Ep 452: From $200M To $1.4B In 5 Years By Spending 15% Of Revenue On Marketing (That Still Works) with Gabriel Shahin

Financial Advisor Success

Michael Kitces

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 90 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Scaling an advisory firm quickly requires more than just marketing - it demands intentional infrastructure, rapid lead conversion systems, and a team built for volume. This episode explores how investing heavily in digital marketing, building internal efficiencies, and empowering advisors can drive explosive growth without sacrificing client service.

Gabriel Shahin is the CEO of Falcon Wealth Planning, an RIA based in Ontario, California, that oversees $1.4 billion in AUM for 1,500 households.

Listen in as Gabriel shares how his firm grew from $200 million to $1.4 billion in just five years by generating 2,500 leads per month and onboarding nearly 500 clients annually. We dive into how his team maximizes paid ads on Google with targeted landing pages and lead magnets, why content creation for SEO and “answer engine” optimization is central to their strategy, and how they ensure fast follow-up by assigning staff to manage inbound leads. Gabriel also discusses his firm's revenue-based compensation model for its advisors, why he views his advisors as his top clients, and how stepping out of day-to-day operations has allowed him to focus on leading the firm into its next phase of expansion.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/452

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
0:21.9	next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsas.
0:27.6	Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the 452nd episode of the Financial Advisor's Success Podcast.
0:34.2	My guest on today's podcast is Gabriel Shaheen. Gabriel is the CEO of Falcon Wealth Planning,
0:39.2	an RIA based in Ontario, California, that oversees $1.4 billion in assets under management for
0:44.6	1,500 client households. What's unique about Gabriel, though, is how his firm has grown from
0:49.2	$200 million to $1.4 billion of AUM in just five years by generating 2,500 leads a month that lead to 450 to
0:56.0	500 new clients onboarded annually, in part by spending approximately 15% of firm revenue
1:01.3	on marketing each year. In this episode, we talk in depth about how Gabriel's firm invests
1:05.9	the most marketing dollars in advertising on Google, which is the top source of its leads
1:10.2	and clients, and increases the effectiveness of this spend by creating dedicated landing pages and lead magnets
1:15.4	targeted at different search keywords, how Gabriel's firm has created educational content
1:20.1	for its website in written audio and video formats, that not only helps with search engine
1:24.6	optimization, but also with answer engine optimization, amidst the
1:27.8	growing popularity of AI search, and how Gabriel also has found success investing marketing
1:32.6	dollars on a range of advisor lead generation tools and improves the success rate of this tactic
1:37.4	by employing staff members who are responsible for quickly responding to new leads from these
1:41.4	sources. We also talk about how Gabriel's firm uses a
1:44.9	personality typing system to match prospects with an appropriate member of its business development team
	...

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