Financial Advisor Success Podcast - Full Episode Archives

#FASuccess Ep 427: Finding The Director Of Operations That Can Rebuild Your Team To Get To The Next Level, With Sten Morgan

March 4, 2025 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 427th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Sten Morgan. Sten is the owner of Legacy Investment Planning, a hybrid advisory firm based in Franklin, Tennessee, that oversees $220 million in assets under management for 90 client households.

What's unique about Sten, though, is how he realized that the team that helped his firm reach an initial level of success as a $1M+ practice was not the team hed need to take it to the next level… and ultimately found he had to turn over 100% of his original team, led by a new Director of Operations who eventually re-staffed the entire firm, in order to rebuild the team for his firms next growth stage.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Sten recognized that while his firm appeared to be performing well (in terms of AUM, revenue, and other metrics) its culture was not resulting in the collective skillset and team member initiative needed to reach his growth goals, how Sten handled difficult conversations with team members to find the best resolution for both them and for the firm (which quickly brought his firms headcount down from 8 to 4), and why Sten decided to hire a new full-time director of operations to serve as an integrator to make even more changes to get both staffing and day-to-day firm operations back on track.

We also talk about how Sten and his operations director implemented a five-step process for hiring (which includes a resume review and screening call, an asynchronous video interview using the JobVite platform, an in-person interview, a work assignment, and then finally a team debrief to select a candidate), why Sten waits to interview at least four to six candidates for a position before making an offer to ensure his firm doesnt settle too quickly for the first candidate that appears to be qualified, and Stens best practices for using recruiting firms to support the hiring process (including the need to get guarantees from the firm in case the hire doesnt work out).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Sten shares why his firm is currently focused on hiring and maximizing internal operational efficiency before going through its next growth phase, why Sten recommends that firms try to be more proactive in hiring (for example by hiring today for a position that is going to be needed six months from now) rather than waiting to hit the next capacity ceiling to do so, and the process Sten uses to iterate on his own creative business ideas (taking time to think through ideas both in his mind and with the help of outside experts) to ensure they are well-vetted before taking action so he doesnt try to implement too many different ideas at once and focuses in to the few that will matter most.

So, whether youre interested in learning about making the difficult personnel decisions needed to take a firm to the next level, best practices in hiring (and how hiring a director of operations can help), or a process for iterating on new ideas for the business, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Sten Morgan.

#FASuccess Ep 426: Rolling Out An Equity Compensation Plan To Align The Entire Team On Client Service And Profitable Growth, With Jennifer des Groseilliers

February 25, 2025 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 426th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Jennifer des Groseilliers. Jennifer is the CEO of The Mather Group, an RIA based in Chicago, Illinois, that oversees $15 billion in combined assets under management and advisement for approximately 4,400 client households.

What's unique about Jennifer, though, is how her firm has rolled out an equity compensation plan, built around providing grants based on performance and meeting goals (rather than requiring a buy-in), that’s designed to align the entire team towards the firm’s client service and profitable growth goals in the coming years… with 85% of the firm’s team members participating in the equity program.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about why Jennifer’s firm has taken an approach to grant equity rather than require buy-ins (and intends for every employee to either have equity, or at least a path to equity if they’re still new), how Jennifer’s firm sets individual performance targets for its client-facing wealth advisors to earn equity based on annual client retention (seeking to hit a target of 98%) and revenue managed (with a target of $1.75 million per lead advisor) to encourage very high levels of client service and advisor productivity, and how Jennifer’s firm ties the vesting of these equity awards to a future liquidity event for the firm as a whole (with could include a sale to an external party or the firm being rolled into one of its private equity owner’s subsequent funds) to ensure team members have aligned incentives to increase the firm’s enterprise value (which then feeds into the value of their individual equity stakes).

We also talk about how Jennifer identified the need to put systems in place (from performance management and individual team member goal setting to business planning and leadership development) to allow The Mather Group to operate more efficiently and effectively (despite it already having become a multi-billion-AUM firm before she joined), why Jennifer is an advocate of using the SMART goals system (which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timebound) for both employee and firm goal setting to promote real accountability for achieving goal targets, and how Jennifer’s firm uses the HiBob HR management system to record and track the goals for the firm’s 180 employees in an organized manner.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Jennifer shares how her firm has achieved strong organic growth in part by separating the roles of inside sales associates (who reach out to external companies to identify potential prospects [with the firm’s target client being an executive at a large company who is one to three years from retirement]), business development advisors (who are responsible for convincing prospects to become clients), and then the wealth advisors themselves (who provide ongoing planning services for clients), how Jennifer leverages an internal advisory council made up of approximately 25 firm leaders to give key stakeholders a voice and influence over the firm and where it’s going, and why Jennifer thinks that developing high levels of emotional intelligence and self-awareness… often gleaned from setbacks when an management situation with a team member doesn’t go well… are ultimately the crucial steps on the path to becoming an effective leader.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about offering equity to a broad base of employees, putting systems in place to help a firm run more efficiently, or establishing separate roles for business development and ongoing client service, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Jennifer des Groseilliers.

#FASuccess Ep 425: Implementing A Financial Planning Quality Control System To Improve Both Client Outcomes And Referrals, With Sebastian Guerra

February 18, 2025 07:05 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 425th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Sebastian Guerra. Sebastian is the President of Guerra Wealth Advisors, a hybrid advisory firm based in Miami, Florida, with nearly $15M of revenue and almost 60 team members, supporting over 1,700 client households.

What's unique about Sebastian, though, is how his firm has implemented a financial planning quality control system, where a dedicated team member touches base with clients immediately after their meeting with an advisor, often before the client even leaves the office, to ensure that clients are receiving a high level of service, get feedback on where they can improve… and drive referrals, online reviews, and social media engagement by asking clients to engage immediately after they provide positive feedback.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Sebastian hired a team member to become a quality control specialist (and has now added a second) specifically to follow up with clients after meetings to ask about their experience with both their advisor as well as with other departments in the firm with which they interact (from the front desk to operations), how Sebastian's firm has received 400 client referrals annually (averaging nearly 25% of their total client count) in part by having these quality control specialists ask clients not to provide referrals, per se, but to name individuals they would reach out to if they ran their own wealth management firm (who then receive invitations to attend one of the Sebastian's educational events), and how Sebastian's firm has also gained more than 600 Google reviews through this quality control process (making the firm easier to find for prospective clients, and drowning out a series of three fraudulent negative reviews that a competitor once posted against them).

We also talk about how Sebastian's firm attracted and onboarded approximately 480 new households in 2024 (including through a one-day educational event that led to 115 prospect appointments all by itself), how Sebastian's firm expands its relationship with existing clients by tasking everyone, including operations team members, with the goal of having clients consolidate more of their assets with Guerra Wealth advisors, and how Sebastian enables his lead advisors to hold up to 35 prospect and clients each week by leveraging both technology (including Salesforce to prep advisors before meetings and AI to transcribe the advisors' meeting notes and follow-on tasks) and a robust service team to provide further support for each advisor.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Sebastian shares how using the Entrepreneurial Operating System has allowed him to clarify his firm's goals, vision, and mission at a time of rapid client and employee growth (as the firm has nearly doubled over the past two years alone), how Sebastian's firm leverages an in-house recruiter to hire fast enough to keep pace with its rapid growth while staying true to the firm's core values, and how Sebastian's roles as a new husband and father have begun to shift his priorities away from 'just' running a thriving business (and the long hours that doing so can entail) to also focus on the ability to delegate specific tasks to team members in order to spend more time with his growing family.

So, whether you're interested in learning about how to implement a financial planning quality control system to drive referrals and online reviews, how to leverage a single-day marketing event to generate planning prospects, or how to design firm operations to maximize advisor face-time in front of clients and prospects, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Sebastian Guerra.

#FASuccess Ep 424: Executing A Successful Internal Succession Plan In The Private Equity Era Of Advisor M&A, With David Grau Jr.

February 11, 2025 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 424th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is David Grau, Jr. David is the President of Succession Resource Group, an advisory consulting and valuation business based in Portland, Oregon that serves independent financial advisors with RIAs and broker-dealers.

What's unique about David, though, is how his two decades of experience supporting financial advisory firms has helped him uncover best practices for founders and successors looking to execute internal succession plans, even as those succession plans have become more challenging at a time when founders so regularly field a steady flow of inbound inquiries from Private Equity-backed acquirers (often headlining high valuation multiples).

In this episode, we talk in-depth about the best practices David recommends to firms to start preparing in advance for an internal succession (including creating defined career tracks and compensation structures as well as getting the firm’s business metrics in order and receiving a third-party valuation), how David advocates for breaking up an internal succession plan into gradual tranches (for example, starting out by initially selling an internal successor a 1-5% ownership stake and ramping this percentage up with each subsequent tranche purchase over time) in order to make the financial commitment of doing so more palatable and financially feasible to successors, and why David recommends that firm founders start early when it comes to internal succession planning to get the ball rolling on these key actions and milestones, as if it takes at least 5 years to develop a potential successor and 10 more years to execute the transaction in a series of tranches, an advisor who plans to retire in their early 60s should ideally already be laying the succession groundwork by their late 40s!

We also talk about why David thinks that internal successions do remain viable at a time when Private Equity-backed aggregator firms are willing to buy smaller firms quickly and at a loftier headline valuation (in part because those high multiples often come with less attractive terms buried in the fine print of these deals), how David further finds that the publicly announced valuation of a PE acquisition is often misleading because the media only talks about the multiple of revenue or earnings and not the ‘adjustments’ that the buyer made to the firm’s projected earnings before striking the deal, and why David suggests that some firms who sell to PE-backed buyers might found it hard to meet the annual growth targets (often at least 15-20% and sometimes much higher) needed to receive the full compensation as outlined in the deal terms.

And be certain to listen to the end, where David shares why advisors might consider doing a partial sale of their no-longer-as-profitable clients to give them lifestyle flexibility while monetizing at least part of their business (and then continue to serve the smaller group of remaining high-value clients with better profitability and fewer working hours), how David suggests that preparing a firm for an internal succession (for instance by investing in staff to build a tenured advisor cadre) can end up benefiting a founder even if they do decide to do an external sale (in the form of a premium valuation for having a well-established team to handle the clients when the buyer comes in), and why David believes that while internal successions can involve more work than an external sale, they can often end up being more satisfying for the founder by allowing them to leave a well-defined legacy through their firm.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about best practices for preparing for an internal succession, the importance for selling firms of considering both a firm’s valuation and the deal terms when comparing offers, or the value of preparing for succession early (whether or not an internal succession is planned), then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with David Grau Jr.

#FASuccess Ep 423: Expanding Across The Household By Helping (Affluent) Sandwich Generation Kids With Their Parents’ Financial Needs, With Cristina Livadary

February 4, 2025 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 423rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Cristina Livadary. Cristina is the CEO of Mana Financial Life Design, an RIA based in Los Angeles, California (but works virtually with clients nationwide), that oversees approximately $70 million in assets under management for 119 client households.

What's unique about Cristina, though, is how her firm supports clients in the so-called "sandwich generation" by both creating a financial plan for the clients' personal financial needs and goals, and by addressing (often with a separately paid add-on financial planning engagement) the financial issues facing their aging (and frequently less financially secure) parents who they may someday need to support.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Cristina's personal experience dealing with challenging issues with her own aging parents while simultaneously caring for her young children helped her recognize the challenges those in the "sandwich generation" face, how Cristina leveraged the research she did for her personal situation (including finding appropriate care for her mother after she was diagnosed with dementia) to create blog and newsletter content that resonated with both prospects and her current clients, and how this focus evolved into Cristina now providing planning services for both her working-age clients as well as their parents (either as an add-on service to their child's engagement or, for those who can afford her firm's fees, as a separate client household).

We also talk about how Cristina started Mana Financial Life Design from scratch after working as an investment wholesaler earlier in her career (teaming up with her best friend who brings complementary skills to the business), how Cristina used a convertible note to raise money from her friends and family to get her business off the ground (and how she was ultimately able to pay off the note with interest before it converted into equity), and how Cristina successfully transitioned from charging clients a $2,400 annual planning fee to a complexity-based fee (with a $10,000 annual minimum) by linking the fees she charges to the specific service needs of each client (and the amount of time it takes to do so).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Cristina shares how she uses 20-minute "fit" meetings to determine whether prospective clients will be a good match for her firm's service offering and fee model (thereby minimizing the number of bad-fit clients her firm takes on), the key lessons Cristina learned from earlier hiring mistakes (particularly the importance of determining a defined role for each new hire in advance of putting out a job posting), and how Cristina leverages the artificial-intelligence-powered notetaking software tool Fathom AI not only to turn around meeting notes and follow-up tasks faster, but also so that she and her team can be more present during client meetings (without having the burden of simultaneously taking notes while trying to stay focused on what the client is saying).

So, whether you're interested in learning about serving clients in the "sandwich generation" (and their parents), building a firm from scratch alongside a trusted business partner, or how to hold effective "fit" meetings to ensure a solid match with prospective clients, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Cristina Livadary.

#FASuccess Ep 422: Developing Your Leadership Skillset On The Path From Intern To President Of A $13B AUM Enterprise, With Kay Lynn Mayhue

January 28, 2025 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 422nd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Kay Lynn Mayhue. Kay Lynn is the President of Merit Financial Advisors, a hybrid advisory firm based in Alpharetta, Georgia, that oversees approximately $13 billion in assets under management for 26,000 client households.

What's unique about Kay Lynn, though, is how she developed her advisory, management, and leadership skills to work her way up from starting as an intern to eventually become the president of a national RIA enterprise and lead their proactive mergers and acquisitions strategy.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about the ups and downs of Kay Lynn's evolution over the past decade from being a client-facing advisor to a firm leader (including the lessons she learned when once, early on, her team threatened to quit because of her original management style), how Kay Lynn grew to recognize the importance of connecting better with her team members as people rather than just focusing on business results and outcomes alone, and Kay Lynn's strategies today around asking peers and employees for feedback (which have helped her recognize blind spots in her leadership approach, even as she's now advanced to the highest management levels at her firm).

We also talk Kay Lynn's current role managing her firm's mergers and acquisitions activity (including how she and her business partner decided to sell their previous firm to Merit rather than go through their own internal succession), why Kay Lynn sees more value in selling firms when their G2 advisors are also equity owners, even if the founder is still planning an external sale in the long run (because it results in more of an ownership mindset in the selling firm's G2 advisors that helps them see the benefit of staying on to grow their equity further after the deal is closed), and why Kay Lynn places high importance on culture when evaluating potential firms to acquire (to ensure both the right fit for her firm… and a relatively smooth transition for the selling firm's team).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Kay Lynn shares how she incorporates the BehavioralDNA personality assessment both when hiring new employees and when working with clients, how Kay Lynn's firm offers "organic growth tracks" that allow its advisors to plug into potential sources of clients (such as firms with Employee Stock Ownership Plans and establishing partnerships with CPAs) and then execute in that channel with an established marketing playbook to grow their practices, and why Kay Lynn thinks it's important for advisors to reflect on the current phase of life they're in (for example, whether they have young children or are empty nesters) and structure their work according to that phase, to be able to achieve both their professional ambitions and their priorities in their personal lives over the long run.

So, whether you're interested in learning about charting a career path to eventually lead a large enterprise RIA, positioning a firm to attract a premium valuation when considering a sale, or how to incorporate personality assessments in the hiring and client onboarding processes, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Kay Lynn Mayhue.

#FASuccess Ep 421: Integrating Tax Preparation Without Hiring In-House CPAs To Bring More Tax-Focused Value, With Daniel Friedman

January 21, 2025 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 421st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Daniel Friedman. Daniel is the CEO of WMGNA, a hybrid advisory firm based in Farmington, Connecticut, that oversees approximately $270 million in assets under management for 200 client households.

What's unique about Daniel, though, is how his firm has expanded its tax focus to include "in-house" tax return preparation for its clients as a one-stop shop, but actually outsources the tax preparation work itself to trusted CPAs that he pays out of his own revenue (rather than bringing this service fully in-house) so that he can focus his staff and team time more fully on the tax planning analyses and strategies that make up the core of his firm's value proposition to clients.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about why Daniel decided to outsource tax return preparation (rather than hire someone to do it in-house) to be able to access the expertise of the CPAs his firm uses (particularly for clients with complicated equity compensation plans), how Daniel views these CPA relationships as mutually beneficial from a financial perspective (not for the purposes of generating cross-referrals, but simply because his firm can negotiate bulk discounts on tax return preparation on behalf of his client while the CPA firms get the efficiency of just being able to bill Daniel's firm once directly), and how Daniel positions this Strategic Professional arrangement as a value-add for clients (as they can benefit from independent perspectives on tax planning strategies and the preparation of their tax returns).

We also talk about how Daniel has used a subscription-based model for financial planning fees for 30 years (now setting the monthly subscription fee based on each client's unique needs, including the complexity of their tax situation), why Daniel finds that the vast majority of clients also decide to have his firm manage their assets (paying a separate AUM fee for the service that is priced based on all-in investment costs plus a profit margin for his firm) that has grown to the point that AUM fees far surpass his still-core subscription fees, and how Daniel's firm has successfully implemented a money-back guarantee for its subscription-based planning service to give prospective clients confidence to try out the value his firm offers (with only 2 clients in 30 years having actually ever asked for a refund!).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Daniel shares why his firm uses the term "restylement" rather than "retirement" to reflect that they are helping clients restyle themselves for the next stage of their lives (not the end of their lives), how Daniel has benefited from having a "director of first impressions" on staff whose job is to both make a good first impression on prospective clients who come to the firm and to send cards and gifts to commemorate client milestones, and how Daniel found that while success did not come as quickly as he would have liked in the first several years after starting his firm, his persistence in providing high level of service to his clients has paid off over time in the form of a thriving business today as client relationships compounded over time.

So, whether you're interested in offering in-house tax planning services while outsourcing the actual preparation of tax returns, using a combination of subscription and AUM fees to serve clients, or how to navigate the first difficult years of firm ownership, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Daniel Friedman.

#FASuccess Ep 420: Making Financial Planning More Repeatable Without Losing The Customization Where Clients Prioritize What Matters Most, With Michelle Underwood Gass

January 14, 2025 07:04 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 420th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Michelle Underwood Gass. Michelle is the Founding Principal of Paradigm Advisors, an RIA based in Dallas, Texas, that oversees approximately $110 million in assets under management for 80 client households.

What's unique about Michelle, though, is the way she created a structured meeting process to navigate around the places where new clients often get stuck, standardized their experience in navigating through her deep planning process… and still retained a way to ensure that each client's financial plan focus and implementation is customized to their needs and prioritized for what they want to tackle first and foremost.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about Michelle's 5-part planning process, which starts with a "Get to Know You" meeting with prospects that includes some Life Planning exercises to both help Michelle understand what the client's real issues are and help the client understand Michelle's planning approach and whether a planning relationship would be a good fit, how Michelle begins onboarding new clients using a tech-enabled "Uncluttering" process that reduces friction in collecting and organizing clients' documents and financial information, and how Michelle holds what she calls an "Intrinsic Discovery" meeting to go deeper and really get to the heart of the client's values and goals.

We also talk about how Michelle then engages in a "Discovering Opportunities" process to highlight particular key planning opportunities for clients to pursue first (rather than just giving them a long list of recommendations) to avoid overwhelming her busy working-age client base and instead focus on the few issues that are most important to them, how Michelle leverages eMoney's Decision Center tool during the plan implementation process to help clients see the impact of different planning options and potential recommendations that Michelle is making, and how Michelle's firm uses workflow management software Hubly (which sits on top of her CRM) to ensure that planning tasks that require input from multiple firm stakeholders across the business are still completed efficiently.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Michelle discusses how she charges a flat planning fee alongside an AUM-based fee to be able to serve high-earning professionals who could benefit from Michelle's comprehensive planning process but might not yet have sufficient assets to be served profitably based on an AUM fee alone, how Michelle crafted a pair of specialities to serve two different ideal target clients (busy working-age professionals and relatively older hedge fund veterans who she knew from her previous life running her own hedge fund), and what led Michelle to decide to start her own financial planning business after (temporarily) retiring herself from managing a hedge fund… and has since found an even deeper sense of purpose in helping her clients live their best possible lives.

So, whether you're interested in learning about creating a structured meeting process to prevent new clients from getting 'stuck', how to use workflow management software to improve efficiency for tasks that require multiple stakeholders, or how to offer a planning offering and fee model that meets the needs of two different ideal client types, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, with Michelle Underwood Gass.

#FASuccess Ep 419: Attracting Clients Who Want To Align Their Investments With Their Values With A Sustainable Investing Approach, With Peter Krull

January 7, 2025 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 419th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Peter Krull. Pete is the Director of Sustainable Investing of Earth Equity Advisors, an RIA based in Asheville, North Carolina, that oversees approximately $200 million in assets under management for 250 client households.

What's unique about Pete, though, is how he has grown his firm by exploring with clients how they can align their portfolios with their own personal values, effectively allowing their investments to become an expression of the types of businesses they want their capital to support… while still ensuring their overall portfolio is still well-diversified, tracks to broad market indices, and is prudently allocated to sound businesses.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Pete frames the differences between socially responsible investing (which is focused on excluding certain industries or companies from portfolios), ESG investing (which measures the risk to companies from environmental, social, and governance factors), and Pete's sustainable investing approach (which he views as a more bottom-up process designed to identify the sectors and companies that will be successful in the economy of the future), how Pete uses everything from industry newsfeeds to quantitative data to identify a broad universe of potential companies to invest in, and Pete's process for then narrowing down the pool of potential investment targets (which includes the use of fundamental quantitative metrics of company health, ESG evaluations from third-party analytics platforms, and Wall Street analyst ratings).

We also talk about why Pete views his investing style as a core holding in client portfolios (rather than a thematic addition) in part because he still seeks to at least roughly track the sector composition of broader market indices with investments that meet his sustainability criteria, why Pete uses a combination of individual stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds in client portfolios to maximize the universe of potential available investments (instead of using direct indexing, which he finds is too limiting when it's by definition constrained to only the companies available within the chosen index), and how Pete builds client portfolios with a combination of both equity and fixed income investments that meet his sustainability filters to ensure he can allocate with a stock/bond mix that meet clients' risk tolerance and desired portfolio characteristics.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Pete shares how his sustainable investing approach has been able to attract clients who want to feel like they are part of the solution in being able to direct their capital to support the companies building towards future they want to see, why Pete thinks that serving a well-defined niche has actually expanded his business opportunities because he doesn't face competition from other firms (that don't have his expertise) for the ideal clients he wants to serve, and why Pete decided to merge his firm into a larger one in order to create scale for his sustainable investment offerings and ultimately reach even more clients looking to align their investments with their values.

So, whether you're interested in learning about the differences between ESG, SRI, and sustainability investing, strategies for incorporating sustainable investing values when constructing client portfolios, or how specializing in a niche investment approach can be an effective way to attract new clients, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Peter Krull.

#FASuccess Ep 418: Developing The “Middle” Management Layer To Scale Up Team Leadership Capacity For $3B Of AUM, With Stacey McKinnon

December 31, 2024 07:03 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

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Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 418th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Stacey McKinnon. Stacey is the chief operating officer of Morton Wealth, an RIA based in Calabasas, California, that oversees approximately $3 billion in assets under management for 1,300 client households.

What's unique about Stacey, though, is how she has implemented a leadership training program for Morton Wealth to ensure that the firm's middle managers (many of whom were promoted from "do-er" positions into roles where they have to now manage other do-ers) feel empowered and have the communication and management skills to effectively lead a growing advisory firm team that has expanded from 30 to 60 employees during the past 4 years (far beyond the number of team members that the founders and senior leadership alone could ever manage themselves).

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Stacey identified 3 problematic management avatars (the 'nice manager', the 'technical manager', and the 'narcissistic manager') that can result from promoting working-level employees to managerial roles without giving them the requisite training first, how Stacey had Morton Wealth's leadership team and managers take the online Admired Leadership Program (which provides training on how to give feedback, how to speak to team members, and what behaviors you have to espouse to actually be seen and respected as an admired leader), and how Stacey implemented lessons from the book "Brave New Work" to promote what she refers to as "continuous participatory change" in her firm by encouraging employees to be active participants in making change happen (rather than being passive recipients of the change happening in the firm around them).

We also talk about how Stacey and other firm leaders handled the growing pains of adapting to remote and then hybrid work environments over the past several years (while growing to a 60-person team) and why they eventually decided to have everyone return to the office (with some flexibility during the week) despite this decision leading to 20% of their staff turning over in just 2 months after the announcement was made, how Stacey and Morton Wealth made the most of this transition by reevaluating its client meeting cadence (moving from a more regimented schedule to a more flexible approach that actually increased the number of client touchpoints in lieu of holding as many meetings), and how Stacey uses a management software tool called WorkBoard to set and track Objectives and Key Results for herself, teams within the organization, and for individual employees, setting goals for where each unit wants to be in 6 months.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Stacey shares why she blocks off 1 hour each morning to focus on her own work because she knows she will have to handle an abundance of team work once she gets to the office, how Stacey has learned leadership lessons from U.S. Women's National Soccer Team coach Emma Hayes (including the importance of leaders showing team members that they care about them personally, so that any feedback comes from a place of support, even and especially when then challenging them with difficult feedback about how they can step up and do more), and why Stacey views her ultimate success as a leader as empowering her team and allowing them to grow in their own success (to the point where the company could continue to function well without her presence).

So, whether you're interested in learning about implementing an advisory firm leadership training program, how to diagnose potentially problematic behaviors of new leaders, or how to leverage technology to efficiently track key metrics, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Stacey McKinnon.

#FASuccess Ep 427: Finding The Director Of Operations That Can Rebuild Your Team To Get To The Next Level, With Sten Morgan

#FASuccess Ep 426: Rolling Out An Equity Compensation Plan To Align The Entire Team On Client Service And Profitable Growth, With Jennifer des Groseilliers

#FASuccess Ep 425: Implementing A Financial Planning Quality Control System To Improve Both Client Outcomes And Referrals, With Sebastian Guerra

#FASuccess Ep 424: Executing A Successful Internal Succession Plan In The Private Equity Era Of Advisor M&A, With David Grau Jr.

#FASuccess Ep 423: Expanding Across The Household By Helping (Affluent) Sandwich Generation Kids With Their Parents’ Financial Needs, With Cristina Livadary

#FASuccess Ep 422: Developing Your Leadership Skillset On The Path From Intern To President Of A $13B AUM Enterprise, With Kay Lynn Mayhue

#FASuccess Ep 421: Integrating Tax Preparation Without Hiring In-House CPAs To Bring More Tax-Focused Value, With Daniel Friedman

#FASuccess Ep 420: Making Financial Planning More Repeatable Without Losing The Customization Where Clients Prioritize What Matters Most, With Michelle Underwood Gass

#FASuccess Ep 419: Attracting Clients Who Want To Align Their Investments With Their Values With A Sustainable Investing Approach, With Peter Krull

#FASuccess Ep 418: Developing The “Middle” Management Layer To Scale Up Team Leadership Capacity For $3B Of AUM, With Stacey McKinnon

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Financial Advisor Success Podcast Archives

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