Ep 010: From Unpaid Intern to CEO and Successful Succession Planning with Eric Hehman
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2017
⏱️ 110 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this interview, Eric gives us some background about Austin Asset today and its incredible growth since he joined the firm in 1997. He shares candidly about how he and his mentor John Henry McDonald complemented each other as they navigated the challenges of a growing firm.
While we discuss the nuts-and-bolts of succession planning, we also touch on the oft-ignored emotional aspects of such a transition. Eric also talks about the book he co-wrote on the subject, Success and Succession, which he hopes will make this natural part of the industry less lonely and more navigable for all financial planners.
Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: https://www.kitces.com/10
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with financial planner, |
| 0:08.4 | speaker and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading financial advisors |
| 0:13.6 | navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success and get insight from leading |
| 0:19.2 | industry consultants about how to break through to the |
| 0:22.0 | next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:29.1 | Welcome to the 10th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's |
| 0:34.2 | podcast is Eric Heyman. Eric is a partner and the CEO of Austin Asset, |
| 0:38.7 | an independent RIA in Austin, Texas that provides comprehensive financial planning and investment |
| 0:42.7 | to 300 clients with more than $750 million in assets under management, charging a combination |
| 0:48.8 | of AUM and standalone financial planning fees. What's interesting about Eric, though, is not |
| 0:53.4 | simply the story of the very |
| 0:55.0 | successful advisory firm that he's helped to build, but his own path going literally from being |
| 1:00.5 | an unpaid intern for the firm's founder 20 years ago to becoming its CEO today. And so in this |
| 1:07.0 | episode, Eric shares his perspective on the entire journey from what he actually |
| 1:11.5 | did to land that first unpaid intern job and then a few months later persuade the founder |
| 1:16.7 | to finally start paying him a modest $18,000 a year salary, to why the founder decided just |
| 1:22.2 | a few years later to sell 10% of the firm to Eric when he was only 24 years old. |
| 1:27.3 | And the challenges that the business |
| 1:29.2 | faces, it continued to grow over time, culminating in the founder retiring and exiting from the |
| 1:34.2 | business and selling the remaining shares to Eric and two younger partners. We also talk quite a bit |
| 1:39.7 | about the book that Eric co-authored about his succession planning experience, aptly called Success and Succession, |
| 1:46.7 | and how even though most succession planning advice focuses on the financial and the operational issues |
... |
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