Waseca based iWealth recently expanded into Mankato, taking on the former EFS investment firm operated by Gary Guentzel. Thanks to the merger, iWealth now has 16 team members.
iWealth expands, celebrates 30 years
Tue, 11/19/2024 - 8:00pm
“Money doesn’t make us happy,” declares Brad Connors. “Purpose does.”
Connors, 50, is at the helm of Waseca-based iWealth, a company which offers guidance on investments, insurance, and finance.
After graduating from Waterville-Elysian-Morristown in the late 1980s and going on to attend technical college, he returned to the Waseca area and began his work as an insurance and investment advisor in 1994; the company is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary this year
“I’ve always been independent, but for those first few years I was located inside other businesses,” he explains, mentioning that for a time, his early one-man office was inside what was then First National Bank.
For about the past 10 years, iWealth–whose name was devised before Apple electronics began its line of “i” products–has been housed along Fifteenth Avenue NE in Waseca. The business opened an office in Bloomington in 2020 and has acquired online representatives in California and Oregon.
A ribbon-cutting event this month celebrated its newest acquisition, the financial services office in Mankato owned by Gary Guentzel. Adding Guentzel and his staff, Connors says, brings the total number of iWealth team members to 16.
In addition to operating the business, Connors is frequently engaged as a speaker for finance-focused events. Having created some specialized financial planning software used not only in the industry, but by both Minnesota State, Mankato and Creighton universities, he speaks there and at professional organizations.
Connors and his wife Trudi are lifelong area residents. Their adult children are Kendra, 24; and Corbin, 19.
The iWealth Foundation performs numerous public service events, the largest of which is in cooperation with the Waseca Area Food Shelf. iWealth partners with clients and others to raise money and acquire groceries to supply Christmas meals to area families by distributing boxes of food at a “drive-through” distribution in December. Meals for about 500 people are typically supplied; Connors reports that, over time, the iWealth Foundation has given more than $100,000 to fund the annual event.