Evan Harp interviewed Yardley Wealth Management’s Michael Garry ahead of the Exchange conference, happening March 15 through 18 in Las Vegas.
Evan Harp: Welcome back! Since it has been over a year since we last interviewed you, can you give us a quick refresh on your firm and your investment philosophy?
Michael Garry: Sure, our firm is Yardley Wealth Management. We are an independent fee-only RIA that will be 20 years old in February. We use a lot of ETFs from Dimensional, Avantis, and FRDM. We’re planning based – I’m an estate planning lawyer, so we do a lot of estate planning – and we do a lot of tax planning, though not preparation.
Yardley Wealth Management on the Current Markets
Harp: Excellent. What’s your take on the current market environment?
Garry: The current market environment, like many of them, seems a little bit crazy. I’ve been saying that my whole career. Some things make sense, some things don’t make sense. I think that the Magnificent 7 may be a little overheated, but there’s a lot of parts of the market that are fairly valued or even undervalued. You just have to make sure you look all over the world and not just big, large cap tech stocks.
The Difference Exchange Made for Yardley Wealth Management
Harp: How have things been for your firm since the last Exchange conference? Was there an insight or speaker who carried you through any particularly challenging moments this past year?
Garry: Well, one big thing for the firm is that we elevated Maureen Donahue, who went to Exchange last year. She’s a partner now in the firm and that’s exciting news for us. She’s the first one. And then, yeah, there were two speakers that were really exciting for us last year. Jennifer Morgan, she is with Connective Communications. Her talk at the event last year was amazing. She walked around the room and she owned the stage. Anne Lester was another one that we really liked. She wrote a book, Your Best Financial Life, geared towards millennials and Gen Z. She was fantastic – we actually had her on a Zoom for our clients’ kids – they’re 20 something and 30 somethings. It was really, really powerful. The kids liked it. Parents were so happy that somebody else can talk to their kids about saving and investing so they actually listened. We had a great time at Exchange last year, and we learned a lot and made great connections.
Looking Forward
Harp: I’m excited to hear that, and we’re thrilled we’re having Jennifer Morgan back in 2026. My final question for you is, what are you looking forward to about Exchange 2026?
Garry: I think this will be my fifth time and it’s been great every year. You meet all kinds of interesting people. There have been awesome sessions. You know, we started using Perth Tolle’s fund FRDM after hearing her at Exchange, it’s an emerging markets fund.
I’d say of the different conferences, Exchange might be the one I get the most out of. It’s a relatively new one for me.
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