Pursuing Practice Excellence: The Conversation

We knew these four individuals had achieved success at their firms in providing practice management help to advisors. We knew they had strong opinions about what works and what doesn’t. We knew they competed directly and indirectly with each other. What we didn’t know was how well they could achieve consensus while disagreeing with each other, how strongly they were committed, not just to their own firms’ success, but to the advisors who affiliated with their firms. They share passion tempered by common sense; knowledge moderated by intellectual curiosity; and a strong commitment to meeting the needs of their clients.

We embarked on this project with ActiFi out of a shared desire to define practice management, identify your needs and encourage your partners to build programs that meet those needs. We also wanted to prompt you to take advantage of what your partners offer now while demanding services that you identified as important. We hope we’ve contributed to this conversation, going “beyond the buzzwords” of practice management. We invite you to read the cover story and part three of our Pursuing Practice Excellence study in this issue. We also encourage you to view our roundtable participants’ videos on AdvisorOne.com, look at the data from the survey, and become part of that practice management conversation with your partners. You, your clients, your family and, yes, your partners, will only benefit from having that conversation; “turning the page,” as Jim Komoszewski wrote to me following the meeting, “in the way practice management is viewed, defined and addressed.”