The COO Roundtable

I am thrilled to announce the launch of The COO Roundtable, Powered by PFI Advisors; our latest endeavor in championing the role of operations professionals within the RIA industry.  This podcast series will feature panel discussions with Chief Operating Officers at some of the country’s leading independent firms.  We plan to highlight operational best practices and the benefits that professional management can bring to an RIA.

Our inaugural guests will be the COOs most recently highlighted in PFI Advisors’ white paper, “Exploring the Benefits of Professional Management for RIAs – A Deeper Look into Chief Operating Officers:” Gary T. Bonner of Avalon Advisors, Jeff Fuhrman of Coastal Bridge Advisors, Michael Lee of LourdMurray, and Anthony Craun of Sand Hill Global Advisors.

We view this podcast as a natural extension of our core mission here at PFI Advisors:

To further evolve the RIA industry from a collection of practices to businesses, and to be a continued voice in validating the industry as a legitimate landing spot for billion-dollar teams and their clients.

With the goal of shedding light on the tremendously important work COOs perform every day in the trenches, this podcast is a bit of a passion project of mine, as I have seen throughout my 20-year career in financial services that operations professionals are widely viewed as “cost centers” and not “revenue generators” within sales organizations.  Industry luminaries such as Mark Tibergien, David Canter, and Philip Palaveev have been advocating for the professionalization of our industry for some time, and we intend to demonstrate that without leveraging a Chief Operating Officer, RIAs cannot achieve the organic or inorganic growth initiatives they set for themselves.  We strongly believe that COOs are needed to free the owners of these organizations from the daily minutiae of running a business.

As Jeff Fuhrman said during his interview for our recent white paper, “It’s the Chief Operating Officer’s duty to be in the wings, supporting the role of the advisor.  Leave the management of the firm to the COO, and they will make sure advisors get what they need so they can do the most effective job for their clients.”

We at PFI Advisors are declaring 2019 as the “Year of the COO” in the RIA Industry and aim to spend the year illuminating the hard work successful Chief Operating Officers bring to their respective firms through The COO Roundtable.   Our featured COOs will discuss how they overcome challenges pertaining to the day-to-day administration of their firms; how they maintain a holistic view of their organization’s culture; how they drive workflow improvements; and how they navigate the human resources element of being a COO, all at once.  We’ll also look to share their stories of hanging pictures on the walls, drilling holes in desks, and duct taping phone cables together, as no job is ever beneath a competent COO.

Our goal is to help the industry realize the massive value Operations professionals bring to RIAs.  Every advisory firm struggles with the goal of providing high-touch service to a larger and larger client base in a scalable and efficient fashion.  It is the COO’s job to execute the owner’s vision through people and technology, and to execute that vision profitably.

We hope you take a listen, subscribe, and enjoy!