Frequently Asked Questions
Good Life Financial Advisors has spent more than 25 years working with business owners, executives, entrepreneurs, engineers, and medical professionals in Greenville and across the country. The questions below reflect the conversations we have most frequently with people who are evaluating whether we might be the right fit for their situation. If your question isn't here, reach out directly. We're happy to talk through whatever is on your mind.
What's the difference between a financial advisor and a wealth manager?
A financial advisor helps you manage investments and financial goals, while a wealth manager provides a more comprehensive approach that includes advanced services like estate planning, tax strategies, and intricate investment management. Think of a wealth manager as a financial advisor with an expanded toolkit and deeper level of personalized service.
How do you help business owners plan for retirement?
Business owners face financial planning challenges that most standard approaches weren't built to handle. Personal and business finances are deeply intertwined, retirement often depends on an eventual sale or transition, and the tax implications of that transaction require planning that starts years before any deal happens. We work with business owners at every stage, from building enterprise value and structuring personal finances alongside the business, to exit planning and wealth preservation after a transaction closes.
What makes Good Life Financial Advisors different from other financial advisors in Greenville SC?
The clients we work with have financial lives that have outgrown a generalist approach. Our planning relationships are built around the complexity each client brings, whether that's business ownership, equity compensation, estate planning across generations, or simply a financial picture with more moving parts than a standard plan can handle. Fred Shows works directly with every client rather than handing relationships off to a team of associates, and the planning process starts with understanding your situation before recommending anything.
What types of clients do you work with?
We do our best work with business owners, executives, entrepreneurs, engineers, and medical professionals whose financial situations involve meaningful complexity. Many of our clients are based in Greenville and the surrounding Upstate South Carolina area, though roughly half are located across the country in markets like Denver, Houston, Atlanta, San Antonio, and New Orleans. What our clients share isn't a zip code or an account balance. It's a financial life that deserves more than a cookie-cutter approach.
When Should I Start Working With a Financial Advisors
Earlier than you people think. The decisions that create the most flexibility later, around savings structures, tax positioning, business planning, and estate strategy, are most powerful when they're made with enough lead time to actually implement them. That said, it's never the wrong time to get a clear picture of where you stand and whether your current plan is working as hard as it should be. If you're wondering whether now is the right time, that's usually a sign it is.
Do you work with clients outside of Greenville SC?
Yes. While we're based in Greenville and proud to serve a significant number of clients in the Upstate South Carolina area, roughly half of our client relationships are with professionals and families across the country. Distance has never been a barrier to building a strong planning relationship, and we have the tools and processes in place to serve clients wherever they are.
How does AI fit into financial planning and investing?
AI is transforming financial services, offering more sophisticated investment analysis and personalized financial planning tools. At Good Life Financial Advisors, we embrace technology to enhance our services, but we believe human expertise and personalized relationships remain crucial in making sound financial decisions.
What should I bring to my first meeting with Fred?
The most important thing to bring is a clear sense of what you're hoping to accomplish and what questions you've been carrying around that haven't gotten a satisfying answer yet. Beyond that, recent financial statements, tax returns from the past two years, and any existing estate documents are helpful starting points. We'll take it from there and let the conversation guide what additional information would be useful
How do you coordinate with my CPA and attorney?
Our goal is to work in close coordination with each client's existing professional relationships rather than replacing them. Tax strategy, estate planning, and legal structures all require genuine collaboration between the financial plan and the work being done by other advisors. In practice that means regular communication, shared context around major decisions, and making sure nothing falls through the gaps between disciplines. Many of our clients in Greenville have existing relationships with local CPAs and attorneys that we integrate into the planning process from day one.
Let's Get Started
No pressure, no obligations, just a conversation about where you are and where you'd like to go. We'd love to hear your story.