Ep 231: From CPA Lifestyle Practice To Billion Dollar Multi-Generational RIA Enterprise with Michael Goodman
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2021
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Goodman is the Founder and President of Wealthstream Advisors, a family RIA based out of Manhattan that manages over $1-billion in assets for 350 client families. Michael first started his career as a CPA before transitioning to financial planning and building a firm that will outlast his retirement.
Listen in as Michael shares his unique journey from CPA to financial planner, eventually building his own firm that allows him to do what he loves best: serving clients. We also discuss how his personality and optimism were instrumental in helping him stay the course during the hard times, why working with a consultant was the catalyst that led him to where he is today, and the biggest change he had to make when taking a risk to change focus and scale.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/231
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 |
| 0:18.9 | leading 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 231 episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's podcast is |
| 0:34.9 | Michael Goodman. Michael is the founder, president of Wealthstream Advisors, a fee-only RIA headquartered in Manhattan |
| 0:40.8 | that manages over $1 billion in assets for 350 client families. |
| 0:45.9 | What's unique about Michael, though, is that he used his early experience as a CPA to transition |
| 0:50.5 | into a career as a financial planner, starting first as a solo practitioner before |
| 0:55.1 | making the deliberate decision to build out a large ensemble firm that can persist and sustain |
| 0:59.7 | even after he retires. |
| 1:01.9 | In this episode, we talk in depth about the convergence of the tax planning and financial |
| 1:06.3 | planning professions. |
| 1:07.6 | How early CPAs pioneered the wealth management model by running what were essentially |
| 1:11.6 | family offices offering affluent clients, comprehensive tax and financial advice that expanded into |
| 1:17.6 | RAs helping with investment management as well. How the breadth of business knowledge that CPAs obtain |
| 1:23.5 | as part of their stringent education offers unique perspective on the planning process, |
| 1:27.9 | and as Michael puts it, a bigger lens to work from. And how working with a consultant was a |
| 1:32.8 | catalyst for helping Michael change his own mindset from maintaining a CPA lifestyle practice |
| 1:37.6 | to building an enduring RIA enterprise, and how building and being part of a larger team |
| 1:42.2 | ended out being the aspect of business ownership |
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