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Managing Your Practice is dedicated to providing financial professionals with best practices in key areas such as driving growth, business efficiency, and the client experience. Dimensional Fund Advisors delivers insights based on our history of industry-leading financial advisor benchmark studies and client surveys. We help advisors leverage those insights when making the critical business decisions successful firms face every day.
The information is provided in good faith without any warranty and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, recommendation, or an offer of any services or products for sale and is not intended to provide a sufficient basis on which to make an investment decision.
All expressions of opinion are subject to change.
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP is an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The information is provided in good faith without any warranty and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, recommendation, or an offer of any services or products for sale and is not intended to provide a sufficient basis on which to make an investment decision.
All expressions of opinion are subject to change.
Dimensional Fund Advisors LP is an investment advisor registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
48 Episodes
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Join Dimensional’s Practice Management team as they recap the top trends that shaped advisory firms in 2024 and share insights to help you succeed in the year ahead. From strategic planning and business scaling to managing talent and enhancing the client experience, this year-end podcast highlights key takeaways, actionable strategies, and emerging opportunities. Hear expert perspectives on what worked, what didn’t, and how to position your firm for growth and success in 2025. Don’t miss this comprehensive look back—and forward—at the evolving world of practice management.
In this episode, Gordon Bernhardt and Scott Oeth discuss how storytelling and incorporating their own personal “why” into various interactions can support deeper client relationships and drive growth in their advisory firms. Bernhardt, a wealth manager and principal with Modera Wealth Management, and Oeth, a wealth manager and principal for Cahill Financial Advisors, dive into the connection between personal passion and professional success—hear how Bernhardt’s Camino de Santiago journey plays a role in client conversations and the ways that Oeth’s wilderness survival skills shape his approach to wealth management and leadership.
Helen Stephens, president and CEO of Aspen Wealth Management, has more than three decades of experience serving investors across various client profiles. Her firm has developed several personas for those clients that they serve best, and Stephens attributes success to advisory councils that match those personas. The councils provide a dedicated venue for soliciting feedback, communicating with the most engaged clients, and even creating growth opportunities through referrals. Hear how Helen’s team runs a network of advisory councils that helps to collect, process, and incorporate direct feedback into the strategy of the firm.
Helen Learmonth, director and financial planner at WealthFlow, and Matt Hall, cofounder and CEO of Hill Investment Group, put the client experience at the forefront of their business operations to increase retention and drive referrals. They have each incorporated their firms’ mission and values, as well as a higher level of service and presence, to encourage client engagement and satisfaction within their teams. Hear how they do it, why trust is at the core, and what it can mean for the bottom line.
Mark Johnsen, CEO of Wealth Architects, and Rob Greenman, Chief Growth Officer of Vista Capital, both live, breathe, and bear the responsibility in their respective firms for managing growth, and with it, creating a culture and sales cycle that fosters a business development mindset. They talk through their leadership styles and some of the ways their firms are driving behaviors on their team, including incentives like compensation, encouraging healthy competition, and promoting psychological safety, all with the goal of creating a level of influence with their prospects and clients.
Art Markman, PhD, is vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of more than 150 scholarly works on cognitive science and related topics. In this podcast episode, he shares his expertise on “smart” thinking and decision-making. With tens of thousands of decisions to make every day, what allows us to move from basic functions to strategic thinking and, as business leaders, form innovative ideas? Hear how you can actively optimize those thoughts to build effective habits and approach problem-solving in advisory firms. Markman’s book Smart Thinking: Three Essential Keys to Solve Problems, Innovate, and Get Things Done is listed on Dimensional’s Summer Reading List, which you can download here.
With more options than ever, how do advisors decide on a custodial partner? Ben Harrison of BNY Mellon Pershing, Gabe Garcia of SEI, and Thomas Moore of Betterment for Advisors join us in a roundtable discussion on how their custodial firms are going beyond asset security to offer services in other major operational and strategic capacities. They each offer internal perspective on what advisors should look for, priorities to consider, and key questions to ask when choosing a partner.
Jennifer Climo, CEO of Milestone Financial Planning, and Martine Lellis, chief talent officer at Mercer Advisors, work in advisory firms that are vastly different in size but have the common goal of creating an environment that fosters growth in both revenue and talent. They share their experience in bringing on new employees, how their firms continue to develop internal opportunities for progression, and the importance of clearly defined career paths that emphasize advocacy on the part of both the employee and manager, as well flexibility in roles, all while prioritizing the bottom line of the business.
David DeVoe, founder of DeVoe & Co., appropriately nicknamed the "RIA M&A Guru," has spent 15 years helping advisors buy, sell, and merge their firms. With so much to consider in a deal, how are advisors avoiding analysis paralysis when preparing for a transition? Hear from the expert on why you should get purposeful and have a succession plan in place today, what might affect a firm’s value in the current landscape, and how to retain your talent and culture, all while continuing to grow.
Dr. Moira Somers, founder of Money, Mind and Meaning, is a financial psychologist, family wealth consultant, executive coach, and author, specializing in areas like neuroscience and behavioral economics. Her body of work helps financial advisors facilitate follow-through on recommendations and advice to clients. She poses important questions to identify true client priorities, mitigate procrastination, and ensure your firm can operate at a high level without compromising the client experience.
Daron Roberts, founding director of the Center for Sports Leadership & Innovation at the University of Texas, is a Harvard Law School graduate turned NFL coach who now guides students, athletes, and business leaders on stepping outside their comfort zone, practicing discipline, and hiring and managing teams. In this special live episode, hear insights honed on the gridiron that translate to how advisors can approach their own firm’s goals.
Arabella Macpherson, director of Resonate Communications, turned a passion for acting into a career coaching, mentoring, and training leaders and teams to overcome communication obstacles. She shares her experience in influencing, negotiation, and conflict resolution; ways that advisors can manage difficult conversations with clients and employees; and the impact that communication styles can have on your business.
1Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work®, has found data-driven ways to connect the dots between human-centered leaders and good business. He shares how a focus on trust in the workplace correlates with business performance, what leaders can do to enhance the employee experience, and insights from his own 30-year career that have had a lasting impact on how he’s approached new roles and leadership positions.
Lisa Salvi, Managing Director of Advisor Services at Schwab, manages advisor benchmarking studies that have collected data for over a decade on key business metrics for financial advisory practices. Listen as she shares focus areas for firms to measure and what actually matters for performance. She also discusses how firms differentiate when it comes to those areas with the greatest impact, such as talent, succession planning, referral programs, and value propositions.
Ben Slater of Buckingham Strategic Partners works closely with advisory firms that are near critical growth points and considering outsourcing or partnering to manage the expansion. As you approach the next level of growth, you may ask questions around when to hire, what functions to outsource, and how you can thrive as you grow. Hear how to evaluate cost vs. time, determine where you can relinquish decision-making, and return to the areas of the profession that bring you joy.
Shandel Sutherland and Liv Olson share more than four decades of combined experience helping build highly effective teams. In this episode, they define key characteristics of those teams, ways to identify gaps in your own firm, and actionable steps to enhance performance. Learn why they believe investing in employee and team development is an essential aspect of achieving long-term success and creating an exceptional client experience in your advisory firm.
Robin Wigglesworth, editor of FT Alphaville and author of Trillions, describes his career as “geeking out” on all things finance, writing to great depths on investing and markets. Hear how he connected with some of the greatest minds in finance to tell the origin story of index funds, his take on integrating corporate cultures through M&A, and what’s next in the evolution of financial advice and incorporating AI. Trillions is included on Dimensional’s 2023 Summer Reading List, which you can view here.
Nirav Batavia, co–managing partner and chief technology officer of Forum Financial has used technology to build systems and processes that increase efficiency, enhance the employee and client experience, and scale the business, all while maintaining a focus on profitability. He shares his expertise on how advisors can combine technology with human interaction to support growth goals, determine areas of opportunity and improvement, and spend time doing the parts of their job they enjoy most. Nirav Batavia is not affiliated with Dimensional Fund Advisors. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP does not endorse, recommend, or guarantee the services of any advisor, certification organization, advisory or consulting firm. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP and Forum Financial are separate unaffiliated entities.
Michael Goodman, president of Wealthstream Advisors, founded a lifestyle practice that evolved into a $1 billion ensemble practice after combining the skills of multiple professions and taking on partners to facilitate the firm’s growth over the past three decades. Hear the pros and cons of running an ensemble practice; how hiring, team structure, and business processes transform through the progression; and why it’s important that your long-term goals and motivations match those of your people. Michael Goodman is not affiliated with Dimensional Fund Advisors. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP does not endorse, recommend, or guarantee the services of any advisor, certification organization, advisory or consulting firm. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP and Wealthstream Advisors are separate unaffiliated entities.**
Peter Lazaroff, CIO at Plancorp, knew from a young age that he would have a career in investments and wealth management. Now, he helps deliver financial planning advice to clients in various life stages and offers his perspective on how advisors can engage with clients in ways that foster a long-term investment mindset and referability. Hear how he approaches these conversations with clients, solicits feedback on their experience, and his thoughts on the evolution of an advisors’ role. Peter Lazaroff is not affiliated with Dimensional Fund Advisors. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP does not endorse, recommend, or guarantee the services of any advisor, certification organization, advisory or consulting firm. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP and Plancorp are separate unaffiliated entities.
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