Ep 047: Pursuing An Operations Career Path In An Advisory Firm With HIFON Study Group Support With Shaun Kapusinski
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2017
⏱️ 113 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s guest is the Director of Operations for Sequoia Financial Group, a hybrid RIA that manages more than $3.7 billion and spans four office locations. Shaun Kapusinski started out in the industry over fifteen years ago as a financial advisor selling life insurance, but made a shift early in his career to the operations side of the business. Since then, he has been able to grow his career by following an operations career track instead of the more traditional paths.
In this episode, we talk about the organizational structure of his mega advisory firm, how they split apart a division of shared services, and why the firm is looking to make a shift to Salesforce Financial Services Cloud for their next stage of growth. We also talk about Shaun’s own unique career path, as well as why he believes that getting an MBA may be more valuable for those in the operations side.
Tune in to hear Shaun’s valuable insight as he shares what he has learned throughout his impressive career.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/47
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. |
| 0:28.6 | Welcome to the 47th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's podcast is |
| 0:34.4 | Sean Kappasinski. Sean is the director of operations for Sequoia Financial Group, |
| 0:38.9 | a hybrid RAA based in Akron, Ohio, that manages more than $3.7 billion across a private client |
| 0:44.7 | and institutional division spanning four office locations. What's unique about Sean, though, is that while |
| 0:50.2 | he started out in the industry over 15 years ago, like most advisors of the time, as a |
| 0:55.3 | quote, financial advisor selling life insurance for a career agent life insurance company, |
| 1:00.3 | he made a shift early in his career to the operations side of the business and has since been able to |
| 1:04.6 | grow his career by following an operations career track inside of the firm rather than the more |
| 1:09.8 | traditional para plan or associate advisor, lead advisor career track. In the firm, rather than the more traditional paraplan or associate advisor, |
| 1:12.2 | lead advisor career track. In this episode, we talk about the organizational structure of this |
| 1:17.1 | mega advisory firm, how they split apart a division of shared services, including centralized |
| 1:22.0 | paraplanner, centralized investment team, and centralized operations, all supporting advisors |
| 1:26.6 | with local client service associates |
| 1:28.4 | in multiple locations. The core technology stack that DeCoyo uses, including Tamarack, eMoney, |
| 1:33.9 | and Microsoft Dynamics, and why the firm is looking to make a shift from Dynamics to Salesforce |
| 1:38.8 | Financial Services Cloud for their next stage of growth. We also talk about Sean's own unique career track from starting |
| 1:45.8 | now as a life insurance agent transitioning into that operations role early in his career, |
... |
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