TRANSITIONING FROM ADVISORY PRACTICE TO BUSINESS: CARSON EXCELL 2019
Thanks to the ongoing progress of technology and the efficiencies it brings, high-income solo advisory firms are amongst the most profitable that exist today, with the best netting as much take-home pay as the partners of $1B+ AUM ensemble firms. Which means the path to higher income as a financial advisor doesn’t necessarily require growing a larger firm; instead, doing so is a choice to build a sizable advisory business that extends beyond just the founder.
The caveat, however, is that transitioning from a “practice” to a true business is very, very difficult. At best, there are substantial complexities in who to hire, and when, and how to train and develop them, while sustaining the overall growth and profitability of the firm. At worst, the shift from a practice to a business is a gut-wrenching personal transition for the founding advisor themselves, who must completely reinvent their own role in the business, and learn an entirely new set of skills, in making the shift from being an advisor who sees clients, to an advisory firm business owner who has to manage and lead a growing business (and may not see clients at all anymore!).
It was in this context that the well-known advisor Ron Carson – who was LPL’s #1 rep for over 25 years, and one of the most successful at making the transition from advisor to advisory firm business owner – first launched his “Peak Advisor” coaching program (recently rebranded to the Carson Group Coaching platform), to teach other advisors how to make the same transition from practice to business, paired with a semi-annual conference for his coaching clients called Excell.
Last year, though, the Carson Group announced that it was opening up the Excell conference to any/all advisors who want to attend, with a stated focus of trying to make Excell one of the industry’s all-around leading practice management conferences for those trying to make the transition from practice to business (typically advisors generating between $250k to $750k of revenue, who have “hit the wall” on personal growth, and need to transition the business to reach the next level), and included both in-depth practice management content and a number of high-profile business speakers (including Nexflix co-founder Marc Randolph, businesswoman and Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington, and futurist Howard Tullman).
And recognizing that a successful transition to a business involves both a change for the advisor, and necessitates a deepening of the staff that supports the advisor, Excell is unique in offering dual tracks for both advisors and their support staff with separate “Advisor” and “Team” conference agendas.
Notably, because Excell is still part of the Carson Group Coaching platform, expect that the conference itself will likely still be at least a soft pitch for their Executive Coaching service as well (the original Peak Advisor program) and the Carson Institutional TAMP platform. Nonetheless, the reality is that many advisors going through the practice-to-business transition actually need coaching support to make the transition, and outsourcing investment management is increasingly common anyway, so getting to understand Carson’s related services may be helpful for many! And the Carson Group maintains that it is focused on keeping the conference itself “pure” with practical takeaways.
Who Should Attend: Advisors (regardless of RIA or B/D) generating between $250k to $750k of revenue who want to make the transition from being an advisor to being an advisory firm business owner, either out of a desire to grow or the struggle of having “hit the wall” on personal capacity. Given the dual-track nature of Excell, advisors should consider bringing their support staff/executive assistant/operations manager as well.
Details: May 8th to 10th in Chicago, IL.