Kay Lynn Mayhue is the President of Merit Financial Advisors, a hybrid advisory firm based out of Georgia that oversees approximately $13 billion in assets under management for 26,000 households. What’s unique about Kay Lynn is how she cultivated her advisory, management, and leadership skills to progress to become president of a national RIA enterprise. In her role, she now spearheads the firm’s proactive mergers and acquisitions strategy.

Listen in as Kay Lynn shares her journey from client-facing advisor to firm leader, including the pivotal lessons she learned about leadership after her team once threatened to quit due to her early management style. She also discusses her approach to mergers and acquisitions, how her firm uses personality assessments to strengthen hiring and client relationships, and her firm’s “organic growth tracks” for advisors.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/422

Daniel Friedman is the CEO of WMGNA, a hybrid advisory firm based out of Connecticut that oversees approximately $270 million in assets under management for 200 client households. What’s unique about Daniel is how his firm offers “in-house” tax return preparation as part of its one-stop-shop service, while outsourcing the actual preparation work to trusted CPAs paid from his firm’s revenue. This allows Daniel’s team to focus on delivering tax planning analyses and strategies, which are central to the firm’s value proposition for clients.

Listen in as Daniel discusses how his firm combines a subscription-based planning fee with an AUM charge on investments it manages and how it has implemented a money-back guarantee with very few clients taking them up on the offer. Daniel also explains how his firm embraces the concept of "Restylement" to help clients redefine their next life chapter, the key role of a “director of first impressions” in fostering client relationships, and how persistence and exceptional service have fueled his firm’s long-term growth and success.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/421

Michelle Underwood Gass is the Founding Principal of Paradigm Advisors, an RIA based out of Dallas that oversees approximately $110 million in assets under management for 80 client households. What’s unique about Michelle is how she developed a structured meeting process to guide new clients through her in-depth planning system, ensuring a standardized experience while retaining the flexibility to customize each client’s financial plan, prioritizing their unique needs and goals.

Listen in as Michelle shares her 5-part planning process, beginning with a “Get to Know You” meeting that incorporates Life Planning exercises to uncover client priorities and ensure a mutual fit, followed by a tech-enabled “Uncluttering” process to streamline document collection and onboarding. She explains how her “Intrinsic Discovery” and “Discovering Opportunities” meetings prioritize key planning areas, avoiding overwhelm for busy working-age clients, while tools like eMoney’s Decision Center and Hubly workflow management software support efficient plan implementation. Michelle also discusses her combined flat planning and AUM-based fee structure that allows her to serve high-earning professionals and hedge fund veterans, and how launching her financial planning business brought her a renewed sense of purpose after stepping away from managing a hedge fund.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/420

Peter Krull is the Director of Sustainable Investing of Earth Equity Advisors, an RIA based out of North Carolina that oversees approximately $200 million in assets under management for 250 client households. What sets Pete apart is his ability to grow his firm by helping clients align their portfolios with their personal values, turning investments into a reflection of the businesses they want to support. He achieves this while maintaining well-diversified, market-aligned portfolios that are prudently allocated to sound businesses.

Listen in as Pete shares how his sustainable investing approach focuses on identifying sectors and companies poised for future success, differentiating it from socially responsible and ESG investing by taking a bottom-up, forward-looking perspective. He explains how he uses a combination of industry insights, quantitative metrics, and third-party evaluations to construct client portfolios with a mix of equities and fixed-income investments that align with sustainability criteria while meeting clients' risk tolerances. Pete also discusses how serving a well-defined niche has expanded his business opportunities, enabling him to attract clients who want their investments to support the future they envision, and how merging with a larger firm has allowed him to scale his offerings and reach even more like-minded investors.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/419