Financial Advisor Success

In today's episode, I speak with Inspired Financial founder, Evelyn Zohlen, an independent RIA in southern California. Her business is focused on working with women in transition, namely divorcees and widows. Her small, cohesive team dominates the niche and innovates constantly.

Evelyn shares the details of how she selected this niche and built her team. They have set up their fees and team to deliver over-the-top coverage to select clients and share responsibilities fairly. Some clients pay for AUM, while others pay her a retainer, which is a growing trend within the industry.

For Evelyn, driving referrals from centers of influence has been the foundation of how she has built her business. This has led her to bring $140M in assets under management in 15 years.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: www.kitces.com/21

I've received a lot of requests for me a to be a guest on my own show - so here you have it!

In this interview, I talk with my XYPN co-founder Alan Moore about how I manage to keep up with the blog, five growing businesses, speaking gigs, and actual financial planning - on top of spending time with family. I retrace the steps I've taken to arrive at the varied career I have today, and share some of the formative experiences of that journey.

Alan and I also talk about the time management strategies I've implemented in order to balance everything and avoid overcommitting myself.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/20

Bob Veres has long been a towering figure in the world of financial planning. He's been writing about financial planning since the early eighties and has played a key role in shaping the industry as we know it today.

In this interview, Bob shares how and why he's worked to close the disconnect between planners' and clients' interests, and why he thinks financial planning could one day be a profession on par with medicine and law. We trace the changes of the profession through time, followed up with Bob's predictions for the future.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/19

Angie Herbers consults with financial advisors to help them break through growth barriers and bring their firms into alignment with their core values. Although she gets about 4-5 prospects a week, Angie only works with about 10% of the advisors that want to work with her.

In this interview, Angie talks about the critical importance of setting boundaries with your business and your clients. Angie explains why your business by nature is a selfish entity, and how to protect your time and energy to ensure you don't lose yourself to the business.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/18

There's constantly buzz in our industry about the importance of integrating social media with your practice. Not only is Josh Brown an advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management; he runs the widely-read blog The Reformed Broker and appears on CNBC's The Halftime Report.

In this conversation, Josh tells the story of how he became one of the best known voices in the business, beginning in the financial world as a broker dealer for some questionable companies. Josh also shares advice about building your social presence and the necessity of being authentic with your audience.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/17

Our guest this week, Deena Katz, was already writing entire books about practice management when I was still cutting my teeth as a financial advisor. Deena is a financial advisor, author, and educator who has long espoused the importance of holistic financial planning.

Deena was an early adopter of niches, settling into work with widows and divorcees that needed help managing their money. Deena has empowered not only women during her 41-year career, but clients and planners from all walks of life.

In this interview, Deena talks about the early years of financial planning and how she and her partners established one of the first fee-only practices. Deena also talks about the second half of her career, which she's dedicated to teaching the next generation of financial planners.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/16

You've undoubtedly heard of "life planning" within the financial planning world, but we've got the originator himself with us today on Financial Advisor Success.

In this episode, George Kinder talks about his early career and the inception of life planning. He shares the three questions he asks of new clients to get to know them, and the short- and long-term goals he often has clients identify. For George, life planning is the first step of any good financial plan - get to know your client well, and then figure out how you can help them become who they're meant to be.

George also shares how life planning became so popular in the first place and how he transitioned away from and sold his financial planning firm to teach life planning full time. He also talks about the other passions in his life, and why finding and holding onto freedom is the main motivating factor for all of his work.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/15

Carl Richards has a career that many people would be envious of. He's worked for top-notch financial planning firms, built his own RIA, written two books and a column for The New York Times, and travels internationally to speak to crowds about financial planning. But like most of us, Carl still deals with impostor syndrome that threatens his confidence in his own success.

In this interview, Carl and I talk about why many great financial advisors constantly question whether or not they're providing the value their clients are paying for.

We also dive into the many opportunities Carl has had throughout his career, and why he still feels today like he's lucked into many of them. He shares some real wisdom about why advisors shouldn't let impostor syndrome keep them from doing valued, important work for clients or seizing the chances that come their way.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/14

As a serial entrepreneur, Steve Lockshin has founded several businesses in the advisory industry. Listen to this week's episode to learn how he got started as a financial advisor without any experience in the field and how he created and sold a software company without a background in programming.

Steve shares his journey from insurance into financial advising and how he got started. You'll hear the lessons he's learned from selling companies, his entrepreneurial successes (and failures), and growing his revenue 100% every year.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/13

Today I'm chatting with Sophia Bera, the founder of Gen Y Planning. Sophia was the subject of a post on Nerd's Eye View back in 2013 when she was starting her firm. Four years on, she's bringing home more than $100,000 in revenue and serving about 50 clients on a monthly retainer model.

Sophia's firm is another example of just how powerful a niche can be. Although peers told her that millennials would be a challenging and non-lucrative group to serve, she quickly found that advisors were lacking, not millennial clients.

In this episode, Sophia breaks down her fee structure and service model. Sophia's experience with traditional firms, financial startups, and running her own business make her uniquely suited to consulting clients and other financial planners alike on their various options for financial management.

Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/12