Bob Landaas first built a reputation for objective, plain-spoken investment advice as a frequent guest expert on a popular Milwaukee radio show. Then producers approached Bob to host his own weekly call-in program, through which Bob became a Saturday-morning fixture for nearly two decades.
Bob was drawn to investment advising as a way to use his economics training to help other people. He began his practice near the end of what was then the longest downturn since the Great Depression. Changes in brokerage regulations launched the discount brokerage industry and opened up alternative investment vehicles.
And Bob established himself independent from the dominant Wall Street firms.
“I started in the business to try to represent the best interest of clients, only to realize that at many firms they just wanted me to sell whatever product they were generating,” Bob says. “So after a short period of time, I realized that I was either going to represent the best interest of the company I was working for, or I was going to represent the best interest of my customers. I chose the customers.”
Bob’s renown as a financial educator expanded through his answering thousands of callers’ questions on the radio as well as nearly a decade as co-host of the nationally distributed Public Television show “Dollar Signs.”
The following that Bob had cultivated first by knocking on doors and calling on strangers then mushroomed with his TV and radio work. Not only did fans entrust Bob with their money, but several came to work with him as client-focused professionals seeking to contribute to Landaas & Company.
“I’m most proud of the people that I work with day to day,” Bob says. “As a result of our success, we’ve been blessed by being able to attract and retain some very qualified people that come from all walks of life. I’ve always thought that you build strength through diversity, and it’s the diversity that we look for that has made us a much stronger investment firm.”
Bob is a graduate of Millikin University where he majored in economics, political science and philosophy. He also studied economics at the University of Vienna, in Austria.
Bob has retired from actively managing client money. He and his wife, Kathleen, enjoy sailing on the Great Lakes and spending time with their grandchildren.