Dave Muela

Dave Muela didn't take the traditional path into financial services, and he's grateful for that.

Growing up as the youngest of seven kids, Dave learned early what it felt like to be on the outside. He was picked on for being Italian and for how he looked, which made him sensitive to seeing anyone else pushed around or taken advantage of. That theme followed him throughout his life.

After high school, Dave went into business with his big brother's roofing and siding company. It didn't work. They couldn't work together, and his brother took advantage of him financially more than once. When Dave told his father he wanted to go to college, his dad said he'd only help if it was law school or med school. Dave said neither. His dad said he wasn't paying. So Dave worked the docks at UPS through the night while studying statistics, finance, accounting, and marketing during the day. He learned that if you want something badly enough, you figure out how to get it.

Dave spent 20 years at UPS, moving from engineering into operations management. When he left in 1999 to help people with their money, he thought he'd finally found an industry where he could protect people instead of watching them get taken advantage of. Instead, he found the same pattern he'd seen his whole life: big companies manufacturing products and jamming them into people's situations, advisors trained to peddle those products, and a media machine using fear to drive clicks.

He watched a good friend pass away, and because of bad financial advice, the son lost everything. Dave decided that would never happen to anyone who came to him.

For over 26 years, Dave has worked with business owners, entrepreneurs, executives, and professionals who've spent their careers building wealth and are now looking for what comes next. He specializes in retirement planning, investment income strategies, estate planning, and executive benefit programs like deferred compensation and bonus plans. His approach starts with understanding what someone is trying to accomplish, identifying the threats they might not see coming, and building strategies around their actual situation instead of whatever product is being pushed that quarter.

Dave's practice is built on the idea that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. He's spent decades protecting people from the three bullies he saw when he entered the industry, and that mission still drives everything he does.