PracticeLab

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.

To truly provide optimal service, Mary Beth Storjohann and her team at Abacus Wealth Partners aim to forge emotional connections with clients. “How do you speak to what’s on their hearts and minds?” she asks. “That’s how you get to know about where your clients spend their time and what they’re worried about.” 

This more-emotional-than-financial approach is not new for Abacus, which was founded nearly 30 years ago by Buddhists seeking to incorporate religious principles into financial services. But the appeal is stronger than ever. 

In this episode, Storjohann describes adapting client service to better connect with women and next-generation clients. She also shares how her firm seeks organic growth by expanding its network of entrepreneurial advisors to share skills and best practices for success. 

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.

Can digital marketing drive leads? Yes, says James Comblo of FSC Wealth Advisors in Fishkill, New York. A third-generation advisor with nearly $250 million in assets under management, Comblo is focused on providing holistic planning to clients he calls “blue-collar millionaires.” Finding and attracting these clients to the firm’s website, however, has been a process he’s spent nearly a decade building and refining. Today, his website and the content he creates help garner thousands of qualified leads.

In this episode, Comblo describes his trial-and-error process to digital marketing — from updating his website (which, he admits, he has done three times), to becoming a thought leader, to Facebook ad campaigns — and shares what he’s learned along the way. 

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.

What does it mean to future-proof your practice? For Ben Wong of Mariner Wealth Advisors in Pleasanton, California, it’s been an evolution in service, a team transformation and a succession plan that’s a win for everyone involved. After recently selling his billion-dollar advisory firm, Viewpoint Financial Network, to Mariner (a large national firm), he’s already seeing the benefits of scale.

Ben had much to say, so we broke the conversation into two parts. In part one, he describes how his team puts clients first with a unique level of service (or “over service”), simplifying the experience at every step. And he explains how a lack of client minimums helps his firm retain multiple generations of clients and attract more referrals.

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.

In just nine years, Jonathan Freeman and Brian McCarver built Stonebridge Financial Group in central Pennsylvania to $1.3 billion in assets — largely through their retirement plan business.

We split this interview into two parts. In the first episode the two described how team management is the bedrock of their business, how they’ve leveraged centers of influence (COIs) and why spending resources on marketing helps fuel organic growth.

Now let’s hear how they built a corporate retirement plan business, and how its helped expand the roster of the firm’s wealth management clients. They’ll also speak about why they created an advisory board, and how having one helped shape their practice. 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.

In this epiode, they talk about why team management is the bedrock of their growth, how they’ve leveraged centers of influence (COIs) to create a robust client referral pipeline and why spending resources on marketing helps fuel organic and sustainable growth.

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.

If you want a succession plan to work, start building it years before you retire. That’s the strategy of the team behind Weber Wealth Advisors in Yorba Linda, California. Founder Mark Weber has taken a whole-team approach, in which everyone has the same client and investment information, and everyone shares in the revenue. The strategy helped make Weber Wealth a top 10 firm within Woodbury Financial Services, a group with 1,500-plus offices.

In this episode, we talk to Mark’s son, Kyle Weber, and fellow advisor Nick John about how the team approach to succession, branding and personalized client service has helped the business grow while supporting the next generation of advisors. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Heather Ettinger learned firsthand how the “money messages” women receive early on can impact how they view money and engage, or don’t, with financial professionals. At her firm, Luma Wealth, her goal is to meet women where they are and show them the power they have to use their financial resources to build the lives they want, nurture their families and give back to their communities.

In this episode, Heather discusses how she side-stepped the typical approach wealth management takes toward women — adjuncts of a husband or father — to see women as whole people whose views and priorities matter. She said Luma’s “learn, connect, celebrate” model focuses on money being the tool to women’s life’s goals, not the goal itself. For more, visit PracticeLab.

Do one thing and do it well. For advisors Joe Schoenhardt and James Hinchsliff, that thing is retirement distribution. They partnered more than 30 years ago, aiming to become retirement specialists without a lot of prospecting. They focused outreach on a few corporations, offering to educate employees about time-release retirement funding. This model has led to strong bonds with organizations, stronger client relationships and steady practice growth without marketing. Today, their Chicago-area firm, Infinity Financial Concepts, manages more than $330 million and gets up to four referrals a week.

In this episode, Joe and Jim describe their unique business model, the “aha!” moments in investor seminars, and playing retirement Santa Claus. For more, visit 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.