Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 371st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is David Savir. David is the Co-Founder and CEO of Element Pointe Family Office, a Fee-Only RIA based in Miami, Florida that oversees almost $1.6 billion in assets under advisement for 50 client households.

What's unique about David, though, is that through his 8 years building Element Pointe and focusing exclusively on high and ultra-high-net-worth clients, he and his partner Carlos Dominguez have created an Equity Appreciation Rights plan to enable the members of their team to participate in the growth of the firm, and key team members can then use the cash they earn (after a 3-4 year vesting period) to help fund the buy-in to become future partners, where they get outright equity, voting rights, and a seat at the proverbial (or actual) management team table.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how David not only works with ultra-high-net-worth clients with 10s of millions of dollars but has found such success with that core clientele that they've dialed back on working with more "emerging wealth" clients to just focus on the type of clientele to whom they deliver the most value, how David and his partner Carlos have increasingly adopted an investment approach utilizing both public and private market investments but have found it more beneficial to develop relationships with private equity and private credit firms directly on behalf of their clients and minimize their use of popular alternative investments platforms, and how Element Pointe has increasingly expanded its services beyond its original investment management capabilities to provide more financial planning and family office services… to the point that now in 2024, despite all the industry buzz about fee compression, they're actually raising their advisory fees to better reflect the real value they're providing .

We also talk about David's journey from an MBA and law background to joining Goldman Sachs, and later JPMorgan, where he initially built with ultra-high net worth clients used his firms' premium brands, until he was ready to break out on his own as an independent, the way David built a team around him to support the hyper-customized portfolio needs of his complex clientele who have to align investment decisions with navigating the timing of cash flows out of GRATs and note payments on IDGTs, and how the growth of what's become an 11-person team at his independent firm made David and his co-founder Carlos realize that they needed both a path to partnership for their next generation advisors and a way to make that path affordable, which led them to an equity appreciation rights plan to allow key team members to participate in the financial growth of the firm until they were offered a chance to outright buy in as equity partners.

And be certain to listen to the end, where David shares struggles with relinquishing control and how a key mentor cautioned him that it wouldn't be enough to 'just' compensate his team well while trying to keep all the firm's equity to himself, the way David balanced his goals of building and expanding a network of professional COIs that could provide him referrals and the sheer need to cold-call in his early years just to get any new clients on board when he was first getting started, and how David handled the challenges when he discovered that being an independent wasn't just about having more control and autonomy, it also meant figuring out everything from team and hiring to trade order management systems and technology APIs, and how it took a full 3 years before he finally felt like the challenges he faced in the business were no longer about the existential threat to survive but simply the strategic opportunities they would have to navigate to reach the next level of success.

So, whether you're interested in learning about David's focused strategy with ultra-high-net-worth clients, how David and his partner implemented an equity appreciation rights plan at the firm, or how he hires team members to support hyper-customized needs of clients, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with David Savir.Read More...

Welcome back to the 369th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Michelle Ogden. Michelle is the founder of Ogden Wealth, an RIA based in Maitland, Florida, that oversees $50M in assets under management for almost 120 client households.

What's unique about Michelle, though, is that after seeing the challenges that come with too-fast growth in her husband's business, she decided to be very slow and methodical in her own growth and limit her need to rely on any staff for more than a decade… only to eventually hit a wall when the whole business relied on her, leading her to eventually decide to partner with a TAMP, and then quickly more-than-double her business in the subsequent few years by finally getting to just focus on what she does best!

In this episode, we talk in-depth about Michelle's journey from vowing to avoid the Financial Advisor industry after a negative internship experience as a woman in a male-dominated wirehouse in the 1990s to eventually coming into the industry with a positive experience at Charles Schwab and ultimately forming her own successful RIA, how a wariness of trusting others led Michelle to slow the growth of her own firm and the way partnering with third-party platforms including Edelman Financial and then Carson Partners ultimately allowed her to unlock the next level of growth and better leverage her own skills, and how word of mouth through Kingdom Advisors and her strategy of simply passing along financial information she found that she thought might be helpful to others on Social Media gave Michelle the reputation of being the person to connect with for any questions surrounding anything with a dollar sign and eventually grew her client base.

We also talk about Michelle's experience with Charles Schwab and Edelman Financial and how to support of those relationships, combined with her husband's travails in running his own business, led Michelle to structure her work in a way that brings her joy rather than just money, how Michelle overcome the challenges that arose when she was forced to learn how to manage the team that she had hired despite not having any prior experience managing people , and the realization, once Michelle decided she had to begin charging a fee to clients who had previously been handled pro-bono, that nobody actually expected her to work for free, and that her fee increase led to an increase in revenue without an increase in workload.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Michelle shares insight on how she wishes she had been more persuasive in convincing clients to do certain things for themselves and how that built her confidence to be more persistent in following up with clients and prospects (and if she was unsure, to just ask them when they felt it would be OK for her to follow up!), how Michelle finds it energizing and recharging for her to make deep and meaningful connections with clients and prospects (which has helped to carry her through the inevitable business challenges that come along the way), and how Michelle has developed her confidence that, through faith and diligent work, everything will work out, even (and perhaps especially) in situations in which Michelle had no control .

So, whether you're interested in learning about how to purposefully control your growth in order to maximize your own skillsets, how to increase your firm's revenue without increasing its workload, or how overcoming an aversion to hiring and trusting your team can allow you to focus on the elements of work that actually bring you joy, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Michelle Ogden.
Read More...

Welcome back to the 367th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Kimberly Enders. Kimberly is the Lead Financial Planner and Managing Partner of Enders Wealth Management, a hybrid advisory firm based in Sterling Heights, Michigan, that oversees $50M in assets under management for 85 client households.

What's unique about Kimberly, though, is that after building a practice jointly with her husband, in 2015, she had to reinvent herself after a divorce left her without a practice and starting over with just 12 clients and $7M in assets and how, in the 8 years since, she has built herself up by developing a highly customized 12-month onboarding process for new clients that has driven her ability to generate rapid growth through referrals .

In this episode, we talk in-depth about what Kimberly learned through entering and then exited a business relationship with her husband that was, unfortunately for her, not structured in a way to fully protect her claim to the clients and revenue of the practice, what Kimberly did to turn her career around through honing in on her ideal target client and steadily pruning away those who are no longer a good fit , and how Kimberly has structured her 12-month onboarding plan for new clients that focuses on comfort with the technology and advisor/client relationships with her before she even starts to approach financial planning after a full 6 months with a new client… a system that has allowed Kimberly's firm to grow almost entirely from referrals alone.

We also talk about Kimberly's journey of trying every "Food Group" in the industry (all the different industry channels where you can work as an advisor) before starting an independent practice with her now-ex-husband , the way that Kimberly and her ex-husband grew the practice but each focusing on their individual strengths (where he drove marketing and business development, and Kimberly was focused on the client portfolios), and how Kimberly realized that while growth is good, too much growth too quickly can be detrimental to both her clients and her own ability to serve them to her high standard (which helped her get comfortable with letting go of early clients who were no longer the right fit).

And be certain to listen to the end where Kimberly shares why she suggests all new advisors try out a lot of the industry's "Food Groups" before picking a path (as she notes that knowing and getting experience in the other paths in the financial advisor industry helped round out her own knowledge, and find the path that truly aligned to her own values ), the unexpected surprises that Kimberly struggled with while starting her own advisory firm, including managing coworkers, starting an LLC and the headaches that come with payroll and benefit packages for her employees (beyond the client and portfolio work she was so comfortable with), and how Kimberly's definition of success has increasingly focused on the autonomy and control she has over her time to do with it as she pleases… while recognizing that business and financial success are what provide the money that allows her to have more control of her time in the first place!

So, whether you're interested in learning about how not to run an advising firm with a close friend or spouse, how to maintain a stable job regardless of the number of different companies in your employment history or how to create a practice that is so client-centered that everyone you serve can't help but tell everyone about it, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Kimberly Enders.

Read More...