Hausknost has been providing financial planning to clients, as well as teaching a new generation of financial planners, from an outdoor deck overlooking the sand and water of Long Beach, Calif. From her office, she even has a view of the retired ocean liner Queen Mary I. A fee-only planner, Hausknost has been teaching financial planning at UCLA since 2008 and is entering her 15th year as a planner.

Huey’s “battle-tested” office gets hauled across the country behind a pickup truck. During the pandemic Huey managed over $100 million in assets as the owner of Victory Independent Planning, while working from a camper in the Great Smoky Mountains, South Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina. While it’s not the first time Huey loaded up his camper to work from the road—he’s been “office-free” since 2016 and crossed the country three times—he managed to safely visit some clients on his interstate travels, even while many advisors were holding videoconferences.

Some advisors found shorter respites from their home-offices allowed them to re-charge. For Metzger, the founder of Lifepoint Financial Design in San Luis Obispo, Calif., a combination of sunny coastal weather and a vacant hotel room was all the motivation required for a week-long West Coast “short-form sabbatical.” He currently manages $32 million in assets and has been working as an advisor for over 11 years. “That change in scenery gave me a whole new outlook on my practice,” he said.

The remote working possibilities of the pandemic have been “an eye-opener” for Burczyk, CEO of WrapManager, Inc., with $400 million in AUM. Typically based in Mill Valley, Calif., he booked a family-friendly ski rental in Lake Tahoe, Calif., from December through April, and even manages to squeeze in planning sessions while on the ski lift. After seeing the firm’s newly purchased and remodeled headquarters sit empty for the past year, Burczyk wants to set his employees up to “work from anywhere.”

As the true impact of the pandemic began to hit New York City a year ago, Ricks, founder of newly-independent Haystack Financial Planning and its $5.5 million in client assets, set out for Florida with his two young sons and wife. As lockdowns took hold and travel became more difficult, Ricks was soon managing clients while sharing a household with extended family. Taking advantage of Florida’s springtime weather, Ricks advised clients and held virtual meetings from an outdoor space overlooking the property’s garden.

When the pandemic took hold in early 2020, Bautista was crossing borders in Central and South America. Bautista, a pure planner who uses a subscription model has now been advising clients for six years, but he didn’t launch his firm, Grow With Joe, until July 2019. He initially planned to travel throughout Latin America, improving his Spanish while providing remote financial planning meetings with clients, but pandemic restrictions forced him to settle in Medellin, Colombia for 10 months last year. He’s since resumed his on-the-road advising, providing financial advice from the beaches of Mazatlan, Mexico.

A former U.S. Navy aviation officer, Hanson has been a financial advisor for 20 years, managing $50 million in client assets at EFS Advisors, based in Cambridge, Minn. Even before the pandemic, he was famous among his clients for meeting with them on board his “Floating Office,” a walleye fishing boat in northern Minnesota.

During the pandemic’s warmer months, the Floating Office was in full use, after which, he moved operations to the “Frozen Office,” a winterized ice house set atop the frozen Lake of the Woods, along the U.S.-Canada border. For Hanson, meeting with his clients outdoors during the pandemic was “a way to see what’s important to your clients,” he said. Even before the pandemic, it was a popular option. “We’ll be out there with their kids,” he said. “I’ll go back and visit my client, and on the mantel will be a picture of the fish we caught.”

Even robo advisors are taking remote working to new levels—or at least their employees are. SigFig VP and managed accounts' team lead Gubin decided to put the “remote” in remote working by purchasing and hauling an Airstream camper around the country. A seven-year employee of SigFig, last July Gubin gave up the lease on his apartment and opted to hold client meetings with all-natural Zoom backgrounds. He works normal office hours, with backdrops of Death Valley, Yellowstone and Glacier National Park on his video calls. For extra measure, he bought a drone and flies it over his new office, taking in the view. It’s all part of his vision of being in nature on a full-time basis.

Based out of Lewisville, Texas, Global Wealth Advisors, which manages $450 million in client assets, had just signed a new building lease as the pandemic took hold. With remote advising becoming the only form of advising, Kris Maksimovich (left, above), president and founder, departed the Dallas suburbs for the beaches of Jamaica, where he advised clients remotely.

Another member of Global Wealth Advisors, Kevin Curley II, traded the Texas landscape for something more island-like. He worked from Hawaii for a month, advising clients while overlooking the warm blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, Ben Murphy, also at Global Wealth Advisors, traded his suit and tie for something a little more country. With remote working and pandemic restrictions in place, Murphy relocated to his West Texas ranch, where he split he time between advising clients and looking after his cattle.