Managing Your Practice
Dimensional Fund Advisors
Managing Your Practice is dedicated to providing financial professionals with best practices in key areas such as driving growth, business efficiency, and the client experience. Dimensional Fund Advisors delivers insights based on our history of industry-leading financial advisor benchmark studies and client surveys. We help advisors leverage those insights when making the critical business decisions successful firms face every day.
The information is provided in good faith without any warranty and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, recommendation, or an offer of any services or products for sale and is not intended to provide a sufficient basis on which to make an investment decision.
All expressions of opinion are subject to change.
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP is an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The information is provided in good faith without any warranty and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, recommendation, or an offer of any services or products for sale and is not intended to provide a sufficient basis on which to make an investment decision.
All expressions of opinion are subject to change.
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP is an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jun 21, 2024 • 55min
Building Brain Habits that Accelerate Your Team and Practice
Art Markman, PhD, is vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of more than 150 scholarly works on cognitive science and related topics. In this podcast episode, he shares his expertise on "smart" thinking and decision-making. With tens of thousands of decisions to make every day, what allows us to move from basic functions to strategic thinking and, as business leaders, form innovative ideas? Hear how you can actively optimize those thoughts to build effective habits and approach problem-solving in advisory firms. Markman's book Smart Thinking: Three Essential Keys to Solve Problems, Innovate, and Get Things Done is listed on Dimensional's Summer Reading List, which you can download here.
May 16, 2024 • 1h 1min
Custodian Roundtable: The Industry Landscape, Options, and Innovation in 2024 and Beyond
With more options than ever, how do advisors decide on a custodial partner? Ben Harrison of BNY Mellon Pershing, Gabe Garcia of SEI, and Thomas Moore of Betterment for Advisors join us in a roundtable discussion on how their custodial firms are going beyond asset security to offer services in other major operational and strategic capacities. They each offer internal perspective on what advisors should look for, priorities to consider, and key questions to ask when choosing a partner.
Apr 10, 2024 • 44min
How Leaders Can Map Career Journeys to Drive Growth and Innovation
Jennifer Climo, CEO of Milestone Financial Planning, and Martine Lellis, chief talent officer at Mercer Advisors, work in advisory firms that are vastly different in size but have the common goal of creating an environment that fosters growth in both revenue and talent. They share their experience in bringing on new employees, how their firms continue to develop internal opportunities for progression, and the importance of clearly defined career paths that emphasize advocacy on the part of both the employee and manager, as well flexibility in roles, all while prioritizing the bottom line of the business.
Mar 5, 2024 • 44min
Future Proofing your Practice: How to Prepare for Succession and Transactions in a Period of Growth
David DeVoe, founder of DeVoe & Co., appropriately nicknamed the "RIA M&A Guru," has spent 15 years helping advisors buy, sell, and merge their firms. With so much to consider in a deal, how are advisors avoiding analysis paralysis when preparing for a transition? Hear from the expert on why you should get purposeful and have a succession plan in place today, what might affect a firm's value in the current landscape, and how to retain your talent and culture, all while continuing to grow.
Jan 29, 2024 • 55min
Strategic Psychology: Elevating Advisory Excellence through Prioritization and Proactivity
Dr. Moira Somers, founder of Money, Mind and Meaning, is a financial psychologist, family wealth consultant, executive coach, and author, specializing in areas like neuroscience and behavioral economics. Her body of work helps financial advisors facilitate follow-through on recommendations and advice to clients. She poses important questions to identify true client priorities, mitigate procrastination, and ensure your firm can operate at a high level without compromising the client experience.
Dec 14, 2023 • 55min
Winning Plays for Advisors from a Harvard Lawyer Turned NFL Coach
Daron Roberts, founding director of the Center for Sports Leadership & Innovation at the University of Texas, is a Harvard Law School graduate turned NFL coach who now guides students, athletes, and business leaders on stepping outside their comfort zone, practicing discipline, and hiring and managing teams. In this special live episode, hear insights honed on the gridiron that translate to how advisors can approach their own firm's goals.
Nov 17, 2023 • 55min
Give Them Something to Talk About: Effective Client and Employee Communications
Arabella Macpherson, director of Resonate Communications, turned a passion for acting into a career coaching, mentoring, and training leaders and teams to overcome communication obstacles. She shares her experience in influencing, negotiation, and conflict resolution; ways that advisors can manage difficult conversations with clients and employees; and the impact that communication styles can have on your business.
Oct 27, 2023 • 56min
The Power of Your People: How Employee Experience Impacts the Bottom Line
Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work®, has found data-driven ways to connect the dots between human-centered leaders and good business. He shares how a focus on trust in the workplace correlates with business performance, what leaders can do to enhance the employee experience, and insights from his own 30-year career that have had a lasting impact on how he's approached new roles and leadership positions.
Sep 22, 2023 • 45min
Metrics that Matter: Using Data to Measure What Counts at Advisory Firms
Lisa Salvi, Managing Director of Advisor Services at Schwab, manages advisor benchmarking studies that have collected data for over a decade on key business metrics for financial advisory practices. Listen as she shares focus areas for firms to measure and what actually matters for performance. She also discusses how firms differentiate when it comes to those areas with the greatest impact, such as talent, succession planning, referral programs, and value propositions.
Aug 25, 2023 • 43min
Smooth Scaling: Navigating the Murky Waters of Hiring, Outsourcing, and Partnerships to Manage Growth
Ben Slater of Buckingham Strategic Partners works closely with advisory firms that are near critical growth points and considering outsourcing or partnering to manage the expansion. As you approach the next level of growth, you may ask questions around when to hire, what functions to outsource, and how you can thrive as you grow. Hear how to evaluate cost vs. time, determine where you can relinquish decision-making, and return to the areas of the profession that bring you joy.
