The Efficient Advisor: Tactical Business Advice for Financial Planners 320: What an Executive Assistants Can Do for Advisors with Guest Gina Cotner
Nov 4, 2025
In this discussion, Gina Cotner, CEO of Athena Executive Services and expert in high-end virtual assistance, reveals how financial advisors can thrive through effective delegation. She highlights the strategic role of executive assistants compared to mere virtual assistants. Gina shares key strategies for deciding what tasks to delegate, best practices for onboarding, and how to track accountability without micromanaging. She also emphasizes the importance of mindset shifts and empowering EAs to take ownership, freeing advisors to focus on growth and leadership.
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Executive Assistant Is A Strategic Partner
- A high-level executive assistant (EA) becomes a business partner by thinking like the executive over time.
- Task-doers are valuable but do not replace the strategic value of an EA who can think and lead.
Log Tasks To Decide What To Delegate
- Log and track repetitive tasks to decide what to delegate and at which skill level they belong.
- Delegate simple data entry to doers and meeting preparation or client handholding to higher-level EAs.
Hand Off Ownership And Ask 'What' And 'When'
- When you hand off work, tell the person "this is now yours" and ask "what do you need?" to prompt ownership and questions.
- Ask the assignee when they can complete it instead of imposing deadlines to get realistic timelines.