How a first-year advisor is building his book on estate planning workshops

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“If you’re an advisor, please use Estate Guru. Estate planning is what people want to sign up and learn about.”

— Alex Mittag | Financial Advisor, SPI Financial Group

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Newly licensed in 2026, Alex knew from designing seminars for other advisors that estate planning could bring people into the room. He needed a clear path from education to action, helping attendees put plans in place while building his practice.

Estate Guru gives Alex a guided process to offer attendees. He explains planning concepts and helps clients gather information while an independent attorney handles the legal work. Planning fees help offset workshop costs, and the conversations create opportunities for broader financial relationships.

Alex asks attendees to spend 90 minutes on a subject many would rather put off. He makes it approachable through clear explanations and a relaxed presentation style, then offers a practical next step through Estate Guru. At one recent workshop, 12 of the 17 households requested appointments.

See how Estate Guru helped Alex here

How his approach, supported by Estate Guru, gives most first-year advisors four advantages:

Give people a reason to meet

Useful education and an approachable planning review turn workshop introductions into individual conversations about each family’s needs.

Make professional roles clear

Alex explains what he does and what the attorney does, giving clients a clear path forward with the appropriate expertise involved.

Show clients what they are working toward

A sample binder and shared-screen intake make the planning process easier to understand before clients decide to proceed.

Help new planning work support practice growth

Planning fees help offset workshop marketing costs, while the conversations create opportunities for broader financial relationships.

About Alex Mittag

Alex Mittag is a financial advisor with Michigan-based SPI Financial Group, helping individuals and families connect retirement income, investment strategies, tax-efficient planning, and the transfer of wealth to the next generation. Licensed in February 2026, he uses estate planning workshops to make those decisions easier to understand and start new client relationships.

• Hundreds of financial advisors supported through educational seminar design and hosting before entering advisory practice
• Approximately two estate planning workshops per month led by Alex

Bringing a familiar approach into his own practice

Before becoming a financial advisor, Alex worked in seminar marketing, helping advisors run estate planning workshops that connected attendees with planning services through Estate Guru. By the time he began building his own practice, he had seen the approach work and understood the platform’s value.

“I had advisors who do exactly what we do, who have been successful doing it for much longer than I have even been practicing.”

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Choosing Estate Guru let Alex build on that experience, adapting a familiar approach to his own presentations and client relationships.

The attorney and advisor collaboration through Estate Guru

Alex introduces the process in the workshop itself. One slide separates the advisor’s responsibilities from the attorney’s, helping attendees understand who handles each part before they decide to proceed.

“I have a big slide that says, ‘This is done by the advisor, and this is done by the attorney.’ I break that down for people. They know what to do, and they know what their next step is.”

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Alex helps clients understand planning concepts and gather the information their plan requires. An independent attorney reviews and personalizes the legal documents, with client-specific legal decisions remaining in the attorney’s hands.

When questions involve rental properties, LLCs, or other complexities, Alex turns to Estate Guru’s team or the attorney for guidance. “Great question. We’ll follow up with you,” lets him keep the conversation moving without answering beyond his expertise.

The attorney network extends that support beyond Michigan. When one attendee asked about planning for a sibling in California, Alex could offer a path forward through Estate Guru, connecting the family’s needs with legal expertise in another state.

Make the first appointment approachable

After the workshop, Alex offers an estate planning review. “It’s almost like a coffee chat,” he says. Attendees can bring existing planning documents, tax returns, and account statements, but they do not need everything assembled to begin.

“I don’t care if you bring me every statement that you have under the sun or you come with just nothing.”

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The review helps Alex understand each client’s situation and explain what comes next. For those who proceed, he connects a second monitor to his computer at the next meeting so they can review the Estate Guru intake together as he enters their information, checks beneficiary names, and gathers the details needed for their plan.

Show clients what they are working toward

Alex brings a sample planning binder to workshops and first appointments so clients can see what’s included before deciding to proceed. He walks them through the documents and supporting information, making the finished plan easier to picture.

The binder also gives him a way to discuss what clients want to leave their families. He encourages them to include personal items, such as family recipes, alongside their planning information, bringing their wishes and memories together in one place.

Build trust early in the relationship

At 27, Alex understands why younger advisors might worry about how a workshop audience will receive them. In his experience, explaining the subject clearly can make youth an advantage.

“If you can come across articulate and well spoken, who knows, that might even work in my favor because people think, ‘Wow, he's young and he knows what he’s talking about.’”

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Alex and SPI founder Matt Breimayer bring different styles to their workshops and make sure attendees get to know both advisors. When Matt presents, he introduces Alex as a knowledgeable member of the team; Alex does the same when he leads.

Alex encourages younger advisors to draw on available resources and lead with what they can offer: 

“Don’t let age or fear or anything like that stop you from helping people.”

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Estate planning workshops that turn into client appointments

Alex leads with estate planning, and Estate Guru gives him a service aligned with what brought attendees into the room: help moving their estate planning forward. Because attendees can act on the topic that drew them in, workshops have become Alex’s primary source of prospective clients.

12 of 17 households requested an appointment at one recent workshop
~20 appointment requests from a typical 40-person workshop
~12 meetings held                                                                                                                _{Typical workshop figures are Alex’s estimates.}

Planning fees through Estate Guru help support the cost of reaching those households, which gives the workshops a source of revenue alongside opportunities for broader financial work.

Alex wants to build on that foundation by improving his systems and increasing workshop frequency. His goal is to lead one each week, creating more opportunities to meet families and help them act on their planning needs.

Give your workshops a next step clients can act on

Estate Guru’s attorney-led estate planning platform is not a DIY service. Independent attorneys review, personalize, and sign plans, with technology supporting their creation and completion. Advisors like Alex can guide information gathering and stay involved in the financial conversations surrounding the plan, turning workshop education into a clear next step while client-specific legal judgment remains with the attorney.

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