Financial Advisor Success

Amy Mullen is the President of Money Quotient, a company that has developed tools and training to help advisors have more meaningful conversations with their clients. Money Quotient's offering is unique in that they not only give advisors the tools to help clients achieve their goals, but they also help clients get clarity around what is most important to them so they can create goals they're motivated to hit—and so the advisor becomes a partner in achieving those goals. In this episode, we talk about how Money Quotient helps advisors guide their clients to gain self-awareness around their values and how that realization then helps make financial decisions easier for the client. Amy also shares the system that makes Money Quotient so unique and how this system helps advisors leverage the resulting relationship with their clients to create a fully developed client experience. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/224

Marianela Collado is the CEO and majority shareholder of Tobias Financial Advisors, an independent RIA based in Florida that manages over $500 million in AUM for 257 clients. Marianela navigated an accelerated succession plan laid out by the founder of Tobias Financial, and has successfully grown the firm from a one-person operation to a staff of sixteen with an eye towards a subsequent succession plan. Listen in as Marianela explains why she decided to keep the name Tobias Financial Advisors and how she has created such a great client experience that many clients are eager to refer others to the firm. She also shares how they have built a diverse team of advisors and a support staff that has earned them industry recognition, as well as why a succession plan was essential to making sure the client transition was a smooth and positive experience. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/223

Jonathan Kuttin is the founder of Kuttin Wealth Management, a hybrid RIA based out of Long Island, New York that manages over $3 billion dollars for 5,500 clients. Kuttin Wealth has grown to the point where Jonathan made the decision to separate client-facing service from leadership and operations, which allows for employees to focus solely on what they're truly good at—and has allowed the firm to grow even further. In this episode, Jonathan explains why he created three distinct roles within his firm and how this silo of roles has led to both superior results and better clarity around responsibilities within the firm. He also shares the hard lesson he learned about the importance of legal agreements, the five leadership areas he cultivates in every area of the firm, and why supporting employees to get what they want out of life is a cornerstone principle of his firm. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/222

Miye Wire, founder of a hybrid RIA managing $200 million for 250 young families, specializes in benefits and equity compensation for Microsoft employees. In this discussion, she shares how memorable client events cultivate a sense of community and drive referrals. Miye also highlights her shift to embracing her unique approach in the financial landscape, the importance of transparency in client billing practices, and strategies for enhancing work-life balance within her team, showcasing a fresh perspective on client engagement and referral growth.

Shane Mason is the co-founder of Brooklyn FI, a fee-only RIA that was founded in 2018 in Brooklyn but that has since shifted to being fully virtual. Brooklyn FI was built in the style of a tech startup where their financial advice service offering is a product unto itself, and they currently serve 159 next-generation clients charging a fee of around $500 per month. Listen in as Shane explains why Brooklyn FI decided to launch into a niche of high-income sole proprietors before deciding to pivot to working with people who work in the tech industry, and how their new niche has resulted in nearly all of the firm's new clients coming from referrals. Shane also shares how the pandemic pushed Brooklyn FI to be virtual, why they post their fees directly on their website, and how Shane's 50/50 partnership with his co-founder has been the secret sauce to their rapid growth. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/220

Coventry Edwards-Pitt is the Chief Wealth Advisory Officer at Ballentine Partners, a wealth management firm that oversees nearly $8 billion in AUM for 230 ultra-wealthy families. Breaking down the math, that means each family that Ballentine serves has an average of $35 million of investable assets, making their wealth management practice highly unique—with a focus on the issues that reach far beyond this generation and the next. In this episode, Coventry shares how serving ultra-rich clients comes with challenges that many advisors will never manage, as well as what it really means to provide wealth management services to clients with millions in net worth. She also dives into parenting children in ultra-high net worth families and shares the common factors of well-grounded and well-rounded wealthy children. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/219

Maura Griffin is the founder of Blue Spark Financial, an independent RIA that oversees more than $150 million of assets for nearly 90 clients who are primarily single women making financial decisions on their own for the first time. Maura built her practice from scratch by charging high school parents a flat fee to help them with financial aid planning for their children, which she was then able to turn into established relationships that led to more comprehensive planning relationships. In this episode, Maura shares how having a financial reserve when she launched her firm was so crucial to give her not only peace of mind and confidence, but also the flexibility to build her business with intention—and without feeling pressured to take on work that she didn't want. She will also dive into how she used a specific niche to help grow her firm, why she decided to pivot to focus on working with her current base of clients, and why she has made the intentional decision to structure her business as a lifestyle practice despite the naysayers. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/218

Sophia Bera is a past guest of the podcast, and originally wrote a guest post for Nerd's Eye View as far back as 2013. If you missed her before, she is the founder of Gen Y Planning, an independent RIA that serves just under 100 young professionals—and that was also one of the first location-independent firms in the financial planning industry. Listen in as we catch up on how Gen Y Planning has shifted over the years, why net worth reporting is not at the heart of Gen Y's planning process, and why their focus with clients is more on short-term goals versus long-term metrics. Sophia will also share how she created a work-life balance that allows her to spend more time doing what she loves, and how she was able to take four months away from the business on maternity leave without the business skipping a beat. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/217

Jason Zweig is a financial journalist who not only wrote one of the first books on behavioral finance neuroeconomics, but also writes "The Intelligent Investor" column for the Wall Street Journal. A senior writer for Money magazine and a guest columnist for Time magazine and CNN.com, Jason has a truly unique perspective on the financial services industry, having covered it for nearly 25 years. Listen in as he shares his perspective on the financial services industry, including why the AUM model is outdated, how he views the evolution of the financial advice business, and why he sees the future of the industry as more curatorial. You'll learn his take on where he believes new advisors should be focusing their energy for success and why it's actually a good thing to admit when you don't know the answer to a question. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/216

Shawn Tydlaska is the founder of Ballast Point Financial Planning, an independent RIA based in the San Francisco Bay Area that serves 117 high-income young professionals across the country, helping them turn income into wealth. Ballast Point is unique in that it uses a blended model of a minimum $5,000 retainer paid monthly, plus an additional fee of ten basis points above $2 million to adjust pricing upward for the most complex clients. In this episode, we talk about how Shawn structures his services and the foundation that forms the basis of his planning process with clients. Listen in to hear about the tracking system he put in place to not only show his worth to clients, but also to increase his own confidence in what he offers. You'll learn how he was able to build his firm so quickly in the five years since he started, what he says was key to his firm's growth in the early days, and more. For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/215