The People Behind the Platform

Our Team

Connecting consumers with trusted, qualified financial advisors who can make a real difference in their lives.

Our Mission

"Connecting consumers with trusted, qualified financial advisors who can make a real difference in their lives."

We provide confidential, complimentary access to qualified, independent financial advisors who can help with your investment, tax, retirement, and estate planning needs.

Meet the Team

Jim Eckel

Jim Eckel

CFP®, CLU®

Founder & CEO

Jim founded FinancialAdvisors.com with a vision originating from 1986, when he was a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch. He purchased the domain in the mid-1990s as an independent CFP® to create a platform where qualified advisors could connect with consumers seeking their expertise — without relying on traditional networking. Based in San Clemente, CA.

Dennis Eckel

Dennis Eckel

Business Development Manager

Dennis brings a particular mindset to expanding the FinancialAdvisors.com network. He spent his career in commercial real estate — including roles with Prudential Commercial Real Estate and Merrill Lynch Commercial Realty — before running his own property management firm. That experience provided him with valuable insights into business cycles, relationship-building, and what it takes to develop an asset. He applies that same dedication to forging strategic partnerships and strengthening engagement across our advisor network. Dennis is based in San Clemente, CA.

Joshua Cogar

Joshua Cogar

CMO / CTO

Joshua Cogar has spent the last decade serving clients nationally through his agency, Advisors Marketing & SEO. He has held roles ranging from registered representative to non-profit Executive Director to fractional C-suite. Josh also served Carnival Cruise Line as Director of Systems & Technology which launched a new cruise line, Fathom Travel, earning more than 40 billion media impressions in under a year. He is a graduate of George Fox University, where he played NCAA Division III soccer. Josh lives in Las Vegas with his wife Joy, and spends his free time mountain biking and improving his golf game.

Luigi Giacomin

Luigi Giacomin

B.S. Mechatronics · M.S. AI for Business

Lead Developer

Senior QA Automation and Full-Stack Engineer with 8+ years building enterprise-grade systems, now leading development of FinancialAdvisors.com's Astro and Cloudflare Workers/D1 platform with AI-assisted, agentic engineering workflows. Technical expertise spans TypeScript, Python, Java, React, and AWS. Based in San José, Costa Rica.

Stefano Ramirez

Stefano Ramirez

Software Engineer

Full-stack engineer with 5 years of web development experience, specializing in modern, AI-native platforms — building FinancialAdvisors.com's Astro and Cloudflare Workers/D1 architecture using agentic AI development workflows. Deep expertise in React and TypeScript, and a self-proclaimed Cloudflare enthusiast. Trilingual Costa Rican with Italian heritage, based in San José, Costa Rica. Husband, father, and enthusiast of cooking, gaming, and tinkering.

AI-Powered

What is FAVIR™?

Financial Advisor Visibility Index Rating — an AI-native scoring system that measures how well a financial advisor's profile is structured for discovery by AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

How the Agentic System Works

1
Rule-Based Indexes

Ten profile dimensions — credentials, bio depth, specialties, AUM clarity, fee transparency, online presence, and more — are scored 0–100 using verifiable rules.

2
Specialized Sub-Agents

AI agents independently evaluate qualitative signals (writing quality, positioning clarity, thought leadership) that rules alone can't capture.

3
Synthesizer (Claude)

An orchestrating AI agent combines all indexes, weighs them, and produces your composite FAVIR™ Score plus bespoke, prioritized recommendations for improvement.

The Value for Financial Advisors

  • AI Discoverability: When someone asks an AI assistant for a financial advisor, FAVIR™-optimized profiles are more likely to be surfaced.
  • Actionable Roadmap: Instead of generic advice, you get ranked, impact-scored suggestions specific to your profile gaps.
  • Competitive Benchmark: Understand how your profile compares and where targeted effort yields the highest score gain.
  • Future-Proof Positioning: As AI becomes the primary discovery channel for professional services, a high FAVIR™ score is a durable competitive advantage.

Book a Demo

See how Financial Advisors helps you get discovered by AI. We'll walk you through the platform in 20 minutes.