Jamie Hopkins Named Head of Carson Coaching

One year after joining Carson Group as director of retirement research, Jamie Hopkins has taken on an additional role at the firm: managing director of Carson Coaching.

Prior to joining Carson Group in January 2019, Hopkins was an associate professor of taxation in The American College of Financial Services’ retirement income program.

Scott Conroy, a Carson Group managing partner who “heads up our whole partnership offering,” had been leading both Carson Coaching and the firm’s partnership business, Hopkins told ThinkAdvisor in a phone interview Wednesday. However, as the number of partners has grown, Carson Group decided it would be best to now have separate managers focus on Carson Coaching and Carson Partners, Hopkins said.

Explaining his vision for Carson Coaching, Hopkins said: “We really just kind of want to be recognized in the future” as the firm that financial service professionals turn to when they want to grow their business and achieve scale. Right now, it’s generally recognized as one of the top three coaching firms in the industry, he noted. However, “my goal is, in the next couple of years, just to be recognized … just kind of as the top one,” he said.

“Carson Coaching has the best coaches I have seen in the business,” Hopkins said in a statement. “Our knowledge and proven processes help our advisors scale and grow their business so that the advisor can run the business, instead of having it run them.”

The Carson Coaching program, founded in 1993, has about 1,200 members and 5,000 graduates. It was “designed to help growth-minded advisors build their businesses through coaching support, tested tactics, and accountability that drive proven results,” according to the firm. (Prior to 2017, it was known as Peak Coaching.)

“The financial services industry, as it evolves with new business models and new technology, is certainly an environment ripe with remarkable opportunity,” according to Aaron Schaben, president of Carson Group.