Financial Advisor | Fiduciary | Fee-Only
Redefine Wealth with a Family Office Built Around You.
We are a financial advisor in Iowa with offices in Urbandale and Clear Lake, and we coordinate investment, tax, estate, insurance, and business decisions into one plan, so you are no longer the only person who sees your whole financial picture.
What is a Virtual Family Office?
The Greatest Financial Mistakes Rarely Happen Because an Advisor Is Incompetent
They happen because good advisors work independently instead of collaboratively.
Our goal is to help coordinate investment planning, tax planning, estate planning, insurance planning, and business planning so that every important decision supports the others. Because when life becomes complex, you shouldn't have to manage the experts. The experts should work together for you.
Your CPA, your attorney, and your insurance professional stay exactly where they are. We take the coordinating seat and keep them in the same conversation, which is
what a virtual family office does and how every relationship here is built.
Who We Serve, and What We're Registered to Do
- Scott Etzel holds the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) designation, Series 7 and Series 66 registrations, and state insurance licenses.
- Investment advisory services are offered through Independent Wealth Network, Inc., an SEC Registered Investment Advisor, and the fiduciary duty that relationship carries applies to the advice you receive.
- Our clients typically hold $1M to $10M+ in investable assets, most often closely held business owners, corporate executives with equity and deferred compensation, physicians, and multi-generational families.
- Two Iowa offices, Urbandale in the Des Moines metro and Clear Lake in North Iowa, with fully virtual relationships available for clients anywhere in the country.
- Our ADV Part 2 is published in full, and Scott's registration history is open to anyone through FINRA BrokerCheck.
Investment Advisor Representative of and investment advisory services offered through Independent Wealth Network, Inc., a SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Etzel Financial Resources is not affiliated with Independent Wealth Network, Inc. Etzel Financial Resources does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance.
Built for Leaders, Visionaries & Complex Financial Lives
The people we work with are Iowa business owners, executives, physicians, and families whose finances outgrew advice that arrives one piece at a time.
Business Owners
You built something extraordinary. Now what?
Whether you're preparing for a liquidity event, managing succession, or trying to reduce tax drag, your balance sheet and your company are the same decision. Our exit and succession planning for business owners is built to take value out of the company without giving up control of it. We coordinate every move with your CPA and attorney, so the plan holds up for the business and the family at the same time.
Executives
You've earned every dollar. Let's make every dollar work smarter.
Stock options, restricted stock, deferred compensation, pensions, and executive benefits each carry their own timing and tax consequences. We fold those decisions into comprehensive financial planning that treats your compensation package and your long-term wealth as one schedule. A vesting date, a concentrated stock position, or a career change then gets handled on your terms instead of arriving as a tax surprise.
Medical Professionals
You've spent decades helping others. Let us help protect what you've built.
High income, a heavy tax burden, and practice or student debt can absorb years of earning power. We work with physicians and healthcare professionals to convert income into durable wealth, put asset protection in place, and
design portfolios around the tax bracket you actually live in.
Successful Families & Individuals
Your wealth should reflect your values and carry them forward.
Whether you inherited wealth or built it, a growing portfolio, a family legacy, and philanthropic goals ask more of a plan than a set-it-and-forget-it allocation. We build generational strategies that account for family structure, legal documents, and long-term giving, and we revisit them as the family changes.
Why etzel financial Resources?
Iowa Wealth Management Organized Around Coordination
Our work is built for business owners, executives, and families with significant wealth who need more than investment advice. As a virtual family office, we hold the center of your financial life and make sure each decision is made with the others in view.
In practice, that means one engagement covering:
- Investment management built around your tax situation, not just a risk score
- Retirement income planning and Social Security timing
- Tax planning coordinated directly with your CPA
- Estate, wealth transfer, and charitable strategy reviewed alongside your attorney
- Insurance and asset protection analysis, including business and executive coverage
When you work with us, you don't just get a planner. You get a process, a partnership, and a plan built around everything that matters to you.
The Wealth Management Equation: IC + AP + RM
The Formula Behind Every Wealth Strategy
Allocate capital deliberately, manage risk, and minimize tax drag.
Investment Consulting
Wealth enhancement, wealth transfer, wealth protection, and charitable giving.
Advanced Planning
One hub connecting you, your CPA, your attorney, and your insurance professional.
Relationship Management
Each part gets its full treatment inside the virtual family office model, including what we review, how often, and who we talk to on your behalf.
Get Started Today
Let's Start with a Real Conversation
Our process begins with understanding you, not selling you, and you can see how the engagement works and what it costs before you book anything.
Email Scott with a planning question or a document you'd like a second read on, or take the 30-minute exploratory call to walk through your current plan, your goals, and whether this approach fits.
Two Iowa Offices, One Coordinated Team
We meet clients in person at two offices and work virtually with families and business owners well beyond them.
- Urbandale, 2350 NW 128th Street, Urbandale, IA 50323, serving the Des Moines metro, including West Des Moines, Ankeny, and Waukee.
- Clear Lake, 29 Lido Road, Clear Lake, IA 50428, serving Mason City, Ventura, and the North Iowa lakes area.
- Statewide across Iowa and into the surrounding Midwest, with fully virtual relationships for clients anywhere in the United States.