Financial Advisor Success Ep 129: Building The Lifestyle Practice Of Your Dreams By Selling Your Firm And Starting Over with Donna Skeels Cygan
Jun 18, 2019
Donna Skeels Cygan, founder of Sage Future Financial, shares her unique journey of building and selling her first financial advisory firm before starting anew. She reveals how deliberate client selection and balance anchor her practice, limiting her to 40 affluent clients. Donna discusses her innovative tools and virtual assistant support to maximize efficiency while maintaining high profit margins. She also touches on her strategic pricing model and the emotional aspects of client selection, all while sharing her philosophy of defining success beyond just revenue.
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Run Two Deeply Planned Meetings Annually
- Schedule two structured, annual client meetings and rotate planning topics across cycles to cover everything each year.
- Offer on-demand access between meetings and train clients that planned meetings handle routine reviews.
Use A Clear AUM + Planning Retainer
- Price services transparently using a retainer split between AUM and a planning fee to signal value.
- Keep fees consistent with client fairness across sizes rather than shifting too much to flat fees that favor large clients.
Handpicking Clients By Fit, Not Just Wealth
- Choosing 35 prior clients to invite back into the new firm forced Donna to weigh chemistry, need, and enjoyment, not just assets.
- She deliberately avoided inviting only the wealthiest and prioritized people she liked working with.
