About Us
History
Established by Rick Kahler in 1983, KahlerFinancial Group was the first client-centered, fee-only financial planning firm in South Dakota. In 2010, Wealth Manager, a financial trade magazine, recognized Kahler Financial Group as the largest financial planning company in a seven-state region.
Location
Millions of people visit the Black Hills of South Dakota each year for a variety of reasons. A number of our out-of-state clients specifically come to meet with us for their annual review. We have custom designed our Rapid City office to be a private and comfortable place for our clients, and the office and staff are equipped with the latest technology.
Meet our Staff
Click on a photo below to learn more about our talented financial consultants in Rapid City.
Lilly Vaughn, FPQP™, Client Service Specialist
Rick Kahler, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ / Certified Financial Therapy-Level I™ / Certified Financial Transitionist® / Certified IFS℠ Practitioner
What Training Do Kahler Financial Group Advisers Have?
It’s easy to set up in business as a financial planner. About all it takes is printing some business cards that say you are one. Becoming a Certified Financial Planner™, however, requires investing in a substantial amount of education and making a long-term commitment to our clients and our profession. Anyone looking for financial advice in South Dakota should seek out professional money and wealth advisors in Rapid City who have earned the right to put CFP® after their names.
However, at Kahler Financial Group you get even more than a CFP® professional. Many of our financial consultants in Rapid City also obtained master’s degrees in financial planning, investments, or finance. They’ve received even more specialized training in finance, real estate, asset protection, investments, and appraisals of real estate and businesses. They hold additional designations in these areas of specialty including the CFT-I™, CeFT®, ChFC®, and CCIM® designations.
Continuing Financial Education
For each of the above designations, as well as for Kahler Financial Group’s membership in NAPFA and the FPA, certain Continuing Education requirements must be met. Continuing Education keeps our advisors current and continuously exposed to innovative financial ideas and solutions. Our team of financial consultants in Rapid City not only meet the minimum requirements to maintain our professional designations, but we regularly far exceed them.
KFG Core Purpose, Actions, and Values – What We Really Do
Click on the “+” below in each box to learn more about our vision and core values.
Our Core Purpose
Our core purpose is, “to transform the financial and emotional well-being of people.”
Any successful organization has a clear vision of purpose. Whether it’s Apple, Google, Zappos, or BackCountry.com, great companies know who they are, what they do, and how they do it.
You may think we are investment advisors or comprehensive financial planners. While that is true, it’s an incomplete and limited view of what we do. To compress our purpose down to its essence, it’s three words: transform, well-being, and people.
Transform. Successful financial planning often requires someone to adopt new attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. For these to affect a person’s long-term financial health, they must be permanent rather than short-term changes. What’s needed is transformation, which is defined as a major change in form, nature, or function. An example of transformation might be someone learning to reframe a money script that has blocked their ability to save for the future.
Well-being. This is a multidimensional word that includes financial, emotional, and physical aspects of people’s lives. Our purpose focuses on the financial and emotional well-being. Why emotional? Psychiatric studies show 90% of all financial decisions are made emotionally. Separating financial health from emotional is almost impossible. It is hard to have one without another.
People. Finally, notice our purpose refers to “people” rather than “clients.” In order to foster transformation and well-being for our clients, we also need to be concerned about affecting, for the better, the lives of those who work for us.
Our Core Actions
How do we accomplish transforming the financial and emotional well-being of people? We have identified eight guiding principles that help us accomplish this.
1. We put clients first.
2. We guide people to reach a destination in an unfamiliar area.
3. We give sound advice and creative solutions.
4. We constantly educate ourselves.
5. We personally practice what we preach.
6. We take clients only where we have gone ourselves.
7. We are serial innovators.
Our Core Values
Finally, behind the “what” and “how” of what we do is the “why.” These are our core values, the touchstone of what brings us together as a group.
- Purposeful Relationships – meaningful and intentional emotional connections with our clients and each other
- Integrity – being honest, having strong moral principles, being whole and in balance
- Well-Being – state of being happy, healthy, and prosperous all areas of our lives; financially, emotionally/spiritually, and physically
- Continuous Improvement – our processes, our client experience, ourselves
These values are non-negotiable. Even though our purpose or principles may change over time, the values will not change.