Ep 355: Scaling Worksite Financial Planning As An Employee Benefit For The Average Worker With Brad Arends
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2023
⏱️ 94 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brad Arends is the co-founder and CEO of Intellicents, an independent RIA based out of Minnesota that oversees $6 billion in assets under management for more than 3,000 households. Brad stands out for having built a multi-billion-dollar advisory firm by offering comprehensive financial planning to large company employees as an added benefit, rather than targeting multi-millionaire clients.
Listen in as Brad delves into his transition from focusing on 401(k) plan participants to expanding into wealth management, addressing the challenges of shifting advisors' mindsets and the evolution of his multi-pronged business model. We also explore the implications of the Pension Protection Act on his decision-making, his strategic move to sell a significant portion of his business to prioritize personal wealth management, and his innovative use of data to craft personalized financial plans.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/355
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with |
| 0:06.8 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading |
| 0:12.1 | financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success, |
| 0:17.2 | and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next |
| 0:21.9 | level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:28.7 | Welcome to the 355th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's |
| 0:34.2 | podcast is Brad Arons. Brad is the co-founder and CEO of Intellicense, an independent RIA with 12 offices across |
| 0:40.8 | the country headquartered in Albert Lee, Minnesota, that oversees $6 billion in assets |
| 0:45.4 | under management for more than 3,000 client households. |
| 0:48.7 | What's unique about Brad, though, is how he built a multi-billion dollar advisory firm, |
| 0:52.5 | not by moving upmarket to gather multi-millionaire |
| 0:55.6 | clients, but instead leverages 401K retirement plan advisory firm to begin offering comprehensive |
| 1:00.9 | financial planning to the employees of large companies as an added employee benefit, and in |
| 1:05.8 | the process scaled his financial planning business around the massive fluent American worker. |
| 1:10.7 | In this episode, we talk in depth about how after realizing that his 401K plan participants |
| 1:15.1 | were not being advised after they retired and were being poached by brokers and agents |
| 1:19.2 | trying to sell them high commission annuities, Brad decided to expand his business into wealth |
| 1:23.6 | management so that he could offer advice to his massive fluidic clientele in their retirement |
| 1:27.7 | years. How Brad struggled to transition his retirement plan advisors into wealth management because |
| 1:33.0 | of the different mindset it takes to service an ongoing financial planning relationship, but |
| 1:37.1 | was able to acquire the advisors he needed by finding a firm that had already established the business |
| 1:42.1 | model working with the clients Brad wanted to serve. And how Brad ultimately evolved a multi-pronged model of retirement plan advice, group |
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