What do you get when you put 15 Alphas and Leaders at 7,000 feet in the mountains, all willing to share their best practices, industry obstacles, opportunities, and dedication to growing their financial planning businesses while keeping the client at the center of the Venn diagram? Golden Nuggets.
The annual meeting of the minds for some of the top advisors in our owner-owned independent RIA, The AmeriFlex Group, in Park City, Utah, is a time when leaders come together to challenge one another, push the collective firm to grow, demand excellence, and share wisdom gained through years of experience and specialized expertise.
The group is made up of advisors with significant independent practices from across the country. East Coast to West Coast, North and South, red states and blue states. Of the 12 advisors in the room, we had seven men and five women, ranging in age from their 30s to their 60s.
Each of us owns and operates a successful financial planning firm and serves as a leader in our respective communities. Collectively, we are all shareholders in our RIA. The AmeriFlex Group, based in Nevada, supports more than 150 independent fiduciary firms across the country that specialize in customized financial planning.
While each firm serves a unique client demographic shaped by its own culture, passion, and history, we all share the same core values: financial planning excellence and a client-first mandate.
We spent hours discussing the real-life scenarios and challenges our clients face. Around the room, advisors shared ideas, experiences, and strategies that could help all of us better serve the families and businesses that trust us with their futures.
We also talked about best practices for our firms and teams, from professional development to succession planning for the future. Some of the advisors in the room are already second-generation advisors, while others have succession plans and future partners mapped out for the next chapter of their business.
Of course, it wasn't all work.
We shared plenty of laughs around the dinner table and out on the golf course. Golf at 7,000 feet is a little different than golf at sea level. The air is thinner, breathing is harder, and the ball travels farther. Then you throw in 17 to 20 mph winds and, well... frustration.
We were fortunate to spend a couple of hours with a fantastic golf pro who shared swing tips and drills that we could immediately take to the course. The advice was sound, but sometimes we didn't execute very well. Sometimes we grabbed the wrong club. After all, we're not golf pros, and these conditions were new to us.
That’s when it hit me. Our clients experience that same feeling every day.
We may not be golf pros, but we are financial planning professionals. We help our clients with their swing thoughts and their approach to both their personal and business lives. Sometimes the winds are blowing. Sometimes the air is a little thin. Sometimes they're facing a situation they've never encountered before.
For them, it's new territory. For us, it's not.
We've seen just about everything, and when we haven't, we have an incredible think tank of experienced advisors to lean on, backed by internal CFPs, planners, and specialists with decades of collective knowledge. Add in today's technology and a little AI to round out the toolbox, and we have the resources to help clients across the country, and around the world.
No matter the conditions, we'll help our clients adjust to the course, play through the challenges, and hopefully stay under par.