Ep 220: Taking A Tech Startup Approach To Building And Pivoting Your Advisory Firm with Shane Mason
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2021
⏱️ 91 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shane Mason is the co-founder of Brooklyn FI, a fee-only RIA that was founded in 2018 in Brooklyn but that has since shifted to being fully virtual. Brooklyn FI was built in the style of a tech startup where their financial advice service offering is a product unto itself, and they currently serve 159 next-generation clients charging a fee of around $500 per month.
Listen in as Shane explains why Brooklyn FI decided to launch into a niche of high-income sole proprietors before deciding to pivot to working with people who work in the tech industry, and how their new niche has resulted in nearly all of the firm’s new clients coming from referrals. Shane also shares how the pandemic pushed Brooklyn FI to be virtual, why they post their fees directly on their website, and how Shane’s 50/50 partnership with his co-founder has been the secret sauce to their rapid growth.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/220
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with |
| 0:07.1 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading |
| 0:12.4 | financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success |
| 0:17.4 | and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next |
| 0:22.2 | level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:28.4 | Welcome to the 220th episode, the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's podcast is |
| 0:34.7 | Shane Mason. Shane is the co-founder of Brooklyn FI, a fee-only |
| 0:38.4 | RIA that Shane and his partner, AJ, founded in 2018 in Brooklyn, New York, but has since shifted |
| 0:43.8 | to being fully virtual, that serves 159 next generation clients charging a monthly subscription |
| 0:49.3 | fee of almost $500 per month for their ongoing financial planning services. |
| 0:55.0 | What's unique about Shane, though, is how he and his partner have intentionally built their |
| 0:58.8 | advisory business in the style of a tech startup, acting as de facto product managers within |
| 1:04.0 | their advisory firm where their financial advice service offering is a product unto itself, |
| 1:08.8 | and they continually iterate on that advice product |
| 1:11.3 | to quickly respond to new client opportunities in the marketplace. |
| 1:15.1 | In this episode, we talk in depth about how Shane and Brooklyn F.I. first launched into a niche |
| 1:20.2 | of serving successful creatives operating as high-income sole proprietors, why they decided to pivot |
| 1:25.4 | away from the creatives niche to focus on people who work in the tech industry and have complex equity compensation planning needs, how almost all of Brooklyn FI's new clients are now referrals from the tech industry's Slack channels and message boards, and why Brooklyn FI has been especially successful by publishing their fees right on their website to maximize accessibility of their |
| 1:45.5 | highly specialized expertise to the most highly motivated time-sensitive clients. |
| 1:51.1 | We also talk about Shane's early career as a CPA, and the path he took that eventually led |
| 1:55.9 | him to decide to launch an independent R.A. Why, after long consideration, he and A.J. |
| 2:00.6 | intentionally structured |
... |
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