Kyle McBrien

Biography

Kyle McBrien is a Senior Financial Planner at Betterment, where he provides personalized financial advice and focuses on savings strategies to help clients achieve their financial goals. Previously, he worked at a large Chicago RIA serving high-net-worth clients with investment management, tax optimization, and wealth-transfer strategies. Kyle has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Fortune, and MarketWatch. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in finance and lives in Chicago.

Sessions

1. Live Financial Planning Workshop: What's Everyone Else Doing With Their Money? Presented by Betterment

   Thu, Nov 5, 11:15 AM – 1:15 PM CT

   Track Wealth

   You'd never book a planner just to ask "is this normal?" In this room, that's the whole point. 300 people in tech, at your level and the next one up, saying out loud what they're doing with their money and what they're still figuring out. Evol Greaves, Betterment's VP of Engineering, hosts and goes first with his own story: how his thinking about money changed as his career grew, and the questions he still has. Kyle McBrien, CFP, brings the five things he thinks about for everyone. Your questions go in at check-in and get asked for you, no names attached. Then small groups with the planners. Kyle's five: what a CFP always thinks about What comes first. Debt, emergency fund, 401(k), investing. The order, and why getting the order right matters more than getting the amounts perfect. Where to keep it. Which account for which money: cash, taxable investing, IRA. Matched to when you'll actually need it. Equity comp. RSUs, vesting, and the risk of sitting on a pile of your own company's stock. Taxes. Why the bonus or the RSU vest cost more than expected, what to do about it before the next one, and how charitable giving can cut the bill. Am I behind? What the benchmarks actually say for your age and income. Usually less alarming than the group chat. How the session runs Check-in. Everyone fills out a short intake on an iPad: name, email, title. Then scans a QR code to submit questions they'd ask a CFP for the live Q&A. Part one, ~45 minutes. Evol introduces himself and tells his career story: where he was in his career and what he was and wasn't thinking about in terms of money at each stage. He introduces Kyle to go over the five things he always thinks about and walks through the list above. Then Q&A. Evol opens with the questions from his own story. Betterment team member feeds him the audience's intake questions. Part two, Breakouts. Small groups form around each of the three CFPs for general questions. The 6-8 Betterment colleagues in the room float: they introduce themselves, talk about Betterment with anyone who asks, and keep the conversation going while people wait for a planner. Non-CFP staff don't give personal financial advice.