Protecting clients with effective financial solutions
Do things that make sense, no matter what.
On a Mission
Hello! Welcome to Blackhawk Capital & Risk Management!
My name is Greg Poulos, President, and Founder. I am looking for people who see the financial world as I do. I am not looking to persuade people to make dramatic changes in their deeply held or inherited economic prejudices. I am looking to use my nearly 50 years of experience and knowledge in the financial services industry to help people solve real problems in a candid, clear, and comfortable manner.
Perhaps you are one of those people.
Greetings!
So, who is Greg Poulos?
Gregory J. Poulos is a financial services professional of nearly 50 years. He is a Chartered Life Underwriter and a Chartered Financial Consultant.
Starting as an agent in 1975, he rose to managerial and executive positions at major insurance companies including Mass Mutual, Manulife, and John Hancock. He also served as an insurance, estate, and retirement planning advisor to Merrill Lynch, Prudential Securities, and their advisors, as well as at point of sale with their clients.
Greg’s own network of clients extends across the country. Long concentrated in the San Francisco Bay area, Greg has expanded his practice nationally and now internationally. To accommodate the increasing demand for his client-oriented style of doing business, Greg established Blackhawk Capital & Risk Management in 2022.
Critical Observations
Since 1975, when I entered this business as an eager 23-year-old fresh out of graduate school, I watched with dismay, and in many cases participated in, disturbing changes in the financial services industry and its distribution system. Here is a short summary of my observations.
Our institutions have been failing us
In every sector of society, people have been losing confidence in the institutions they have relied on since living memory and longer. This has happened because our institutions are failing to serve the needs of the people they are supposed to serve, as they once did, and because they are refusing to adapt to a world which has changed dramatically and continues to do so at an exponential rate.
Communication has changed
Not since Guttenberg invented the printing press in 1450 has there been such a fundamental transformation in the way people communicate with each other. The internet profoundly changes the way people interact, allowing direct, instant communication anywhere in the world. This ability will democratize the financial services distribution systems to the great benefit of the consumer. Industries which adapt will survive and prosper; those which don’t, won’t, or can’t, will die.
The industry needs rebuilding
The financial services industry will get wired, get real, and become the professional industry it has been struggling to become since the 1929 stock market crash. But first it must purge itself of its antiquated, parasitic distribution system. Blackhawk Capital & Risk Management was founded to hasten this process. Together, the internet, the consumer, and the independent professional financial consultant will replace the existing system.
Cui Bono? (Who Benefits?)
The primary objective of the existing system is to provide for itself; benefits to the client are secondary and sometimes coincidental. Your broker or agent cannot serve two masters. They are generally employees and must serve the firm first. As such, they are told what to say, what not to say, what to sell, and when to sell it. You must break free and partner with a consultant who is free to think, speak, and act freely on your behalf; someone who is beholden to only you.
There is a better way…
Win by Not Losing
Blackhawk Capital & Risk Management is committed to your financial security and freedom.
We report and you decide. We guide you through the process, but you make all the decisions without any cringy sales pressure or, what should be, embarrassing “closing tactics.” Our watch words are confidence, clarity, comfort, and candor.
Very Disturbing Questions
People get wrong footed in their financial planning not so much by having the wrong answers, but by asking the wrong questions. Here are some of the right questions you should ask yourself.
- If much of what you know about annuities was wrong, when would you want to know?
- How are you controlling market risk now?
- How much money are you willing to lose?
- What is your % return target?
- What return on investment would satisfy you?
- Why are you in the stock market, and what are your expectations for being there?
- How much of a loss can you afford?
- How will you recoup these losses?
- What % of your retirement account can you afford to lose without affecting your lifestyle?
- Why give control of your account to a Wall Street broker or own companies you know nothing about?
- When do you want to retire from the stock market?
Your move.
Get in touch to schedule an introductory call.