Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 380th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Andrew Leonard. Andrew is the Managing Partner of Geometric Wealth Advisors, an RIA based in Washington, D.C., that oversees approximately $750 million in assets under management for about 200 client households.
What’s unique about Andrew, though, is how his firm has been able to triple its AUM in the past 4 years while offering a high-touch client experience by adopting the approach of the management consulting clients he specializes in, first assessing how many new staff members they can hire and then train properly in order to, as Andrew says, increase the density talent on the team, and only then deciding how many new clients to bring on in a given year based on how quickly they’ve determined they can grow their team.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how lessons from Andrew’s niche, partners at the “Big 3” management consulting firms, inform Geometric’s deliberate hiring and training processes, why Andrew hired a Chief Operating Officer relatively early in the firm’s growth cycle (before he even hit $5M in revenue) to handle the growing people-management challenges of the firm, and how Andrew’s firm has been able to maintain a strong company culture despite operating in a fully virtual environment by still including ongoing in-person get-togethers with the whole team.
We also talk about the high-touch services Andrew’s firm offers its high-income clients, including how Andrew and his team shop for the best mortgage rates for clients among a curated group of lenders (and the way the firm systematized its approach to finding refinance opportunities for its clients), why Andrew decided to offer in-house tax services (after initially outsourcing to a CPA they worked with closely) despite the expense of having CPAs on staff, and how Andrew’s firm integrates unique private equity investment opportunities available to its clients into the firm’s broader portfolio management philosophy.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Andrew shares how a growing staff count has helped his firm navigate the “Dangerous Middle” experienced by firms as they grow from $200 million of AUM to $2 billion in AUM (even if it means tighter profit margins in the short run), how Andrew’s decision to serve a specific niche has led to a steady flow of prospective clients referrals (and when hiring, interest from former consulting firm employees looking for a career change into a financial planning firm like Andrew’s), and how Andrew’s growing boredom over the ongoing service of long-term existing clients inspired him to grow his practice into a full-fledged business to experience the fresh intellectual challenges of being an entrepreneur.
So, whether you’re interested in learning about how to build “talent density” through a deliberate hiring and training process, how to maintain company culture when operating in a fully-remote environment, or how to navigate the “Dangerous Middle” experienced by growing mid-sized firms, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Andrew Leonard.
