After more than a decade of growing alongside BFG Financial Advisors, Yanni Niebuhr is stepping into a new role as Chief Financial Officer. Having previously served as Chief Investment Officer, Yanni’s transition reflects our rapid growth, evolving leadership structure, and commitment to building for the long term.
In this interview, he shares why the move made sense, what excites him about the future, and how his focus as CFO will help BFG continue to scale without losing the culture and client-first mindset that define the firm.
You’ve held the chief investment officer position for a few years, and now you’ve moved into the chief financial officer position. What was the main reason for this change?
The team has grown. When I started, there were four or five of us, and now we’re in the mid-20s. Having Claudia take the reins on the CIO portion, which she has done for years, allows me to focus on the individual behind the scenes, company metrics, but still assist on the investment committee. Just made a ton of sense for allowing me to focus, company-wise and client-wise, and get back a little bit of my time for family life.
How do you feel stepping into this new role? Is there anything about the CIO role you’re a little sad to let go of?
The part I am a little sad to let go of is being the true point person of everything, but Claudia and I work hand in hand together on the investment committee. Moving forward, I’m focusing predominantly on the alternative space and meeting with many alternative money managers, including hedge funds, private markets, private debt, and private equity.
But we realized we’re in a rather large, fast-growth phase for the firm, and having someone who not only looks at the fundamentals and financials on the BFG side but also at different firms we’re looking to acquire or merge with is just as important. I’m looking forward to that part of the new role and being able to get under the hood and take the time to look at the financials of those companies, too. We needed to find time to free up my ability to look not only internally, but externally as well, and this change does that.
What does this transition mean for you, personally and professionally?
It has been exciting to grow with the company. That is one thing that is unique to us compared to others in the industry. Being able to have time and structure from the very beginning, starting as that unpaid intern to everything else that came after.
It has just been really fun and exciting, as well as unique, to see not only myself grow but also my colleagues and the firm grow. I am excited to take on the next challenge of this new CFO role and to grow it as we continue to expand.
You’ve been with the company since almost the beginning. What’s been the secret behind the growth and success?
We’ve been reshaping our industry, locally here and on a larger scale, without losing that sort of small office feel. That’s always been important to us. We don’t become one of those large, faceless companies where you’re calling into a call center.
That unique feel and touch and mentality of saying you are not a commodity, you are a person, you are a family, and that’s how you need to be treated–not only the financials and fundamentals of your world, but we also know what makes you a person and a human being. And that is the most important part of our world. And it’s also your world. So we want to make sure that that is never lost as we grow.
What strengths do Lena, Eric, and Claudia bring that you’re excited to build on and have in the leadership team now?
Lena is the organizer of chaos. Having known Eric for more than a decade, he can be tough to rein in. He’s a very excitable person. He’s very passionate. Lena is able to take that passion, take that excitement, and say, “All right, we know the vision. You have this idea, let’s go and create it, let’s run with it.”
She’s very, very unique. She’s an expert in her field, a woman in a male-driven industry, and can go out without an ego and run the company like no one I’ve ever seen before. I am extremely, incredibly excited to see what Lena brings to the table and how we grow over the next couple of decades.
Claudia is methodical. She is one of the smartest human beings I’ve ever met. The CIO role is getting a massive upgrade, in my opinion, from an expertise perspective, from a knowledge perspective, and from a detail-oriented perspective.
And then there’s Eric. The man’s a visionary. He took a chance on me and created what I believe is now a blueprint for all other advisors, all other firms, when there really wasn’t one. He’s always been a risk-taker. He’s always been someone who will put his money where his mouth is and say, “I will invest in you, not just financially, but with my own time to build you up, because we’re all better together.”
Now he’s able to take a step back from the day-to-day operations and deliver that vision to us with a broader perspective, bringing it not only in-house but also out into the world and bringing other firms into the fold to do the exact same thing.
In my opinion, we’re getting stronger because of the team that Eric has brought in and built. And now it is Lena’s job to turn around and grow into the next iteration of what it is. And Claudia is the first piece in that growth.
What do you see as the biggest opportunities for BFG in 2026 and beyond?
The biggest opportunity I see for BFG in 2026 is for our next generation of advisors. They are really getting the opportunity to grow their professional pedigree in a way that most people at their age and their stage don’t.
They’re not asked to sell stuff. They’re asked to take amazing care of clients, do incredibly detail-oriented work, and do the right thing. And in front of them, the sky is the limit. What I’m most excited for and what I think they’re going to see and grow into the next year is the opportunities that are created.
What have you learned the most so far in your time at BFG?
I’m learning something new every single day. That’s the fun part. I don’t think I could pick any one particular thing. Things are changing on a daily, hourly, and minute-by-minute. So what I’ve learned the most is that you always have to be learning.
You have to stay relevant in this industry, you always have to be educating yourself, and while you think you might know it all, you don’t.
What are you most excited about moving into the new year?
We’re stepping into our first true acquisition in the sense of having a second office. So what I’m most excited about is that new frontier and what that means for BFG. It’s kind of the new Wild West for us in learning how do you do that? How do you handle the deals? How do you handle culture? How do you handle how an advisor was doing something previously versus the BFG way?
The exciting part now is what I love about working in a smaller office, a smaller company: every day is different. Every day is unique.
In your 14 years at BFG, what’s the one client story that you always think back to when you think this is why I do this?
That’s easy. I was still an intern, I’d been here maybe a week. We went to a small retirement celebration at a client’s home. Nothing fancy. Both the husband and wife were retiring, and the husband took me out on their little pontoon boat.
He told me, “We’re able to retire, put our kids through college, and see them succeed because of the advice Eric gave us 20 years ago and because we listened.”
At the time, I was debating offers in New York and whether to go into investment banking. That moment crystallized everything for me. This wasn’t a wealthy family with luxury cars. They had a minivan. But the advice truly changed their lives.
My parents were a police officer and a schoolteacher. I saw how hard it can be to make ends meet. I realized I could make a real difference for everyday families, and that’s why I do this.
What does success look like for you as CFO?
Success for me in this new role is building the right guardrails for the firm: clear financial plans, budgets, and growth guidelines, and then making sure we actually stay within them. That means growing at the right pace, paying people well, hiring when we need to, and never putting the firm in a position where layoffs or burnout become the solution.
Over the next year, success looks like executing the plan we’ve put in place. We have a strong leadership structure. My role is to build the financial foundation, Eric grows the brand, Lena ensures operations run smoothly, and Claudia oversees the investment side. When all of that works together, the firm is healthy.
At the end of the day, I’m just one cog in a much larger machine, and that’s exactly how it should be.
From a client’s perspective, what is changing and what is not?
From a client’s perspective, nothing is changing, and if anything, they’re getting more of me. I’ve effectively been serving as CFO for the past two years, just after hours. Stepping into it formally actually frees up time.
By stepping away from the CIO role, I’m able to be more client-facing, more responsive, and more available to our advisors. That means more focus on what I do best: business planning, exit planning for business owners, and strategic advice.
So clients aren’t losing me. If anything, they’re getting a little more of me, which I think is a good thing.
You’ve spearheaded a lot of our most innovative initiatives, like Financial Planning for All. How does it feel to see them succeed and see the difference they make for people?
It means a lot to me. This is something that’s really near and dear to my heart. I didn’t come from a silver-spoon background, so the idea of building a firm that could truly serve people who are often turned away by traditional models mattered deeply to me. It took some convincing early on, but we believed this approach could both help people and be good for BFG, and it’s done exactly that.
What I love most is how scalable it’s become. By creating efficiencies, we’re not just growing our own firm, we’re changing other firms when we acquire them. Instead of saying, “If you don’t have a million dollars, we can’t help you,” we’re expanding who they can serve.
That means more advisors, more clients, and more communities being helped. We’re benefiting BFG, the firms we partner with, and everyday people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to this kind of advice. That’s what makes it so meaningful to me.
What’s the most important thing you want clients to know?
The most important thing that they need to know is that this is for them. The changes we’re making create clearer delineations of work, which allows us to serve our clients better.
When a company grows, there’s always the worry that it’ll lose that small office feel. One of Lena’s biggest mantras and mandates is to make sure we never get to feeling like you were a number instead of a household, a person, and a family we work with. Yes, the company is growing, but that small, independent, unique touch that you were used to is not going away and never will.