financial planning

Comprehensive Financial Planning for Iowa Business Owners, Executives, and Families

Build a Strategy You Can Trust — One That Lives with You.


Comprehensive financial planning in Iowa, from offices in Urbandale in the Des Moines metro and Clear Lake in North Iowa, for people whose finances have outgrown advice that arrives one decision at a time. We build a single plan across retirement income, taxes, investments, insurance, and legacy, and we coordinate it directly with the CPA and attorney you already have.

What Comprehensive Financial Planning Means Here

Comprehensive financial planning means every part of your financial life is examined in the same plan, at the same time: income and cash flow, taxes and liabilities, insurance, investment positioning, business interests, and what you intend to leave behind. A plan built around one account or one decision can only be right about that account or that decision.


The difference shows up in the trade-offs. Converting to a Roth changes what you pay for Medicare. Exercising options changes what a charitable gift is worth. Selling the business changes all of it at once. When each piece is handled by a different professional in a different month, nobody is holding the trade-off.


If you already work with an investment advisor, a comprehensive plan does not replace that portfolio. It defines what the portfolio is supposed to accomplish, in what order, and at what tax cost, so ten good decisions made separately finally add up to one plan.


Etzel Financial Resources does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance.

Holistic Financial Planning That Sees the Full Picture

Most people have advisors. Very few people have a team. The largest financial mistakes we see rarely happen because an advisor is incompetent. They happen because good advisors work independently instead of collaboratively.


Integrated wealth management closes that gap. Your financial life should work as a system rather than a series of disconnected decisions, which is what the virtual family office model is built to deliver, and it is how every planning relationship here runs.


We take the coordinating seat and keep your CPA, your attorney, and your insurance professional in the same conversation, working from the same set of numbers. Those relationships are kept and coordinated, not replaced.

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A Process Designed for People Like You

Our process begins with a conversation, not a presentation. We listen for what actually matters to you, whether that is preparing for a business exit, structuring retirement income you will not outlive, or making sure your children and grandchildren are cared for across generations.


Nothing gets recommended until your current plan has been stress tested. If you want to see the sequence, the meetings, and how we are paid before you pick up the phone, our process and fees are written out in full.

What We Help You Navigate

We evaluate every part of your financial life together: income and cash flow, taxes and liabilities, insurance needs, investment positioning, and legacy goals. Each area below is planned against the others, not in isolation.

  • Retirement Income and Social Security

    The question is rarely whether you have enough. It is which account the money comes out of, in what order, and what that sequence costs you over a thirty-year retirement.

    • Retirement income strategies and Social Security claiming decisions
    • Cash flow analysis and lifestyle forecasting
  • Tax Planning, Coordinated with Your CPA

    Tax work belongs in the plan year-round, not in a filing conversation every April, so we plan the timing with the tax professional you already use.

    • Tax planning and coordination with your tax advisor

    Etzel Financial Resources does not offer legal or tax advice. Please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance.

  • Executive Compensation, Benefits, and Education Funding

    Equity grants, deferred compensation, and benefit elections each run on their own timeline, and tuition tends to arrive in the middle of all of it.

    • Employee benefits and executive compensation analysis
    • College and education planning for children or grandchildren
  • Business Ownership and Transition

    For most owners we work with, the company is the largest line on the balance sheet, which makes it a family planning question long before it is a transaction.

  • Estate, Charitable Giving, and Family Protection

    What you protect and what you pass on are the same conversation, and both depend on decisions made years earlier.

    • Insurance review and risk management alignment
    • Special needs and eldercare planning
    • Charitable giving strategies
    • Estate and legacy coordination

Who We Build These Plans For

Our clients typically hold $1M to $10M+ in investable assets, and the complexity usually arrives from one of four directions.



  • Closely held business owners approaching succession, a sale, or another liquidity event.
  • Corporate executives with stock options, restricted stock, and deferred compensation on competing timelines.
  • Physicians and other medical professionals converting a high income into long-term wealth.
  • Multi-generational families focused on legacy, charitable giving, and transferring wealth on their own terms.


If what you need is a single product purchase, a coordinated planning engagement is more than the situation calls for. If you have four professionals and no one connecting them, it is exactly the situation this is built for.

Common Financial Questions We Help Answer Every Day

  • Am I doing enough to secure my financial future?

    That question gets settled with numbers rather than reassurance. We show you what you can afford, what you should protect, and where you could be doing more, so uncertainty turns into a strategy you can act on. Most people arrive earning well and saving diligently, and still cannot see the whole picture at once.

  • Will I outlive my wealth… or will my wealth outlive me?

    Whether retirement is five years away or already here, it’s natural to worry about sustainability. We run detailed projections, stress-test your income plan, and adjust for taxes, inflation, healthcare costs, and lifestyle shifts — so you can live well without looking over your shoulder.

  • How do I reduce my tax burden without triggering new problems?

    By planning the moves before the year they land in. Many people pay more than necessary when they draw from retirement accounts, sell a business, or gift to family or charity, so we look for opportunities to reposition assets, sequence withdrawals, and set the timing with your CPA in advance. Etzel Financial Resources does not offer legal or tax advice; please consult the appropriate professional regarding your individual circumstance.

  • How does my business fit into my long-term plan?

    It belongs inside the plan rather than beside it. Many clients hold most of their net worth in a closely held company with no exit strategy attached, so whether you are planning for succession, exploring a sale, or working to separate business risk from personal assets, we build that into the same plan your retirement and estate decisions live in. Owners closer to a transaction can go deeper with our exit planning work for business owners.

  • Can I give more — without giving too much?

    We model it so you can see the answer instead of estimating it. Different strategies for supporting children, grandchildren, and the causes you care about carry different tax consequences and different effects on your own long-term security, and we compare them side by side. Generosity should fit the plan rather than compete with it.

  • Will you work with the CPA and attorney I already have?

    Yes, and keeping them is the entire point. Your CPA, attorney, and insurance professional stay exactly where they are, and we take the coordinating seat so everyone is working from the same numbers instead of four separate versions of your situation. Coordinating your CPA and financial advisor is part of the planning engagement, not a separate service. If a seat at the table is empty, we can introduce a professional from our network.

  • How much money should I have before hiring a financial planner?

    Our clients typically hold $1M to $10M+ in investable assets, though complexity is the better test than any balance. If you own a business, hold equity compensation, are approaching a liquidity event, or are planning a transfer across generations, coordinated planning is worth more than the account size alone suggests. A 30-minute exploratory call is enough to tell whether the fit is there.

What’s On Your Mind?

The Credentials Behind the Advice, and Where to Verify Them

  • Scott Etzel holds the Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor (CRPC) designation, earned in 2007 through the College for Financial Planning.
  • He holds the 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.
  • Our ADV Part 2B 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.

Start with a Discovery Call

No Pressure. Just a Conversation That Brings Clarity.

Thirty minutes, no presentation, and no obligation afterward. We will ask what you are trying to protect, what is still unresolved, and who is already advising you, and you will leave knowing whether coordinated planning is worth your time. Whether the question is retirement income and taxes for a family in the Des Moines metro or a business transition in North Iowa, the first conversation is the same one.


  • Urbandale, 2350 NW 128th Street, serving Des Moines, West Des Moines, and the surrounding metro.
  • Clear Lake, 29 Lido Road, serving Mason City and the North Iowa lakes area.
  • Clients across Iowa and the surrounding Midwest, with fully remote planning relationships available for clients anywhere in the country.


Email Scott directly at setzel@etzelfinancialresources.com, which is the fastest path for planning questions and anything involving documents, or call or text 515-490-6831.