For our 51st episode, Matt welcomed two operations professionals who run relatively new firms, Vince Crane, COO, CCO and Partner of Flower City Capital and Zach Morris, Managing Partner and Founder of Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors. Flower City Capital was founded in 2016 and is located in Rochester, New York. They are currently a team of 5 and manage roughly $200M in AUM.  Paces Ferry Wealth Advisors was founded in 2018 and is located in Atlanta, Georgia. They have 6 employees and manage approximately $300M in assets. Matt, Vince, and Zach chat about how, from Day 1, our guests have set in place systems and processes with future scalability in mind and much more including:

You can read the full transcript here.

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 51 appeared first on COO Society.

For our milestone 50th episode, Matt is joined by two guests who are equally committed to highlighting the importance of professional management across the RIA industry: Allison Felix, Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Cassaday & Co. and Scott Brown, President of Pinnacle Associates.  Celebrating their 30th anniversary, Cassaday & Co was founded in 1993 and is a hybrid broker dealer and RIA.  They are located in McLean, Virginia, have 85 employees, and currently manage $4.5B in AUM.  Pinnacle Associates was founded in 1984 and has both an institutional and a wealth management component to their business model.  They are located in New York City, have 65 employees, and currently manage just over $7B in AUM.  Matt, Allison, and Scott discuss how the COO role impacts their teams internally, their firm holistically, and themselves personally, and much more including how each guest:

 And don’t miss Scott’s Godfather impression at the top of the interview!

Read the full transcript here.

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 50 appeared first on COO Society.

Our latest episode of The COO Roundtable features two guests who challenge our audience to think of the COO role in different ways – Edgar Collado of Tobias Financial Advisors and Alex Satterfield of Byron Financial.  Tobias Financial Advisors is based in Florida and has a strong foundation in tax planning.  They were founded in 1980 as a CPA firm and currently manage about $700M in AUM and have 19 employees.  Byron Financial is headquartered in North Carolina and began in 1985 with a focus on life insurance.  Currently they have 7 employees and grew from roughly $175M in AUM in 2019 to approximately $700M in AUM today.  Matt, Edgar, and Alex talk about the COO role from both the day-to-day operations of a firm to a high-level, strategic point of view and much more including:

You can read the full transcript here.

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 49 appeared first on COO Society.

For our first podcast of the new year (and our fourth year running!), Matt is welcomed by two exciting guests – Daryl Seaton, President at Sowell Management, and Barrett Karvis, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Edge Capital Group. Sowell Management is headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas.  Founded as a TAMP, they recently celebrated 20 years in business with 29 employees. They currently manage $4B in AUA. Edge Capital Group is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 2007, their AUM as of last year was approaching $5 billion, and they currently have 37 employees. Matt, Daryl, and Barrett chat about how their roles as operations professionals intertwine with their firm’s inorganic growth strategies and much more including:

Read the transcript here.

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 48 appeared first on COO Society.

For our final episode of 2022, we were joined by two incredible members of our COO Society community: Julie Allen, Vice President of Business Operations at FirstWave Financial and Chris Pelch, Chief Operating Office of Vance Wealth.  FirstWave Financial began as a CPA firm in 1995 with a strong family foundation aimed to help its clients “deal with the complexity that wealth brings.”  They are located in Satellite Beach, Florida, currently have $400M in AUM and a team of 12 employees.  Vance Wealth was founded in 2003 and helps its clients tackle important questions they face when looking to retire. They have two offices in California, $450M in AUM and a team of 18 employees.  During their discussion with Matt, Julie and Chris tackle both the Human Resources and Operations component of their roles and much more including:

To read the full transcript, click here.

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 47 appeared first on COO Society.

Our latest episode of The COO Roundtable features a rare single-guest format.  Stacey McKinnon of Morton Wealth recently wrote an important paper titled, “Your Career is Up to You” which features Philip Palaveev of the Ensemble Practice.  Matt and Stacey discuss the paper by turning the spotlight inward and instead of focusing on how listeners can help their firms achieve more growth, they discuss ways everyone can be more fulfilled and successful in their professional life.  Matt and Stacey have an honest and revealing conversation about their own career paths and much more including:

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Read the full transcript here.

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 46 appeared first on COO Society.

Our latest episode of The COO Roundtable features two leaders of relatively young and evolving RIAs. We are joined by Michael Wagner, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Omnia Family Wealth and Ben Gurley, Director of Heartwood Wealth Advisors.  Omnia Family Wealth was launched in 2015 and started with a team of 5 members. Currently headquartered in Aventura, Florida, they are now a team of 11 people and advise on $2.2B in assets.  Heartwood Wealth Advisors joined the RIA space in 2019. They are headquartered in Richmond, VA, have 11 employees, and $1B in AUM.  Together, Matt, Michael, and Ben (who both service clients in an advisory capacity in addition to operations) tackle the question, “Does client-facing work make you better at operations or vice versa?” and much more including:

You can read the full transcript here.

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 45 appeared first on COO Society.

In the “Reggie Jackson episode” of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes two thoughtful leaders of their organizations, Principal and Chief Compliance Officer of SYM Financial Advisors, Crystal Creekmore, and returning guest Gary Bonner, COO of Southwestern Investment Group.  SYM Financial Advisors is headquartered in Winona Lake Indiana and has 5 offices across Indiana and Michigan. Founded in 1968, they are currently in their 3rd generation of ownership. They manage $3.7B in AUM and have 68 employees.  Founded 20 years ago, Southwestern Investment Group is headquartered Franklin, Tennessee. They currently have 11 offices across 5 states and manage $5.5B in AUM with 176 employees.  Together, Matt, Crystal and Gary discuss how solid operations can better communication both within the firm and with clients directly, and much more including:

To read the full transcript, click here.

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 44 appeared first on COO Society.

In our latest episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes two impressive guests: Amanda Barrale, Chief Platform Officer of Moneta and Eric Sontag, President and Chief Operating Officer of Wealthspire.  Moneta is headquartered in St Louis and has offices in Kansas City, Denver, and Boston and currently manages $32.8B in AUM with 440 employees. Wealthspire is headquartered in New York City and has 19 offices around the country.  Founded in 1995, they manage $19B in AUM and have 270 employees. Together, Matt, Amanda, and Eric have a great discussion about building RIA Operations at scale and much more, including:

To read the full transcript click here.

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 43 appeared first on COO Society.

In our latest episode, Matt welcomes two incredible guests: Kristie Clayton, Integrator at iMatter and the Visionary Forum, and Melissa Bushman, VP of Operations at AltruVista.  Kristie’s experience in banking and credit unions led her to wealth management where she found her true passion – leading teams and developing people to their full potential.  Melissa brings a history of project management consulting, sports and entertainment, and non-profits to her current role at AltruVista.  In this episode, Matt, Kristie, and Melissa discuss their role as an “integrator” and the impact it has on their firms. Other topics of discussion include:  

You can read the full transcript here.

You can listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. 

The post The COO Roundtable
Episode 42 appeared first on COO Society.