Michael Hollis, Financial Planner & Coach

Michael Hollis, Financial Planner & Coach CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® Professional | Financial Coach
Founder of

A financial plan only changes your life if it leaves the page!

09/04/2026

What’s your wealth for? - Ep17

What’s your WEALTH for? Enjoyment, generosity, choice, stability, courage, impact, identity, legacy...?

Leave a comment about the story you’re weaving with your wealth.

✅ Ask your own financial question and get a direct response for free by visiting https://www.tapestryfp.com/ask

✅ Schedule a no obligation intro call by visiting https://www.tapestryfp.com/

Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellancehollis/

This is not investment advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement.

09/03/2026

The investments are the easy part.

Part of my job last week was chasing down a roofing contractor. Nobody puts that in the brochure.

It's so ingrained that a financial advisor is an investment person so most people don't connect with the broader value in the things a financial planner does.

1. Meeting with an estate planning attorney to discuss a client's financial picture and the approach for implementing the plan.

2. Analyzing spending to see where there are leaks in the boat.

3. Investigating whether the current insurance policies are the right fit for goals that have changed since they first bought them.

These are just a few of the tasks from last week.

It's one thing to recommend what you should do. It's another to share the load of knocking it out.

Michael Hollis, CFP® is an investment adviser representative of TapestryFP. The firm is a registered investment adviser and only conducts business in jurisdictions where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration as an investment adviser is not an endorsement of the firm by securities regulators and does not mean the adviser has achieved a specific level of skill or ability. This is not investment advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement.

09/01/2026

If you're exercising your giving muscle, you don't have to give the IRS a tip.

But I get it. You may feel conflicted.

Consider this framework:

1. Decide in your heart what you want to give, not reluctantly or because you think you have to. Start with the people and causes you care about most and don't pay attention to what gets you a deduction.

2. If there's something that you want to give to where it makes sense to do it monthly rather than annually or you don't get a tax deduction, get that going and automate if possible.

3. Park the rest of your planned tax-deductible giving in a high yield savings account and let it sit. You could set aside "X" amount per month out of your income for this purpose.

4. Come November, give the amount equivalent to what's parked to qualified charities, but send appreciated stock, ETFs, mutual funds, etc. from your brokerage account instead of cash. Pick shares held more than one year and have gone up in value the most since you bought them.

*There is some work to be done to pull this off and every institution and charity works a little bit different. That's why you need to start early. And if the amounts are low, the juice might not be worth the squeeze.

5. Then take the cash you parked in your HYSA and buy those same shares again in your brokerage account, which resets your cost basis. You legally avoid paying income taxes on the gain you had (if you were to sell and send that cash) and theoretically more goes to charity.

Most people I talk with who give faithfully write checks or give cash and never consider the gains in their brokerage account.



Michael Hollis, CFP® is an investment adviser representative of TapestryFP. The firm is a registered investment adviser and only conducts business in jurisdictions where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration as an investment adviser is not an endorsement of the firm by securities regulators and does not mean the adviser has achieved a specific level of skill or ability. This is not investment advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement. The tax information offered by is general in nature and should not be construed as tax advice. Always consult a tax professional regarding your specific tax situation.

08/28/2026

If you’ve built a big net worth, you have permission to stop over-optimizing.

You have better things to spend your time on.

08/27/2026

You may not know this, but I love and play A LOT of Sudoku. Just ask my wife.

I’ve worked my way up to Grandmaster Level 320. Of course, I’m trying to finish the puzzle as fast as I can with no mistakes. Best mistake-free time ever is 3:14. I invariably do make mistakes on some harder puzzles, undo a move, and keep working the puzzle.

Sudoku is a lot like financial planning. It has a very specific set of rules and one definite solution to each puzzle. It’s never the same.

Financial planning is also a puzzle of sorts and I think that’s why I find it so interesting. There are certainly rules (tax & estate law, compound interest, income/spending dynamics) but everyone’s situation is different.

The main difference is that there is never one true solution to a financial planning puzzle. That’s because there are so many variables and subjective decisions that are based on who you are, what you are trying to accomplish, and your unique world view.

Plus, I’m not trying to solve your puzzle as fast as possible and get to Grand Master CFP® Professional Level 320.

I’ve intentionally slowed down my planning process and delayed offering recommendations (unless it's truly urgent, which happens) so that I make sure I understand all of your difficult to quantify and express beliefs, values, and actual goals (which are often hiding behind numbers like saving $1M or retire at 62)

Plus, slowing down, avoids giving you advice that is incomplete or actually wrong. I don’t know everything there is to know about every financial topic, but I do know how to apply all that I know to guide you to the best answer for your given situation.



Michael Hollis, CFP® is an investment adviser representative of TapestryFP. The firm is a registered investment adviser and only conducts business in jurisdictions where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration as an investment adviser is not an endorsement of the firm by securities regulators and does not mean the adviser has achieved a specific level of skill or ability. This is not investment advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement.

08/26/2026

What’s your WEALTH for? Enjoyment, generosity, choice, stability, courage, impact, identity, legacy...?

Leave a comment about the story you’re weaving with your wealth.

✅ Ask your own financial question and get a direct response for free by visiting https://www.tapestryfp.com/ask

✅ Schedule a no obligation intro call by visiting https://www.tapestryfp.com/

Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellancehollis/

This is not investment advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement.

08/25/2026

Parents, The life you live with your money will go a lot further than the words you use with your kids.

They're watching how tight you are with money, how much you work, whether you can say no to something you want, and whether the limits you set for them apply to you as well.

That last one challenges me, because it's easy to have rules for thee but not for me, and kids catch on to that.

A lot of the learning about personal finances happens when you let your kids in on a real decision, so talk out loud about why you're not buying the thing, or how you landed on the used car instead of the new one.

And when you tell them they have to cover part of something they are clamoring for themselves, follow through, because sticking to your word teaches more than an allowance does.

Lessons that stick rarely come from a lecture.



Michael Hollis, CFP® is an investment adviser representative of TapestryFP. The firm is a registered investment adviser and only conducts business in jurisdictions where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration as an investment adviser is not an endorsement of the firm by securities regulators and does not mean the adviser has achieved a specific level of skill or ability. This is not investment advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement.

08/19/2026

A will, powers of attorney, and health directives sit near the bottom of most people's to-do list, even though almost everyone agrees they're important (guardianship too if you have minor children). I see this gap consistently, and haven't fully figured out why something everyone agrees on gets put off so commonly.

It's one of the more loving things you can do for the people you'd leave behind. They know exactly what you wanted instead of guessing, and your estate plan is not dictated by default state law.

I've also worked with people who built significant wealth and have high incomes but didn't get around to the estate planning they needed. They could have taken steps years earlier to protect those assets from estate taxes, but didn't, and the tools available now are fewer and less optimal.

The earlier you plan, the more choices you keep.



Michael Hollis, CFP® is an investment adviser representative of TapestryFP. The firm is a registered investment adviser and only conducts business in jurisdictions where it is properly registered, or is excluded or exempted from registration requirements. Registration as an investment adviser is not an endorsement of the firm by securities regulators and does not mean the adviser has achieved a specific level of skill or ability. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement. This is not legal advice.

08/17/2026

What’s your wealth for? - Ep14

What’s your WEALTH for? Enjoyment, generosity, choice, stability, courage, impact, identity, legacy...?

Leave a comment about the story you’re weaving with your wealth.

✅ Ask your own financial question and get a direct response for free by visiting https://www.tapestryfp.com/ask

✅ Schedule a no obligation intro call by visiting https://www.tapestryfp.com/

Follow Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellancehollis/

This is not investment advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement.

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