An Interview with Dan Stokes: How an Affinity for Community Led Him to BrightPlan

Our Q&A series gives you a behind the curtain look at life at BrightPlan. Hear from our team members on why they love the work that they do.

Get to Know Dan:

Dan Stokes is a Financial Planner at BrightPlan. In his role, he is responsible for providing financial coaching, advice and support to BrightPlan clients. Dan joined BrightPlan in 2019 as the second member of the client success team. He works from his home office in St. Louis, Missouri.

Dan has a bachelor’s degree in Personal Financial Planning from the University of Missouri and is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. Prior to BrightPlan, he was a Financial Planner at Plancorp where he provided financial planning advice and investment management to high net-worth families.

When Dan started college, he wasn't sure what he wanted to do as a profession, so after his first year of school, he decided to join the Marine Corps. During his service as an active-duty Marine and while deployed to Afghanistan, he got to see a lot of the world, meet a lot of people (many of which are his best friends today) and was exposed to a number of valuable leadership opportunities.

Following the Marines, Dan went back to school to study personal financial planning. Coming from a low income household, Dan was inspired by his own personal experience and was motivated to help others improve their financial situation. During his time at the University of Missouri he served as President of the Office for Financial Success, a student-led program aimed at empowering students and the community to make healthy financial choices. Through this program, Dan led presentations on student loan and debt counseling and also provided financial counseling to people in the broader community.

In his spare time, Dan enjoys morning walks with his wife, Shelby, tackling house projects, exercising and decompressing by playing the occasional video game.

Q: What made you decide to join BrightPlan?

A: I joined BrightPlan because of the mission. I’ve always had a passion for making financial wellness attainable for everyone. I wanted to serve people from all walks of life, not just high income or high net-worth individuals. At BrightPlan, I’m meeting with employees that have varying degrees of income, wealth, financial goals, you name it. Everyone’s experiences and circumstances are different and I find it so rewarding to make 1:1 connections with people, help them navigate financial decisions, and celebrate their progress along the way.

Q: What does Total Financial Wellness mean to you?

A: To me, Total Financial Wellness means constantly progressing toward your goals with a clear action on how to achieve them. It really boils down to two key components. The first is confidence in knowing that you will be ok in the future. The second is more objective—taking the right steps, having enough money saved, and having a plan in place.

Q: What does a typical “day-in-the-life” look like for you?

A: While no two days are the same, on most days you will find me collaborating with the client success team to solve client issues and questions—whether those relate to the BrightPlan app or a financial planning question or topic. I also serve as a financial coach for our clients, meeting with them to help them navigate different financial decisions. In general, there’s a high level of collaboration among the various teams at BrightPlan and I work closely with other functional areas on different projects, including working with the product team on client feedback and giving demos of our product.

Q: What do you love most about the work that you do?

A: I find conversations with our clients to be the most rewarding. Previously, I was more customer service focused, and now I’ve progressed to being more relationship focused. This is the most fulfilling of anything I’ve done so far in my professional life. I take a lot of pride in seeing our clients make progress on their financial goals.

Q: Any final thoughts?

A: Take your first step. A big part of financial planning is starting with a plan and then putting it to work. Some people want to put financial planning off for their future self to deal with, especially if they’re overwhelmed and planning seems scary. Your best bet is to start with education to build confidence, create a rough financial plan and then meet with a fiduciary financial planner to help you review and execute on it.

Stay tuned for more employee spotlights in our Q&A series. If you’re interested in learning more about life at BrightPlan, visit our Careers page.