A Shared Approach. A Commitment to Our Clients.
For nearly three decades each, Barb and Bryan have helped individuals and families navigate investing, retirement, and the many financial decisions that come with each stage of life.
Together, they lead Empower Wealth Management with a shared belief that great wealth management begins with listening, understanding what matters to each client, and building a strategy around their individual goals.
Their goal is simple: provide experienced guidance, personal attention, and a financial relationship clients can count on for years to come.
Barbara A. Million, CRPC®, BFA™
CEO - Managing Director | Private Wealth Advisor & Financial Planner
Barbara has been helping individuals and families navigate their financial lives since 1999. She began her career with Merrill Lynch in Florida, where she spent eight years, followed by eight years with Wells Fargo Advisors. She later transitioned to the independent financial advisory space and, in 2019, founded Empower Wealth Management.
That progression shaped the kind of advisor Barbara wanted to be, and ultimately the kind of firm she wanted to build.
After years with large financial institutions, Barbara believed wealth management could be more personal. She wanted the freedom to focus less on products and more on people, to truly understand each client's life, goals, concerns, and priorities before determining the right financial strategy.
Today, Barbara works with retirees, those approaching retirement, women navigating financial decisions or major life transitions, and high-net-worth individuals and families. Her areas of expertise include portfolio construction and investment management, comprehensive financial planning, retirement income planning, Social Security strategies, tax-aware investing, estate and legacy planning, and risk management.
Her investment philosophy is centered on purpose and personalization. Barbara believes every investment in a client's portfolio should have a reason for being there. Rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all model, she builds portfolios around each client's goals, income needs, time horizon, and comfort with risk, balancing the need for growth with thoughtful downside protection and adapting the strategy as life and markets change.
Just as important to Barbara is helping clients understand their financial lives. She has a natural ability to take complicated investment and planning concepts and make them easier to understand, giving clients the knowledge and confidence to participate in the decisions that affect their future.
For Barbara, being a financial advisor is ultimately about more than managing money. She genuinely enjoys solving problems, helping people navigate important life transitions, and seeing clients succeed. She wants every client to know that the person sitting across the table understands what matters to them and truly cares about helping them get where they want to go.
Barbara earned her bachelor's degree in business and finance from the University of Florida and earned her Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor™ (CRPC®) and Behavioral Financial Advisor™ (BFA™) designations through the College for Financial Planning.
Outside the office, family is at the center of Barbara's life. She and her husband have two daughters, Bri and Brooke; a wonderful son-in-law, Blake; soon-to-be son-in-law, Luis; two beautiful grandchildren, Jay and Lilly; and their much-loved fur baby, Pepper.
Barbara's philosophy remains at the heart of Empower Wealth Management today: put people first, provide thoughtful and personalized advice, and build relationships that last.
Bryan Dickey
President | Private Wealth Advisor
Bryan has been helping individuals and families navigate their financial lives since entering the financial-services industry in 1998. His approach is grounded in a simple belief: good investment advice starts with understanding the person behind the portfolio.
Just as important to Bryan is making sure clients understand their investments and the reasoning behind their strategy. He believes market volatility shouldn’t automatically lead to emotional decisions. Instead, he continually monitors portfolios, evaluates whether circumstances or fundamentals have changed, and makes adjustments when appropriate.
Bryan works with people from many different backgrounds and stages of life. What matters most to him isn’t a particular age or account size, but a genuine desire to save, invest, and plan for the future. He wants his clients to feel heard, understood, and confident that their financial lives are being managed with the same care and attention he would want for his own family.
His interest in investing and managing money began long before it became his career. His parents always thought he would become a banker, but Bryan ultimately found his calling in financial advice, where he could combine his fascination with investing with something he enjoys even more, helping people solve problems and make important decisions.
Before entering financial services, Bryan followed a very different path. He earned his B.A. in Criminology with a minor in Business from the University of Tennessee, completed pilot training, served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve from 1987 to 1995, and spent a decade as a flight attendant with American Airlines.
For Bryan, the most rewarding part of being a financial advisor is helping people turn their financial goals into a clear, actionable plan, and then being there to guide them through the decisions and milestones along the way.
Outside the office, Bryan is the proud father of two grown children, Jenny and Chris. He loves traveling, especially trips to the beach and cruises, and recently added a new adventure to his life: ranch ownership. These days, that also means sharing his time with four donkeys.