Doubling AUM From Under $300M To Over $600M In 3.5 Years By Making Investments To Systematize For Scale: #FASuccess Ep 466 With Morgan Nichols

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Resources Featured In This Episode:

• Morgan Nichols: Website | LinkedIn
• "Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business" by Gino Wickman
• Accredited Portfolio Management Advisor
• Behavioral Financial Advice Program
• Jambalaya Group
• The Looming Advisor Shortage In US Wealth Management
• Intentional Legacy

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Full Transcript:

Michael: Welcome, Morgan Nichols, to the "Financial Advisor Success" podcast.

Morgan: Michael, thank you for having me on the podcast. I've listened to your podcast, and followed your content over the years. So, being here today is pretty special.

Michael: Awesome. Welcome to officially being on the other side of the microphone. And I'm just excited to have the conversation today. And I think it's going to be an interesting theme of what it really means to invest into the business itself. Like really investing in where you knowingly run lower margins to get more growth or more infrastructure to scale. Because I find a lot of us, as advisors, we talk about making investments into the business, but then when it actually comes to running lower margins and taking out less, it suddenly gets a lot harder. It's like, "Are you making investments to grow the business?" Yeah, absolutely. And then we'll talk about initiative. It's like, "Well, but then my income would go down. That's not good." But that's the investment part. That's what it means. That's what it is.

And it gets hard, right? Because in the truest sense, business is risky. The outcomes are not guaranteed. We're making investments in the business in the hopes that it will work out well in the future. And sometimes that gets challenging at either stages of the business or even just for us personally on our career journeys, and whether we feel like we can take a stint where income goes down, or at least doesn't rise for a while even though or as we're trying to grow the business. And I know you have lived a version of this over the past couple of years of taking over a business, investing heavily into the business, trying to build more of both growth and infrastructure to get it to the next level.

And so I'm excited to talk about even just the mindset and the thought process of how do you really actually get comfortable with running lower margins, or not seeing income grow as much, or even seeing it take a step back to take a step forward while you're trying to grow this business.

Morgan: I feel like that hits right to my heart because, right now, I'm in that position of looking at my next hire. And it's like, "Okay, that's going to be another direct hit to my bottom line. And is it going to help us leverage and continue to move forward?" I keep looking back or thinking about this McKinsey article that has come out about a decade from now, this shortfall of financial advisors in the industry. And I feel very fortunate. I'm sitting here. I'm 35 years old today. I have decades of ability to lead our firm into the future. I sit there and I go, "Okay, anything I'm investing now is going to position us to take on more later on." But it's been a process of putting systems in place to say, "Okay, how are we going to build what we need to operate really well? And then use that in order to scale the firm and lead for the future?" So, I'm glad to dive into that if you'd like.

The Mindset Behind Making Investments In The Business That Boost Long-Term Growth At The Expense Of The Short-Term Bottom Line [06:13]

Michael: Yeah. I'm very excited to dive into it. Even when you get down to those very practical steps like next new hire, which just for those of us who are in an owner position, it hits home pretty quick. Whatever the cost is for the role, a $75,000 hire, a $100,000 hire, a $150,000 hire. When you're the owner, that comes straight out of your pocket. That hire is that much dollars I will not have in income, ownership, profit distributions at the end of the year for myself or amongst us as partners, if we've got multiple owners. Obviously we do that in the hopes that we can grow revenue, grow profits, and ultimately end up with more than the cost of that team member, thus making "investments into the business." But unless we're behind the hiring curve, which admittedly sometimes we are, usually the investment comes first and the growth comes second, because you can't really do the growth without the investment or you hit a capacity wall. Which means in the near term, just like, "Yeah, if I make that hire, well, that's a bunch of profitability that I will not see this year as a firm owner."

Morgan: It's huge from a mindset standpoint because a big part of it, as I've worked with other advisors across the industry, is the willingness to do so and that willingness to take those calculated risks. But what I have found is you take your first one and you see that it works. And then you say, "It worked. I'm going to do it again." But it doesn't mean that each time you go through it, it's not just a little bit uncomfortable because you're right, it is the bottom line. It is hitting your bottom line. And you you can sit here at the end of 2025 and say, "Okay, we've had a great market run the last few years. What if I make that next big investment and all of a sudden we see the markets pull back?" Then not only do I have that additional cash outlay, but if my revenues are down a little bit due to market fluctuation, what does it really mean? It's definitely a process of getting comfortable with those decisions.

Michael: How do you think about it from a mindset end?

Morgan: I do a lot of thinking, and a lot of talking to my business coaches. I'm a person, I like to hire before it's critical. I have always been in the position where I'm investing in the future capacity of our team. I believe our team has what it takes to continue to grow our client base. And I don't want to sacrifice the client experience along the way. So when it comes to hiring advisors, support individuals that work directly on the client experience side, I always want to make sure we have what we need. But I think in this industry or for advisors who have teams, it's a lot of thought sometimes on, "Do I have all the seats on the bus that I need? And is everybody on my team sitting in the right seat? And who needs to be elevated? Can we optimize with our existing group of team members? Or is it really going to take another hire to get us to the next level?"

And I sit here, one of the big things for my mindset is not just focusing on optimizing where I am today. Today, our practice, we're running $625 million in assets. I'm not thinking about what does my team need to be successful at $700 million? I'm really focused on, I'm trying to get us to $2 billion. And what does a $2 billion team need? And can I make those investments now and be comfortable with the reality of the cash outlay that goes along with that? And if I can more or less keep my income where it's at or even acknowledge that it may go down, I just believe in this thought of the J-curve. These are the investments that we keep making. We keep putting our earnings and our growth back into the business. But I know long-term, the trajectory is there.

And for me, this was a big win this year. I was really nervous. I hired a business development director. That was one of the more expensive roles I had hired to this day. And it wasn't going to be somebody that was directly client facing, but was really going to be going out, getting involved in the community, be my right hand with certain functions with our team, and long-term could drive some good revenue for the practice. But I knew up front that was not going to be something I was going to see in 2025. So I sat there, I said, "So how am I going to define success in this consideration?" And I said, "Well, I'm going to have the additional cash outlay of the role. Can I get my net income...with the growth that we do, can we at least be level after adding that position?" Because I know I won't see the full upside of it this year, but I know long term, adding all of these additional layers into the greater picture will pay off with time.

Knowing When It’s Time To Make A New Hire (Before It’s Needed) [11:40]

Michael: I've got so many questions there. I want to start with, you talked about, "I'd like to hire and invest in the future capacity of my team." So how do you think about capacity or measure capacity? Or in the simplest sense, how do you actually know when it is time to pull that trigger ahead of capacity? But obviously we don't pull it too far ahead of capacity. Like, how do you think about measuring capacity and figuring out when do the next hires come?

Morgan: On the advisor standpoint, I'm often looking at how many households is an advisor meeting with and servicing. And the reality is some of... In my Texas office, I have two AFAs [Associate Financial Advisors] or advisors that are part of my team that both have been with me about a year or just slightly over a year. So it's time for them to get to know the client relationships, be able to sit second chair to me, be able to transition some of the relationships that I was handling strategically in a very systematized process. Part of it's just gauging the human element of how are they doing with handling the clients I'm handing. Can they handle the capacity? There's growing pains for new advisors who are learning to take on more, take on the emotional stress as well as just the workload and meeting and getting to know the relationships.

But then, because I am growth minded, I've looked at opportunities where I could within a short amount of time be having another 150 households that could roll under our team. And so thinking through are we positioned, are they in a spot to take those on? And if we do, how long will it be until I feel like I need to hire another advisor? And I've been really fortunate. The last couple hires I have, I didn't actually post a job description. I have built a bit of a network where I've been able to source some candidates that I thought would be a good fit. I think also keeping your eyes open to who you might want to have on your team if the opportunity were right. And it's not a perfect science, but I would like to see each of my advisors handling probably at least 100 households before I think about adding another advisor into the team. And the more that they prove, and they showed me that they've got what it takes to handle the capacity, the more I'll give them. And hopefully, they'll be growing some of those relationships organically as well through referrals.

Michael: Is there an upper limit where you think about capacity starting to top out to say, "Oh, no, I have to hire the next one now."

Morgan: Well, it's been interesting to watch my peers in the industry. And I think it depends on what the role of the person is. Is it a role where all they do all day every day is meet and talk with clients, or do they have other responsibilities within the firm? The more additional responsibilities you have, I look at where I'm at right now, and I'm trying to run a lot of the strategic vision of the practice, I realized I can't handle the 150, 200 households that I used to manage. I probably myself will need to get to a place where eventually, I dream of the day maybe I'm servicing the top 50 households. But more realistically, I'm going to be somewhere between 75 to probably 125. And as it gets to the upper limit, continuing to figure out how do I refine that so I have enough capacity to manage both?

I've seen peers in the industry that tell me, "Oh, yeah, I'm running 200 households, or I'm running 250 households all by myself." They look really tired. There's a lot that goes into that. And so that's where, as I mentioned earlier on, we just tend to have a...I have more advisors and more team support because I want to make sure the client experience is very white glove and that we have the capacity to reach back to our clients' needs as timely as possible.

Michael: Do you end out trying to keep the average at something around that 100? Is that where you end up because the folks doing 200-plus seem to have them but seem to be too tired, and you're worried about client service?

Morgan: I think it's a learning experience all along the way. I don't know that I yet have a perfect calculation for it. I'm in the point of sitting there and saying, I've got some great team members that I would love to see handing them more clients, but I'm also watching their own growth, and maturity, and skill set. And making sure that we're leaning into the training opportunities, and the cross-team education opportunities that they feel well equipped. And I really think probably about 100 to 150 per advisor is where I'll likely be comfortable unless they really prove that they have the ability to handle much more than that.

Michael: And what's a typical household for you, just for context overall?

Morgan: Yeah. So, practice-wide, because right now, our team is managing 820 households. I'm managing 100 of those personally. Across the team, our average household has about $700,000 in investments with our firm. The clients on average I’m with are sitting right about $2 million.

Michael: So you're living that world where you've got a segment of the higher end of the client book than some of the associate advisors that have taken the smaller end of the client book over times.

Morgan: Correct. So we spend a lot of time focused on when you work with LifeBranch Wealth Partners, you're working with our team. And this is the messaging of what our team brings. I tend to, at this point, really work with more complex clients, usually higher assets. I love a good challenge when pulling some planning considerations together. That part really excites me. But there's a lot of clients I find that just want really good service. They're either taking regular transfers or the required minimum distributions or they're saving in. And it's been really fun to watch. I think, for so much as an advisor, it's like, "Only I can do this." Right? Because clients, they won't want to meet with anyone other than me. I think because just how I've seen our practice transition over time, it brings me a lot of joy. I'm watching my advisors step in behind me and lead more and more of those conversations. And they're starting to bring themselves and build those relationships. And it's a great thing that the clients are really comfortable with them. And then on the other side, then you go, "Was I really ever that important?"

It's the team messaging. And I think for any advisors listening that may feel like, "I'm at capacity, I really can't take on more households. But I know I need to keep growing." It's a consistent review of who am I meeting with and why, and how can I start to transition those relationships. And if you do it in a very consistent manner and you have a system around it, I think you can do it very successfully.

I have another advisor on my team, Kelly Bays, and we've both just been at this point that we support advisors under us. And we know we have to do it. We get caught up on, "Okay, what language are you going to use? And how are you going to tell this client that they're going to be meeting with somebody else on the team?" You analyze, and you go back and forth. And then it's a non event. And you're like, "Okay, did I..." It's a journey.

Michael: It's a journey.

Morgan: I think it helped me that when I joined the firm, I have a little bit of a unique approach where I didn't come in and build every single client relationship from the beginning, because our firm started in 1999. I came in and I was somebody that had relationships transferred to me very strategically. So then this opportunity to go, "Okay, well, it worked transitioning to me. And now I need to be very thoughtful and do it again." I think, at the end of the day, what I hear clients really want is they want to know that no matter who they're meeting with, that this person knows their name, they know their story, and they're going to continue to receive the same type of service and experience that they've been accustomed to. And if you can do that and brand that within your firm, that really helps on the client retention.

Michael: Right. Clients just want to know they're going to be heard, understood, have a competent, capable professional who's giving them the same experience. Those are ultimately the boxes we really have to check.

Morgan: And I don't think it ever hurts. I have some of these relationships where I'm not going to be in the meetings anymore because all of us have the same amount of hours in a day, and same number of activities we can do that even sometimes sending a quick email ahead of one of the associate advisors meeting with the clients saying, "Hey, I've looked at your situation. I know they're going to cover some of these top topics. You're in really good hands. I'm still here. We're still all working from the same playbook." And just figuring out how to still have them feel like you're involved as you're scaling and growing your team.

What LifeBranch Wealth Partners Looks Like Today [21:58]

Michael: So then help us understand just for further context what the business actually looks like today at this point. I think you mentioned earlier about $625 million under management, a little over 800 clients. So what does the team structure look like? How many people are there? Where does revenue sit? Just help us understand the whole picture of the business.

Morgan: So we are a team of 17 as of today. We have offices located in three different states. So I have an office in Texas, in Virginia, and in Illinois. So that's been really interesting because I think when you have multiple offices that people think, "Okay, so those are just independent silos, but they just have the same name on top." The reality is we do work as an integrated practice. We're very much as a team, kind of our tagline is, "Financial confidence for life." So we're always looking at how are we connecting our clients' money, and meetings that our clients feel the impact of the advice that they're receiving.

There are eight advisors on the team. I would call it five senior advisors, three advisors that are a little bit newer to our team that are learning, and growing, and doing a wonderful job. And so we remain really committed to growing that out. When I joined my practice back in 2015, we always had Texas and Virginia. That was very much just part of the natural structure of how we were oriented. So we had always, I always say long before COVID, long before the world was doing things virtually, we were very comfortable with virtual meetings. And we always operated as one unit.

When we added in the Chicago-based practice and that's with...the lead advisor over that would be Kelly Bays. We sat there and said, "We realize we could actually do more together as a team." And there was a lot of best practice sharing, and we have different skill sets, but we have the same passion for our clients. So we meet together on team meetings as a whole team every Thursday, and go through a lot of our top practice initiatives, our team members work and collaborate with one another, even though we're individually servicing our respective client households.

And then I have a couple of advisors that have joined our team. They're a little bit less integrated, but really the thought was, we always talk about death, disability, but also retirement. Looking forward to saying, "Who's the team that I want to be part of so when I do choose to retire, I'm already part of LifeBranch?" I may integrate more and more as that retirement date gets closer and closer, but these are advisors that share our care for our clients, that believe in financial planning, kind of wrapping the arms around all the different areas of our clients' financial lives. And can be part of our team, maybe benefit from certain features, whether it's our marketing or a lot of the research we're building in. Our group trainings that we provide, we're creating a lot of infrastructure that they can benefit from. And continuing to grow from there.

Michael: What kind of group trainings?

Morgan: So it's been really fun. I've realized as my role has grown and evolved that for my team to be as successful as possible, I need to know that all the advisors on my team can have all the great conversations with our clients on everything from insurance to tax strategy needs, or whatever it may be. So we'll set meetings up usually every other Monday. And whether we're bringing in an outside product partner to dive deep on a concept, for example, direct indexing, and sharing, "Here's the strategies that are out there, and here's how we'd go about it." So that they have more knowledge to...we did a great team training case study review, where we pull up a client. We share, "Here's the client. Here's what we know about them, and some of the financial planning considerations." And we actually went from the most junior advisor up to say, "Give us a solution. Not only a solution you would do, but explain it to us the way you would explain it to the client."

And to have that, you have to have a super safe zone. It has to be a place that they know we're not here to judge you. We're here to help you grow your skill set, and really collaborate. I find junior advisors learn things, but even some of our most senior advisors, advisors that are older than me that have plugged into our team can find benefit from hearing different things that are being recommended across the team. So that diversity in that collaboration is huge.

Michael: And so these run, I think you said every other Monday that you do some kind of internal learning session.

Morgan: Correct. We do that as a larger team. And then we also have built in with each of the advisors, mentoring sessions. And we're actually...it's been interesting because I have my style and Kelly in Chicago has her style. And so it's helpful for the advisors to have more than one more experienced advisor that they can sound board off of or get perspectives. Because what I've learned, if anything, being in this industry is it's not just one style of advisor that's successful. You can be successful in a lot of different ways. So the more exposure you can get, the better.

Michael: Yeah, I still reflect. My style with clients was the amalgamation of the first five advisors that I worked with over the first four or five years of my career. It just took piece of all of them. I explained long-term care the way that David used to. I talked about investments the way that Ken did. I would do new client conversations the way that John did. Just would take pieces from each of them. And then over time, figure out how to turn it into my own style. But I could certainly see looking back, I just took pieces from all of the senior advisors that I got to work with over the first probably four or five years of my career.

Morgan: Yeah. You get stories, but you learn from everyone and you grab a tidbit here and there. And you try it and you see what works. And you just build your confidence and go from there.

Michael: And just curious, very practically, who actually runs the meeting or sets up the process so there's always something to talk about every other Monday?

Morgan: Great question. Because, for the longest time, I was trying to find a way to fit it in. It was like, "These group trainings, they're going to be great to do. But when do I have time to add one more training or one more group opportunity in?" So when I added our business development director, JP, to our team, I was telling him, I was like, "JP, we need this. This is what we need in order to have that collaborative cross training." He is responsible for making them happen, making sure that we have agendas for each of them. But he'll come to the advisors or to the team to say, "What do you feel like you need more of?" Or, "Hey, I'm thinking about doing this. What do you think?" And we can sit there and be like, "Oh, I don't like that idea at all." Or, "No, that's great." When we were starting to do the case studies, it was really around just giving feedback so that we could make it what we want it to be, but he runs with it fully. And that's been good to have somebody else in charge to make sure it happens.

Hiring A Business Development Director To Boost Long-Term Growth [30:35]

Michael: Following on that theme for a moment, you had mentioned this position earlier, and I was curious to hear more. So what does the business development director do? What is that role? What are the expectations? What are they actually accountable for?

Morgan: So as part of being, I like to call it still in the startup mindset in many ways. You try some things out, and you figure out what works, and then you figure out how to pivot. So when I started looking for this role, my initial intent, I had read lots of books like Gino Wickam's "Traction," and this whole Entrepreneurial Operating System. And I realized I was running very big on leaning into my visionary side or leaning into the strategic thinking about the practice and where we were headed. But I really needed somebody that could help me implement and get everything put in place.

And I looked at a few different types of people for this because there was some people in our industry that knew all about our firm, all about our products, could run really strong there. And then I also found an individual, JP, who's part of my team right now, that I said, "He's great at networking. He's got a presence in our community. I would love to have him represent our brand." And initially I sat there and I said, "I'm going to have him do everything. I'm going to have him be kind of focused on the sales side, but also focused on all the internal operation and systematizing everything there." And it's only been within the last month that I've just through learning and reflecting, I'm realizing there's too much on his plate that he can't do either one to full capacity. And this is where I'm at where I've decided, "Okay, gosh, I have to hire again. I'm going to hire more for the internal operational side. But I'm going to let him continue to run."

So going forward, it's really focusing on how are...he's looking at how are we improving our top line revenue growth. How is he helping to really solidify and continue to nurture the relationships we have with centers of influence with events, marketing, the different things that we're doing for our clients, really overseeing those capabilities. And focusing on then from within a team standpoint, how are we developing our advisors, their skill sets for networking, and everything on that front, and training. So that's really how we're defining business development director today, which is a little different than it was eight months ago when I hired him. It's definitely part of being adaptable and continuing to evaluate what you're doing and why.

Michael: So if I'm understanding overall, it sounds like the role has actually shifted a little from, I guess, purely go out there and network on behalf of the firm, and more in the direction of help in the development of our advisors in the firm, including how they network, expand their relationships, drive referrals and new business. But more about how does this person lift up our existing base of eight advisors, as opposed to can this person go out there and feed the advisors as it were?

Morgan: Correct. While also still being very big on helping to be our face in the local community, but very much supporting that for this team to be truly successful, we all have to have the ability to bring in clients. We can't just have one rainmaker. And you're going to have certain people that do it more. You're always going to have your hunters. And you're going to have your farmers in this industry, and you need both. But consistently looking at how do we help? Especially when you have...I see a lot of practices where they're getting ready to have that next generation step up into leadership, take on more client relationships. And you can be a really good servicing advisor, but I think as you work to grow your skill set to be good at growing sales. Not everybody knows how to do that. So if you can find someone who seems to have a knack, I'm going to leverage that.

Michael: So then what does the rest of the 17-person team look like? I mean, it sounds like it's, as with many firms, about half of them are advisors and about half of them are the rest of the support team that makes the good advisor things happen. So what are the other seats on the team? What are those roles?

Morgan: So the other roles include, we have some client service prep individuals, client service specialists, client service managers that are really helping to prepare for client meetings, helping to do...

Michael: How many of those are there for just the size of the firm, and the number of clients you've got to handle?

Morgan: So in that role, I believe we have right about three or four. It's a bit interesting because as I mentioned, we have the different offices. And for me personally, because I've got myself...I have three advisors that directly support my overall grouping of clients that are part of the practice. I've got two people that are running client service support here. I've got an office manager and someone who's helped with some of the clients. Client events, client marketing events, and then our business development director. So that's been my piece. And then one of the big gross of people on the team really over the last year was after Kelly Bays joined our team. When she joined, it was her and her admin office manager at the time. She's actually added three more positions. We had an intern that did some marketing work for us that's getting licensed right now, and wants to be on that advisor path. Her admin at the time really got a promotion, has continued to lean more on the client service side. So she's added full additional positions there.

And I think what we continue to evaluate is where can those team members collaborate with one another or support multiple of the team functions that we are getting some synergy. Can we divide and conquer, and have somebody in Illinois that's supporting both Texas, Virginia, and Illinois versus it all being divided? But that team structure has worked well. And then with the other advisors, we have two other advisors that are part of our team. Some of them have admins that support them as well.

Forming The Vision Of A $2 Billion Firm [38:06]

Michael: And you had talked overall that your part of the vision of this is not even just, "What do we need to get from $600 million to $700 million?" It's like, "What do we need to get from $600 million to $2 billion?" So can you talk more about what your visioning as you look out to $2 billion? What do you feel you're going to need? What are you trying to hire for? How are you thinking about that? I guess that's 3x journey from here when the numbers get really, really big.

Morgan: We've done things, a huge part of preparing for that scaling and that growth. When I joined the firm, it was Nichols Financial Group. I was really excited. I had my name on the door, and I realized that was only going to get me so far. If people want to be part of what we're doing and what we're building, they need a name that isn't my last name. And that was a bit scary for me because I spent about $20,000 doing the rebrand. Everything from, quite frankly, picking the name and a name that I would be able to trademark in this industry. I would have been spinning my wheels for a very long time, and probably ended up with something I felt was relatively lackluster. So I worked with, who could I hire that was good at branding, that could tell our message, again, "Financial confidence for life."

I always say LifeBranch Wealth Partners because we work with clients through different seasons, different phases of life, the different generations, just that imagery of the tree. But that was the first risk I took. I said, "I'm going to invest in changing the name, and hopefully the clients will be okay with us changing the name." And the reality is most of them had worked for firms that had gone through name changes with time. It was just about how do we position that for them. So looking at, even just from a branding standpoint, how do we have a brand that advisors are willing to accept, be part of. Implementing systems like discretionary trading that we can do trading where client number 1 and client number 200, their portfolios are being rebalanced at the same time. And whether you're meeting with myself or Brian or Connor on my team, your models that we're using, of course, they're going to be focused based on your risk tolerance. But many of our bread and butter models are going to be consistent no matter which advisor that you're with.

Michael: So when did discretionary trading and shift to models happen?

Morgan: We had been using a models-based approach, but we were trading it client by client. And after I took over, kind of stepped up into the leader role of our firm in 2022, I think we started rolling this out in 2023. I believe it's 2022, 2023 timeline. I looked at it, it was something we knew would be helpful for elevating, but there's additional work, and time, and energy, and certifications you need to get to be allowed to do discretionary training. The APMA [Accredited portfolio Management Advisor] designation that almost all of our advisors hold because we do really keep that uniform.

So we took the models from trading at client by client at the time of the meeting to saying, "Can we run models?" Can I send out quarterly communications to our clients to say, "Hey, we've traded our models. And this is the adjustments we've made and why." And then also being able to offer that as I think about not just the individual households I service, but from the overall business model of our practice that an advisor can come in and if they are team, they can take some of that work off their plate knowing that we're going to be running that for them. And that they can tap into that. They can be part of our investment committee meetings, get all the communications.

On top of the team trainings I talked about, we do a market outlook call every month where we're also, "What are our key talking points about the markets right now?" It's really helpful in years like...I think back to April when the market pulled back significantly. And it's like, "Okay, clients are calling in, what are you saying?" And just knowing that you have a team of advisors that are there, and they all get it, and they're all going through the same thing. So the discretionary trading was having that to scale, but also to be able to offer that as a service offering to advisors that want to join our team.

Michael: And so the fact that you have that, just that you've built that out when other advisors you talk to may not have built that out becomes essentially a recruiting mechanism strategy for you.

Morgan: Yes. I think also knowing that we are doing the ongoing due diligence, the trading on it, that we're able to take that off their plate is helpful. And they see the value in having us manage that for them, for the clients that they choose.

Michael: And I guess I'm just curious, I've seen enough firms go through transitions from not historically being as discretionary model-based to going to it that speed bumps sometimes occur in just getting adoption, all the advisors on board to actually do it. I guess I'm curious to hear more of how you rolled this out, how you got buy-in from all the advisors of the firm? Did you have challenges you had to sort through to get everybody on board to a consistent set of models with a consistent set of trading team, trading policies?

Morgan: So it started with just me and my, let's call it 300 client households that we were saying, "Okay," just explaining to the client, "This is what we've been doing. This is what we're now doing. And this is why it makes sense for you." Because why it makes sense is...I mean, you don't know. Are you going to be the first call when I think we need to make a change in a position or a holding, or are you going to be the 30th call or the 300th call? Let's just make sure we can streamline it. They understood that. So we had good client adoption.

Michael: That was the explanation for why we want to make this discretionary for you?

Morgan: Correct.

Michael: Because you had you had them in some models, but they weren't discretionary. And so explaining, "That means we have to call every client, and someone's going to get called first and someone's going to not get called first. And we don't have to have that whole dynamic if you will authorize us to run the model you've already asked us to run, but do it on a discretionary basis."

Morgan: Yes, that message resonated. There was just also that reality of I could meet with a client on Friday, and we could do the rebalancing, let's say, the following Monday. And if I don't meet with that client again for three months or six months, they're technically in the outdated model. So let's give them the best. I think, at this point, I have one, maybe two clients in our whole practice that have held out, and haven't wanted to go that route. But generally speaking was very well accepted and understood. And I was surprised how many of our clients were like, "This is what we were looking for."

Michael: Interesting.

Morgan: It felt elevated.

Michael: They didn't want to keep doing the phone calls anyways.

Morgan: And at the end of the day, when we're working with our clients today, we're digging into really understanding what's going on with them from a planning aspect of what their dollars are doing. Whether I'm in mutual fund A or mutual fund B, or stock A or stock B, what they really care about is that we have the disciplined process that's growing their portfolio, and that net of any investment management costs were competitive. And we've been able to consistently show the value of what we're doing. That's worked really well.

Michael: I was going to ask in that vein just, did you put through any changes in fee structure how you charge, how you implement for this? Or it was simply like, "We're already charging you in doing this. We're simply going to convert to a discretionary model approach so we can trade you more efficiently."

Morgan: It's a good question because I had many people tell me, "You should increase your management costs for that because it's a premium service." We did not. We generally kept the cost of the asset management for the clients. We kept it the same. I will say for some of the advisors that have joined our team, if they've chosen to utilize this because they pay us a small amount in order to run this for them, they've chosen to pass the increased cost onto the clients, or used it as an opportunity to adjust their fee schedule to be in alignment with where it really needed to be anyways.

Building Career Paths For Employees [47:33]

Michael: What else in the things you implemented for uniformity to be more scalable? You've talked about the name change to have something more standard that represents everyone, even if it meant pulling your name off the door. You talked about shifting to discretionary trading model based. Are there other other shifts of things you're doing at this stage to make it more scalable as you go look at going to billions of dollars of AUM?

Morgan: So one of the things we did this year and we just recently rolled out is additional career pathing. So really having it outlined that whether you're sitting down and you're interviewing with me for the job, you can see, here's where you start if you're on the advisor track. And here's what it takes to get to each level or eventually be considered for more of a partner in the firm type experience. And having that uniformed. What I always found when I was more of a junior advisor is I was growth minded, but I wanted to know what was it going to take to get me to the next level. So if we can create clarity there, and make it work that as the advisor I can easily connect with each of the team members, and have just that systematized.

But also, there's always geography considerations, but whether you're sitting in our Chicago office or you're sitting in our Texas office, there's not like, "Oh, this advisor chose to pay me X. And that advisor chose to pay me Y." It's like, no, this is how we compensate. And so no matter where you're at, if you're part of our integrated team, that's what it looks like. The advisors have been so thrilled to have that clarity, and they're like, "Oh, so that's what I need to bring in from an inflow standpoint to get to the next level?" They're like, "Great, let's go." So the energy has been positive there.

And that's actually leading into what I'm excited to be…you think about scaling, but I think as you grow larger, you also sit there and go, "Am I going to be able to retain talent?" And I'm always sitting there. I want to wrap my arms around and say, "Okay, how do I make sure we keep the good people?" And so we've put a lot of time and energy into building out a long-term incentive plan, more of a phantom equity type opportunity for our employees that if you're somebody that has really contributed...if we're going to be significantly larger five, ten years from now, how can you benefit from the growth and have that as part of your overall compensation package?

I like to think about, a lot of our employees, we do a lot of work with clients that have restricted stock units and employee stock plans. And it's our way of bringing a version of that to our team, and getting them to have a little bit more of that ownership mindset.

Michael: Can you share more in this vein of, just literally, how does the career track work? What are the tiers? What are the requirements to get to the next tier? How do you tap the equity or additional compensation layers? What did you build that is working for you?

Morgan: Yes. You start as a paraplanner. And a big part is getting licensed so that you're able to kind of step into that AFA [Associate Financial Advisor] role. And a big expectation for you to be an advisor on our team, you need to be fully licensed. You need to have your APMA designation. So that's what allows us to do the discretionary trading.

Michael: APMA, that's the portfolio management advisor designation from College for Financial Planning, Kaplan College?

Morgan: Yes. And so what we needed was for me to be able to transition client relationships to an advisor, if they're in the discretionary models, they need to have that designation. We're also very big on getting your behavioral financial advice. I think we're in a time and an age in our industry where...I mean, the buzzword right now is AI [Artificial Intelligence]. AI is going to give you a lot of facts, but it's not necessarily going to handle the coaching. AI doesn't have empathy. There's a lot of coaching that goes into the relationship. So we want to have our advisors really trained to be able to manage that part of the relationship with our clients.

Starting at the first level of advisor, I believe we built in just the proof of being able to bring in your first few million dollars, proof that you can build in some relationships. And as you get to the next level, the requirement gets higher. I don't have all the numbers right in front of me, but I think it starts around $3 million. And then when you're in that second layer, it's can you bring in over a 3-year period an average of $35 million every 3 years. And then eventually getting to a standpoint where you are getting paid less. You're going to get a salary, but it's more and more determined as a percentage of the overall assets that you're servicing.

I know there's some practices that like to say, "We've got financial advisors, and then we have associate financial advisors." Yes, we have that technical differentiation and we're going to have a system in place internally to know where you are, and what it takes to get to the next level. But I want a client to come in, want to meet with us and not be like, "Well, why am I meeting with the associate financial advisor and not the financial advisor?" We just, from a branding standpoint, want that to look more uniform.

Michael: So then what else comes as you move to the higher tiers? Is it solely a function of moving up on the business development scale, or are there other things, other milestones in the trajectory, in the progression?

Morgan: I think when you start on the lower end, there's still these times where you're running things by a senior advisor more to still get the buy-in. It's really moving to when are you at the point of having more independence. Then at the point of when are you responsible for some of the functions in our team outside of just meeting with the clients. When do you have a leadership role that you're overseeing. Whether you're overseeing elements of the investment committee or you're overseeing the way we're handling insurance for the firm. Whatever it may be, just growing those leadership and those rules of...across the entire team.

And a huge part that we want to encourage for our advisors is the CFP designation. There's just so much knowledge and benefit that we see to having that, especially when we are doing comprehensive financial planning that we want to encourage that. We have a very credentialed team as it is today, I think, more than I see just generally when I look out across the industry. So we do also help to reimburse for many of those designations that our team members get, and we encourage that process in their learning.

Michael: Do you reimburse the whole thing or a portion thereof?

Morgan: We reimburse the full thing. It needs to be pre-approved.

Michael: But it is a reimbursement. They have to at least put their skin in the game upfront?

Morgan: Yeah. It's typically a reimbursement. Things like the APMA, we pretty much will do right away. But if it's the BFA [Behavioral Financial Advice designation] or the CFP, those are more on a reimbursement type structure.

Michael: So when is CFP expected in this progression? I do my APMA as a paraplanner, I do my CFP as AFA level one? Is it that kind of progression?

Morgan: We would really like to see the CFP as a way to go from AFA level two to producing advisor. At the same time, though, if you are just able to come on in, and you're great at sales, and you're bringing in clients, and it's all working, there is an element to proof of capability at the same time.

Creating A Compensation Model To Incentivize Employee And Firm Growth [56:47]

Michael: And as you progress through these tiers, it sounds like you go from being mostly or all salary based to increasingly being more variable compensation tied to your actual revenue.

Morgan: Correct. I want our team to know that the sky can be the limit for you. The more that you can handle and manage over time, the better. And then if we can add in some...and then there's a bonus structure tied to it. As you're in some of the lower levels, which it's not a right or a wrong. It's just based on which level you're in. There's compensation jumps as you continue to move up. But how are you also getting some bonuses tied to overall team production and your role in that? So whether we're managing things like hitting our revenue targets for the year. Or this year, a big focus for us has been net flows. Are our net flows where we want them to be? Are we bringing in clients over 500,000? Are we tracking that and hitting our goals? That's all been really positive.

Michael: So can you share a little further? Just literally, how does the bonus structure work for...I think you said you have revenue goals, net flow goals. But I find this for a lot of firms, we can quickly get stuck in literally, "How much bonus? How do you break it out? Is it like a percentage of something?" So how does it work for you to actually apply this to different folks at different tiers and different roles?

Morgan: One thing I would just put out there for anyone who's working through all of this is, I have already seen evolutions in how we've structured things probably three times since I joined the firm and stepped into leadership. I feel like we're in a position now that we've got a structure that's going to serve us for many years to come, but I will talk to more seasoned advisors and they're like, "Yeah, usually every..." whether it's every five years or whatever it is, this is an area that continues to take focus. I worked with a group. So we have a coaching consulting group called Jambalaya that some of the Ameriprise advisors have used. I believe they also work with some advisors outside of our firm. And they've been really helpful at helping me kind of narrow down the structure and the strategy here.

From a team incentive bonus though, this year, couple of the things that have been drivers for us was, if we collectively as a team, if we pulled in ten clients over half a million, there's a bonus that whether you are the receptionist or you are an advisor, we want to all be rallying towards that goal. And then there's a tier above that. So if we actually bring in 15 instead of 10, there's a little bit more. We have financial plans that we do. So we like to see are we hitting our plan count growth? We set our goal this year. We wanted to write 280 plans. I think we're going to write north of 300 financial plans in total. So hitting that number leads to a bit of the team bonus.

And then we have bonuses tied to revenue. So we wanted to hit about $4.4 million in revenue this year, which we're tracking really well to. And so that leads to an opportunity as well.

Michael: And so how do you think about those percentage of revenue payouts? I'm cognizant you've got firm infrastructure for what you do, there's the Ameriprise layer of what they do. You've got a salary base. How do those percentages carve up? How do you do that within your firm?

Morgan: As far as the percentages to each of the different areas?

Michael: Yeah. If I'm an advisor, how does my comp work when I get there? Am I getting 20% of my revenue and a base? Am I getting 60% of my revenue and almost no base? I have no context for how the numbers would work in your world.

Morgan: Yes. Really, what I have found with a lot of the advisors that are going to serve in more of a support type capacity, especially if you're handing many of those relationships off, there's an interest in having stability, and having really more of a known salary type experience. So if somebody comes in and they're just wanting to be a full, "I'm going to eat what I kill, and I just want to go after it," we're going to structure the compensation to be different because we know we have to pay higher for that. That just a different beast of its own.

But for the advisors that are more in a servicing capacity where we can continue to hand relationships to them, essentially what we're looking at is once you get to...and I think it's probably not until you're servicing about $350,000 in revenue for the firm that if we can build out a salary that's, let's say, approximately 30% of what you're writing, but then there's also bonuses on top of that, that there's just a good growth path there. And then as we continue to have growth over time, you participate in that.

Michael: And so that's how folks can get to six figures of salary income because you're getting the 350 plus of revenue, so you can earn a $100,000 salary at that point. And then you've still got bonus upside from there as you grow business as you add clients.

Morgan: Correct. And our real focus there is to say, "Well, let's look at what you're servicing. And let's figure out..." Because we're still for those individuals very W2 based in their income, sit there and say, "Based on your results, here's what your salary should be," building in, giving them that known salary where we can then go back and check every six months and determine, "Do we need to make an adjustment for it to reward them for growth over time?"

Michael: And is your goal to keep salary moving in line to revenue growth? Is salary always getting reseated at this 30 percent-ish of revenue number or not necessarily?

Morgan: I think, for now, that's our plan. If they can have all of the support that our team is providing, and be able to...and again, I'm just going to reiterate, this is not going to be for the advisors that are going out there and just rainmaking. For your rainmaking advisors, there's got to be a different system. But for those who are looking for, "I want to come in, I want to do a good job, I want to service client relationships, I want to grow it a bit organically as I come." Can we have a system and a process that works, where when I look at even what I'm getting paid for servicing the client relationships that I service, can it be uniform between me and between them so it's fair across the board?

Rolling Out A Long-Term Incentive Plan To Let Employees Share In The Upside Of The Firm [1:04:34]

Michael: And then did you say there's ultimately a potential for a path to partnership or equity or some additional layer of compensation? Is that a stage in your career progression?

Morgan: The next stage that we're rolling out is really the long-term incentive plan. So it's not giving up actual hard equity, but it is giving some phantom equity that is tied to the growth of the practice. So the way we've set this up is, I can sit here at the end of 2025, look at whether I...however I choose to value the practice, whether I choose to use a simple multiple times my portion of the revenue or whatever it ends up being, and carve off a certain number of dollars that I say I'm going to divide this, let's say, amongst four different people. Let's just say each of them get $5,000, or let's just say $10,000, right? And it's going to vest over five years. It's a five-year cliff vesting. So if we double the next five years, when that pays out, you're actually going to get a $20,000 bonus in that year.

And then whatever we're awarding each year along the way, we have the flexibility in what we award, but this can be a way for our team members to get bonus compensation tied to the growth of the firm. And this was a big one for me because I sit out there and I go, "Okay. Well, what if I want to acquire a practice," or what if all of a sudden I'm saying, "Okay, I'm handing you another 10, 20 clients to service." It's how do we shift mindset from, "You're just giving me more work to do," to, "Oh, wait, the firm is growing. I'm part of the firm growth. And it doesn't just mean more work for me. There's actually a carrot. There's actually some opportunity out there. But to receive it, I also have to stay." It's not just this is my launching pad to my next gig. We want you to want to stay part of us and to see the benefit of growing with us over time.

And I look at it with just the longevity that I still see ahead. I want to have that opportunity that people feel like they can have a home and that there's some upside benefit as we grow.

Michael: Is there some pool of dollars or portion of equity equivalent that you're envisioning allocating to long-term incentive plan? Or is that all still TBD as you're building it out?

Morgan: It's a really good question. When we built the plan, we built it in a way that it could never be more than 20% equity. If we acquire a practice, we'll just do a recasting on the value of each of the shares. So there's a way to account for inorganic growth, not leading to appreciation and value that doesn't make sense. But the way I'm looking at it, because this is just the start, is saying, "We're here in year one. We're just getting this in place because I probably want to use it more heavily, let's say over the next five years." If I can look at carving off 1% of revenue and saying, "That's going to be approximately the value of what I grant at the start of 2026, based on our end of 2025 results," that at least gives me a starting spot to test the waters, to roll it out with the team. And then I can always evaluate next year, "Do I do it the same? Do I start doing more?"

Michael: Can you share any more context then? Literally, how does this work? Dollars they get, years they have to stay? It sounds like you put some intentionality into the design. So can you share just what did you design? How does it actually work?

Morgan: So the way it works is the individuals will receive a certificate award. We've got all the legal put into place for this. We've been working on rolling out. But they'll receive a certificate that shows the number of shares that they're receiving, and the value of those shares today. So let's say somebody gets awarded $10,000 and I was saying, "I believe in you. I believe in you being part of our team. And I'm excited for you to be part of our growth going forward." They're going to get those...let's just say, we figure out, we're granting that at the end of 2025, start of 2026 based on our year end evaluation of our practice. Every year what we will do is look at where is our practice by...we chose to use a 2.7 multiple for the value of the shares.

Michael: Multiple of revenue?

Morgan: Multiple of revenue. I know many practices right now, if you were to go sell, you're going to get probably closer to a three times multiple. But I think about situations like death and disability, you always don't get quite as much. Also really, with the time horizon we have, I have some concerns about multiples as we look out over the next decade. As I kind of mentioned at the beginning the McKinsey article, and the shortage of financial advisors. Well, if some advisors don't have to buy a practice to grow as much down the road, are we going to see that downward pressure?

So that was our ability to just have a way to value it, keep it a little bit on the conservative side. And sit there and say, "When we get then to the end of 2026, we'll look at how much did we grow over the prior year." And then the team members will get an update every year to say, "At the end of 2025, your shares were worth about $10,000. We're now here at the end of 2026, they're actually worth $12,000 or $13,000." And be able to track that year over year to know the value, to know though that they are going to cliff vest and pay out at the end of year five.

What Surprised Morgan The Most On Her Advisor Journey [1:11:04]

Michael: As you reflect on this journey overall, what has surprised you the most about the path of building the advisory business?

Morgan: I'm having so much fun with it. It's really become fun to grow the team. One of the things, I think back to sitting with my father-in-law when I joined him, I had been part of the practice with him for probably three or four years. And we knew eventually I was going to step in, become the leader of the organization. It's the end of a meeting week on a Friday. We're sitting in the back corner of a little steak restaurant getting our happy hour. And I'm like, "I think I'm ready to take over the firm on this year." And he's thinking it's three years after that. I think that's very normal, right? The younger person thinks, "I'm ready." And the person who's more seasoned goes, "Are you really? This business is my baby? I don't know quite yet." And so you project manage.

But during that conversation, he sat there and he asked me, he said, "So what do you want? Do you want to be an advisor and really run a book of clients and join a team? Do you want to join a team so that you don't have all the pressure about the growth being all on you, and you can really just focus on the client service relationships? Or do you want to this business larger? And do you want to really run the business and the organization?" And anybody who's doing that knows the headaches that happen with just managing HR, and personnel, and everything that goes along with all of that.

And I just looked at him as deer in the headlights. I was like, "I don't know what I want. I just want to make sure I don't mess this up." But what I've realized, I wanted to make sure I could take over the client relationships and do it successfully. But as I look back on it, I realized I really love running the business side. I often find there's five mountains, let's say, of initiatives I want to unleash and keep the team moving towards. But if I told them all five mountains, they would probably all run away and go hide under a rock. They can really only handle one at a time. And so I have to be able to coach and guide, and keep those four mountains in my mind and share the one.

And so it's been kind of as we're building, as we're growing, I've just found I love the business running side as much as I love meeting with a grouping of clients. And I love doing both side by side. And I think there's a lot of people that tend to lean to one or the other. And so I want to be the environment for those who also just love the client side, but want somebody who's taking on some of the heavy lifting of the strategy. That's what we're here for. And it's great having as we've done it, we've built out our leadership team, we have three people on our leadership team right now. We'll continue to grow that over time. But it's good to have diversity of ideas and opinions and the way people think and approach.

Kelly on my team, I say her superpower...mine's grit and hers is provocation. I'll be disciplined, doing my thing. And she'll be like, "But why are we doing that?" And just having that collaboration, that conversation is just so meaningful. And that team environment has just made working in this industry so much fun.

The Low Point On Morgan’s Journey [1:14:33]

Michael: So what was the low point for you on this journey?

Morgan: There's always challenges along the way. And you just have to take them one at a time. And you never quite know exactly when they're going to pop up. I found myself in 2023…I have a three year old daughter. So I was a new mom in 2023. I had about a one year old baby at home. And I had an advisor on my team that needed to have a lighter client load. And this advisor was in a different state. And I had to sit there and say, "Oh, my gosh. Okay, so what are my options here?" And actually at the same time, I was having a turnover of my administrative assistant position. So I was fielding way more emails. The workload felt heavier. So I sat there and I said, "Okay, what am I going to do? I'm already a little extra stressed. What am going to do with the situation?" Am I going to tell the advisor, "Too bad, you just have to meet with these clients." I sat there and I said, "Am I going to start flying out and changing my travel schedule to make this work?"

Michael: With the one year old?

Morgan: With the one year old. I sat there and I went, "This is not what I'm envisioning for my life. But ultimately, I want to keep this practice up and running." And then I also sat there and I said, "I never really thought this, but do I reconsider our structure? Do I sell part of our practice?" I've only owned the practice for, at that point, maybe 18 months. But it was like, "What do I do?" And I think, at that time, I felt like we lived in a world of there's the right decision and the wrong decision. And I've learned more over time that no, there's usually door one and door two. And you just have to pick one and go with it as long as possible, and then reconvene.

And I'll tell you, it was really heavy. I thought I was going to get some gray hair. I was actually on vacation in Mexico, and all I could do was look at the client list and be like, "What am I going to do? And what are my options?" And it was really heavy for me when I told our team the plan to sell part of the practice. And we went down that road. And of all things, as we went down it, a few months in I realized, "You know what? I don't think this is going to be the right decision. We need to keep the clients." And I changed course. You sit there, you're like, "I'm the new leader. I've already made some big decisions. The team can't understand the full scope of the weight of what I'm carrying here, or maybe even understand why I'm making all the decisions that I'm making."

And when I chose to course change and explain why, and we found a path that worked, but it took just working it step by step and thinking through all the decisions. I'm going to be honest, this was not a point that I was loving being the leader. And it was really hard because it fell during the holiday season. Because starting in October, I remember Christmas parties, and my friends looking at me and being like, "Hey, how you doing?" And I would be like, "I'm struggling right now, but I can't even explain this to you." But the team saw how I stuck with it through everything. And it was actually a moment that I really solidified trust in just my deliberate nature with them and the path forward. And that really ended up being foundational, I think, to me to just making hard decisions, working through things, not knowing there was always a right or a wrong, but that we could pivot. And it just all the more enhanced.

And I'd say for anyone listening, you got to have a community of advisors because advisors get what you're going through. Business owners in this field will get what you're going through, and they'll have their stories of the crazy things that have happened with them. And just having that community, I have a group of women, we're called FIRE, it's Female Inner Ring Entrepreneur. We've got a great coach, Sherry English, who's fearlessly led us. And for me to have other women that have balanced being moms and trying to run their businesses. And unlike the people at the holiday party that cannot understand what I'm going through, they can be like, "Oh, man, that really sucks. I get what's going on." That was just a really big growth moment for me that I survived. And I know a lot of advisors listening have gone through their own independent journeys and had to survive different things, but they make you stronger.

Michael: I'm just curious, what was the solution that emerged? Or why didn't you do the partial book sale you were queuing up? What pulled it back and changed the outcome?

Morgan: One of the realities was we had moved to discretionary trading by that point. So not all advisors could take on…we had to go to all of our clients and say, "Hey, we're going to undo discretionary trading." That just didn't feel like the right pitch. But it just, as we navigated through the process, it didn't feel right. It didn't feel right for the team. It didn't feel right for the clients. There's always specifics that we're working through that I won't get into all the details on, but our solution ended up being that the advisor that was working with less clients ended up working with a few more than initially anticipated, but ended up being comfortable with it based on the journey we had gone down.

And we also realized in this virtual world, there were some clients that were going to need to work with an advisor in a more of a remote capacity. And I'd also say, I've mentioned, I've always have staffed a little bit heavy and I'm always growing my team of younger advisors. These are the moments sometimes where change happens that you look at them, you say, "Are you ready to step up to the plate? Are you ready to start leading some of these relationships?" So investing in growing them as early as possible. When the next opportunities come up, you want them to be able to step into their shoes, into the larger shoes. And it can be a little scary in the process, but again, one of the things I've learned over time is you don't have to have all the answers. You just need to be able to show up, be reliable, be consistent, and lean on the team around you. And if you all work together, you can make it happen.

Morgan’s Advice For Her Younger Self And For Newer Advisors [1:21:33]

Michael: What else do you know now you wish you could go back and tell you from five, ten years ago as you were early in this journey coming into your father-in-law's practice?

Morgan: I used to feel like I had to prove my knowledge, and that I had to sell. And what I've learned over time is I really need to listen and be genuinely curious in what's going on in client situations. And that's a way better way to build their trust. One of the things I did that I would just highly encourage is if you're looking at getting some licensing done, or you're looking at something like the CFP, do it as early as possible because life only gets harder. When you get in serious relationships, when you have children, life gets a little more complicated. These things just get harder and harder to do. So putting that time in early makes all the difference.

Michael: Any other advice you would give just younger or newer advisors coming into the profession today?

Morgan: I would just tell them, you don't have to have all the answers. Just tell your clients, "I'll get back to you with it." Go research, just be responsive. I would also say this is a career, it's not a job. It's a job, but if you look at it from the perspective of, "I'm going to clock in at 8:00 and I'm going to be out of the office by 5:00," you can do that, but there's going to be limits to your upside. If you can understand there's going to be some seasons that you're going to need to put in extra hours, and there's some seasons that will give you a little bit more flexibility, the upside is unlimited. But it takes hard work. And it's not necessarily always a 40-hour job.

What’s Next For Morgan [1:23:29]

Michael: What comes next for you on this journey? You're on a growth track, you're talking about staring down $2 billion of assets out there in the future. But what comes next over the next few years here?

Morgan: So this past year, Kelly Bays and I, as we brought our brains together, we wrote a book called "Intentional Legacy" that we just found....we were working with a lot of clients that were either going in what we call the sandwich generation. They're managing the generation above them and below them, and dealing with the stresses of that. We were going through just many different life transitions, and there wasn't always the clarity on what does comprehensive planning really entail, and how could we share that through stories? So we wrote a book to really tell our story and give a bit of an indication of who we were before you even met with us.

Some of our clients read it and they said, "Oh my goodness, I wish I would have read this 20 years ago. It would have given me a longer timeline to get prepared." Or other people say, "Oh, you cover all of those areas in planning? I thought it was just more of a transactional relationship type focus." And so we're using that book and that theme of get intentional. That'll be our marketing theme for 2026.

How Morgan Weighs Staying In The Independent Broker-Dealer Channel Vs Alternatives [1:24:55]

Michael: And then how do you think about dynamics, independent broker dealer environment versus the RIA channel? You're obviously a very sizable practice in the Ameriprise system. I'm sure there's no shortage of RIA-based folks who call on you all the time because that's the current environment we're in.

Morgan: Oh, it is. Yeah, I get lots of phone calls.

Michael: So I have to presume if you're continuing with the Ameriprise out of some level of intentionality, I'm just curious here how you think about that decision at your size and stage?

Morgan: I think you have to choose what's right for you, not always following what's the trendy path. And at this point in time, I still see really good opportunity within the channel that I'm in through relationships that I'm building with advisors that have found benefit in partnering alongside us. Being able to have some of the compliance support, the infrastructure, the platform flexibility that Ameriprise is leaning into, the use of systems like Microsoft, Microsoft Co-Pilot, anything that's being out there. I'm not having to think about each of those systems and processes individually. I'm being able to focus very strongly on the client experience and how are we continuing to elevate that piece. So it's taking some of the decisions off my plate for now. And I think it's important, though, as we look forward over the next 5, 10, 20 years, it's not a decision that you make and that you don't revisit with time. You always need to be aware of what's going on and evaluating your options.

What Success Means To Morgan [1:26:42]

Michael: So as we come to the end, this is a podcast about success. And just one of the themes comes up is that word success means very different things to different people. You're in this wonderful position of running and leading this $600 million plus firm that's on a great growth track. It feels like the business is in a wonderful place right now. How do you define success for yourself at this point?

Morgan: For me, I actually have a post-it that sits on the monitor in my office that says, "Why do you want to grow?" Because there becomes a point that I can look back that we've averaged over time, since I joined the firm, 19% growth per year, 24% growth since I took over the ownership through. And you start seeing, "Okay, this is working. Why am I wanting to do this?"

Michael: You're up from $300 million 3 years ago?

Morgan: Right. So when I joined the firm, we were sitting right about $115 million in assets. We were sitting at $260 million when I stepped into the owner role. And we've continued to grow that through both just the organic growth, and then also having advisors strategically team with us because of what we can offer, and the more that we can do together. And so, for me, I have to keep going back to when I wake up every day, am I making a positive impact for my family, for my clients, and for my team? Am I having conversations that I felt like I did a little good in the world each day? And for me, that is success. If I can look at my family, my three-year-old, again, in the theme of intentionality, I can be working my butt off. And if I come home and I can't pause and be present with her, and lean into that, then I'm missing something. So it's being aware of my surroundings. And there's nothing like going from working on the strategy of the business for several weeks to then getting back into client meetings, and hearing what's going on in their lives. And celebrating the wins that they've had. And those feel good moments, I never want to give those up.

Michael: I love it. I love it. Well, thank you, Morgan, for joining us on the "Financial Advisor Success" podcast.

Morgan: Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

Michael: Thank you.