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Ben Batiste

Founder and principal advisor of Crestmark Wealth Group, a Colorado financial planning firm; Marine and Army veteran turned retirement and tax planner.

Sep 29, 2026

14:03
What did you do?
14:05
So what I did is I believed it all.
14:09
If anyone came to me with any sort of idea or expertise – I mean I remember there was another – it was Lance Corporal who was like, hey, I got these really expensive watches and sold me a watch.
14:19
I was like, let's do it.
14:20
I was so naive.
14:22
It's not even funny.
14:23
But – Where I'm teaching people now, especially if you don't know something, then you want to come into it as if you're learning with an open mind.

25 MINS LATER

40:02
What I
24:17
So could you tell us a little bit more about this?
24:20
Yeah, let me, I gotta be careful here because I don't want people to come in with the, what's it? The pitchforks.
24:26
Yeah.
24:27
Yeah, but I have this mentality and I think a lot of people feel this way, which is where the industry isn't really built for the average person.
24:36
It's not built for the client.
24:38
It's more or less built for the industry.
24:41
And I say that because if we look at just traditional advisors, and I do believe that things are changing.

16 MINS LATER

40:53
For those who decide that they are ready to... work with the wealth advisor? What should they look for in a wealth advisor to avoid those predatory practices to work with someone who is actually a good fiduciary, etc.? ?

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