Today we have two guests on the show to talk about how they made their rarely practiced firm-within-a-firm service model a success. Andy Brincefield and James Matthews, CEO of Consolidated Planning and Managing Director of Consolidated Planning’s wholly owned subsidiary Blueprint, respectively, teamed up about a year ago to launch Blueprint as a new service model dedicated to NextGen clients. Given that Blueprint has its own advisors, marketing, recruiting, website, and office space, they have t...
Jan 03, 2018•1 hr 2 min
Building a business that really fits your life and passions is a dream for many and Kay Dee Cole made it a reality. Kay Dee joins the show today to share her experience with discovering her passion for financial advising and building her own practice. She has some great advice and inspiration for those who want to start their own business even in the midst of a chaotic life. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/132...
Dec 27, 2017•1 hr 2 min
The financial planning field has been historically dominated by white males and focused on the same. This discussion is to bring a better understanding of the difficulties that the ethnic minorities and females have when trying to break into and become established in the field. This important and exciting discussion is being co-hosted by Kathleen Boyd and Bill Simonet who both have unique and valuable experiences and views that will help us see things from different perspectives. You can find sh...
Dec 20, 2017•1 hr 12 min
What does it take to start and grow a successful financial planning firm? Today’s guest is here to share how he managed to do just that. Patrick Brewer is the founder of SurePath Wealth Management, a fee-only financial planning firm based in Austin, Texas that grew from $0 to over $250,000 in annual revenue in just 13 months. In this episode, Patrick discusses what led to him launching his own firm, the lessons he learned along the way, and more. You can find show notes and more information by c...
Dec 13, 2017•1 hr 6 min
Deciding on your fee structure can be a challenge depending on the type of firm you want to have and the clients you serve. PJ Wallin joins us on this episode and fills us in on his reasoning for using this method and gives some great insight on how to make it work and why it works so well for his clients. He also shares the ups and downs of his career and the process of building a successful and unique financial planning business. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: h...
Dec 06, 2017•1 hr 12 min
Today XYPN founding member Ben Wacek is here! Now also the founder of Wacek Financial Planning, Ben has been building his own business since 2014. He is slowly turning it into the ideal firm for him and his family, as he is able to work from home and prioritize time with his wife and three young children, but what makes Ben’s business stand out the most is that he has incorporated his faith into it. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/...
Nov 29, 2017•1 hr 7 min
XYPN co-founder Michael Kitces is back on the show! Today he’s here to answer some of the most common questions we get regarding what it means to be fee-only and why being a fiduciary is so important to us. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/127
Nov 22, 2017•1 hr 20 min
It’s easy to get stuck doing things the same way as everyone else but Bill Simonet shows us the value of doing things a bit differently. He joins us on this episode to share some wisdom and lessons he has learned on his path to becoming a successful practice owner. In just 15 months, Bill’s business has grown to 3 employees and advises 58 clients. It’s obvious that he’s doing something (or many things) right. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningne...
Nov 15, 2017•1 hr 17 min
Michael Kitces joins us on the show to talk about XYPN's Inaugural Benchmarking Survey and we talk through some of the highlights from the survey. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/125
Nov 08, 2017•1 hr 16 min
Elizabeth Jetton is on the show to share the incredible new programs and educational opportunities being developed to help financial planners start strong. She also shares the importance of finding your ‘Why’ and gives tips on when and how to do it. Her experience in almost every area of the financial planning industry has given her some great insight that we can all learn from. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/124...
Nov 01, 2017•1 hr 4 min
What would you be able to do if you continued to persevere in order to achieve your dreams? Learn how Alex Hopkin took advantage of opportunities in order to grow her career. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/123
Oct 25, 2017•1 hr
Becoming a financial planner wasn’t at the top of Jason Howell’s list but through working in finance and politics he made his way to a career he is passionate about. He joins us on the show today to share his career and the growing process he went through. From running for political office to getting his CFP, the road has been challenging but rewarding. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/122...
Oct 18, 2017•59 min
Learn how Glen specializes in helping clients with student loan analysis and how it is an easy low hanging fruit for advisors who are just starting out. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/121...
Oct 11, 2017•1 hr 7 min
Brian Thompson, founder of Brian Thompson Financial, is committed to helping the LGBTQ community with their financial planning. He started out as a tax attorney, but his interest in personal finance grew after he watched his mom get sold inappropriate annuities and saw more opportunity to help people in this area. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/120...
Oct 04, 2017•1 hr 6 min
In this episode, Amy Irvine shares how she managed to acquire a total of 100 clients in under two years without leveraging her strong client relationships for more financial growth. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/119
Sep 27, 2017•1 hr 10 min
Justin Castelli certainly knows how to think outside the box. The owner of RL Wealth Management and a member of the XYPN Advisory Board, he developed a unique model that allows him to serve two different niches in the financial planning space. This so-called “barbell model” allows him to work with two types of clients: older clients that have wealth and younger clients that don’t. In today’s episode, Justin shares his experience starting his own firm and explains why asset minimums can result in...
Sep 20, 2017•1 hr 2 min
Melissa Ellis joins us this episode to share her story and some of the lessons she learned along the way to where she is now. Despite putting off her dream due to being told financial planning wasn’t appropriate for women and that the timing wasn’t right, she finally went for it and never looked back. She shares the steps she took along the way and all the jobs and experiences that fed her knowledge and put her on the path to owning her own practice. You can find show notes and more information ...
Sep 13, 2017•59 min
Building a new business is always a lot of work. This didn’t deter Andrew Damcevski and Devon Klumb from starting their practice and quickly adjusting and putting it in the perfect position to succeed. By become part of a bigger firm, their business has been able to see a large amount of growth and they are able to reach the type of customers they are passionate about working with. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/116...
Sep 06, 2017•1 hr 1 min
Anna Segunina knows the difference between a business and a practice - which she's proved with her fantastic work helping to develop Main Street Planning into what it is today. On this episode, Anna shares the story of her career, from how she got started in the business to how she became the owner of a highly successful planning practice. Anna shares many valuable takeaways from her experiences developing an hourly-based business with a focus on planning rather than asset management. You can fi...
Aug 30, 2017•1 hr 4 min
Sound business decisions are made when you have accurate and helpful data to back them up. Unfortunately, it seems that many advisors and especially the smaller businesses are not tracking their metrics or gathering important data. Shawn Tydlaska joins us again to shed some light on some simple methods he uses to track data and how this data has helped his business thrive in such a short time period. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com...
Aug 23, 2017•55 min
Every member of XYPN has a unique take on what we teach, and it's always fun to hear how each advisor is building a unique and valuable practice. Tony Madsen is building an RIA in rural Minnesota, after taking a leap out of the world of broker-dealers so he could have more fun with planning. In this interview, Tony shares his first-year revenue and expenses and talks openly about where he spent more money than he should. One of the most interesting things Tony explains is the cashflow management...
Aug 16, 2017•1 hr 4 min
We often talk about the utility of the retainer model here at XYPN. One of our earliest members, Cristina Guglielmetti, is cleverly combining retainer clients with a lot of project work to craft an uber-flexible schedule that you'll find interesting. Cristina shares how she's created a business and schedule that work for her life as she raises a son and invests in a local bar with her husband and a group of friends from her MBA days. While she only has about ten retainer clients, she leverages i...
Aug 09, 2017•1 hr
Mike Solari started his own independent firm in 2012 without a single client. He joined us here at XYPN in 2014, and we've gotten to witness his business grow as he's built a practice that serves about 26 people - two-thirds of which are on retainer. In this interview, Mike talks about his biggest struggles and successes running the business, and how he's made up for his own shortcomings with grit and education. We talk retainer fees, networking to find clients, and hitting that 5-year business ...
Aug 02, 2017•1 hr 1 min
We know our mailbag is overflowing, so we're back with another Alan & Kitces Unhinged episode to answer as many of your questions as possible! We've also received questions about how to talk to clients about transitioning from an AUM only model to a retainer + AUM model. Often it seems trickier than it is, and we've got some guidance on how to make it easy. And we'll talk about the relevance of performance reviews, and whether or not you should be providing them to your clients - especially the ...
Jul 26, 2017•1 hr 4 min
Farnoosh Torabi is one of our keynote speakers at #XYPN17 this year, and on this episode she gives a little sneak preview of what she'll be talking about. Farnoosh kicks things off by telling us how she became one of the country's most popular financial experts. After studying finance in college, she decided she wanted to marry her expertise with money to her fascination with journalism so she could spread her knowledge to people of all walks of life. We also talk about why and how she wrote her...
Jul 19, 2017•55 min
Helen Ngo is here today to share her experience working her way into the financial planning world and starting her own successful business by the age of twenty-six. There’s a whole lot to take away and apply to your own business plan, whether you want to start a business or you're already in the process. Starting out in a male-dominated field definitely didn’t make Helen shy away from business; it actually gave given her the motivation to quit an aging practice and start her own unique, passion ...
Jul 12, 2017•56 min
Nannette Kamien took a long and winding road to becoming an entrepreneur in the world of financial services, but her previous career continues to improve her offering as a financial services professional. To build a modern practice, she's drawn on her background in information technology. This technical expertise has allowed her to serve clients and move fast toward establishing her own firm. In this interview, we discuss breaking into a new market, executing a career change, and capitalizing on...
Jul 05, 2017•1 hr 5 min
When Bill Nelson realized that working on Capitol Hill wasn't for him, he joined Price Waterhouse Cooper and became an expert on compliance. But when he and his future wife decided to move so she could attend medical school, Bill considered opening his own firm. In this interview, Bill shares why he took the safe route when he first moved rather than start his own RIA. He talks about what he learned working for a big broker dealer, why working in the industry was so helpful before starting his o...
Jun 28, 2017•1 hr 6 min
Oftentimes we're so excited about financial planning around here that we can gloss over some of the tougher, less glamorous aspects of running your own business. After a 12-year career in tech herself, today's guest, XYPN member Meg Bartelt decided to get a Masters in financial planning and switch careers entirely. Meg shares candidly about the obstacles that she's confronted in her first year of business. The unique challenges of having an entirely virtual firm, learning to practice self care, ...
Jun 21, 2017•1 hr 5 min
We're super excited to be hosting today's guest, Mitch Anthony, because he's also going to be our keynote speaker at #XYPN17 this year! Mitch is a communication guru and longtime advisor of financial advisors - and he's got a great system for getting to the root of clients' needs. In this interview, Mitch shares how he stumbled into the financial planning industry and how he applies storytelling principles to working with advisors and clients alike. He also details the importance of understandin...
Jun 14, 2017•1 hr 2 min
