Managing Your Practice

Join Dimensional’s Practice Management team as they recap the top trends that shaped advisory firms in 2024 and share insights to help you succeed in the year ahead. From strategic planning and business scaling to managing talent and enhancing the client experience, this year-end podcast highlights key takeaways, actionable strategies, and emerging opportunities. Hear expert perspectives on what worked, what didn’t, and how to position your firm for growth and success in 2025. Don’t miss this comprehensive look back—and forward—at the evolving world of practice management.

In this episode, Gordon Bernhardt and Scott Oeth discuss how storytelling and incorporating their own personal “why” into various interactions can support deeper client relationships and drive growth in their advisory firms. Bernhardt, a wealth manager and principal with Modera Wealth Management, and Oeth, a wealth manager and principal for Cahill Financial Advisors, dive into the connection between personal passion and professional success—hear how Bernhardt’s Camino de Santiago journey plays a role in client conversations and the ways that Oeth’s wilderness survival skills shape his approach to wealth management and leadership.

Helen Stephens, president and CEO of Aspen Wealth Management, has more than three decades of experience serving investors across various client profiles. Her firm has developed several personas for those clients that they serve best, and Stephens attributes success to advisory councils that match those personas. The councils provide a dedicated venue for soliciting feedback, communicating with the most engaged clients, and even creating growth opportunities through referrals. Hear how Helen’s team runs a network of advisory councils that helps to collect, process, and incorporate direct feedback into the strategy of the firm.

Helen Learmonth, director and financial planner at WealthFlow, and Matt Hall, cofounder and CEO of Hill Investment Group, put the client experience at the forefront of their business operations to increase retention and drive referrals. They have each incorporated their firms’ mission and values, as well as a higher level of service and presence, to encourage client engagement and satisfaction within their teams. Hear how they do it, why trust is at the core, and what it can mean for the bottom line.

Mark Johnsen, CEO of Wealth Architects, and Rob Greenman, Chief Growth Officer of Vista Capital, both live, breathe, and bear the responsibility in their respective firms for managing growth, and with it, creating a culture and sales cycle that fosters a business development mindset. They talk through their leadership styles and some of the ways their firms are driving behaviors on their team, including incentives like compensation, encouraging healthy competition, and promoting psychological safety, all with the goal of creating a level of influence with their prospects and clients.

Art Markman, PhD, is vice provost for academic affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of more than 150 scholarly works on cognitive science and related topics. In this podcast episode, he shares his expertise on “smart” thinking and decision-making. With tens of thousands of decisions to make every day, what allows us to move from basic functions to strategic thinking and, as business leaders, form innovative ideas? Hear how you can actively optimize those thoughts to build effective habits and approach problem-solving in advisory firms. Markman’s book Smart Thinking: Three Essential Keys to Solve Problems, Innovate, and Get Things Done is listed on Dimensional’s Summer Reading List, which you can download here.

With more options than ever, how do advisors decide on a custodial partner? Ben Harrison of BNY Mellon Pershing, Gabe Garcia of SEI, and Thomas Moore of Betterment for Advisors join us in a roundtable discussion on how their custodial firms are going beyond asset security to offer services in other major operational and strategic capacities. They each offer internal perspective on what advisors should look for, priorities to consider, and key questions to ask when choosing a partner.

Jennifer Climo, CEO of Milestone Financial Planning, and Martine Lellis, chief talent officer at Mercer Advisors, work in advisory firms that are vastly different in size  but have the common goal of creating an environment that fosters growth in both revenue and talent. They share their experience in bringing on new employees, how their firms continue to develop internal opportunities for progression, and the importance of clearly defined career paths that emphasize advocacy on the part of both the employee and manager, as well flexibility in roles, all while prioritizing the bottom line of the business.

David DeVoe, founder of DeVoe & Co., appropriately nicknamed the "RIA M&A Guru," has spent 15 years helping advisors buy, sell, and merge their firms. With so much to consider in a deal, how are advisors avoiding analysis paralysis when preparing for a transition? Hear from the expert on why you should get purposeful and have a succession plan in place today, what might affect a firm’s value in the current landscape, and how to retain your talent and culture, all while continuing to grow.