The Challenge
When Tara Tussing Unverzagt launched South Bay Financial Partners, her mission was clear: to make high-quality financial planning accessible to everyone, regardless of their background or financial expertise. However, the path to achieving that a client service model for financial advisors wasn’t easy. Her first major effort, creating an online community for financial education, didn’t resonate as she had hoped. She soon realized that simply offering information wasn’t enough to engage the people who could benefit most from financial support.
On top of this, Tara was transitioning out of her mother’s financial firm, which involved navigating complex family dynamics and finding her own professional identity. She also faced the challenge of defining her ideal client, which made it difficult to create the right services for those who needed them most.
Tara quickly discovered that traditional financial planning approaches weren’t effective for the individuals she wanted to serve—people dealing with financial anxiety, neurodivergence, or feelings of shame around money. These clients needed more than just a standard financial plan. They needed an approach that was compassionate, patient, and tailored to their unique experiences and challenges. The conventional models simply didn’t meet their needs.
The Solution
Tara leaned into her unique expertise as a Certified Financial Therapist, embracing the value it brought to her practice as a member of XYPN. By aligning her firm’s messaging with the needs of clients often overlooked by traditional advisors, she redefined financial planning to be more approachable and empathetic. She made her firm’s brand welcoming, inclusive, and understanding, catering to individuals who were seeking a different kind of financial guidance. Tara also implemented a sliding-scale fee structure, taking both income and assets into account, which allowed her to offer comprehensive financial planning while maintaining a sustainable business model.
On the operations side, Tara leveraged XYPN’s resources and technology to streamline her firm. She invested in workflow automation through RooksDM, creating a fully virtual, seamless client experience. By adopting the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), Tara gained clarity in defining team roles and optimizing performance. She also strategically expanded her team with specialists in tax planning, financial independence, and family business management to support the firm's growth. Additionally, Tara relies on XYPN’s Books service to handle the bookkeeping side of her practice, freeing her up to focus more on what she loves—working closely with clients to guide them toward financial well-being.
The Results
By focusing on financial therapy principles and designing services tailored to neurodivergent and financially anxious clients, Tara transformed South Bay Financial Partners into a firm that truly meets clients where they are. With support from XYPN’s community and resources, Tara was able to refine her approach and grow her ideal client base. While the firm’s overall client count remained steady at 60-65, the percentage of ideal clients surged to over 80%. More importantly, her revenue tripled—not by raising prices, but by restructuring the fee model and enhancing her service offerings to better serve her target audience.
Tara’s firm has evolved into a comprehensive family office model, providing tax preparation, investment advising, estate planning review, and financial therapy. By prioritizing a client-first approach and integrating financial therapy, she’s carved out a unique niche that’s reshaping the future of financial planning. For clients who have struggled to find an advisor who truly understands them, South Bay Financial Partners has become the firm they’ve been searching for. Thanks to her XYPN membership, Tara has had the tools, guidance, and community support to scale her business while staying true to her mission of inclusive, compassionate financial planning.
Hear Tara's full story on this episode of XYPN Radio.
