Mindful Asset Planning

The firm is led by four owner partners — Becky Sebastian, Nick Augustin, Mark Brice and Dan Heiar — who took over from founders Steve and Susan Zimmerman. Each partner is involved in client-facing planning and portfolio oversight, operating under a collaborative rather than siloed CIO model. There is no single named chief investment officer; decisions are integrated into the pathfinder planning process.

Mindful Asset Planning operates as a registered investment advisor serving multiple families, high-net-worth individuals and business entities, placing it closer to a multi-family office than a single-family office. However, it does not use the family-office label in its own materials and functions as a fiduciary financial planning firm. Its client base is broad enough that institutional allocators would treat it as an outsourced planning resource rather than a dedicated family-office vehicle.

The firm's public materials do not reference co-investments, direct private deals or alternative asset classes beyond standard portfolio construction. Its stated disciplines are retirement planning, tax strategy and estate planning, suggesting a focus on traditional asset management and cash-flow modeling. There is no disclosed participation in fund commitments, private equity or direct venture.

The firm sources through a combination of its established Twin Cities presence, its Money Rascals educational brand that introduces financial concepts to younger generations, and a content engine including articles, a newsletter and the Money Rascals Assessment. This creates a pipeline built on recurring educational engagement rather than referral networks alone, lowering acquisition costs and building loyalty before asset-based conversations begin.

Mindful Asset Planning operates as a pure fiduciary, with no disclosed broker-dealer affiliation and no proprietary product shelf. Its marketing emphasizes unbiased advice, a term that signals independence from commission-based incentives. This posture is structurally similar to fee-only RIAs that avoid conflicts from product distribution.

Money Rascals is a consumer-facing educational initiative that teaches financial behaviors to children and young adults. For an allocator or peer RIA evaluating the firm, it signals a long-duration growth strategy — building a future client pipeline by addressing financial literacy gaps in families before an inheritance event occurs. It also creates non-AUM-dependent brand equity, a structural hedge against fee compression in asset management.