Ep 405: When Being ‘Youthful’ Turns From A Liability To An Asset In Building Your (Long-Term) Advisory Business with Gaetano Sacco

Financial Advisor Success

Michael Kitces

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2024

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gaetano Sacco is a partner and senior financial advisor at Fountainhead Advisors, an RIA based out of New Jersey that oversees approximately $900 million in assets under management for 1,000 households. Gaetano transformed his early career challenge of perceived inexperience into a distinct advantage, highlighting his youthfulness to reassure retirees that he can be their dedicated financial advisor for the long haul. Since breaking away from the insurance world, he has impressively grown his practice to $75 million in AUM in just five years, capitalizing on his long-term commitment to clients as a major selling point.

Listen in as Gaetano shares how his early experiences in insurance sales and, ironically, achieving "Financial Planner of the Year" led him to transition from insurance to the RIA channel, driven by a desire for deeper client relationships and personal life changes like marriage and fatherhood that enhanced his ability to connect with clients. He also discusses how leveraging his age as an asset has helped grow his practice through proactive client communication during the COVID-19 downturn and by hosting in-person client appreciation events to build loyalty and attract new clients. You'll learn the pivotal role of joining an advisor study group in Gaetano's professional development, his decision to reject a job offer due to poor company culture, and how his commitment to a client-centric, planning-focused career provides daily motivation while maintaining work-life balance.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/405

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 Kitsas. Welcome, everyone.
0:29.3	Welcome to the 405th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest in today's podcast is
0:34.9	Gaetano Sacco. Gaitano is a partner in senior financial advisor at Fountainhead Advisors, an RIA based in Warren, New Jersey, that oversees approximately $900 million in asset center management for nearly $1,000 client households.
0:47.4	What's unique about Gaetano, though, is how after breaking away from an insurance broker-dealer with barely $5 million in asset center management, he's been able to quickly build his practice to 75 million in AUM in just five years in
0:58.6	large part by turning what was originally a liability for him in his 20s, being a young advisor
1:03.9	who prospective clients didn't always think was credible, into an asset where Gaetano is now
1:09.2	quickly cloring his client base of retirees by highlighting
1:12.1	how his youthfulness as a 30-something means he's been around long enough to show that he's
1:17.8	going to be a financial advisor for the long run and so young enough that he can do this for
1:21.9	another 30 years and actually be their financial advisor for their entire retirement, or basically the last advisor
1:29.2	they'll ever have to worry about picking in their lifetime.
1:32.3	In this episode, we talk in depth about Gaetano's experience working in insurance sales, starting
1:37.1	soon after he graduated from college, including why the need to cold call for business as a
1:41.5	relative newcomer was both a real challenge and a confidence
1:45.1	builder as he started to gain traction selling insurance products and some standalone financial
1:49.2	plans. How factors that ultimately led Guy Tano to decide to make the switch from insurance,
1:54.3	the RIA channel, and leave friends and mentors he had made in the insurance world, despite all the
1:59.0	excess he was having there after winning financial
	...

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