Ep 443: Going Deep With Business Owners And Real Estate Investors To Grow $200M Of AUM In 5 Years with Griffin Kirsch

Financial Advisor Success

Michael Kitces

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 24 June 2025

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Griffin Kirsch built a $200 million AUM firm in just five years—while maintaining a 70% profit margin. Delivering high-touch planning to business owners and real estate investors without charging fees on those assets, Griffin's focus on providing hard-dollar value to his clients (especially around tax strategy and real estate decisions) has fueled deep trust and strong referral-driven growth.

Griffin is the owner of GK Wealth Management, an RIA based out of Nevada that oversees $200 million in assets under management for 450 households. In this episode, he shares how his unconventional model helped him scale quickly, how proactive outreach to businesses during the COVID pandemic sparked major momentum, and why he segments clients by complexity rather than AUM. He also explains how he developed partnerships with CPAs that generate ongoing referrals, as well as how outsourcing investments and empowering junior advisors allow the firm to grow sustainably—without necessarily relying on him at the center.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/443

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.
0:28.9	Welcome to the 443rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is
0:35.0	Griffin Kirsch. Griffin is the owner of GK Wealth Management,
0:38.5	an RIA based in Reno, Nevada, that oversees $200 million in assets under management for 450 client households.
0:45.5	What's unique about Griffin, though, is how he has grown his AUM to $200 million in five years,
0:50.9	with a 70% margin in terms of earnings before owner compensation, by providing
0:55.3	high-touch planning for business owners and real estate investors, even though he doesn't
0:59.3	charge a fee on these assets. In this episode, we talk in depth about how Griffin leverages his
1:04.7	own experience as a firm founder to support his business owner clients navigate financial
1:09.0	planning decisions, in particular tax planning opportunities, how Griffin encourages his business owner clients navigate financial planning decisions, in particular tax
1:11.4	planning opportunities, how Griffin encourages his business owner clients to invest a portion of their
1:16.1	profits outside of the business to diversify their asset base and take advantage of opportunities
1:20.5	in real estate and public markets, and how Griffin helps clients analyze options to purchase real
1:25.7	estate, both for investment and personal use as a
1:28.6	high-value service. We also talk about how Griffin brought in $50 million in client assets in
1:33.7	2020 alone, in part by reaching out directly to businesses and letting them know about opportunities
1:38.9	through the Paycheck Protection Program and employee retention tax credit, connecting them to a trusted
1:43.4	CPA who became an effective
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 18 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

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.