The COO Roundtable

For our latest episode, Matt welcomes two fantastic guests: Jennifer Wagoner Kirksey, Managing Director of Wealth Operations at Tolleson Wealth Management, and Trevor Phillippi, Chief Operating Officer of 6 Meridian. Originally founded as a single family office, Tolleson Wealth Management currently has $10B in assets under oversight and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.  6 Meridian, founded in 20...

For our first episode of the new year, Matt welcomes two highly accomplished guests: Jason Mirabella, Chief Platform Officer of Wealthsource Partners, and Tom Preston, Director of Client Service of Brighton Jones.  Founded in 2009, Wealthsource Partners is headquartered in San Luis Obispo, California, has 35 employees and manages $1.8B in AUM.  Brighton Jones was founded in 2000 and currently has...

For our special three-year anniversary episode, we put a twist to our regular format and Matt was joined by Karl Heckenberg, CEO and President of Emigrant Partners for a compelling conversation on the RIA industry.  Known for their strategic partnership with RIAs, Emigrant Partners is currently invested in 19 firms and has close to $90B in cumulative assets.  Matt and Karl talk about industry tren...

In the 35th episode of The COO Roundtable, Amanda Green of Matrix Private Capital Group and Gary Davis Jr. of Satovsky Asset Management join Matt to discuss all things RIA operations and change management.  Matrix Private Capital Group manages nearly $600 million of AUM, is headquartered in New York City, and has offices in Chicago, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, and Palm Beach, Florida.  Satovsky As...

In the 34th episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes two amazing guests: Jenn Papadopolo, COO of RegentAtlantic, and Matt Wiles, COO of Crestone Capital.  RegentAtlantic is headquartered in Morristown, New Jersey and has a satellite office in New York City.  They have 70 employees and manage $6B in AUM.  With 50 employees and approximately $3.5 billion of AUM, Crestone Capital is headquartered...

In the 33rd episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes two highly respected operations professionals: Jandy Rowe, Principal and Chief Operating Officer of Wipfli Financial Advisors, and Brad Hixson, Director, Mergers and Acquisitions of Lido Advisors.  Wipfli Financial Advisors has 90 employees, is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with 19 offices around the country and manages $5B in AUM. ...

For the 32nd episode of The COO Roundtable, we wanted to pause from our regular interview format and answer some questions we have been receiving about our new digital consulting platform, The COO Society.  PFI Advisors offers one-on-one consulting services on a project or retainer basis, but we also wanted to create a DIY consulting platform for RIAs looking to gain access to our insights at a lo...

In the 31st episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes two operations professionals who have had a huge impact on their respective organizations, Natalie Wheeler, Chief Operating Officer at Berkshire Money Management and Eric Stephenson, Director of Client Advisory and Operations at Align Impact.  Celebrating 20 years in business this year, Berkshire Money Management is located in Dalton Massach...

In the 30th episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes Michael Paley, Chief Operating Officer at Klingman & Associates and Kevin Hrdlicka, Chief Operating Officer at Savant Wealth Management.  Klingman & Associates is located in New York City, has 18 employees and manages $2.7B in client assets.  Savant Wealth Management is headquartered in Rockford, Illinois, has 18 offices across the c...

In the 29th episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes two highly accomplished RIA professionals, Gina Bradley, COO & General Counsel of Colony Group and Susan Korin, COO & CCO of Balasa Dinverno Foltz (“BDF”).  Colony Group is celebrating its 35 th anniversary this year and is headquartered in Boston, MA.  With 15 offices nationwide and 260 employees, Colony Group manages $13B in AUM. ...

In the 28th episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes two extremely experienced consultants from Charles Schwab Advisor Services’ Business Consulting & Education division, Tony Parkin and Nikolee Turner.  Matt, Tony, and Nikolee discuss how professional management drives “lasting and significant changes” at organizations, the importance of clear and repetitive internal communication, the ne...

For this special edition of The COO Roundtable, Matt recorded live from Mercer Capital’s inaugural RIA Practice Management Insight’s conference. This virtual conference “focused on back of the house (operational) issues that are as vital to success as they are easy to ignore.” Joining Matt as guests were Kara Armstrong, Chief Operating Officer of CapSouth Wealth Management and Nick Maggiulli Chief...

In the 26th episode of The COO Roundtable, our host, Matt Sonnen, welcomes Matt Ran, Chief Operating Officer and Partner of Telemus Financial Life Management, and Kelly Downs, Chief Operating Officer of Berman Capital Advisors.  Telemus has two offices in Michigan, another in Chicago, and manages $3.5B in AUM.  Berman Capital Advisors also manages $3.2B is headquartered in Atlanta, GA and has two...

In the 25th episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes Lisa Cook, the newly-appointed COO at Pacific Portfolio Consulting in Seattle, WA and Erica Farber, Partner at Balentine in Atlanta, GA. Balentine’s 39 employees manage $3.5B in assets under advisement and Pacific Portfolio Consulting manages $3.8B in client assets with 17 employees.  Lisa and Erica join Matt to discuss how RIAs can leverage...

In the 24th episode of The COO Roundtable, which marks our podcast’s 2nd anniversary, Matt welcomes two prominent guests from Segall Bryant & Hamill: Chief Executive Officer Phil Hildebrandt and Chief Operating Officer & Chief Compliance Officer Paul Lythberg. Segall Bryant & Hamill is headquartered in Chicago, IL, has been in business for over 26 years, and manages $22B of client asse...

In the 23rd episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes Aiki Altmets, COO and CCO of the newly-formed Regimen Wealth and Lynne Born, President of Wealth Architects.  Regimen Wealth is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and manages $200 million in client assets with 6 employees.  Located in Mountain View, California, Wealth Architects has over $1 billion in AUM with 20 employees.  Matt, Aiki, and...

In this special episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt recorded live for Bob Veres’ Insider’s Forum.  For those unfamiliar with Insider’s Forum, it “is designed to provide essential information for running and growing prosperous businesses and better serving clients, advanced technical content, as well as valuable opportunities for networking with industry thought leaders.”  Matt had the pleasure of...

In the 21st episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes Chris Keller, Executive Vice President and Director of Business Services at Benjamin F. Edwards & Company and Doug Johnson, newly appointed Chief Operating Officer at Parcion Private Wealth.  The Benjamin F. Edwards & Company brand dates back 130 years, and the company is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri with more than 600 employ...

In the 20th episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes Diane Gabianelli, Co-President and Chief Financial Officer of Parallel Advisors and Cecilia Williams, Director of Investment Operations and Chief Compliance Officer of Halbert Hargrove.  Parallel Advisors manages over $3 billion of client assets and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Denver, Honolulu, Ohio, and Oklahoma City....

In the 19th episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes Michelle Thetford, Chief Operations Officer of HighTower Advisors and Michael Reed, Chief Operating Officer of Dakota Wealth Management.  HighTower Advisors is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and has $57 billion under management with 108 different advisory businesses and 225 advisors.  Founded in 2018, Dakota Wealth Management has $1.2 bi...

In the 18th episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes Steven Beals, Chief Administrative Officer of EP Wealth Advisors and Eric Hehman, Chief Executive Officer and Principal of Austin Asset.  EP Wealth Advisors manages $6B of AUM across 14 offices with their  headquarters in Torrance, California.  Managing over $1B in AUM, Austin Asset is aptly headquartered in Austin, Texas.  As the country ad...

In the 17th episode of The COO Roundtable , Matt welcomes Vibhaw Arya, Chief Operating Officer at Shufro Rose and Brandon McKerney, Partner and Director of Operations at Columbia Pacific Wealth Management.  Headquartered in New York City, New York, Shufro Rose manages approximately $1.5B in AUM and was founded in 1938.  Columbia Pacific Wealth Management manages almost $4.5B in AUM and is headquar...

In the 16 th episode of The COO Roundtable , Matt welcomes David Aaron, Partner at Cerity Partners * and Jim Atkinson, COO and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at STA Wealth Management .  Prior to selling his firm in January 2020 to Cerity Partners, the $26B AUM aggregator, David was Co-CEO and CIO of EMM Wealth, a $3 billion RIA in New York City.  STA Wealth Management is headquartered in Houst...

In the 15 th episode of The COO Roundtable , Matt welcomes Loren Pierson, COO of Mercer Advisors and Michael Kossman, COO, CCO, and Partner of Aspiriant.  A trailblazer in the RIA industry in the field of mergers and acquisitions, Mercer Advisors has acquired 31 firms to date.  Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Mercer has over 400 employees and approximately $18 billion in client assets.  Headqua...

With M&A activity at an all-time high and no sign of stopping anytime soon, we take a break from our usual interview format here in Episode 14 and Matt speaks directly to our listeners about the ever-important topic of Buyer Preparation.  For any firm to be a successful buyer in this ultra-competitive M&A market, we believe they first need a strong COO and well-defined back-office systems...