedicated cyber security and technology support team, and all the important oversight and compliance we need in an incredibly regulated industry. All while maintaining the personal, one client at a time approach, best offered through an independent firm.