PracticeLab

If you're an advisor who's built your practice through the sweat of your brow, through sheer grit, and determination, through countless hours of trying to out hustle your competition, this episode is for you. We're going to unpack capital Group's latest Pathways to Growth research and what it reveals about how top advisors are growing faster, not by working harder, but by scaling smarter.

How can financial advisors sift through all the AI noise? With the help of someone who knows both worlds. Derek Notman is a financial advisor with 20 years of experience and the founder and CEO of Intrepid Wealth Partners. He is also the founder and CEO of fintech Couplr AI, which uses AI and data science to match prospective clients with the most compatible advisors. Listen now as he boils everything down to the most important things advisors need to know about AI.

Do you have a defined referral plan? Do you get as many referrals from CPAs and attorneys as you send to them? Have you segmented your book by how likely clients are to refer people to you, not just their net worth? Molly Bennard is the president of international operations at Focus Financial, a firm with over $400B in AUM (as of December 2024). She joins Capital Group practice management consultants Jon Wainman and Max McQuiston to help advisors create, improve and execute their client and center of influence (COI) referral plans.

Where do you turn for help in managing your practice? One resource that should be near the top of your list: a study group. Advisor study groups are among the top five most effective practice management resources, according to Cerulli Associates' 2023 US Advisor Metrics report. John Stadtmueller, Founder and CEO of advisor network Good Advisors Finish First, has spent over 20 years in the industry as an advisor, consultant and wholesaler at firms including LPL Financial and Charles Schwab. He dispels some common myths about study groups and details the steps to forming an effective one that can help all its members better manage their practices and serve their clients. For more, visit PracticeLab.com.

Why do top advisors who have a niche get 67% more take-home income than those who don't have a niche? Kristen Luke is the founder of Kaleido Creative Studio, a marketing firm dedicated to helping advisors with their marketing and client acquisition strategies. She is also the author of the Amazon bestseller, "Uncomparable: The Financial Advisor's Guide to Standing Out through Niche Marketing." She describes how niche marketing strategies have helped advisors streamline their operations, service more clients with fewer staff, increase their revenue and even reduce their need to continue doing marketing over time. For more, visit PracticeLab.com.

Pat Hinton is a co-founder and senior partner at Boston Wealth Strategies, a fee-only financial planning firm under Commonwealth with over $1 billion in assets under management. Hinton describes how he and his partners create a collaborative culture at the firm, engage the next generation of advisors and build a succession and exit plan into their day-to-day operations. For more, visit PracticeLab.

While a lot of advisors may say they offer financial planning, not all manage to offer dynamic customized plans to clients. For advisors Bart Zandbergen and Letitia Berbaum with The Zandbergen group, a DBA* of Axxcess Wealth Management in Laguna Beach, California, making planning a priority not only helps them stand out, it makes them essential. They are often the first ones called when clients are facing an emergency. In this episode, you'll hear about their planning process, and how it's enabled by technology and smart teaming. They also explain why they family wealth conversations early and often, and how to have that conversation with clients. For more, visit PracticeLab. *DBA stands for does business as another firm name.

Sometimes financial planning is about more than investing toward goals. For Lynne Knox, a private wealth manager at Capital Group Private Client Services, that often means helping people move from fragility to strength. This is particularly true for women age 65 and older going through "gray divorce" after spending decades in a traditional homemaker role. These women may have high net worth but little experience making their own financial decisions. They need guidance, but they also want allies they can trust and lean on during a time of great uncertainty. In this episode, Knox describes the financial advice she gives them, a technique for better client conversations, and how she nurtures these client relationships after the divorce is finalized. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Abacus Wealth Partners was founded by two Buddhists in 1996 with the idea to incorporate their religious principles into financial services. Last year, they stepped away from the daily management of the firm, passing the reins to two women co-CEOs. The money-and-mindfulness ethos remains at the forefront of the firm's mission and values, says Mary Beth Storjohann, one of those co-CEOs. Like many financial advisors, Abacus seeks to help clients connect money with their life goals. But the firm also aims to help clients experience what it calls a "sense of enough here and now, not just in the future." Abacus aims to show that a spiritual focus is not inconsistent with material success. The Southern California-based firm has about $3 billion in assets under management. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Before advisor Ben Wong sold and consolidated his billion-dollar advisor business with Mariner Wealth Advisors in 2022, he did a lot of careful thinking about his exit strategy. His ensemble team had a big impact on his decision. He wasn't merely selling a book of business, but an operation. He wanted a way for his team to benefit and continue to grow. And he wanted to make himself happy in the coming years. In part two of our discussion, Ben describes his path to succession and why it works so well for his ensemble practice. You'll also hear about how this self-described workflow nerd thinks about staffing and hiring, along with tips for how other advisors can future-proof their practices. For more, visit PracticeLab.

When it comes to estate planning, advisors naturally spend time helping clients think through their legacies and how they'd like to share their estates. But it's the client's executor (or trustee) who's charged with making sure those wishes become reality. That's why it makes sense to speak to clients about this role and share important considerations and guidance that can help clients make the best decision for the role. Too often, clients make this choice using a single variable: Whom do they trust? Stacey Delich-Gould and Anne Gifford Ewing, trust and estate specialists at Capital Group's Private Client Services, share insight on factors clients should consider when appointing an executor or trustee, and ideas on how advisors can help clients prepare their fiduciaries for the role. For more, visit PracticeLab.

From their footprint in the Deep South, Rhonda and Scott Ferguson have developed a strong niche by focusing on employees at regional outposts of some of the country's biggest companies. Working out of a small home in downtown Columbus, Mississippi, the two serve as a bridge between those large corporations and their small-town workers. In this episode, hear how the mother-and-son duo built Financial Concepts, with $775 million in assets under management, using their local roots and hometown authenticity to win clients planning for retirement from big-name organizations. The key, they say, is understanding the benefits packages of those companies better than anyone in town — including the companies themselves. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Financial planning is about more than money. Money is used as an exchange for feelings, but personal values get at the heart of what people really want. That's how financial advisor Jay Wheeler starts each client relationship. His team uses the principals of behavioral finance (plus a deck of cards) to help clients determine exactly what their personal values are. In this episode, hear Jay talk about how his firm, Wheeler Financial in Wilmington, Delaware, with $215 million in assets under management, serves the "millionaire next door" types with this values-first approach to planning. He also discusses the consultants he's used to help him become a better advisor and business owner. For more, visit PracticeLab.