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 series. Our goal was to uncover the benefits of professional management (namely Chief Operating Officers) and lay out the responsibilities of a successful COO, as well as highlight RIAs that are successfully transitioning their firms from practices to businesses. Since the release, we’ve received incredible feedback from our peers in the industry helping validate our conclusion: for RIAs to reach their organic or inorganic growth initiatives, they need a competent, flexible, and driven COO. We’ve highlighted some of the industry publications’ coverage below.
- How a COO Can Benefit a Growing RIA – ThinkAdvisor (Marlene Satter)
Independent RIAs can derive benefits they may not have realized by leveraging a Chief Operating Officer to manage day-to-day responsibilities. In order for RIAs to grow from $1 billion to $10 billion, firms require aggressive growth strategies, including a competent Chief Operating Officer…
- Chief Operating Officers Lift Advisory Firms to the Next Level – InvestmentNews (Jeff Benjamin)
While COOs are often dismissed as simply an added expense, adding one can be a key ingredient in helping a firm grow to the next level. Leon LaBrecque, Managing Partner and CEO of LJPR Financial Advisors, who recently agreed to sell his $776 million firm to Sequoia Financial Group, comments, “In my prior life, I wish I had a COO, because it would have increased my productivity massively. Having the CEO or founder be the head adviser, the COO, and the compliance officer, administrative officer is just wasting time on things they aren’t necessarily best at…”
- Why RIAs Need a COO – Financial Planning (Matt Sonnen)
In this self-penned article, Matt Sonnen highlights a common misconception within the RIA industry – that a COO adds to a firm’s expenses but does little to boost the firm’s revenue. He describes why that mistaken belief could be a very costly one for RIAs…
- Michael Kitces’ Weekend Reading for Financial Planners – Nerd’s Eye View at Kitces.com
Each weekend, Michael Kitces provides recommended reading for financial planners, and chose to include PFI Advisors’ white paper as a practice management piece. He provides his own summary in explaining that the virtue of hiring a COO is not merely that the founding advisor’s time is once again freed up for their preferred client-facing activities of old, but entails a level of professional management – an executive whose skillset and role, very specifically, is to build, develop, and execute the operations and infrastructure of the (sizable and still growing) advisory firm…
- RIAs Have a COO Problem. Outsiders Can Fix It. – Financial Planning (Charles Paikert)
As RIAs find themselves in need of Chief Operating Officers, the best place to look for viable candidates may be outside the RIA industry. PFI Advisors’ white paper was referenced and Matt Sonnen provides expertise in saying, “The RIA is a niche industry and COOs are a small niche within a niche…”