Ep 448: Attracting More Ultra-HNW Clients By Taking The Time To Due Diligence More Alternative Investments with Monish Verma

Financial Advisor Success

Michael Kitces

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 29 July 2025

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

High-net-worth individuals often already have a financial advisor, but many aren’t receiving the in-depth investment education or portfolio customization they truly need. That's where Monish Verma comes in. He joins the show today to share his strategy for converting HNW prospects into clients, as well as how a tailored approach to alternative investments and client education can become a powerful differentiator for winning (and keeping) affluent clients.

Monish is the CEO of Vardhan Wealth Management, a DBA of Summit Financial, based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, that oversees $560 million in AUM for 225 households. Listen in as he shares how his willingness to spend more time upfront educating prospects and clients has led to higher trust, retention, and referrals. You'll also hear how his team carefully vets alternative investments and helps clients understand where they fit in their portfolios, why he encourages mutual “interviews” with prospects to ensure good long-term fit, and how breaking away from the wirehouse world gave him the autonomy to grow his business on his own terms, while still benefiting from shared services by working with an RIA platform.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/448

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 448th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's podcast is
0:35.6	Manish Verma. Manish is the CEO of Varden Wealth Management,
0:39.6	a DBA of RIA Summit Financial and based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, that oversees $560 million
0:44.8	in assets under management for 225 client households. What's unique about Manish, though, is
0:50.9	how his firm goes deep in evaluating portfolios and alternative investment
0:54.5	opportunities to find potential matches for particular client needs to attract and serve a high
0:58.7	net worth clientele. In this episode, we talk in depth about how Manish takes time to educate
1:04.3	clients on the different types of alternative investment products and how they might fit with
1:08.2	their portfolio and goals, how Manish's firm conducts significant due diligence on a wide range of alternative investment products and how they might fit with their portfolio and goals, how Mniche's firm conducts significant
1:11.8	due diligence on a wide range of alternative investment products and providers to ensure they are
1:15.9	the right fit for a client's portfolio and how Mnich finds that taking the extra time to conduct
1:20.7	sufficient due diligence, educate clients, and explain his recommendations has led to strong
1:25.1	client retention and client referrals. We also talk about
1:27.9	how Manich convinces high net worth prospects, who typically already have a financial advisor,
1:32.8	to move to his firm by going deeper into portfolio analysis and having a regular cadence of touch
1:37.7	points than their current advisor. How Manish introduces prospects to current clients, with each
1:42.7	side's permission permission to discuss the
	...

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