Retired financial advisor, Baltimore, Maryland, now focused on health, tennis, and golf.
Peter Maller grew up in South Africa, a long way from the Chesapeake Bay town where his story in the United States began. A tennis scholarship brought him to Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, where he studied business management, played two years as a tennis All American, and earned Academic All American honors twice. He graduated in 1990 at the top of his business class, then went on to Florida State University for an MBA, coaching the men’s tennis team there from 1990 to 1992.
After graduate school, Maller started Maller Wealth Advisors and built it over the next 35 years, working under broker-dealer Lincoln Financial Advisors. He arrived without a built-in client base or family connections in the industry, so the growth came from the ground up, one relationship at a time. Over the years, he led a team of 21 support staff while remaining the firm’s only business-producing advisor, and the practice eventually managed two billion dollars in assets. For 14 of his last 16 years in the business, he ranked as the top advisor in his firm.
Outside the office, Maller served on the boards of Washington College, where he was later named a Most Distinguished Alumnus, Garrison Forest School, the Baltimore Estate Planning Council, and the FSU MBA School. Now retired, he spends his time on tennis and golf as a member of Caves Valley Golf Club, treating this next stage with the same structure and intention he once brought to building a firm from scratch.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
I still wake up early, the way I did for 35 years in the business. Mornings start with exercise and a short stretch of quiet thinking before anything else gets my attention. I block out tennis or golf most days, then handle whatever board or family commitments are on the calendar. Retirement doesn’t mean the schedule disappears. It just means I’m the one deciding what fills it.
How do you bring ideas to life?
I write things down and put a date on them. Every year, going back to my years running the firm, I built out a plan for the year ahead, broken into daily, weekly, monthly, and semi-annual goals. An idea without a date attached to it tends to stay an idea.
What’s one trend that excites you?
I’m drawn to how much more people my age are paying attention to strength and mobility, not just cardio. Watching friends take up resistance training in their 60s, after decades of only running or golfing, has been interesting to see.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Setting goals across different time horizons at once. I’ve done this since my working days: a goal for today, one for the month, one for the year. It keeps the big picture from getting lost in the daily noise.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t wait for a natural network to show up. I came to this country on a tennis scholarship with no built-in client base, and the advisors who started ahead of me had family connections I didn’t have. Build the relationships yourself, and build them slowly.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you on?
I think the first year of retirement should be treated like a trial, not a finish line. Most people plan their exit from work in detail, then wing the next 20 years. I’d rather test a schedule, adjust it, and test it again.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Exercise before you touch your phone or your inbox. It clears my head and sets the tone for the rest of the day, whether I’m walking into a client meeting or a tennis match.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
I exercise and sit quietly for a few minutes before deciding what to do next. A clear head makes a better decision than a fast one.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
I set specific numbers for both assets under management and the depth of client relationships, then measured myself against both every year. Chasing only one of those two numbers tends to hollow out a business over time.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
I started without any natural market, no family of clients to inherit and no built-in network in the industry. Early years were slower than I wanted. I made up the difference by outworking the calendar and showing up in person more than anyone else was willing to. The lesson stuck with me for the rest of my career: shortcuts rarely hold up, and consistency does.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
A referral network built specifically for recent retirees who want to join nonprofit or school boards. So many retired professionals have deep experience sitting idle because nobody has connected them to the right opening.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
I keep a detailed digital calendar, blocked out by category: exercise, family, board work, golf. Seeing the week laid out in blocks, rather than a plain list, keeps me honest about where the time actually goes.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast you’ve gotten a ton of value from and why?
I come back to James Clear’s “Atomic Habits” more than any other book. The idea that small, repeated systems beat big one-time efforts matches how I built goals for decades, in business and now in retirement.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
I enjoyed a documentary on an aging tennis champion adjusting his game as his body changed. It mirrored a lot of what I think about now: adjusting the plan without giving up the standard.
Key learnings
- Building a business without an existing client base takes longer, but disciplined, consistent effort can close the gap over time.
- Setting goals across multiple time horizons, daily through annual, helps keep long-term growth and day-to-day execution connected.
- Treating retirement as a schedule to design, rather than an open calendar, can preserve the structure and purpose built during a career.
- Service on nonprofit and school boards offers a practical outlet for experience that might otherwise go unused after retirement.