Milestone Financial Group makes major move from downtown square

Milestone Financial Group is celebrating a new milestone.
On Feb. 18, the financial planning firm moved from the Red Oak downtown square to its new location at 610 Senate Ave. Dan Miller, who purchased the firm with his wife, Denise, in 2013, said there were a couple of reasons they decided to leave the square and move to a newly-constucted building.
“Ihe biggest thing is that our staff has grown over the years and we’ve outgrown the facility a little bit. That’s a big part of it. We’re now a staff of nine, and we’ve added some additional lines of business with tax planning and tax preparation. Another reason was that my wife and I have owned the business now for 11 years, and I’ve worked in this business for 21 years. We decided that it was time to make an investment,” Miller said. “While we do already have a large investment in the community already, we wanted to make another investment. We had an opportunity to purchase a plot of land up there that had never been available in the location where we have built. We decided that we wanted to build a new facility and move and give back to the community by making the investment. Finally, we have kind of outgrown our ability to have as much privacy for our clients as we’d like just with the design of the building we were formerly in. Now we’ve all got separate offices up there with dedicated meeting rooms that’ll all be insulated and soundproofed.”
Miller said they’re hopeful with such a wide array of establised businesses on Senate Ave. that they’ll maintain a high customer traffic and that they will boost the appeal of Red Oak by building another attractive location in the area. Still, there was a lot of work that went into getting the site ready for building.
“This is the only lot up here in this development that had never been developed, so we did have to bring in electricity, sewer, water, everything into it, but that meant we could build it like we wanted it. A lot of landscaping’s involved with that as well, as everybody will see once it is completed. There’ll be a pretty substantial block wall out front, but it’ll be very nice once it all is done.”
While the move has officially taken place, Miller said there are a few leftover construction details that have yet to be completed.
“We’re not near done, as people can tell when they drive by and look at it. We’ve got a lot of landscaping that’s got to be done yet this spring and more parking lots that’ll be poured out front and a sign that’ll be up,” commented Miller.
Miller said the newly-constructed location will feature a lot of other amenities for the staff and clients to enjoy.
“We’ve created an event space in the back, so we are now going to be able to have events. If we want to have a client event, we can do that there, or a party, whatever we want. We created a 24 by 30 room in the back that has garage doors on it that we could pull a couple of vehicles in if we had to. But the idea is that we could open those garage doors up and we could spill out into the parking lot if we wanted to have an event for our clients”, advised Miller. “The building is all on one level, of course. We will have more room that way. The building itself is 48 by 80. It’s going to be, it’s very well insulated, which means it’ll be more energy efficient than this building. It’s more exposure, more room, and more opportunities for our staff. Another thing that will be nice is having our own dedicated parking because we had to use off-street parking on the square. Now we have our own dedicated parking lot.”
While unable to go into details, Miller said that while they’ll be moving from the square, the firm’s location won’t be empty for too long.
“We like the downtown square, and we want nothing but the best for the downtown square. While we can’t disclose the new owners, this building is sold and there is going to be some new people moving into it.  I think everybody will be pleased with the new owners and tenants.”
Milestone Financial Group is now in it’s 62nd year of operation, and Miller feels building new will add to the firm’s longevity.
“We have a young staff, and our goal is that we want to make sure that we have it in place for our business to go forward for a long time to come here in Red Oak and beyond. A new building will definitely make that happen. While things will be touch and go for a little while immediately after we move, we will be fully operational in the business as of Feb. 18,” stated Miller.
In addition to the construction, Miller said they’ve also had to work out moving everything from the square, which he said has been fairly easy.
“It’s been a big undertaking, but I will tell you that we’ve got a great staff and that’s been the key. They’ve done such a good job to help us get everything ready. We’ve got a lot of good young people here who have strong backs and are hard workers. And so that’s been good. We’ve done all the moving ourselves. I have an enclosed trailer that we move stuff up there and we bought some new stuff that was delivered to the site,” explained Miller.
One of the aspects of the project that Miller has been most pleased with is the fact that the majority of the construction was done with local people.
“We’ve used almost all local contractors, and local suppliers. Our concrete, our builders, our electricians, our data. We used Dovel Refrigeration to bring the appliances.  We have worked with around 40 contractors, and of those, there’s only about three or four that are not right here in Southwest Iowa, and the only reason for those hires were because we just couldn’t find anybody else to do those things. I’ve been my own general contractor with this as well. I’ve been in charge of this entire project. I designed the building, did the layout, everything, and having those local general contractors that I personally know and that know each other and are able to work together and to help me through this building project has been huge. They’ve been so great to work with. I feel like by using our local people that it’s another great way for us to support our local community and give back.”
Miller was also pleased that the project wasn’t hampered by the after effects of COVID-19, when supply chain issues came to the forefront.
“The costs weren’t too bad and the supplies are there. We really didn’t run into shortages too much. The biggest thing for us is the cost of interest for borrowing any money to build the project has gone up, but actually finding the material was simple and the cost of materials is average to above what it was before COVID, but it has come down some,” said Miller.
While the timeline didn’t work out quite as he expected, Miller said he felt the project ran fairly smoothly.
“I started working on the concept to do the building about probably about June of 2023. That fall, I started making drawings. I took my original drawings to an architect. And he did some of the initial drawings and we went back and forth. We also purchased the lot in the fall of 2023, but the actual first dirt was moved around March of last year. For most of 2024, it’s pretty much consumed me. Because we had all local contractors that knew each other, that made a lot of difference. We did have a few times where we had to wait on a certain part. We were just ready to start pouring concrete and it started raining. So that put us back, but in general, I would say it ran smoothly. My only wish would be that the project was completely done now as opposed to mostly done,” Miller commented.
Miller also commented on why he decided now was the time to build new.
 “I’m 61 years old, but I don’t plan to retire anytime soon, neither myself nor my wife do. A lot of people buy farms or other properties as investments. Us building our new building is our investment in the future and for the firm and for the town of Red Oak,” stated Miller.
Miller said it’s been a very rewarding experience to be able to help the citizens of the Red Oak community over the years.
“I have always enjoyed the puzzle. I love to look at things and break them down, do the math. Also, I love helping people. Growing up, I watched my father as a great example of how he helped people and I always took that to heart. I really like making a difference in people’s lives. I’ve been doing this for 21 years and I’ve had a lot of good opportunities to really see where some of the advice that I have given or our firm has given someone has really made a difference in their life. That’s very rewarding,” Miller explained. “The other really huge reward of being in this business is having the opportunity to mentor young people. Everybody that has worked underneath us has grown in their careers and their experience and their maturity of understanding our business. That is a huge reward for me. I love to see other people do well.”
Miller said that mentoring has really helped the staff of Milestone Financial Group be something of a family.
“We really like to treat our employees like family and our clients as family. It’s not all about the money. It’s about raising people up. We’re Christian people and we believe that you do the right thing for people, it comes back to you twenty fold. You lift people up. A lot of our employees have family of their own, and we encourage them to be at their kids stuff and events, because that’s what it’s all about. It isn’t about sitting here and making sure we can squeeze the last dime out of everything,” stated Miller. “It’s about people living their best life. That goes not just for our employees, but also with our clients. We believe in helping them design financial plans that will help them to also live their best life with the resources that we help them grow and the plans that we help them make.”
Miller encouraged anyone who hasn’t considered financial planning for the future to take the plunge.
“We think it’s paramount, and I’m not just saying that because we are in this business. One of the things that we talk about in our firm is the seven pillars of financial planning. Every piece of your financial life is intertwined. And so a lot of times people will be concentrating on an insurance problem or their investments or their retirement or their taxes. What a lot of people don’t realize is each one of those areas all are intertwined. So in other words, the net result of one of them is going to affect the other pieces of your life. Maybe they’re trying to save all they can and they’re doing it all in a 100% tax deferred account. Well, that’s great. It’s growing, but they’re also going to have to pay taxes on that in the future. How is that going to affect their entire retirement picture? If they’re not going to use all their money, how are they going to leave it to their kids? Also, do they have insurance protection in place to protect those resources for their kids or to provide for themselves if they would have a long-term care stay or something like that? It’s the way that your entire financial life is intertwined is where we see the value in working with a financial advisor,” advised Miller. “When I say a financial advisor, I’m talking about a financial planner, not just somebody that invests your money. I’m talking about somebody that does the planning. We are a financial planning firm first. I am a certified financial planner. I have a fiduciary responsibility and everybody that works under me because I as CFP have a fiduciary responsibility as well to make sure that we always work in everyone’s best interest.”
Miller added he believes it’s never too early or never too late to get started with financial planning.
“We have people that come to us right before they retire and they’ll say they wish they would have done something or looked at this. I understand that, but I always say we can’t go backwards, but let’s make the best moves we can from this point forward. As for whether it’s too early, your financial life changes so much throughout your life. Maybe you’re getting ready to get married, maybe have kids. Their financial planning is a lot different than mine. But there’s things that a newlywed couple or somebody that are new should start planning for and there are things that they need to think about. Also in our firm, we work with a lot of business owners. There are all sorts of financial plans we can do for them depending upon their stage in business, be it a new business starting out or a mature business, and steps for transitioning out or setting up a successor. Retirement planning and financial planning in general is going to look different depending on what stage you are in your financial life,” explained Miller.
While the move itself has taken place, Miller said citizens and clients can expect some special events in the near future.
“We are going to have some open houses and things like that, but we’re going to delay those a little bit till the weather gets nicer and we get all the parking lot out front done. Hopefully, they’ll start working on our retaining wall in March. We’ll be sending out as many updates as we possibly can be it on social media, or client email. We’ll be  keeping people informed. Also, we  invite people to come up and check us out, have a cup of coffee, meet with us. Our business has evolved over the years. We’ve added the other additional lines of business. We have offices here, and in Oakland and Omaha, and we work with people in 23 different states right now. We have clients all over the country. The majority of our clients are right here in Southwest Iowa, Southeast Nebraska, and Northwest Missouri. We love working with families, small businesses, rural non profits and rural organizations, for-profit organizations as well. A big focus for us is trying to make sure that folks in rural communities around here have access to these types of services. Part of the reason that we recently purchased a tax firm and brought a tax professional in was because we see in some of these rural communities, some of these services are not as plentiful as they used to be. We didn’t really do that to try to compete with anybody. It was more to fill a void and enhance the services that we provide for our best clients,” Miller said.
Learn more about Milestone Financial Group at milestonefinancialgroup.com.