Financial Advisor Success Podcast Archives

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 354th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Grier Rubeling. Grier is the founder of Advisor Transition Services, a consulting firm based in Cary, North Carolina, that helps advisors switch from one broker-dealer or custodian platform to another, often when breaking away from a larger firm to start up their own.

What's unique about Grier, though, is her detail-oriented approach to helping firms make transitions quickly… which is an inherently complex leap to make legally, logistically, and emotionally, for which Grier built a slew of ultra-responsive Excel tools to show advisors live updates of exactly where they are for the entire time through the transition processes so they can get back to being able to bill for their services again as soon as possible.

In this episode, we discuss how Grier helps advisors navigate the complex world of leaving protocol vs. non-protocol firms and how transitions change depending on whether the advisor has a non-solicit agreement or not, how Grier advises advisors when communicating and setting expectations with clients through the process to help them retain as many clients as they can even as they navigate both the legal and practical constraints of what client information they can bring along or have to re-create, and how Grier organizes client data during a transition to not only gather it more efficiently, but also to apply it more easily across the many legal forms and applications to help advisors get through the transition – and back to billing as quickly as possible.

We also talk about how Grier's own entry into the realm of financial advisors was intrinsically tied to transitioning custodians, where she discovered she had a special knack for the systems and processes and making sense out of chaos, how Grier has learned to navigate the unique differences between transitions under Broker Protocol, non-Protocol transitions for employee advisors at large firms, and so-called "PNA" (or Protocol Not Applicable) transitions when advisors work for open platforms that allow them to leave without constraints (but they still have to navigate a slew of transfers as quickly as possible to reduce how long they're not getting paid while moving from one platform to another), and how 15 years of overseeing and actively working in these custodian and broker-dealer transitions, coupled with a determination to at least never make the same mistake twice, has set Grier up to be a unique expert in the world of advisor transitions.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Grier shares the challenges she went through in the hiring (and then firing) of her own first full-time employee (and then setting up a sustainable system with contractors that better meshed with the ebb and flow of her contract work), how Grier discovered that the biggest challenge for advisor transitions is not actually the process itself – which can be accomplished by executing with good tools and templates – but simply the fear of the unknown for advisors who have never been through the process (which has led her to share a number of her tools and templates directly out to advisors on her website), and the marketing success Grier found in branding her company Advisor Transition Services and just calling it exactly what it is… and then simply showing up as herself to lead it.

So whether you're interested in learning how Grier's work in operations set her up for transitional success, exactly who Grier uses to navigate complex advisory transitions, and what Grier would recommend to advisors starting this path, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Grier Rubeling.

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Welcome back to the 353rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Brett Danko. Brett is the Founder of Brett Danko Educational Center, a CFP Board Education and Exam Prep provider, and the CEO and Managing Partner for Main Street Financial Solutions, an independent RIA based in Newtown, Pennsylvania, that oversees almost $2 billion in assets under management for nearly 1,700 client households.

What's unique about Brett, though, is how he has leveraged his passion for teaching to build one of the most popular CFP exam prep programs in the country, while also growing his own RIA to $2 billion in AUM… by focusing on just his unique financial planning strengths, and learning to delegate the rest by hiring a President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer, who focus on the day-to-day management of the firm itself.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Brett teaches industry professionals seeking their Certified Financial Planner certification by providing comprehensive fast-track courses that span just 7 months and end with a live virtual or in-person exam prep review, how Brett iterated on and evolved his exam prep programs with a recognition that as he puts it, there is no “CFP cum laude”, and consequently keeps the focus very directly on what it takes to pass the exam (because you have a lifetime as a practitioner to keep improving and deepening your knowledge afterwards anyway), and why Brett jokingly refuses to acknowledge when his students humor the thought of failing because he believes that planning for failure is just giving yourself permission to fail and that an important part of passing the CFP Board exam (and achieving goals in life) is believing in one’s self and visualizing success.

We also talk about why Brett personally only offers financial planning on an hourly basis and leaves asset management to the other advisors of his RIA (so that he can have the flexibility to teach his courses while still gaining experience and knowledge as a practicing advisor), why Brett structures his firm as almost a platform for advisors, where, even though the advisors are technically W-2 employees and the firm pays for their staff, overhead, and technology, they own their own clients, and design their own fee schedules and portfolio models so that they can focus more on serving their clients to the best of their ability, and how Brett manages his time and obligations as a Founder of two businesses that each have their own management teams (his advisory firm Main Street Financial Solutions, and the Brett Danko Education Center) by recognizing that he’s a “macro” person and has to surround himself with “micro” people who are good at all the micro-details to make sure everything actually gets done.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Brett shares what it took to get comfortable with delegating so much responsibility for his businesses to key team members, how, after losing a job in his early 30s, Brett suffered from severe depression, but through therapy, found the confidence he needed to reinvigorate his passions and ultimately decided to outline a ‘manifesto’ of goals he wanted to achieve which included launching the advisory firm and educational courses that he spent the past 20 years building, and why Brett suggests that advisors in their 20s should seek out mentors not just to learn but also to help them recognize in themselves their strengths and their weaknesses because it's that self-awareness that makes it easier to find the work and kind of firm you’ll truly enjoy for the rest of your career as an advisor.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Brett structures his CFP exam prep courses and his fast-track programs, how Brett differentiates his programs from other CFP educational programs, or why Brett believes strongly in developing firm culture to grow a successful business, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Brett Danko.

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Welcome back to the 351st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Jessica Polito. Jessica is the Founder and Principal for Turkey Hill Management, a mergers & acquisitions consulting firm that assists financial advisors with the sale, acquisition, integration, or merger of their firms.

What's unique about Jessica, though, is how she has built a practice helping financial advisors and their firms navigate the intricacies of buying, selling, or merging their firms by deeply understanding their business expectations, educating them on the transaction process, valuing their firm so they can get the best deal for them, and guiding and providing counsel to them through the transaction process… while doing so without the conflict of an investment banker’s success fee.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Jessica leveraged her investment banking experience in wealth management mergers and acquisitions to build her own business where she could provide more independent M&A advice, why and how Jessica developed her flat-fee advice model for mergers and acquisitions to, similar to the evolution of fee-only RIAs, be able to demonstrate that her services are not incentivized by just getting a sale at the end and that she is truly providing advice she feels is best for her clients, and how Jessica helps her advisor clients parse through a seemingly overwhelming number of potential buyers and understand how to negotiate the terms of their agreements so that they can find the right deal for them that aligns with their business goals.

We also talk about why Jessica cautions her clients and advisors considering selling their firm to not base their asking price in comparison to the purchase price of other firms as without context on how the price and more importantly the terms were decided, why Jessica counsels that advisors who want to retire in 3-5 years need to start not just preparing for a sale but actually beginning the transaction now (because it can take several years to finalize a deal and wind down the post-sale retention contingencies), and why Jessica feels advisors considering a sale in the more distant future should actually spend less time trying to go through the laundry list of updates to their firms to extract the top value and should instead focus on simply doing what is right for their business that keeps it on a healthy growth track (because that is what will make their business most attractive, whenever the time comes to sell).

And be certain to listen to the end, where Jessica shares why, because she works on her own, she is intentional about the number of clients she works with at any given time so that she can both provide dedicated service and preserve time to spend with her family, how Jessica dealt with imposter syndrome and the fear of being compared to larger institutions with longer histories by investing into developing and sharing her own thought leadership through podcasts, videos, and conferences, and why Jessica defines success differently for her professional and personal lives in that professionally, success is a moving target (because she feels that without new goals she may become complacent and limit herself), while personally, success is continuing to build her business (especially in a male-dominated industry) and take chances so that her children can see that she kept trying even if that meant she might fail, and ultimately that she made something she is proud of.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about how Jessica helps advisory firm owners sort through the ‘noise’ of different proposals to find viable potential deals, how Jessica discerns when to use an EBITDA or a revenue multiple to value firms or practices, or what other ‘fine print’ Jessica feels is important to understand before engaging in an M&A deal, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Jessica Polito.

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