PracticeLab

For Renee Wolgin, making the leap from certified public accountant to director of family office at Telemus — a registered investment advisor firm with offices in Detroit and Chicago, managing more than $3 billion — was all about adding value to clients and being more integrated with their finances. “The goal is to promote full financial-life management,” she says.

In this episode, Renee talks with Wealth Strategist Leslie Geller about her role as a “virtual family CFO,” the customized services she can offer and the “one-stop shop” value that she brings to clients. Renee also explains how her team uses software that serves as a “digital vault” for client information — and why it becomes a kind of heirloom for clients.

For more, visit PracticeLab.

Greg Mendoza saw the opportunity in retirement plan consulting at the start of his career 20 years ago, when he was one of more than 100 candidates in his training class. "What differentiated me is everyone else went to the phone book," he said. "I went to business owners."

Today, Mendoza runs Integrated Wealth Management, a $5 billion practice specializing in retirement plan consulting in Hartford, Connecticut.

In this episode, Mendoza shares how he got into retirement plans, how his wealth management business helps grow the retirement business (and vice versa), and how a Pink Floyd lyric describes why advisory practices need to be efficient. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Life happens … plan for it! It's the motto of Karen DeRose and DeRose Financial Planning Group, a comprehensive planning firm in Chicago, and it perfectly captures how she approaches clients, business and everything else. A passion for making connections and a strong marketing and sales background have helped DeRose become a leading voice in the industry, as well as Lincoln Financial's top female financial planner.

A second-generation financial professional, DeRose's practice has transformed in the past decade with the addition of her two sons. Learn how DeRose found a niche working with multigenerational families, and how social media marketing drives 20% of her new business.

Listen, and you'll be asking yourself, "How referable am I?" For more, visit PracticeLab.

Advisors are always looking for ways to be more productive to free up time to focus on their clients. In this episode, Ray Evans of Pegasus Capital Management in Kansas City, Kansas, describes how his firm uses resources such as Pareto Systems and implements standard operating procedures to keep everyone in the firm focused on what they do best. He and his team of six associates manage just over $470 million, working with clients in the construction industry.

In this episode, Evans shares his firm's team-of-teams approach, which has helped him grow and added energy and new ideas to his business. Hear how he tracks different measures of efficiency and productivity and then incorporates that into a dashboard for weekly meetings. For more, visit PracticeLab.

In an industry where everyone is looking for a client niche, Ray Evans of Pegasus Capital Management in Kansas City, Kansas, may have found one where others weren't looking. He and his team of six associates manage just over $470 million, working with clients in the construction industry.

Evans has much to say, so we broke this interview into two parts. In this episode, he talks about his niche focus in construction, which happened almost by accident but has led to a large clientele of small-business owners.

We'll also dig into Evans' advisory board, a group of fellow business leaders who meet quarterly to counsel Evans and each other. He'll explain how he set it up, and how you can gain the benefits of an advisory board in your own practice. For more, visit PracticeLab.

As a veteran who spent 16 years serving in the Navy Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) Forces, Jonathan Wilson knows a thing or two about making decisions in uncertain conditions. At Capital Group, where he now consults with advisors on how to grow their retirement plan business, Jonathan helps financial professionals apply the lessons he learned as a Navy SEAL to help them grow in today's fast-paced industry.

In this episode, you'll hear Jonathan share his three keys to success: mission, systems and culture. In his discussion of systems, Jonathan digs into what he calls the four P's — problem, plan, perform and probe — and how to implement them in your team. And he shares insights about culture and what it takes to lead a high-performing team. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Many advisors take a holistic approach to financial planning, but David and Evan Coles of WMBC Financial in Irvine, California, have gone a step further. Working alongside their father, Scott Coles, who founded WMBC in 2003, the two brothers have developed a proprietary "human wealth" planning strategy, aiming to understand not just clients' financial needs, but also their emotional relationships to money as well as their sense of overall well-being.

In this episode, you will hear David and Evan share how they worked with a think tank on this so-called human wealth approach, and how they implement it in their practice. We will also discuss how this family firm has found success working with other family-owned businesses. Visit PracticeLab to read more.

What does it take to build a top team? Capital Group’s Michael Schweitzer, a former financial advisor with decades of experience in the industry, believes it’s all about thinking like an enterprise. “The best teams in the industry have figured out how to operate as an enterprise by building systems that allow them to operate much like some of America's most successful corporations today,” he says.  

In this episode, you will hear Schweitzer detail the 10 things he thinks top teams should focus on to build an enterprise around their business and create lasting value. Much of this work involves process, but it takes the right mindset, too. “You have to believe in the opportunity for growth, and you have to commit to it,” Schweitzer says. For more, visit PracticeLab.

With more than $2 billion* in assets under management and a 95% retention rate, Ira Rapaport and his team from New England Private Wealth Advisors must be doing something right. The fee-only registered investment advisor firm based in the Boston area credits their remarkable organic growth to next-level client experience as well as a focus on the softer side of planning, developing deep, long-term relationships with client families.

It takes a long-term team approach to pull it off. Hear several members of the team join the conversation to share how they work together to provide a holistic planning experience, along with examples of the types of client services that have helped them become a multibillion-dollar firm. To learn more, visit PracticeLab.

*As of Nov. 2020.

Many financial professionals these days are trying to reach women. Elisabeth Cullington and Janet Acheatel may have built the success model with Women and Wealth, a specialty practice that has helped grow HoyleCohen Wealth Management, their San Diego-based registered investment advisor firm, to more than $2 billion* in assets under management.

Host Leslie Geller leads the conversation as Acheatel and Cullington describe their "for women, by women" approach to helping clients tackle life transitions, such as selling a business, going through a divorce, retiring or being recently widowed. They share their "clone the client" process for acquiring new business, along with steps you can take to acquire and work more effectively with women clients. To learn more, visit PracticeLab.