Ep 416: Avoiding The Compliance Headaches When Going RIA By Choosing A ‘Supported Independence’ Corporate RIA Platform with Fran Toler

Financial Advisor Success

Michael Kitces

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 17 December 2024

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Fran Toler is the CEO of Toler Financial Group, a DBA firm under the RIA Rossby Financial, that oversees nearly $200 million in assets under management for 280 households. Fran discusses how she transitioned from an independent broker-dealer model to a 'supported independence' corporate RIA platform to reduce her compliance burdens while paying lower platform fees by partnering with a service provider that doesn't charge for functions her staff already performs. This strategic move enables her to have greater autonomy without the full list of compliance responsibilities associated with complete independence.

Listen in as Fran shares how her firm's public stance on progressive values has led to client and AUM growth by attracting clients and staff who share these ideals, why she offers new hires a stable base salary to ensure she includes talented candidates who might not have the financial backing to succeed in an 'eat what you kill' environment, and how she is approaching succession planning as she contemplates her eventual retirement.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/416

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

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. Welcome
0:29.3	to the 416th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's podcast is Fran
0:35.4	Tolar. Fran is the CEO of Tolar Financial Group, an RIA based in Silver Spring, Maryland, that oversees nearly 200 million in assets in our management for 280 client households.
0:45.1	What's unique about Fran, though, is how she decided to transition from the independent broker-dealer model to a supported independent IRA platform in order to avoid the compliance headaches
0:55.3	involved in being a totally independent RIA, while we're still reducing the drag of platform
1:00.3	fees on her firm's profitability by finding a supported independence platform that wouldn't
1:05.2	charge her for the services that her internal staff were already performing in-house anyway.
1:10.0	In this episode, we talk in depth about
1:11.6	the moment of realization Fran had when she line-itomed out the annual cost of operating under her
1:16.2	previous broker dealer and discovered that it added up to $500,000 per year, or 25% of her revenue
1:22.2	once she added together the grid payouts, the technology fees, and the cost of the firm's
1:27.4	trading platform.
1:29.3	How Fran's desire to not have to be responsible for her own compliance responsibilities,
1:33.6	with both the lack of interest in taking them on and the time involved to do so,
1:37.3	led her to choose to operate under a corporate RAA structure instead of pursuing
1:41.3	independence as her own standalone RAA, and why Fran chose a relatively streamlined, supported an independence model that provides
1:47.7	just select key compliance services and software tools that she needs rather than alternative
1:53.2	platforms that would have provided more service, but were more expensive and most importantly
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Michael Kitces, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Michael Kitces and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.