Houston First Financial Group

05/02/2026

On the latest retirement planning front: “gray divorce” is becoming a bigger issue for older couples, and the financial implications can be complicated.

I was recently mentioned in a ThinkAdvisor article by Rob Burgess discussing the tax and retirement issues that can come up when couples split later in life.

This is exactly the kind of topic we talk about often on Money Matters — because retirement planning is not just about investments. It’s also about taxes, income, Social Security, pensions, healthcare, estate planning, and making sure the plan still works when life changes.

Thanks to Rob Burgess and ThinkAdvisor for including my perspective.

Article here:

For advisors, retirement accounts, home sale exclusions and Social Security benefits are all worth considering.

04/23/2026

Christopher Hensley, RICP®, CES™, a Houston-based financial advisor and host of the Money Matters podcast, announces his first book, Digital Kaizen: Voice-First

04/22/2026

The hardcover just dropped.

And for a limited time it's available
at the launch price of $14.99 — before
it moves to full price.

If you've been waiting for the version
you can hold, highlight, and hand to
someone — this is your window.

Digital Kaizen is now available in
all formats:

✅ Ebook
✅ Paperback
✅ Hardcover
🎧 Audiobook — coming very soon

📖 Link in the first comment.

09/27/2025

🚨 Can AI actually make financial advisors feel more human—not less?
That’s the bold idea Robert J. Sofia, CEO of Snappy Kraken, shares in this week’s episode of Money Matters.

We break down what “human connection at scale” really looks like in today’s digital-first world—and why it might be the future of financial advising.
Here’s what we cover:

✅ Real AI implementation vs. ChatGPT tinkering
✅ Using data to personalize at scale (without losing your voice)
✅ How one firm doubled AUM from $20B → $40B with smarter marketing
✅ Why compliance + data strategy must come first
✅ How segmentation and timing can turn cold leads into real clients

💡 Key takeaway: AI isn’t here to replace financial advisors—it’s here to help you deliver trust, relevance, and authenticity consistently.

If you’ve ever wondered how to scale trust without losing your edge, this episode is your blueprint.

🎧 Listen now: Click Below

🔁 Tag a fellow advisor who’s “AI-curious”

🚨 Can AI actually make financial advisors feel more human—not less? That’s the bold idea , CEO of , shares in this week’s episode of Money Matters. We break down what “human connection at scale” really looks like in today’s digital-first world—and why it might be the future of finan...

09/05/2025

🎙️ Episode #334 – The Man Behind the 4% Rule: Bill Bengen on Inflation, Flexibility, and a Richer Retirement

What if the greatest risk to your retirement portfolio isn't a market crash—but inflation?

In this episode of Money Matters, Christopher Hensley, RICP®, sits down with Bill Bengen, the creator of the legendary 4% Rule for safe withdrawal rates. Now, 30 years later, Bengen reflects on what still holds up, what’s changed, and how retirees and advisors can adapt withdrawal strategies in a world of sticky inflation, volatile markets, and longer life expectancies.

Whether you're planning your own retirement or advising clients on income strategies, this conversation delivers clarity, context, and practical insights from one of the most influential figures in modern financial planning.

💡 Topics Covered:

Why inflation is the true enemy of retirement

How Bengen’s thinking on the 4% Rule has evolved in 2025

The importance of flexibility in withdrawal rates

Guardrails, gifting, and building a more human retirement

Why diversification now includes 7 asset classes

A behind-the-scenes look at how the 4% Rule research went viral

📘 Get the Book:
A Richer Retirement by Bill Bengen — available now on Amazon and major booksellers.

🎧 Host: Christopher Hensley, RICP®, CES®

🎙️ Episode #334 – The Man Behind the 4% Rule: Bill Bengen on Inflation, Flexibility, and a Richer Retirement What if the greatest risk to your retirement portfolio isn't a market crash—but inflation? In this episode of Money Matters, Christopher Hensley, RICP®, sits down with Bill Bengen, ...

08/15/2025

Thirteen people have been charged in a $5M elder fraud scheme targeting 400+ seniors through fake “grandparent” calls from the Dominican Republic, officials ...

08/05/2025

Your best prospects aren’t ghosting you—
They’re just talking to ChatGPT first.

That’s the reality I unpacked with Brian Thorp, founder of Wealthtender, on the latest Money Matters podcast.

Today’s client journey starts in an AI chat window—before a referral is called, before a website is visited, before your name is ever Googled.

The first impression happens without us in the room.
So the question is: Do these tools even know you exist?

We break down:

✅ The rise of “AI Overviews” and how they’re reshaping advisor discovery
✅ Why schema markup and off-site SEO may matter more than your homepage
✅ What smart advisors are doing right now to stay visible in an AI-first world

🎧 Listen to the episode

📬 P.S. Want more behind-the-scenes thinking like this?
I share tools, stories, and early access to the Digital Kaizen for Financial Advisors book in the comments 👇

🔍 Why Your Next Best Client May Never Call You First — And What To Do About It In this episode of Money Matters, I sit down with Brian Thorp, founder and CEO of Wealthtender, to unpack a radical shift in how clients find financial advisors. AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews are ...

07/28/2025

Most advisors I know don’t hate prospecting.
They hate how prospecting makes them feel.

Like they’re chasing instead of connecting.
Like they’re guessing instead of guiding.
Like they’re becoming someone they never wanted to be just to grow the business they love.

When I sat down with Eden Ovadia and Victoria Toli, the founders of FINNY, something clicked.

They didn’t build another spray-and-pray marketing engine.
They built a relationship matcher.

An AI tool that learns who you actually connect with—and quietly helps you find more of those people.
Not louder. Not faster. Just… more you.

And it works, because it was built with deep respect for what we do as advisors:
👂 Listening well
🧠 Thinking clearly
💬 Communicating honestly
🤝 Building trust, one human at a time

If you’ve ever felt like your lead gen tools were costing you the very thing your clients value most—your presence—this conversation might speak to you.

🎧 Money Matters Episode 332 is now live
📖 Part of my Digital Kaizen for Financial Advisors series—a living project about growing with grace in a fast-changing world

→ I dropped the full link and early-access invite in the comments.

Because scaling your practice shouldn't mean shrinking your humanity.

What if the real problem isn't that advisors hate prospecting—it's that the system we gave them to do it is broken? Most tools treat advisors like marketers. Spray-and-pray. Mass messaging. Cold lists. But the best advisors? They don’t want to scale spam. They want to scale presence. That’s wh...

07/25/2025

What if the AI you feared... actually gave you more time to be human?

In this week’s Money Matters Podcast, I sat down with Arnulf Hsu, founder of GReminders, to talk about an AI tool that quietly returns 500 hours a year back to financial advisors.

This isn’t about replacing advisors—it’s about removing the cognitive overload that gets in the way of showing up fully for your clients.

We talk about:
✅ Voice-aware AI that handles admin, follow-ups, and note-taking
✅ Real-world compliance safeguards advisors can trust
✅ The path from automation to presence, not just productivity

For anyone curious about how invisible tech is quietly reshaping our work lives—and what that means for the future of client relationships—this one’s worth your time.

🎧 Listen to Episode 331 here: [insert link]
📥 Want tools like this in your inbox? Check the comments to join the Digital Kaizen email list.

500 hours. That’s how much time some advisors are getting back—every single year. Not from working harder. From removing the invisible work that's slowly draining them. In this week’s Money Matters Podcast, I sat down with Arnulf Hsu, founder of GReminders, to talk about what happens when AI b...

07/24/2025

The audio sounded perfect. Too perfect.

That’s what Whitney Joy Smith—one of Canada’s top private investigators—told me when we sat down to talk about AI, trust, and the future of voice.

In this special edition of the Money Matters podcast, we go deep into one of the most uncomfortable truths in today’s tech landscape:

You can no longer assume a voice recording is real.

Whitney shares real-world cases where AI-generated voices nearly destroyed lives, and how investigators are adjusting—not just their tools, but their intuition.

And here’s where it connects to financial advising:
In a profession built on trust, how do we navigate a world where even authenticity can be faked?

We talked about:

The rise of deepfake scams and how to spot what’s missing

The emotional cost of over-automation in human relationships

Why the future isn’t about out-teching fraud—but out-humaning it

This episode is part of the research series for my upcoming book, Digital Kaizen for Financial Advisors—where we explore small, sustainable shifts that keep relationships at the heart of everything, even in an AI-driven world.

🎧 Give it a listen. It’s only 13 minutes, and it might change the way you think about your own voice, your own presence, and how you show up.

👇 Join the Digital Kaizen email list in the comments for early access to interviews, tools, and insights from the book.

The audio sounded perfect. Too perfect. That’s what Whitney Joy Smith—one of Canada’s top private investigators—told me when we sat down to talk about AI, trust, and the future of voice. In this special edition of the Money Matters podcast, we go deep into one of the most uncomfortable truth...