Managing Your Practice

Compliance plays a critical role in financial services, but keeping up with regulations from the SEC, FINRA, and individual states can be overwhelming. How do you ensure that you're interpreting them correctly? Do you have processes in place to protect your clients and team? Are you prepared if you get audited? Leila Shaver, founder of My RIA Lawyer, joins Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, to discuss compliance concerns and regulatory changes you can prepare for now.

Every founder of a financial advisory firm will at some point face the question of succession. If looking internally, who is the heir apparent and when should they begin handing over the reins? The process can take years and may be difficult to navigate for the founder and successor. Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, is joined by Eric Hehman, CEO of Austin Asset, to talk about his journey from intern to CEO and the successful succession plan he helped develop along the way.

In a competitive market, it can be tempting to continuously seek new ways to provide value to clients in order to stand out and grow your firm. But often, these aren't scalable offerings, and trying to serve more than one niche can allow your ideal clients to slip through the cracks. Michael Kitces, of Buckingham Wealth Partners, joins Catherine Williams to discuss how advisors can build a successful practice by developing a clear vision for their firms and by focusing on financial advice and education offerings for a specific market segment.

It can take a range of skill sets to start and build a successful financial advisory firm. But whether that firm remains a smaller, lifestyle practice or grows into a larger self-sustaining enterprise can depend on the culture and the right mix of personality types. Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, is joined by Jon Jones, co-founder and CEO of the wealth management firm Brighton Jones, to explore how you can identify, hire, and align the right personalities with the goals of your firm.

Most advisors are excellent at evaluating investment options for clients but can fall short in assessing their own financial statements and what they are saying about the health of their businesses. Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, is joined by Philip Palaveev, founder and CEO of The Ensemble Practice, to explore how assessing a firm's profit and loss (P&L) statement and other financials could possibly be the key to growing faster, achieving greater profitability, and creating more opportunities for advisors and their teams.

Many advisory practices use the popular "diamond team" structure to expand their capacity, add more clients, and effectively service those clients. But how do you implement a diamond team, and is it right for your organization? Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, is joined by Angie Herbers, founder and managing partner of Herbers and Company and originator of the diamond team concept. They discuss how having the right people in the right roles can create a high-functioning team that benefits both the organization and its clients.

How do you differentiate yourself in a competitive market and build a profitable practice working with the types of clients that you want to help? Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, is joined by four-time Olympian Lauryn Williams of Worth Winning to discuss her path from gold medal-winning athlete to financial planner focused on offering advice and education to an underserved market segment.

Sharing equity can help attract and retain talented team members, create a clear succession plan, and help de-risk ownership for advisory firms. But what's the best way to price and distribute equity to meet a firm's strategic objectives? John Furey of Advisor Growth Strategies joins Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, to discuss current trends in compensation and equity planning.

As founder and CEO of CEG Worldwide, John Bowen has spent decades coaching thousands of elite advisors. So what separates top financial advisors from the rest? In this conversation with Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, John shares the four business development strategies that he believes all elite advisors should follow. As an added bonus, you can visit www.cegworldwide.com/fasttrack to receive a complimentary copy of John's book "Become the Expert the Wealthy Want," and to arrange a business development strategy call with his team.

In 2020, we learned the importance of developing a team that can deliver value to your clients while implementing a systematic growth plan to guide the future of your business. Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, is joined by Stacy Francis of Francis Financial and Dave Welty of Avier Wealth Advisors to discuss how they approach their unique market niches and use social media and other tools to drive growth in their businesses.

Managing the culture and shared values of your organization is a key element of driving employee development and ultimately the long-term value of your business. In a virtual environment, goals-based management can help you deepen engagement with your teams and prioritize the values that create results. Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, is joined by J.D. Bruce of Abacus Wealth and Stacey McKinnon of Morton Capital to discuss how they successfully manage human capital at their firms.

Despite the challenges of 2020, the year closed with M&A activity at a record-setting pace and no signs of slowing going into 2021. Whether advisors are interested in selling all or a portion of their businesses, there are important steps they can begin to take today to help maximize their valuation in the future and ensure they find the right partner. Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, is joined by Scott Slater of Fidelity Institutional to discuss M&A trends and best practices in the industry. You can listen to Fidelity's podcast, Future Ready through M&A, hosted by Scott Slater here.

Organizations with a high level of employee engagement also tend to have higher morale, higher retention, and a better client experience. With more people working remotely than ever before, how are successful firms retaining, developing, and effectively engaging with employees in a virtual environment? Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, welcomes Shannon O'Toole of Shannon O'Toole Coaching to discuss best practices for employee retention and engagement in 2020 and beyond.

Whether you're seeking an external partner for the purpose of retirement, succession planning, or taking your business to the next level, the merger and acquisition (M&A) process can be daunting for any advisory firm. How do you find the right partner? How do you ensure a good cultural fit for your staff and your clients? What does integration entail post transaction? Catherine Williams, Dimensional's Head of Practice Management, is joined by Susan Strausbaugh of Buckingham Strategic Wealth and Karen Keatley of Modera Wealth Management as they discuss successful M&A experiences at their firms.