Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
The Financial Advisor Success podcast brings you real success stories and insights from the most successful financial advisors, and leading industry consultants, about how to take your advisory business to the next level. Get a glimpse of what it's like behind the scenes building a successful advisory business, and how entrepreneurial advisors navigate the inevitable highs, and lows, of growing a firm. Whether you're a new financial advisor trying to get started on the right foot, or an experienced advisor who's hit a wall, we're here to give you the insights and inspiration you need to break through and reach the level of success you want to achieve. Subscribe to the show, and get even more at the leading industry blog Nerd's Eye View at www.Kitces.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Oct 27, 2026 • 1h 39min
Ep 513: The Path From (Unpaid) Intern To CEO Of A $3.4 Billion Advisory Firm with Neela Hummel
Neela Hummel, CEO of Abacus Wealth Partners, rose from unpaid intern to leading a $3.4 billion employee-owned advisory firm. She recounts finding her way into financial planning, earning trust in client meetings, and learning business development. She also discusses leadership through growth and crisis, employee ownership, values-driven governance, sustainable work-life design, and building a firm that can thrive without her.
104 snips
Oct 20, 2026 • 1h 41min
Ep 512: Winning Clients And Moving 'Upmarket' By Being Confident In Telling Your Value Story with Chris Smith
Chris Smith, founder of PSBLTY, helps financial advisory firms sharpen their brands, sales processes, and culture. He explores how to lead discovery meetings, make a prospect’s story central, and build trust through thoughtful listening. He also covers structuring second meetings, confidently inviting prospects to become clients, moving upmarket, and developing the leadership needed for sustainable growth.
16 snips
Oct 13, 2026 • 1h 31min
Ep 511: Outsourcing And Managing Client Headcount To Stay Lean As A Two-Founder, $150M Firm with Ashlee deSteiger
Ashlee deSteiger, CFP, CPA, CFA and co-owner of Michigan-based Gunder Wealth Management, shares how a two-founder firm reached $150 million while staying lean. She discusses fractional virtual assistants, outsourced compliance and paraplanning, pausing growth to measure service quality, and scoring client relationships. She also explores Instagram referrals, founder delegation, and designing an advisory practice around life.
89 snips
Oct 6, 2026 • 1h 38min
Ep 510: Creating Effective Discovery Meetings To Convert 100% Of (High-Value) Prospects Into Clients with Michael Yoder
Michael Yoder, founder of Yoder Wealth Management, is a CFP professional and former actuary serving affluent households. He reveals how a carefully designed discovery process has converted every qualified prospect over the past decade. Topics include values-based questioning, retirement income and equity compensation specialization, QSBS-driven referrals, transitioning to fewer ideal clients, and building a practice around family, flexibility, and “enough.”
81 snips
Sep 29, 2026 • 1h 38min
Ep 509: Systematizing Your Differentiated Service As A (True) Retirement Expert While Scaling To $850M Of AUM with Dana Anspach
Dana Anspach, founder of Sensible Money, leads an $850 million retirement-focused RIA. She explains how her firm systematizes decumulation planning through detailed data gathering, tax scenarios, historical stress tests, fundedness ratios, and asset-liability matching. She also discusses custom planning software, scaling to 330 households, burnout, leadership, and growing a firm without losing sight of personal values.
43 snips
Sep 22, 2026 • 1h 42min
Ep 508: Leveraging Video The Right Way To Add $1M Of New Revenue In Less Than 12 Months with Nate Hoskin
Nate Hoskin, co-founder of SageContent and former advisory-firm founder, shares how he built an audience of nearly 80,000 on TikTok and generated nearly $1 million in annual revenue. He explores audience fit, performance marketing, video funnels, content analytics, and the operational strain of rapid growth. He also discusses repurposing content, batching production, and choosing the right video format.
23 snips
Sep 15, 2026 • 1h 25min
Ep 507: Growing Bigger For Succession And Then Intentionally Downsizing For A Simpler Lifestyle Practice with Carolyn McClanahan
Carolyn McClanahan, a physician-turned-financial planner and founder of Life Planning Partners, shares her surprising journey from building a 100-client firm to intentionally downsizing. She discusses succession missteps, career paths, team development, the hidden cost of growth, and respectful client transitions. She also makes the case for medical-style residency programs in financial planning and reveals how employee ownership can support a simpler, more sustainable future.
72 snips
Sep 8, 2026 • 1h 31min
Ep 506: Building A 'Killer' Scorecard To Track Key Weekly Metrics On The Path To $275M AUM with Jenna Biancavilla
Jenna Biancavilla, founder of Phoenix-based Pearl Capital Management and co-founder of Savvy, shares how her firm reached $275M in AUM. She discusses building a weekly scorecard, using EOS and quarterly “rocks,” solving operational problems, and tracking both growth and team wellbeing. She also explores demonstrating planning value before fees, team-based compensation, and designing a business that creates more freedom.
Sep 1, 2026 • 1h 31min
Ep 505: Using A "Pillow Test" To Make The Hard Business Decisions On The Way To $3.5B AUM with Andrew Rosen
Andrew Rosen, executive chairman of Diversified LLC, helped transform the firm into a multibillion-dollar, partner-owned wealth business. He explains his “pillow test” for weighing difficult decisions, including private equity, acquisitions, and career risks. Rosen also shares lessons on radical candor, founder transition, ownership buyouts, scalable leadership, and why relationships and employee success matter more than expertise alone.
29 snips
Aug 25, 2026 • 1h 29min
Ep 504: Taking Your Growth To The Next Level By Building An Authentic Personal Brand with Sheri Fitts
Sheri Fitts, a marketing strategist who helps advisors build authentic personal brands, shares how every advisor already has a brand and why shaping it matters. She talks about finding what clients truly value, narrowing focus to attract the right people, testing niche viability with research and AI, and experimenting where your audience consumes information. She also covers aligning channels with how you like to show up.
