COO Best Practices
BLOG POSTS PUBLISHED SINCE INCEPTION
Carolyn Armitage on Change Management
It is often the COO who will be leading their firm through the implementation of a new process or adoption of a new technology tool, therefore, a common question I pose to guests on the COO...
Fee Compression Hasn’t Played Out, But Margin Compression Is Real
In talking with RIA owners and particularly RIA operations professionals, the topic of fees often comes up. “What is your standard fee rate? Have you had to lower your fees over time?” are common...
Unlocking Growth: The Power of Process
Having left large bureaucratic institutions that “manage to the lowest common denominator,” many RIA owners are reluctant to institute systems and processes because they feel by doing so, they will...
The Profit vs. Growth
Balancing Act
Every business owner struggles with the profit vs. growth conundrum: When is it best to prioritize lean operations to maximize profits and cash flow, and when is it necessary to prioritize...
The Power of Silence: Turning Off
Notifications Enhances Productivity
In today’s fast-paced and hyper-connected world, distractions seem to be everywhere, hindering our ability to stay focused and be productive. With notifications from apps and devices constantly...
Founder’s Bias and the COO Dilemma
Earlier this month, we released our 5-year anniversary episode of the COO Roundtable Podcast. Feeling somewhat sentimental during the recording, I read a few sentences from our...
Use The Summer Slowdown
To Conduct a Fee Audit
Many RIAs look to tackle operational projects during the summer months, when inbound client requests inevitably slow down due to travel plans and family vacations. With one more month left in the...
Do Your Team a Favor,
Learn to Delegate
Advisors have been asking Matt Sonnen, CEO of PFI Advisors, for an outsourced COO offering since he launched two years ago. He’s no longer fighting the market…
Why Employee Development is
Vital to RIA Growth
In late 2021 we urged RIA owners to, “Wake Up and Smell the Talent Shortage.” At the time we wrote, “Many RIA owners have their heads in the sand and don’t believe they need to court employees with...
Is More Diligence Needed, Or Are
You Simply Stalling a Decision?
Members of The COO Society often hear me say, “Choosing technology tools for your RIA is relatively easy (there aren’t that many technology tools to choose from!) but building processes around those...
The Myth
of Outsourcing
Regardless of the nature of the task you are looking to outsource, there will always be components that will remain the responsibility of your internal team. As the RIA industry continues to grow...
The Importance of Strategy
and How a COO Can Help
Recent research by Axos Advisor Services supported the importance of Operations professionals at RIAs by declaring that “71% of elite RIAs hire professionals to focus on operational issues, compared...
Checklist for Evaluating
Outsourced RIA Vendors
The SEC recently proposed a new rule offering further guidance on the due diligence process expected of RIAs when they are evaluating third party vendors used in their regular course of business....
Job Descriptions Aren’t Just
For the Hiring Process
They can lay out functional responsibilities and expectations for everyone in an organization. Between The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting, and the surge in growth the RIA industry has experienced...
Tracking Time Spent Per Client:
Valuable Data or Waste of Time?
As Operations consultants, a primary question often posed to us from RIAs is, “How do we service more clients without our level of service dropping?” Technology and workflows, no doubt, can...
25 Lessons From 25 Years
In Wealth Management
This month marks my 25th anniversary in the wealth management industry. I started down this career path with Merrill Lynch in July of 1997 as a Wire Operator (you’ll have to look that job up – it no...
Understanding the Power
of a COO
It goes well beyond being able to reboot the router. Regular listeners to our COO Roundtable podcast have heard me make the claim many times that the average RIA owner drastically...
Career Advice from
Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider
I recently stumbled across this tweet from Dee Snider, the lead singer of the 80’s “hair metal” band, Twisted Sister: To provide some back story, Twisted Sister rose to fame in 1984 with their third...
The Power Of
A Fee Audit
While no one likes having to conduct an internal audit, it is imperative that RIAs confirm (on a regular basis) that the fee rates written on their client contracts match those loaded in their...
Wake Up and Smell
The Talent Shortage
Our industry has seen tremendous growth over the past two years, and it feels like every RIA in the country is reporting record years in terms of onboarding new clients and new assets under...
Advisors, Follow Your Own
Guidance: Charitable Planning…
No matter how you view it, M&A activity in the wealth management space is at record levels. The latest Deal Book, published by Devoe & Company, concludes that “M&A activity is...
How I’ve (Casually) Used Time
Blocking To Boost Creative Output
Like many of you, I’m constantly asking myself, “How do I get more done each day?” One of the common questions I pose to our guests on The COO Roundtable podcast is “Tell me about your time...
The Two-Way Street of Employee
Performance Reviews
While providing feedback to employees about their job performance is valuable, it’s much more important to use this opportunity to allow employees to feel supported and heard. RIAs continue to miss...
The COO Roundtable
Episode 33
In the 33rd episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes two highly respected operations professionals: Jandy Rowe, Principal and Chief Operating Officer of Wipfli Financial Advisors, and Brad...
Fee “Compression” or
Fee “Justification?”
I was honored to participate in Addepar’s Discovery Week back in June, alongside Amy DeTolla of Focus Financial and Cameron Sheehan of Addepar. During our session, we covered many topics including...
Client Segmentation
Is Not Evil
It's not personal, it's strictly business. Many RIAs struggle with profitability when they attempt to “be all things to all people,” which forces them to offer a wide range of services to clients of...
To Centralize or Not
To Centralize Trading?
Division of labor is wildly important if you are looking to grow and scale your business. Operationally speaking, it is the goal of every RIA to free up their advisors to focus solely on clients and...
Hey Kids! This Is Why You
Want To Be An RIA COO
If you have ever listened to an episode of The COO Roundtable podcast, you’ve probably heard Matt joke that, “As a kid, no one says to themselves, ‘When I grow up, I want to the COO of an RIA...
Attempting to “Get It Done”
Every Single Day
Work-life balance is tricky for every professional, but 2020’s work from home environment and the added stresses of a global health scare made the past 14 months a truly unique time for all of us. ...
How Important Is it to
Define Your Ideal Client?
Knowing the type of client you are looking to serve will allow you to design the best products and services needed by them. When an RIA owner asks us to perform an Operational Diagnostic review of...
Top 5 Lessons Learned from Episodes
21-25 of The COO Roundtable
With another batch of podcasts on the books and two years of consistent, monthly episodes, we’d like to once again thank everyone who has listened, subscribed, and given feedback on The COO...
“How Do I Find Good Operations
Team Members for My RIA?”
As the RIA industry continues to evolve and competition for clients (and advisors) increases, RIAs are realizing the importance of a dedicated Operations team that ensures that the trains are...
Vendors & Consultants Can’t
Do The Push-Ups For You
One of the most popular articles we’ve ever written was titled ‘Integratable’ Does Not Mean ‘Integrated,’ But There’s Hope. The reason it resonated with so many readers is because advisors are...
What to Consider When Hiring
Your First Remote Employee
RIAs can benefit by increasing the talent pool beyond the geographic limitations of the firm’s physical office, but methodical planning and proper diligence are required to ensure success. ...
Untold Truths Of Acting
In Your Clients’ Best Interest
Matt had the opportunity to sit down with Stacey McKinnon, COO of Morton Capital, to discuss her recent paper, “5 Untold Truths of Acting in Your Client’s Best Interest.” During their...
How Should an RIA
Rate Its COO?
A COO's role differs with each firm. That makes evaluating their performance all the more complex. During my recent interview with Lisa Cook of Pacific Portfolio Consulting and Erica Farber of...
Setting Expectations Early With
Outsourced Business Partners
I recently joined Rich DeSalvo of F3 Logic and Barrett Ayers of Adhesion Wealth for Adhesion’s monthly podcast, “Power Your Advice.” The topic of conversation was the benefits of outsourcing,...
Top 5 Mistakes Buyers Make
When Integrating Acquisitions
These are the ways buyers and sellers commonly fall short when combining firms. 2020 was another banner year for M&A activity in the RIA industry, and while deal makers continue to build on the...
Book Review – Riding
Shotgun: The Role of the COO
PFI Advisors has written extensively about the COO role within an RIA firm. However, we are always seeking new perspectives by periodically examining this role’s impact on other industries and how...
How 2021 Will
Differ From 2020
Regardless of what the pandemic will bring, or not bring, in 2021, the wealth management industry has been changed forever. Everyone is excited to turn the page on 2020. With several recent...
With or Without a Pandemic,
Employee Onboarding Can be Tricky
Your revenue-generating employees are just as important, if not more important, than your revenue-paying clients. Make sure they know that starting on their first day. Much has been written and...
Identify Your Ideal Client Before
You Determine Your Tech Stack
Until an advisor can identify who they are serving and how they want to serve them, they cannot begin to build out a proper technology stack. We are often contacted by breakaway advisors...
Making a Big Firm
Feel Small
The continued tear of M&A activity throughout the RIA industry has resulted in some firms reaching critical mass very quickly. These firms are learning that with size comes all the...
Adapting Advisory Teams To A
Hybrid Office/Home Workplace
Matt was honored to partner with Stacey McKinnon, COO of Morton Capital, for this guest article on Kitces.com. Matt and Stacey reflect on the shift in workplace environment caused by the COVID-19...
RIA Owners Need To Realize That 75%
of a COO’s Job is Human Resources
As I declared when we launched the COO Roundtable podcast in late 2018, “Every advisory firm struggles with the goal of providing high-touch service to a...
Always Focus on
the Client Experience
Below is a long, harrowing, frustrating, and oftentimes sad recount of my recent interaction with Microsoft support for our son’s Xbox. As you will see,...
Top 5 Lessons Learned from Episodes
16-20 of The COO Roundtable
With our twentieth podcast in the books and a year and a half of consistent, monthly episodes, we’d like to once again thank everyone who has listened, subscribed, and given feedback on The COO...
Use the Summer Slowdown to Assess
Your Post-COVID Tech Policies
Every year, we recommend RIA leaders take time over the summer, when things inevitably slow down a bit, to take stock of not only their technology stack, but their policies, procedures, and various...
Merging? Employee Communication
Is More Critical Than Ever
As we have written in the past, M&A transactions can cause a tremendous amount of trepidation and angst among employees of both Buyer and Seller. While completely normal, the root of fear...
Will COVID-19 Change
The Way We Work Forever?
While some RIAs were caught flat-footed when widespread stay-at-home orders were instituted across the country in March, most have reported a “better than expected” experience as clients have...
What Would David Lee Roth
Do If He Owned an RIA?
I was 9 years old when Van Halen’s masterpiece album “1984” was released. That album had the same effect on me as it did many people my age – it changed my...
Silver Linings: Using Crisis to
Improve Your RIA’s Health
This article is being published a bit early, I realize that. When you go to the doctor with clogged sinuses, a splitting headache, and body aches like you’ve never had, you just want some...
Top 5 Lessons Learned from Episodes
11-15 of The COO Roundtable
With our fifteenth episode and over a year of consistent, monthly releases, we’d like to once again thank everyone who has listened, subscribed, and given feedback on The COO Roundtable. We’ve...
How Top RIA COOs Are
Responding to COVID-19
Every RIA needs a Business Continuity Plan (it’s SEC-required) and most RIAs are good about updating it every year when they perform their annual compliance review…
Pivoting Quickly To A
“Work From Home” Model
With the coronavirus pandemic triggering widespread quarantines, many advisory firms are implementing measures to set up their operations as a Work-From-Home (WFH) environment. We partnered with...
Why Every RIA
Needs a Data Analyst
From social media giants to your local grocery store, these days everyone is looking to gather and use client data to run their businesses better— and your RIA should be no exception. Any RIA not...
Client Portal:
Build or Buy?
RIA publications and the conference circuit are filled with articles and breakout sessions titled, “The Digitization of Advice” or “The Amazon and Netflix Effect on Our Industry” – all…
Operational Excellence
Drives Sales Growth
There is a friction that commonly exists within many organizations, and it occurs between the sales department and the back-office operations department. Both feel underappreciated by the...
Mark Tibergien Provides RIA COOs
6 Metrics to Define Their Value
I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Mark Tibergien and Karen Novak of BNY Mellon Pershing, Advisor Solutions for Episode 12 of our podcast, The COO Roundtable. One of the main goals of the...
Post-Merger Integration:
“Yes” is Nothing Without “How”
In his book on negotiation, “Never Split the Difference,” former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss states that, “’Yes’ is nothing without ‘How.’” Voss, who made a living brokering some of the...
What is Advisors’
Time Worth?
Following the success of our COO white paper and personal enjoyment of interviewing the profiled COOs at the end of 2018, we at PFI Advisors declared 2019 to be “The Year of the COO.” We...
Top 5 Lessons Learned from
Episodes 6-10 of The COO Roundtable
With ten episodes now under our belt, we’d like to once again thank everyone who has listened, subscribed, and given feedback on The COO Roundtable.
High Tech vs. High Touch: What
Are Clients Really Asking For?
Technology isn't developed to replace human interaction, but rather to enhance it. At the Envestnet conference this past May, the late Jud Bergman was asked about his thoughts around technology’s...
The Fear of Change, Part 2:
The Emotions of New Technology
The Fear of Change: A 3-Part Series for RIAs As the RIA industry matures, consolidates, grows, and evolves, many of our clients contemplate M&A transactions, changing their technologies or...
The Fear of Change, Part 1:
The Emotions of an M&A Transaction
The Fear of Change: A 3-Part Series for RIAs As the RIA industry matures, consolidates, grows, and evolves, many of our clients contemplate M&A transactions, changing their technologies or...
New RIA COO? How to
Prepare for Success on Day 1
In the eighth episode of The COO Roundtable, featuring David Canter and Scott Slater of Fidelity Clearing & Custody Solutions…
RIAs Are Struggling with Too Much
Technology, Not Too Little
The objection we hear most often from prospective clients (delivered in a sarcastic tone) is, “I don’t want to hire an operations and technology consultant. Not only do I have to…
Integratable ≠ Integrated
But there is hope
In our work with new and established RIAs looking to build and/or improve their technology stack, we encounter many frustrated advisors who lament, “We were told that the benefit of being an RIA was...
What RIAs should learn
from Uber and Lyft
Most RIA owners are obsessed with growing top-line revenue at all costs, with little thought to the bottom-line profitability of each additional dollar of AUM A recent New York Times article called...
Where to Start When
Developing Workflows
In our work with large RIAs looking to increase their scale and efficiency, we often begin with a review of their various systems, people, and processes. We walk through…
Don’t Charge for Reporting
On Outside Assets
Advisors looking to grow their business must constantly grapple with client acquisition costs. As advisors struggle to differentiate themselves and the services they offer, many have concluded that...
Two Key Ingredients to
a Proper M&A Strategy
Not a day goes by that the RIA press isn’t reporting on another merger or acquisition. At industry conferences, the panels discussing M&A are the most highly attended. With more and...
Top 5 Lessons Learned from Episodes 1-5 of The COO Roundtable
We’d like thank everyone who has listened, subscribed, and given feedback on The COO Roundtable thus far. We’ve really enjoyed conducting these interviews and hearing all your reactions. ...
Book Review: The Financial Advisor M&A Guidebook
PFI Advisors has written a lot around the operational side of M&A, and how important it is for firms to think through not only deal structure and valuation, but the planning process around...
Why is an Ops & Tech Consultant Writing About Client Segmentation?
Anders Jones of Facet Wealth recently wrote that as RIAs approach the elusive $1 billion AUM milestone, they need to be increasingly cognizant of their profit margins and resources needed to service...
The 3 Most Common Technology Headaches RIAs Face
Technology reporter Ryan Neal’s recent article offered a refreshing (and interesting) perspective of problems RIAs often face with their technology suite of systems. He provided an...
Why Professional Management
Fails for RIAs
We have written much about the benefits of professional management for RIAs. By bringing in professional management, the owners/advisors of the firm are availed of the day-to-day burdens of running...
5 Building Blocks to Branding Yourself a Successful Buyer
As we announce our latest co-written white paper, we thought we would first share some background research and history put into this particular M&A thought leadership piece. While this is...
Industry Coverage of PFI Advisors’ Recent COO White Paper
In late October, we released our latest white paper, “Exploring the Benefits of Professional Management for RIAs: A Deeper Look into Chief Operating Officers,” the sixth installment in our industry...
Are You Serious, Wall Street? A Response to Men’s #MeToo ‘Advice’
This open letter is a response to a Bloomberg Article InvestmentNews ran Tuesday about some male Wall Street executives whose concerns about #MeToo accusations have led them to limit the ways...
A Deeper Look Into Chief
Operating Officers at RIAs
PFI Advisors ("Promoting Financial Independence") announced today the release of a new industry report (the sixth in its continuing educational series) on an often overlooked topic facing...
Five Questions to Ask About Your Technology Infrastructure
RIAs regularly review their clients’ financial goals and portfolios. They should also service themselves with the same care and consistency with an internal review of their technology...
The Age-Old Debate: Profit vs. Growth – What’s More Valuable?
At the Echelon Deal and Deal Makers conference in Newport Beach earlier this month, several sessions tackled the big question: If I’m looking to sell my firm, what is more important to a buyer - my...
Dual-Contract SMAs vs. Single-Contract SMAs
The most common question we receive from breakaway advisors is, “If I start an RIA, how do I recreate the products and services I’ve always had available to me during my career in the wirehouse?”...
“M&A Through the
Operational Lens”
We have been long-time proponents of the notion that RIAs need top tier technology infrastructure to support growth through M&A. Many would-be Buyers mistakenly think…
Harnessing RIA M&A strategies for growth
With the RIA industry setting itself up for further consolidation based on the macro trends impacting the industry, the opportunity for peer-to-peer M&A activity is increasing dramatically....
Advisors Explain How They Made An Acquisition Work
Karen DeMasters of Financial Advisor Magazine detailed the strategies used by some of the most successful RIA acquirers in our industry. We were honored to cover these firms in our most recent...
3 Requirements for Successful Project Management
As an operations and technology consulting firm that works with both breakaway advisors and existing RIAs in growth mode, we have become adept at project management and the importance of maintaining...
Mark Tibergien’s Latest Book Could Put RIA Consultants Out of Business
As a consultant to both breakaway advisors and RIAs, some may question my title to this article, and others may question my timing, as “The Enduring Advisory Firm: How to Serve Your Clients More...
“Between Now and Success” Podcast, a Discuss on RIA Technology
With the accelerating pace of technological change, how can you be sure you are making the right technology choices? What should your tech stack look like? One of the biggest changes in the...
Alt investments on the rise among RIAs
We wrote this article for InvestmentNews to highlight the research we conducted for our Alternative Investments White Paper last October, where we highlighted the alternative investment resources...
What Are Clients
Willing to Pay For?
While attending Schwab IMPACT last month, we had the privilege of listening to a presentation by Joe Duran, CEO of United Capital. In his opening remarks, he compared Vanguard in the financial...
Jumping into
the M&A Game
As operational and technology consultants, we are contacted at least three times per month from larger RIAs saying, “A friend of mine just bought a $100 million practice – I want to do that too!”...
How RIAs Can Compete in the Lending Game
Too many wirehouse brokers considering going independent are led to believe that once they leave their bank-owned brokerage they will no longer have access to sophisticated lending tools to offer...
Don’t Cut Your Fees
Just Yet…
Everyone in the industry is, in our opinion, losing their mind over fee compression caused by Robo Advisors. Advisors feel they need to increase their spending on technology and cut their fee in...
Solving Operational Issues from M&A Transactions
As the wealth management industry continues to age, the number of advisory firms that will be transitioned due to succession planning or principal retirement is expected to increase dramatically. In...