Today we’d like to introduce you to Lewis Weil
Hi Lewis, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in West Texas and moved to Austin in 2006. I first became a financial planner in 2015. Before that I was a molecular biologist. I worked in academic and biotech laboratories for a decade. I ran a popular speaker series called Nerd Nite, which is still going. I ran a seaweed farm out of greenhouse on Oltorf called Austin Sea Veggies, which is how I started my entrepreneurial journey.
I had long been interested in personal finance. My aunt Casey and my father Michael were both financial planners. So I grew up hearing the jargon and was comfortable talking about money. I noticed that my lab mates often asked for guidance with their finances. In high school a teacher encouraged me to recognize and seize opportunities. I decided to take some financial planning courses at UT and in August of 2015 I launched my first financial planning company and quickly decided to go fulltime as investment advisor.
In 2019 I published an article for Kickstarter’s magazine The Creative Independent called “an artist’s guide to financial planning” which caused my practice to go national as people all over started to reach out to me. In 2024 my first child was born, the birth of daughter inspired me to start a new solo investment advisory business, Lewis Weil Co., so I could keep helping people like entrepreneurs, families, and artists get their money organized while having more space and time to enjoy my daughters childhood!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Completely smooth, no issues.
No, of course I’ve had plenty of challenges. Challenges that nearly put me out of business and pushed me to the edges of my physical and mental health. That is how we grow though, how you respond to a challenge has a lot to do with your capacity to succeed in business. It’s not for everyone and that is ok.
I launched my business never having worked at another financial planning company. I had to learn everything in the process. The problems that real people face are completely different than what you learn in financial planning class. After my first year I had completely changed how I plan and my strategies are always evolving. Before starting my own company I had never raised capital, hired someone and been their boss, kept accounting books, or marketed a product. There were many growing pains.
The hardest was being a financial planner during Covid quarantine. I had planned during challenging times before, the market and economy can give you whiplash. But there was no practice for getting people, my clients, my family, my company, through a pandemic. How do you give advice and provide reassurance with so much uncertainty? But I was determined to get through it and be there to help people day by day. My business grew because there were so many people who needed help and because being remote freed up peoples schedules to call during the day in a way people wouldn’t really do before. Now its normal to have a remote appointment in the middle of the day during work hours, but it was much less common before quarantine.
There have been many challenges over the years and I learned to stick to principles even if they could mean the end of the business. But to otherwise just focus on staying in business through the challenge, find the light at the end of tunnel and keep heading towards it. If you can survive the challenge you can pivot, keep focus on your customers, and grow again. As silly at it sounds “survive” is one of my best business lessons.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Lewis Weil Co.?
My company provides financial planning to individuals, couples, and families. I focus on organization and prioritization. I help people build budgets, save for goals, and get to place where they can confidently invest and build wealth. I focus on artists and entrepreneurs, though I am open to anyone. My clients are collection of fascinating people who live all over the world, some would be considered famous and many live unconventional lives. My fee structure is built to let me serve anyone, not just wealthy people. I charge based on a percentage of investments but have no minimum. So someone with little or no investments can still work with me, I want to help people grow and grow with them.
I am most proud now of working under my own name in Lewis Weil Co.. No clever brand name, nothing to hide behind. I recently became a father and my priorities changed instantly. I realized I needed to grow as a person and professional in order to be the kind of dad I want to be. Starting my one man shop let’s me explore and grow and I am very proud to be out in the world showing people my authentic self!
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was and am always making jokes. I love making people laugh. I was and am definitely a bit of nerd and have always relished learning about people and their interests. My whole childhood I participated in science fair and even though I no longer work in science I volunteer in Austin regional science fair as a judge. I’m probably as nervous as the kids though! My role models were scientists and artists, I loved Mr. Rogers, Georgia O’Keefe, Eugenie Clark, and Jacques Cousteau. I cared deeply about the environment. I told people I would be a fisherman but I didn’t understand what happened to the fish, I just knew I liked fish and the ocean (despite growing up in the deserts of West Texas). It would be fair to say I was shy but I have outgrown that! Throughout my life kindness has been important, I have always cared about people and wanted to help and that definitely has not changed!
Pricing:
- 1% annual fee on investments
- with no minimum investment amount
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lewisweil.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lewisweil/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LewisWeilCo
- Other: https://bsky.app/profile/lewisweil.bsky.social
Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/ticomendoza/
https://www.instagram.com/naught._._/
