Welcome back to Diary of a Financial Advisor! In today’s episode, we dive into a powerful intersection of professional leadership, personal passion, and philanthropy. I’m joined by a remarkable guest: Lena Nebel, CEO of BFG Financial Advisors. Lena Nebel is a trailblazer in the world of financial planning, known for her dedication to serving engineers and corporate executives, her history as the first female president of the Financial Planning Association of Maryland, and her deep commitment to mentoring women in finance.
In this conversation, Lena Nebel and I explore the meaning behind her latest mission—raising $100,000 for Alzheimer’s research by dancing in the highly anticipated 2026 Memory Ball in Baltimore. We talk about the personal impact Alzheimer’s has had on her family, the professional realities of cognitive decline for clients and their loved ones, and the emotions that come with stepping far outside your comfort zone to advocate for a cause close to your heart.
We also touch on the ongoing growth at BFG Financial Advisors, including the opening of a new office in North Carolina and the elevation of new leaders within our firm. The episode is filled with candid moments, laughter, a little friendly competition, and heartfelt reflections on how financial advisors can—and do—make a lasting difference beyond the numbers.
5 Key Takeaways:
Personal Motivation Drives Philanthropy: Lena Nebel shared how her family’s experience with Alzheimer’s, including multiple relatives affected by the disease, fuels her commitment to raising awareness and funding for research.
The Overlap of Personal and Professional Lives: As advisors, we’re called to support clients through all phases of life, including the emotional and financial impacts of cognitive decline. Lena Nebel highlights how deeply these issues affect both our families and our work.
Courage to Step Outside Comfort Zones: Lena Nebel discusses pushing past nerves (and her own comfort zone) by committing not just to fundraising but also to dancing in front of 800 people—emphasizing that taking bold steps can have powerful results for both personal growth and charitable causes.
Strength in Team and Community: The culture at BFG is one of mutual support, innovation, and growing leadership. Lena Nebel celebrates the team’s accomplishments, including new offices, leadership roles, and a commitment to growth that benefits clients and communities alike.
Inspiring Others to Give and Participate: The episode issues a friendly challenge and invitation—support Lena Nebel’s fundraising to unlock surprise reveals and exclusive content, proving that fun and philanthropy can go hand-in-hand.
Join us for this inspiring episode to learn how a leader’s passion and personal story can drive real change, and how teamwork and generosity can create momentum for impact—on and off the dance floor. Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share our podcast with anyone interested in transforming both their financial future and their community!
Eric Brotman [00:00:02]:
This is Eric Brotman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Growth Officer of BFG Financial Advisors. Welcome to our webinar series, Diary of a Financial Advisor, where our BFG team talks about current events in financial planning and shares their professional journeys and their passion for helping others succeed. Today, I’m pleased to be joined by our CEO, Lena Nebel. She’s the CEO of BFG Financial Advisors and is known for her focus, hard work, and dedication. She works primarily with engineers and corporate executives, prioritizing a deep understanding of each client’s needs. Her passion in finance began early, starting with lemonade stands. I love that. And leading her to a career in financial planning.
Eric Brotman [00:00:40]:
In 2007, she became the first female president of the Financial Planning Association of Maryland, and she’s since become a mentor and advocate for women in finance. This April, Lena is dancing in the 2026 Alzheimer’s Memory Ball downtown Baltimore. It’s a cause deeply meaningful to her. She’s committed to raising $100,000 to advance Alzheimer’s research, honoring those affected by the disease, and helping fund progress toward treatment and prevention. Lena, welcome to Diary.
Lena Nebel [00:01:09]:
Thank you. I’m excited about this topic. We should have done this on a dance floor. No, that would have been interesting.
Eric Brotman [00:01:15]:
No, I have told the folks at the Alzheimer’s Association that if they are willing to do an event that is American Idol, I will enter. I might even win. I might even win.
Lena Nebel [00:01:26]:
You would win.
Eric Brotman [00:01:26]:
I might even win. And I’d wear costumes and I’d be done. All the things.
Lena Nebel [00:01:30]:
That’s a Friday night for you.
Eric Brotman [00:01:31]:
That is a typical Friday night for me. I’m happy to do it. But so we have so much to talk about. I mean, first and foremost, you’ve stepped into a job I know pretty well because I did it for 22 years. How’s that going?
Lena Nebel [00:01:44]:
It’s going really good. I was telling somebody the other day that I feel like I’m at a different level of busy. But I still have the same, I guess, role that I had before. But it just, you know, it takes a different form from the standpoint that it resides with me. It, you know, I can see that pressure and the stress that you and other leaders in our industry have had. And but as you know, we have an amazing team and the support with clients and everybody. It’s, it’s, it’s been exciting. It’s been a lot of fun.
Eric Brotman [00:02:20]:
Well, I want you to know that I am feeling a lot less stressed, so I appreciate this very, very much. I’m feeling less stressed partly because I get to do the things that I love every day. And one of them is to talk to all of our incredible advisors and really highlight the things people are doing. And right now, what you’re doing is deeply personal. It goes way beyond your role in the organization. So Let’s talk about the why first and then we’ll talk about the what.
Lena Nebel [00:02:48]:
Sure. So I attended my first Memory Ball a couple years ago. BFG was sponsoring the event and we had a client that was dancing. We had some other clients that were volunteers and I’d never been to an event like that before. And it hit me on an emotional level because my grandmother, my mother’s mother, had suffered for a long time from Alzheimer’s and I saw firsthand what my mom went through. In dealing with that. My husband’s grandmother also went through it, so we witnessed what my mother-in-law had to deal with. It’s not just the emotional side, it’s the financial burden as well.
Lena Nebel [00:03:30]:
We’ve had an uncle who has passed away from a form of Alzheimer’s, and I have a cousin right now who has early onset. So, you know, I think there’s a lot of us that know somebody who has been impacted. So from the personal level, you know, it’s there. But professionally, we deal with this every day with clients, with aging parents in how to plan and protect for if there’s a situation where they, they need additional resources from some type of cognitive decline. So from that standpoint, I’ve always been a supporter of the organization and I had a weak moment where I said, I’d love to do dancing. And then it just went from there and I, I could not back out at that point. I, I would argue that was a moment of strength that, um, um, you know, when I, when I do my practices, I, I keep thinking if I’m just spending 2 minutes to perform in front of 800 people to raise significant funds and awareness for this cause, it’s absolutely worth it.
Eric Brotman [00:04:35]:
Well, a couple things come to mind here. First of all, the Alzheimer’s Association asked me if I would dance. Now, anyone who has seen me dance realizes you could get injured being anywhere near me. It’s a disaster. Um, and so in order to get out of having to do this, I actually stepped down as CEO. That’s actually the real reason. The real reason this happened was I’m too afraid to dance for 2 minutes in front of 800 people, or like 8 people. So there’s that.
Eric Brotman [00:04:59]:
Uh, you are actually the second person from our company who’s done this.
Lena Nebel [00:05:03]:
Yeah, I think it’s great.
Eric Brotman [00:05:04]:
Years ago, Brent Weiss, our dear friend, uh, and longtime colleague, was one of the dancers in this, raised a bunch of money, finished second in the voting. We think it was maybe trumped up, but he finished second in the voting. Not to put any pressure on you to win this whole thing, but it is a great event and we’re going to have the whole company there. We’re not only raising money, but raising awareness, which I think is important. And it is so in line with our brand.
Lena Nebel [00:05:30]:
It absolutely is.
Eric Brotman [00:05:31]:
I mean, this is of all the things that families go through,. And let’s face it, all families have different kinds of traumas and challenges and difficulties and so forth. I don’t know of too many more daunting than what could be an excessive or extended period of cognitive decline for a loved one. I mean, the idea— I’m blessed that both my parents are living, but they’re not— sorry, guys, they’re not young anymore. And so therefore, You know, the idea that maybe one day they wouldn’t recognize me or that they wouldn’t be able to take care of themselves is actually really something I’m aware of. And I saw it with grandparents too. So it’s, it’s, it’s tough. So how can people who want to support you help? Because obviously we have— because of this webinar series, we can, we can bribe people who make gifts with all kinds of potential opportunities to, to get video of you dancing, maybe a practice session.
Lena Nebel [00:06:28]:
There could be. There’s a lot of options.
Eric Brotman [00:06:30]:
She won’t tell me even what song she’s dancing to, but she says, I’m gonna love it. This could be the time. You could tell everybody now.
Lena Nebel [00:06:37]:
It could be the theme. Every year is a theme, and this theme is Battle of the Bands. So you have to pick a song that is by a band, and then you pick your dance. So I have my dance and my song lined up, and this is the perfect time to reveal it. It is. This could be the moment where I share everything, and only two people only know— my son and one of my co-workers knows my, my dance.
Eric Brotman [00:07:02]:
You told a co-worker?
Lena Nebel [00:07:03]:
I did. Not your husband? No, he’s going to be surprised as well. So my goal is $100,000 to raise, and I am almost halfway there. So if one of your listeners gets me to that $50,000 mark, I will share with them the $50,000.
Eric Brotman [00:07:20]:
Totally. Just not the $100,000. You get halfway, you’re going to share.
Lena Nebel [00:07:23]:
You get halfway, you get, you get to know what song I am doing. Now, the more we get, I will absolutely share videos because there are videos of me dancing.
Eric Brotman [00:07:33]:
That’s awesome.
Lena Nebel [00:07:34]:
There’s a lot of videos of me dancing. Not the most coordinated at the time, but we’re working on that and we’re getting there. But it’s a lot of fun.
Eric Brotman [00:07:43]:
I feel like I’m Jimmy Fallon and I’m interviewing Taylor Swift right now and I like— I have the inside scoop. This is such fun. All right, so we’re at $43,000. If we get to $50,000, Lena will do the big reveal of the song, not the dance, but the song. Will you tell me?
Lena Nebel [00:07:59]:
Just to that listener, just to the person who gives me— not to everybody, because otherwise it’s for everybody.
Eric Brotman [00:08:05]:
Yeah. All right.
Lena Nebel [00:08:06]:
We’re going to— So this is what I will say. I will tell you that this is going to be unexpected for a lot of people. I am not just going outside of my comfort zone because I’ve never did a ballroom dance in my life. But the song choice, I think it’s going to excite and surprise everybody because nobody would ever think of pairing this band to a ballroom dance.
Eric Brotman [00:08:34]:
So for the record, I’m going to go out and say that in deference to me, you chose my favorite band, and you’re doing ballroom dance to an Iron Maiden song.
Lena Nebel [00:08:44]:
1,000% correct.
Eric Brotman [00:08:45]:
I am so excited. “Run to the Hills” will be a big hit.
Lena Nebel [00:08:48]:
Reach out to the band site and fan forum forums.
Eric Brotman [00:08:52]:
So what’s, what’s next for BFG and what’s next for you outside of the, obviously, the big event here in April? What’s, what’s next? What’s on the horizon this year?
Lena Nebel [00:09:00]:
I feel like it’s just, uh, a never-ending list of possibilities is the best way to say it. Um, as many of our, our listeners know, we opened up another location in North Carolina, which has been fantastic, and being able to meet all these new relationships and everything has been exciting. We’re continuing to grow and build our team, and we have a lot of leaders stepping up into the company. Claudia, one of the other advisors, has stepped into the chief investment role. So she— chief investment officer role. So she’s really been kind of taking the reins from that perspective and has really just built up that committee. Into what it is right now and just doing different webinars and everything. So supporting her and really just supporting everybody in kind of what they have as far as their different programs and plans of work for the year.
Lena Nebel [00:09:56]:
So there’s been a lot of excitement here with some renovations that we’ve done in the office. And like I said, just growing the team. It’s 2026 is— I’m excited. I am excited for April. To have this event and just have it get noticed with, as you said, we have the whole team coming. We also have clients and family and friends. So I’m gonna have a huge cheering section, which I’m excited for. But what I’m also excited for is I’ve actually come to love doing the dancing, all joking aside.
Lena Nebel [00:10:31]:
And wow, I could see that this being something that I wanna continue to pursue. After the ball in just continuing my lessons and doing showcases. And I never would have thought that that would be something to do, but it’s very exciting.
Eric Brotman [00:10:46]:
I have so many questions. I have so many questions. Like, does Joe know that he’s— is he the prince in this scenario? He’s not. That you are in fact Cinderella in this particular— I’m always Cinderella. Oh my goodness. Well, Lena, thanks for— thanks for taking the time. Uh, if we get to $50,000, I’m going to share it with the whole with the whole world. I think it’s the right thing to do.
Eric Brotman [00:11:06]:
And you heard it here first. I’m going to whittle it out of her. Somebody knows, we’ll beat them into a pulp and find out. But Lina, thanks for doing this.
Lena Nebel [00:11:12]:
Thank you for being able to share it. I appreciate it.
Eric Brotman [00:11:14]:
Oh, my pleasure. I’d like to thank everybody for watching today. If you enjoy our webinars, please subscribe so we can continue to be a part of your journey to financial freedom. We’ll be back in 2 weeks with our next entry in a Diary of a Financial Advisor. And for more great content and free resources, go to bfguniversity.com. We also encourage you to check out our podcast, Don’t Retire, Graduate, which releases interviews with remarkable guests on alternating Thursdays as well. For now, thanks for joining us. We’ll see you again in 2 weeks.
Eric Brotman [00:11:42]:
Take care, everybody. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC, Kestra IS, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC, Kestra AS, an Kestra IS, Kestra IS, or Kestra AS are not affiliated with Brotman Financial or any other entity discussed.