Maria King is the President and Co-Founder of Transcend Practice Management, a practice management coaching and consulting firm based in Concord, Massachusetts. Maria helps advisors with hiring and compensation plans for next-generation advisors, and goes one step further by creating legacy plans to outline an arrangement for succession. In this episode, she joins the show to discuss how she helps advisors focus on their firm's values—including business, culture, and client experience—to ensure that they choose a well-aligned successor.  
 
Listen in as we talk in-depth about how Maria utilizes the four pillars of consulting, coaching, human resources, and internal firm growth to create bespoke legacy plans for her clients. You'll learn how she helps advisors understand why it’s important to recognize that their business succession decisions have a ripple effect that impacts family, staff, colleagues, and (of course) clients. 

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/274 

Penny Phillips is the President and Co-Founder of Journey Strategic Wealth, an independent RIA platform for advisors to outsource their back-office compliance and operations management. Through the firms they work with, Journey Strategic Wealth oversees $3 billion in assets and offers their advisors the ability to lean into already-built processes so they can scale their own time and productivity in order to focus on the client work they enjoy.

Listen in as Penny shares her journey through the advisor industry, from coaching advisors who were transitioning from insurance to financial advice, to launching her advisor platform in the middle of a pandemic. We also discuss the challenges that firms face building structures and centralizing operations (even with all the technology advancements in the industry), how Journey Strategic Wealth gives advisors the flexibility to choose how much plug-and-play support they need, and why making unpopular decisions often comes with the territory when leading a growing business.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/273

Kate Guillen is the founder of Simplicity Operations Management, a consulting firm based out of San Diego that specializes in helping advisory firms get the most out of their Customer Relationship Management systems and streamline their internal operations. Kate uses the advisors' CRM system as the central hub for the entire business and builds out workflows from the CRM to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.

Listen in as she explains how realizing that most firms are underutilizing their CRM systems inspired her to launch Simplicity Operations, what it was like launching at the beginning of the pandemic, and how she soon realized that her consulting services were needed now more than ever as firms went remote. Kate also shares why she sees the CRM system as the hub around which advisory firms should be built, the key to building solid workflows from that hub, and how firms can streamline their operations significantly by systematizing key repeatable steps of their business.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/272

Cady North is the founder of North Financial Advisors, a boutique fee-only financial planning firm that focuses on serving female business owners. Based out of San Diego and Washington, North Financial oversees more than $24-million in assets for 30 households, and purposefully maintains a limited number of clients to create high income without the risk of burnout.

Listen in as Cady shares why she built a firm around helping a younger clientele of female entrepreneurs, how she helps them balance their money goals and use their capital in the best way possible, and why she intentionally downsized to focus on quality over quantity when it comes to her clients. We also discuss how she has been able to maintain a solo advisor practice by systematizing and automating processes, why she took a 6-month sabbatical to examine what was truly important for her, and why she let go of the to-do lists to focus on feeling fulfilled both mentally and financially.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/271

Kyra Morris is the founder of Morris Financial Concepts, one of the oldest independent fee-only RIAs in the country. Based out of Charleston, South Carolina, Morris Financial oversees $350 million of assets under management for 250 clients—a size that Kyra has taken care to scale to by focusing on finding and retaining top talent, as well as letting go of hires who don’t meet the firm’s high standards.

Listen in as Kyra shares how she balances her firm’s growth trajectory carefully by growing fast enough to allow for her team to have new opportunities, but not so quickly that she can’t find and hire the necessary talent. We also discuss how she retains top talent once she finds them, how she manages stress and finds work-life balance as a busy entrepreneur, and why she gives back to her community by creating mixed-use development that enables minority-run local businesses to flourish.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/270