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Keen on retirement? Here’s how to engineer the second half of your life.

11/1/2022

 
Fiduciary financial advisory firm, Keen Wealth Advisors, helps people make the transition from working to retirement with the freedom, flexibility, and resources to realize their vision and achieve their retirement dreams.

​Fiduciary financial advisor and Kansas City based entrepreneur and philanthropist Bill Keen firmly believes he was called to make strategic investments in life.​
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For Keen that means making a positive impact on the lives of his firm’s clients, his family and team members and, ultimately, giving back to his community – both financially and through volunteering – and providing financial literacy and education to clients and the public. ​
The founder and CEO of Keen Wealth Advisors, Bill Keen is a husband, father, grandfather, aircraft pilot, and Amazon best-selling book author1. Notably, Keen recently launched the second edition of his best-selling book (1), Keen on Retirement: Engineering the Second Half of Your Life.
With respect to the second edition book updates (Lionsgate Publishing, © 2019, 2022 Bill Keen), there is a new preface along with updates throughout to various rules and regulations (mostly brought on as a result of the SECURE Act). There are also three additional chapters: Medicare; Avoiding the Next Flash in the Pan; and Navigating Unprecedented Times. Keen also shares a bit about his mother’s passing and his personal health transformation, both of which occurred during the COVID crisis.
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30 YEARS IN THE TRENCHES
 
A financial services veteran who has played a number of roles over the past thirty years – from personal financial advisor, to managing director at a larger financial institution, to now a fiduciary financial advisor and highly successful business owner – he established Keen Wealth Advisors, his investment management and retirement planning firm, in 2014.
“After college, I worked at a prominent mutual fund company in Kansas City, Twentieth Century Investors (later called American Century Investment Management), founded by James E. Stowers Jr. in 1958,” Keen says in his book. “Mr. Stowers founded the firm with an objective to help investors assess their assets and achieve financial independence, including those who were just starting out. For me, it was a dream to work in Mr. Stowers’ organization as I had tremendous respect for him. I was graded on how quickly and accurately I could enter data, and while I was grateful for the experience and the values the firm instilled in me, it didn’t take long to realize I needed to pursue my passion of advising clients directly on their planning and investing.”
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​For the next twenty years, Keen worked in several Wall Street firms. It gradually became clear to him that there were inherent conflicts of interest, especially in bank-owned brokerage firms. Many of those conflicts of interest came to light during the financial collapse of 2008, when the public first learned about all of the low-quality mortgage products that had been aggressively pushed to retail clients.
While working at a previous financial services firm, Keen met Matt Wilson, CFP®, who started as an intern in 2002. They became fast friends and have traveled the professional road together ever since then. Fast forward to today: Wilson is now Keen Wealth Advisors’ President. The duo has over the past 20 years, perfected their working relationship, and now jointly lead a staff of 25. Wilson, who also serves as Chief Investment Officer and is a Certified Financial Planner™ professional, is responsible for the analysis and allocation of client investment portfolios and leads the investment policy committee.
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Keen eventually decided to focus 100% on helping people transition from working to retirement with the freedom, flexibility, and resources to realize their vision and achieve their retirement dreams.

ENGINEERING THE SECOND HALF OF YOUR LIFE
 
Keen Wealth Advisors has a long-standing relationship with engineers and the engineering community, which make up about 50 percent of the firm’s clients. Keen says his firm LOVES working with discerning clients who ask tough questions. With their commitment to planning, preparation and attention to detail, engineers are a natural market for the firm, and their ability to work with engineers has been critical to Keen Wealth Advisors’ success.
 
Keen Wealth Advisors also works with corporate executives and others in the Kansas City metro area (and points beyond) as they prepare for the second half of their life, living well today and well into the future, efficiently and effectively passing on family assets and values, etc. In fact, the firm currently has clients in 30 states. A retirement blueprint, which is created for each client, serves as the foundation for each plan.
 
“Perceptive. Personalized. Precise. Those three words comprise our company tag line. Every day, our team shows up, ready to create a great experience for our clients,” Keen says.
 
“Another part of our success hinges on adhering to the fiduciary standard. To be a fiduciary means that we are required to put our clients’ needs above and beyond our own,” Wilson adds.
Due to the firm’s amazing growth over the years, Keen Wealth Advisors recently moved into a new and expanded office space in the Lighton Tower, Overland Park. This beautiful, new space is not only functional, but it is filled with natural light and creates a relaxed, spacious feel. The 20,000 square foot office space, which comprises the entire tenth floor of this A-class building, provides a positive environment for the growing roster of employees and supports the firm’s commitment to growing its footprint and service team through its internship program. 
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In support of the community and education, Keen Wealth Advisors’ internship program includes students from the University of Missouri and Kansas State University, including a scholarship endowment for students at K-State’s Financial Planning Department.

​FINANCIAL LITERACY AT THE CORE

​Bill Keen learned the value of financial literacy at a young age through life’s financial lessons, living with his father in a one-bedroom apartment awaiting the monthly unemployment check. Through hard work, faith, and perseverance, Keen eventually began to financially support both his parents.
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​​Believing that financial education never ends, the Keen Wealth Advisors long-running, podcast, Keen On Retirement, supports continued education for clients and the public about all levels of financial and retirement planning, including: market perspective, tax , estate, 401(k) and IRA planning, Social Security claiming strategies, health care ramifications, and many others.
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An early adopter when it comes to digital communications and staying ahead of the curve, the 
Keen on Retirement podcast has been up and running since 2015 and provides a wonderful library of helpful information for people who are interested in increasing their financial literacy.
 
The company also hosts educational webinars and in-person events for current and prospective clients, including their annual Holiday Gathering, which this year will take place on December 3, 2022, at Keen’s beautiful, new location in the Lighton Tower. Clients and special guests will receive a signed copy of Keen’s updated book, a holiday photo booth will be set up, and a harpist will play while guests enjoy a lovely brunch. Keen Wealth will also present a $100,000 check to the Veterans Community Project (more on that below).
LOVE OF COMMUNITY DRIVES CHARITABLE ACTION

The spirit of Keen Wealth Advisors and love of community is reflected through their continued good works: giving back in not just financial contributions but also in time and energy as volunteers who seek to support those in need.

​Between Keen and the firm they have donated almost half a million dollars to various organizations in the past two years,
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Organizations including $100,000 to Angel Flight Central, a volunteer non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission it is to serve people in need by arranging charitable flights for health care or other humanitarian purposes, and $200,000 to Kansas City’s acclaimed Veterans Community Project which has so far produced an innovative community of 49 tiny houses for Veterans experiencing homelessness. In addition to financial contributions, Keen, Wilson and the firm’s team members also give of their time, donating hundreds of volunteer hours to many charitable causes.
 
When he’s not “navigating the flight plan” for his clients and firm, Keen and his team are navigating the evolving key issues on investing for an inspiring and values-driven retirement. “I liken the seriousness of financial planning to an aviator planning and making a flight, or an engineer designing, constructing and managing a large project,” Keen said.
 
For more information, visit https://KeenWealthAdvisors.com

Services offered through KWMG, LLC d/b/a Keen Wealth Advisors, an SEC Registered Investment Adviser.

(1) The Amazon Best Seller ranking referenced is specifically referring to Best Seller rankings for the Kindle Top 100 Paid Lists under the subcategories of: Budgeting and Financial Risk Management, based on data as of September 5, 2019, and the second edition under Financial Risk Management on October 26, 2022. Amazon rankings although relevant on how a product is selling overall doesn’t necessarily indicate how well an item is selling among other similar items or similar item categories. Amazon may choose the most popular categories or subcategories within which an item has a high ranking to determine its best seller rankings. These rankings are updated hourly and, as a result, should be expected to fluctuate as such. Keen Wealth Advisors and Amazon are not affiliated entities.

​For further details on Amazon rankings please visit 
https://www.keenwealthadvisors.com/important-disclosures.

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