Meet Mike Garcia, AAMS®

From entrepreneur to advisor.

I spent more than 20 years building businesses—restaurants across California and Louisiana, hair salons, a catering company. Long days, payroll on Friday, the kind of decisions that keep you up at 2 a.m. wondering what one missed assumption costs.

In 2018, my wife Jessica and I moved our family from Colorado to Wesley Chapel and I made the move into financial services. The reason was personal: I'd watched too many business owners I respected get out-played by their own financial picture—taxes, succession, what to do with the proceeds of a sale, how to make sure the family was actually protected. The industry had the tools to help. The right tools just weren't getting in the right hands.

What I bring to the table.

I'm not the advisor who's only ever worked in a bank branch. I've signed the leases, hired the people, paid the taxes, and lived with the consequences of my own decisions. When I sit down with a business owner, we speak the same language.

For families, I bring the same lens. Jessica and I are raising five kids—we know first-hand how decisions about money, insurance, education, and inheritance shape a household.

How I work.

• Independent. I'm not pushed to sell any one company's products.
• Plain English. If you can't explain it back to your spouse, we haven't finished the conversation.
• Coordinated. Investments, insurance, estate, and tax decisions all touch each other. I treat them that way.
• Long-term. Plans aren't one-and-done. We meet, review, and adjust as life changes.

Outside of work.

Most days you'll find me with Jessica and the kids around Wesley Chapel, at church, or somewhere along the Gulf coast. Faith and family come first—and that's the lens I bring into every client relationship.