Daniel M. Wheeler

Dan Wheeler passed away on Feb 19^th, 2023 a couple weeks shy of his 78^th birthday. His passing is a huge loss for the world. Dan had a profound effect on people and on the financial services industry as a whole. He will not be forgotten.

I first met Dan in 1993 when he came to ski in Crested Butte, Colorado. He was a Marine Corp Vietnam veteran with ramrod posture and a firm handshake. I was a ski/climbing bum with long hair. We hit it off immediately. Dan was easily the most passionate guy I’d ever met and he also seemed to be having more fun than anyone else. Dan told me he was pushing at the forefront of a “twin revolution” in the financial advice industry. He was educating advisors to switch from “active” to “passive” management, and to abandon commissions in favor of fees. I didn’t know much about finance at the time, but I was captivated by Dan’s vision and passion and so when he offered me a job I leapt at the chance. I was fortunate to have Dan as a close friend and mentor for the past 30 years.

Dan was the first person we asked to join our Advisory Board. We launched Vert to help financial advisors do more sustainable investing – and nobody knew advisors better than Dan.

Dan was acutely aware of advisor challenges because he was one himself. In fact, he was a commissioned broker in the 1980s before “leaving the dark side” as he called it, to start out on his own as a fee-only advisor. When he saw how much better it was, for both the client and the advisor, he set out to convert thousands over to the new model. Dan had a vision of financial advice as a profession not an industry. He knew what true advice could and should look like, and how different it was from the sales business it was back then.

He had an optimism that was palpable, unflagging, and contagious. The fact that 98% of advisors relied on commissions did not stop him. He wasn’t put off that advisors thought clients wanted expensive actively managed funds. It didn’t faze him that the industry would fight back with lies about performance. Getting advisors to completely change their revenue model and buy “no-load” passive funds for clients wasn’t impossible – it was the right thing to do. He truly believed the truth would win in the end, and he made you believe it too.

Dan changed the definition of what was possible. Having seen, firsthand, the revolution in financial advice that he spawned, I knew another revolution – this time toward sustainability – was possible. Without having lived it with Dan, I never would have considered starting Vert.

Vert benefited from Dan’s character. He never wavered on honesty and integrity. His mantras became ours. Always tell the truth. Always do what you said you would. And always put the client first.

Vert benefited from Dan’s perspective as an advisor. He was skeptical of the claims made by advocates of sustainable investing. He was our truth serum. He forced us to get better at accurately describing the trade-offs, the evidence, and what was known versus unknown.

Dan made friends with everyone, almost instantaneously. Once I asked him why he made such an effort to connect, even briefly, with everyone he encountered – the hotel staff, the security guard, the cashier, etc. He said, “everyone has an interesting story, and we can learn something from all of them.”

Well, I don’t know anyone with more interesting stories than Dan. And I’ve learned so, so much from them. Thank you for sharing Dan. Your stories and lessons live on in me, and in the thousands of people lucky enough to have met you.

–  Sam Adams