CFP Wants to Help His 207,000 TikTok Fans Retire by 60

Nate Hoskin, founder of Hoskin Capital, has a whopping 207,000-plus followers on TikTok. But unlike many of the platform’s other stars, eccentric antics aren’t the way the financial advisor, 24, has grabbed attention.

“I want to portray myself as someone who’s an expert in his field rather than someone who’s trying to be entertaining just for the sake of getting more followers,” Hoskin tells ThinkAdvisor in an interview.

He is serious — about his online presence and about helping Gen Zers and millennials retire between the ages of 55 and 60.

“If you start [retirement planning] as early as possible, that’s where you can add the most value,” Hoskin says in the interview.

He himself is all about being early: By age 9, the precocious future financial advisor was already immersed in learning about finance.

By 22, he had earned the CFP designation. That was the same year — 2020, the height of the coronavirus pandemic — that he launched his own firm.

His availability and popularity on TikTok go far to begin the client bonding process even before a first meeting.

In the same age group as his target clients, Hoskin not only advises them but also supports their lifestyle. That helps to “empower them toward [reaching their] goals because we see eye to eye,” he says.

On TikTok, he focuses on financial education and often posts one new video a day.

A big hit has been flowcharts he creates to explain finance, such as “The Retirement Waterfall,” which illustrates the process of allocating assets among various accounts.

Hoskin spent fewer than three years working at a financial firm — Pacific Investment Research — before starting his own Denver-based company to serve folks in their 20s and 30s. No asset minimum is required.

Compensation comes from two-hour hourly-rate consultation fees, financial plan creation, portfolio management and a financial education membership program. Assets under management total $1.8 million.

ThinkAdvisor recently interviewed Hoskin, who was speaking by phone from Denver.

Eventually, he talked about long-term plans: expanding the firm but personally limiting his book of business to 100 clients whom he can serve “from their 25th birthday to their 90th birthday.”

Here are highlights of our conversation:

THINKADVISOR: You don’t post zany TikTok videos, as many people do. Why did you decide to use a serious approach?

NATE HOSKIN: I take my online presence very seriously. I want to portray myself as someone who’s an expert in his field rather than someone who’s trying to be entertaining just for the sake of getting more followers.

I’d rather have fewer followers who are really getting valuable content than having millions of followers simply because they think I’m interesting to watch.

How does being on TikTok help your business?

The No. 1 thing is that when people want to work with me; it’s almost like they already know me because I’m so available on TikTok [as if I'm] talking to [them] directly. It’s almost like we’ve had conversations in the past.

It creates a level of familiarity that allows people to feel very comfortable. In many cases, finances are a naturally uncomfortable matter.

So anything I can do to break down those walls and make someone a little more comfortable talking about these sensitive things, makes our conversation that much more productive.

But why are your videos so popular?

People in their early 20s who are on TikTok want to find people who are reliable sources of information that they can learn from.

I provide financial education and talk about a lot of things that I’m teaching my clients.

I filled that [education] niche early on when TikTok was becoming popular. That’s how people found me and followed me: They wanted to learn more about what I was sharing.

How did you build up to hundreds of thousands of followers?

If you have a video that a lot of people are commenting on and who are following you as a result, the TikTok algorithm [“gets”] that that’s a valuable video and will share it with more people.

So the more positive interactions I had with people, the more I created content that they wanted to see, and it was shown to more and more people.

What’s one of the main things you provide educationally on TikTok that’s had real impact?

I create flowcharts that amplify specific financial topics. For example, I have a chart called “The Retirement Waterfall”: Depending on the amount of money you’re able to save, what account should that money go into?

Following that chart, you can take a very broad topic and fit it into your specific situation.

That’s been a really big hit because it’s hard to visualize where all your money should go dollar by dollar.

You’re 24 years old and have had comparatively little experience as a financial advisor. Why would young people who are green about finance choose you as their financial advisor?

One factor is that we share many of the same interests. So to many of the people I interact with, I’m not only an advisor but also a supporter of their lifestyle.

When they tell me about their goals and aspirations in the near term, I help empower them toward those goals because we see eye to eye.

We really understand each other rather than their feeling that they have to explain themselves.

What do these younger people need most from you?

The main thing I do is early retirement planning. I talk about it early in the hope of [clients] retiring early, between 55 and 60 in most cases.

If you start that as early as possible, that’s where you add the most value.

When we do financial plans, we consider what it would look like to retire at 55 and then to retire at a more traditional age. We talk about the savings that would be required to do both.

We discuss what accounts to open and what investments to hold for the long term and also cash-flow planning that will allow clients to save and empower whatever they want to do in the future.

That includes budgeting and very granular-level cash flow.

What else do you cover?

Understanding what other things are fighting for their money: Are they saving to buy a house? Looking to get married?

So, what are the things in the near term that are going to get in the way of those longer term retirement goals?

Do you invest mostly in ESG-oriented companies?

We don’t try to create a portfolio entirely of [environmental, social and governance] investments. Instead, we include sustainable investing by making very specific investments that have ESG tilts.

For instance, we invest in the green energy transition, electrification of the grid and vehicles, as well as new [types of] batteries. We overweight the portfolio toward those innovations.

Do clients initiate the discussion of ESG investing?

It’s always requested to the point where it’s become a baseline of our practice because all the clients we work with say, “That’s a priority for me. I would never want to have a portfolio that doesn’t include those components.”

Do your clients know what differentiates you as an RIA from advisors who aren’t?

Fiduciary duty is the main thing we talk to our clients about because it’s really a contrasting difference. It drastically changes the way we work together.

Do you ever get inquiries from older generations?

We do have a number of clients who are in the later stages of planning for retirement; they mostly reach out [by way] of current-client referrals.

But we also have a couple [of clients] who found us on TikTok, which I find to be really cool.

In one of your videos, you allude to Hoskin Capital’s having gone through “ups and downs.” What happened?

In 2021, I had a falling-out with my co-founder, a disagreement about how the business would be run. We decided to part ways, but in doing so, we very nearly had to dissolve the company.

I realized that Hoskin Capital is my dream job and something that I want to make sure sticks around for the rest of my life.

So the firm is now back in full force and serving as many clients as we possibly can.

What brought it back from the brink?

Last year, we raised a little bit of money. We brought on a passive investor and used that money to build out a couple of new components. For instance, we added a membership that’s strictly geared toward financial education.

So now we offer not only financial planning and investment management but also a financial education service.

What turned you on to becoming a financial planner in the first place?

My uncle was a portfolio manager, and we used to talk about his work. He got me interested in finance when I was about 8 or 9. I talked with him a lot about investing at an early age and became very interested in personal finance.

By high school, I knew full well I would go into finance. So, by the time I hit college, it was only a question of what I was going to specialize in.

Skipping ahead, why did you want to open your own practice after being with Pacific Investment Research — your first job in the industry — only a little more than two years?

I wanted to work with people in my cohort. I wanted to serve people without an investment minimum. At Pacific, our investment minimum was $500,000. So I was unable to serve the people who I felt really, really needed help.

What’s your long-term goal for the firm and for you?

For Hoskin Capital, it’s to help as many people as possible become financially literate. Through education, I want to empower people who are very interested in finance and would like to become an expert with their own personal finance.

For those who would like to have a confident financial lifestyle but not do the investing themselves, that’s where we come in, managing the money and doing the planning.

Do you envision your firm expanding significantly?

Hoskin Capital could very quickly outgrow me: As an advisor at the company, I want to have a smaller number of clients that I can serve for their entire lives.

So, if I could have 100 clients that I serve from their 25th birthday to their 90th birthday, that’s where I would like to be.

That said, I can see Hoskin Capital expanding and bringing on new advisors with the same goals [I have]. My long-term goal is to help as many people as I can.

In one of your TikTok videos, I noticed an impressive set of big knives in your kitchen. Do you like to cook?

I absolutely love to cook. I studied under two chefs while I was in high school and college. I worked in restaurants, including my parents’ restaurant for a while.

What’s a favorite dish that you whip up?

I like to make a salmon and rice pilaf, and healthy diverse bowls combining, say, quinoa, garbanzo beans, zucchini and broccoli.

Cooking is my fallback: If Hoskin Capital kicks the bucket or, for whatever reason, I decide not to be an advisor any longer, I know I can always go back and work in a kitchen. And l’d love it.

But I’m really driven to being a financial planner. That’s what I want to do.

(Pictured: Nate Hoskin)