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Amplifying Business Growth By Constantly Honing Your Time Towards Its Highest-And-Best Use: #FASuccess Ep 500 With Michael Kitces

July 28, 2026 01:17 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Michael Kitces Podcast Preview Image FAS

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 500th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's milestone podcast is me, interviewed by Kitces.com Financial Planning Nerd Adam Van Deusen.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how I manage my time, starting with the exercises I undertook to better understand where my time was going (and how it might be used better), how I started delegating certain tasks to others so that I could focus on higher-value opportunities, and how I balance my responsibilities across the Kitces.com platform and other businesses I'm involved in with raising a family and still having time to get enough sleep each night.

We also talk about how I made the decision to forgo an opportunity to run a successful advisory firm to start the Kitces.com platform, how I gained the confidence to transition away from producing much of the content on the website by identifying key metrics that show whether team members who took it over are meeting our standards for quality, nerdiness, and relevance, and how I have intentionally managed the growth of my business (sometimes purposefully delaying new initiatives in order to 'digest' recent growth) to ensure it continues to operate in a sustainable manner well into the future.

And be certain to listen to the end, where I share how having well-defined core values (and interview questions that explore them) has helped attract high-quality candidates to the company when we look to hire, what's coming next for Kitces.com and for my own entrepreneurial journey, and how I view advisor success after recording 500 episodes of this podcast (and asking each guest what success means to them).

So, whether you're interested in learning about how I manage my various work and personal responsibilities, how to let go of key responsibilities as a business owner, or how to create a company culture and interview process that leads to better hires and a stronger team, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast.

20 Lessons From 500 FAS Podcast Episodes: What I Learned Building An RIA From Scratch In My 20s

July 27, 2026 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Practice Management

Building an advisory firm from scratch is extremely difficult in the best of circumstances. While CFP educational programs teach the knowledge of financial planning, they don't teach the practice of it – and there's remarkably little established training or curriculum. From figuring out how to find or attract prospects in the first place, to establishing and operationalizing your planning process, investment approach, and overall value proposition, while still finding time to not just work in the business but also work on the business – these are all challenges commonly faced by advisor-owners. Fortunately, though, we can learn from other advisors who have generously shared their experiences.

In this guest post, Jeremy Eppley of Silverstone Financial shares some of the key milestones of his growth journey, as told through the lens of lessons he gleaned and then applied to his practice while listening to all 500 episodes of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. He highlights 20 episodes as a starting point for those who want to binge on the most salient practice management lessons (and another 30 'bonus' episodes for those who want to go deeper).

Jeremy begins by underscoring the importance of key structural decisions you make about how to build the firm in the first place. The channel you choose (e.g., RIA versus broker-dealer) impacts what tools you can use or solutions you can offer to clients in the first place (Episode 192). Having a fee structure that generates enough revenue per client (by AUM, planning, or subscription fees) is essential to be able to scale in the future (Episode 244). But you don't have to get paid for everything you do, just enough to make the business work; thus the appeal of giving away parts of the initial planning process for free… because clients who really want and need your help will just ask you to implement for/with them, anyway (Episode 20)! All of which only works if you're careful in managing your own spending and lifestyle creep as an advisor (so your personal upkeep doesn't undermine the stability of the business, especially in its early years, per Episode 1).

Operationally, choosing the right platforms also matters, from selecting a tech-forward custodian (Episode 350), to truly making your CRM system the hub of the advisory business (Episode 272) – as does establishing the right team structure to leverage the lead advisor's time while deepening (and diversifying) how many different people the client has a relationship with at the firm (Episode 248). Recognizing that not every client will be the right fit for the firm, it's okay (for your business, and your personal health and sanity) to refer out the clients whose incoming phone call you're already dreading anyway (Episode 233).

This creates the space to home in on how you want to serve your particular clientele – and the more clear you are about who your ideal client is, the easier it is to create a specialized offering (Episode 173). Which in the case of Silverstone Financial, means giving clients confidence by running their numbers in two different financial planning software platforms (Episode 285), raising at least 12 months of cash each year to give them more confidence in the midst of market volatility (Episode 391), and partnering with an external tax preparation firm to offer clients a "one-stop shop", but not actually bringing the tax preparation in-house with your own CPA or EA (Episode 421)!

Ultimately, the key point is simply to recognize that while every advisory firm is different, almost every problem experienced by one advisor/founder has probably been experienced by another in a manner that is similar enough that we can all learn something by hearing each other's journey. Podcasts like the Financial Advisor Success series provide an excellent library of lessons to absorb, whether you're walking the dog, mowing the lawn, cooking in the kitchen, commuting, or exercising. Or as Jeremy puts it, "an hour and a half of walking [with the Financial Advisor Success podcast] … is a great way to pay down some of your health debt and build up some educational assets at the same time".

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (July 25–26)

July 24, 2026 02:00 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" – this week's edition kicks off with the news that Treasury Department officials this week expressed concern about various "tax alpha" investment strategies, including Section 351 exchanges, "box-spread" ETFs, funds designed to generate ordinary losses, and ETFs that trade in and out of other ETFs to avoid dividend distributions. While Treasury hasn't yet taken action to restrict any of these strategies (though one official said that "all the tools are under consideration" in addressing them), the comments highlight that certain tax-aware products and strategies that don't explicitly have the government's blessing might not be available for the long haul.

Also in industry news this week:

A report from Russell Investments puts the value of a financial advisor at 4.92% (a figure that exceeds many other estimates of this elusive figure), with an advisor's ability to keep clients invested during turbulent market periods identified as a particularly valuable service
CFP Board has submitted a proposal for public comment that would explicitly allow its Disciplinary and Ethics Commission to consider the expungement of a criminal conviction as a mitigating factor when considering an individual's fitness for certification

From there, we have several articles on retirement planning:

Fidelity's latest estimate of retirees' lifetime health costs jumped 7.5% this year to $185,500, though the fact that many of these expenses are often spread out over the course of a retirement could make them more manageable outlays to plan around
Why dental expenses can be an underestimated part of a retiree's budget and how advisors can help clients evaluate potential solutions to mitigate them
How advisors and their clients can balance the relative unlikelihood of experiencing an extended long-term care event with the potential costs if one does occur when it comes to saving for and/or insuring against this contingency

We also have a number of articles on client communication:

How advisors can handle a client's 'hot' investment idea tactfully and in a way that demonstrates respect while keeping them on track to meet their investment goals
While portfolio diversification is a core tenet of many advisors' investment strategies, clients might have a different understanding of what it actually means for their investments
How creating a communications matrix can help advisors organize the different types of client communications they produce during the year and better meet particular clients' needs

We wrap up with three final articles, all about technology and modern society:

While hybrid workplace arrangements appear to represent a 'sweet spot' between working in the office full time and fully remote work for many employees (with potential productivity boosts for their employers as well), experiences can vary significantly based on an individual's unique circumstances
How the rise of algorithmic-based recommendations could be driving real-world cultural trends (and leading some individuals to spend significant time waiting in lines)
Why "skill nostalgia" can develop when technological innovations lead to a reduction (or even elimination) of certain occupations, and how this isn't necessarily a modern concept

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

The Client Engagement Trap And Balancing Touchpoints Vs Rapid Responsive Service: Kitces & Carl 195

July 23, 2026 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

Kitces & Carl Ep The Client Engagement Trap

In the time between review meetings, advisors are often busy doing work for clients (such as portfolio analysis or reviewing insurance needs). This cadence of work is crucial, but it’s also often invisible, especially when no action is needed. The antidote for many advisors is some sort of communication between meetings – from birthday cards to phone calls to email newsletters. Yet this may be met with a lukewarm-at-best reception from clients, leaving advisors to wonder… what sort of communication touchpoints (if any) actually make a difference to clients?

In this 195th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards discuss how to choose the method and frequency of client touchpoints. There is a balance to be struck: if an advisor under-communicates, then clients may not know if or how to contact an advisor between meetings. On the other hand, overcommunication can quickly drown an advisory team’s capacity as a client base grows.

The latest Kitces Research on Advisor Productivity suggests that successful advisors had frequent contact with their clients, but it was almost all standardized, such as newsletters and webinars, that allowed efforts to amplify on a one-to-many basis. This allows touchpoints to scale with the client base… and can provide an organic place for an advisor to both provide guidance and commentary to their client base. Similarly, sending brief messages that affirm that a component of a client’s plan was reviewed (even if no action is needed) can reassure the client that their plan is being monitored.

This approach has two benefits: first, it can illuminate the otherwise invisible work of the advisor. Second, it can free up the advisor’s time so that when the client does reach out, the advisory team can provide a thorough and timely response. The latter is particularly important as the capacity to automate all communication continues to grow – in other words, the advisor will need to carefully determine where it is important to have human, one-to-one availability. Advisors may be surprised by just how differentiating it is to have a blend of consistent communication that accumulates in fast, human-centered interaction.

On the other hand, these scheduled communications may receive relatively low engagement. Clients may not open emails or log into their portals as frequently as advisors would like, which can make advisors wonder if the effort to continually provide some level of communication is worthwhile. This is where discernment is crucial for what types of communication really make difference… yet it can be helpful to remind clients that the advisory team is actively monitoring the situation and is available.

Ultimately, the key point is that an advisor has many avenues through which they could communicate with clients, but it may be more effective to do a few things consistently than many things infrequently. A cornerstone of communication, combined with great, accessible service, is the key to delivering exceptional advice that scales with the firm!

An Advisor’s Guide To Opening 530A “Trump Accounts”

July 22, 2026 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Taxes

July 4, 2026 saw the official launch of Sec. 530 "Trump Accounts" (TAs), a new type of 'starter' retirement account designed to be opened and funded on behalf of minor children so they can start accumulating tax-deferred retirement savings at an early age. Under the rules for TAs, parents and other individuals, employers, and government and charitable organizations can make contributions to a child's TA up until the year before their 18th birthday, after which the account effectively converts into a traditional IRA – giving the account's owner an incentive not to touch the account for many years, since distributions prior to age 59 ½ will be subject to a 10% penalty tax.

But although TAs may be similar to standard IRAs in many aspects (and effectively become IRAs after the pre-age-18 "growth period" ends), the process of opening and funding TAs is very different. Because unlike IRAs, which can be opened at any major broker-dealer or custodian and have no limits on the number of different IRAs that any individual can have open at one time, TAs can only be opened in a single location (a website and app administered by the retail broker-dealer Robinhood), and while other institutions will eventually be able to offer TAs of their own, they will only be available for 'rollover' purposes (i.e., to transfer into once the initial account is opened at Robinhood's site).

The process of opening a TA starts by filing IRS Form 4547, a form that can be filled out (generally by a parent or legal guardian) either on the government's official Trump Account app, online via the IRS's website, or as an actual tax form to be filed along with the account opener's tax return. Next, after the IRS approves the Form 4547, the account opener must 'activate' the account on the Robinhood-administered website, www.trumpaccount.com. Finally, when the account is open, the parent can contribute and invest funds on the child's behalf (with the only current investment option being an S&P 500 index ETF, although broader U.S. equity funds will purportedly be available in the future).

After the TA has been opened, funded, and invested, the account can be kept at Robinhood or, likely starting sometime in 2027, transferred to a different custodian. However, once the account beneficiary reaches age 18, the TA will be automatically rolled over to a traditional IRA, at which point the responsibility for choosing investments, tracking the account basis (since there will likely be a mix of 'pre-tax' and 'after-tax' funds in the account), and designating a beneficiary shifts to the now-18-year-old account owner. In other words, at age 18, the TA beneficiary will 'get' not just control over the account and its funds, but also a new set of responsibilities for maintaining it as they cross into adulthood.

The key point is that although TAs may look in some ways like the IRAs that many people are familiar with, the real mechanics of opening, funding, and maintaining a TA (not to mention the eventual 'handoff' to the beneficiary at age 18) are much different than what many parents have likely encountered. For financial advisors, it's worthwhile to understand how these mechanics work and where parents are likely to get tripped up along the way – because while not every parent will want to open a TA for their children (since other options like 529 plans or UTMA accounts might be a better fit for their goals), the ones who do will appreciate their advisor being able to walk them through the process and get them started smoothly on saving for the next generation!

And if you want to go deeper on this topic, hear directly from the author on the Financial Advisor Technician podcast .

4Xing To $200M AUM In 4 Years While Staying Lean By Leveraging AI, Technology, And Outsourcing All You Can Let Go Of: #FASuccess Ep 499 With Ryan Townsley

July 21, 2026 07:06 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Ryan Townsley Podcast Featured Image FAS

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 499th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Ryan Townsley. Ryan is the owner of Town Capital, an RIA based in Bel Air, Maryland, that oversees approximately $200 million in assets under management for 155 client households.

What's unique about Ryan, though, is how he has grown his firm to $2 million of revenue largely as a solo (only recently making a new hire to provide planning support), in part by leveraging an AI-integrated tech stack and outsourcing tasks that he doesn't necessarily need to do himself.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Ryan moved past IT and compliance bottlenecks by using outsourced providers (which offers a secondary benefit of greater peace of mind that these functions are performed correctly by experts), why Ryan decided to make a hire to take on planning-related tasks in his firm (which he found to be a harder bottleneck to solve), and how Ryan has achieved greater efficiency by engaging in mass communication with his clients (for example, by conducting webinars during market declines so he can relay his perspective and action plan without having to repeat it individually for each client).

We also talk about how Ryan has achieved an efficiency boost by leveraging the Zocks AI automation system alongside Claude and Wealthbox to help him prepare for client meetings quickly, draft effective follow-up emails, and create checklists based on common tasks for his clients, how Ryan uses the workflow platform Hubly to create repeatable processes so that nothing falls through the cracks (and why it's important to create and describe processes in a way that future employees can pick up quickly), and how Ryan combines tax data access tool TaxStatus with tax planning software Holistiplan to efficiently gather client tax data and prepare tax planning recommendations.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Ryan shares how he approaches creating retirement income plans for his analytically minded clients (including the value of creating a 'slush fund' that they can tap for one-time expenses), how Ryan has found that becoming an enrolled agent and earning the Tax Planning Certified Professional designation has been a powerful combination by giving him more advanced tax-planning knowledge and the ability to provide tax advice, and how Ryan has managed an influx of referrals to his firm in part by maintaining a waitlist (allowing him to continue to provide a high level of service to current clients while allowing for continued growth for his firm).

So, whether you're interested in learning about outsourcing certain tasks to free up time for more high-impact activities, building a tech stack that creates further efficiencies, or providing significant value by upping your game when it comes to tax planning, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Ryan Townsley.