Meet The Team
Leonard Williamson
Managing Partner
As the Managing Partner of Apex Wealth Advisors, Leonard is known for offering his clients a unique approach to retirement income planning.
Growing up, Leonard worked at his dad’s insurance brokerage. Through his experiences, he learned to be self-sufficient and independent from a very young age. After graduating summa cum laude from Loyola Marymount University, Leonard began his career in 2015 working for an alternative investment firm. After 5 successful years working as wholesaler, Leonard went through an experience that changed his view on the role he currently played in the financial services industry.
“I always wanted to keep work and family separate. In 2018, at the Thanksgiving table, my father mentioned a piece of advice he had received from his CPA, and I was in complete disagreement. It was at this point I decided to sit down with my dad and review his current retirement plan. I will never forget the look of disappointment in my dad’s face when I told him, that at the age of 73, after working tirelessly for 50 years, his current retirement plan could leave him without income by age 90.”
From that moment on, Leonard has made it his mission to help people plan for a successful retirement. Leonard is passionate about the work he does at Apex Wealth Advisors and believes with the right strategy in place, clients can achieve financial independence in retirement, free from concerns about outliving their income.
“Today, my team and I educate and empower retirees and pre-retirees throughout three offices in California and Arizona to help them make better decisions with their hard-earned dollars.”
Jacob Schisler
Chief Compliance Officer
Jake has been around the retirement planning industry his entire life as his father has been helping clients for over 35 years. From a young age, Jake began to take an interest in the world of retirement planning. In time, he grasped the concepts of how the family firm truly helped their clients. He was hooked. Jake wanted do whatever he could in the office to help out which was usually a bit of filing and keeping the clients entertained as the office mascot. As Jake got older, he initially acquired his Insurance license and began primarily focusing on Social Security optimization tactics.
Feeling that Social Security is an important yet under-served topic when building a retirement plan; he then spent the majority of the next five years concentrating on providing Social Security workshops to the public. Wanting to provide more of a holistic approach to retirement planning, he continued to expand on his education by obtaining his Investment Advisory license and became a fiduciary. Jake’s passion is to turn scattered investments into a successful retirement plan built out to help families achieve their goals.
“It is eye opening seeing how many family's portfolios truly don't match their objectives. My favorite days in the office are spent teaming up with our clients implementing the plan that we built together.”
Joel Barlow CPA, CFP®
Wealth Advisor
Joel has been in the financial services industry for the past 30 years after graduating from the University of Alabama in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science in accounting. After practicing as a Certified Public Accountant for the first decade of his career with Wilkins, Miller, P.C. in Mobile, AL, Joel assumed the role of Chief Financial Officer of a multi-state holding company called IPC Industries, Inc., also based in Mobile. For the next dozen years, Joel worked for several different large investment companies (Hartford Life Insurance Co. and Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P., e.g.) to assist with securing capital for their lines of investment products. In that role, he acted in an advisory role to many financial advisors/planners across the southeastern United States. He received his Certified Financial Planner designation in 2011 and has been assisting individuals and families with holistic financial and tax planning for many years. He is married to his wife, Kara, and has had the benefit of being the father of two lovely young women, MaryGlynn, 18 and Tanner, 16. Joel is very involved in the Big Brother/Big Sister program. When not working or volunteering, he enjoys watching the Tide play, taking his trusted dogs, Oliver and Shiloh, on hikes at Red Mountain Park, and playing golf.