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Ray Sclafani
Hold On! Strategies to stem the outflow of assets as they transition to the next generation
Let's face it – most advisors lose out when wealth passes down to the next generation. In fact, less than 20% of those assets stay with the same advisor after the...
Turning Failures into Fuel for Future Planning
When you think of an American success story, it’s hard to imagine one more compelling than Abraham Lincoln’s journey from a humble log cabin to the White House. But did...
Get Out and Vote
You and your team hold a noble responsibility—guiding clients towards financial security and helping shape the current and future well-being of your community. This work...
When’s the Right Time to Hire a CEO?
“There’s no recipe for really complicated, dynamic situations.” – Ben Horowitz, The Hard Thing About Hard Things Not every owner sets out to be a CEO. Most wealth...
Unlocking Hidden Opportunities: Three Actionable Tactics to Tackle Before Year-End
The industry's top performers are focused on growth and preparing for the year ahead—are you confident your strategy is built on a solid foundation to navigate the...
The Talent Management Epidemic in Financial Services: A Blueprint for Developing Your Firm's Next-Generation Leaders
Many financial advisory firms have grown so fast that they've lost sight of building and nurturing their talent ecosystem, or they're simply clinging to outdated...
Should You Stay or Step Aside? When Founders Face the CEO Dilemma
Recently, I found myself coaching a group of firm founders and controlling owners – all of them grappling with one extremely critical question: Am I the right person to...
Schwab’s 2024 RIA Benchmarking Study: Top Highlights, Insights, and Opportunities
What separates ‘Top Performing’ advisory firms from everyone else? Is it their size and scale that affords them the ability to deliver more specialized services and...
Do You Know Your True Value? How advisory revenue models evolve to better capture the true value and impact firms deliver to clients
As Mark Tibergien points out, financial advisors operate in a unique industry where "advisors are often paid for the value the client brings to the relationship, rather...
How Mission, Vision, & Values Impact Your Bottom Line
For many advisors, concepts such as refining their mission, vision, and values (MVV) tend to be viewed as secondary concerns—things that are somewhat useful for the firm...
The Stockdale Paradox: What is it? And how can it strengthen your year-end planning?
As we turn onto the home stretch and drive towards the finish line of 2024, you may be faced with confronting some hard truths – needing to acknowledge both internal and...
6 Key Insights from Fidelity's 2024 RIA Benchmarking Study
I recently had a chance to sit down and digest the data presented in Fidelity’s latest RIA Benchmarking Study. It’s an invaluable report that helps shed light on several...
Ditch the Pitch: 8 Capability Deck Components and How to Bring Them Together
Today, with digital communication in full swing, nearly all prospective clients are a lot more ‘savvy’ than has always been the case. In fact, instead of a canned sales...
6 Critical M&A Insights from Billion-Dollar Wealth Managers
For a long time, steady growth has been the norm for wealth management businesses. Over the past decade, the capital markets alone have driven revenues among fee-based...