Ep 479: Maintaining Good Work/Life Balance While Adding Advisors And 4Xing The Firm To $315M with Andy Panko
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.7 • 719 Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2026
⏱️ 90 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Scaling an advisory firm is often framed as a tradeoff - more clients and complexity in exchange for less time and flexibility. This episode explores how advisors can grow in a way that protects the lifestyle they want.
Andy Panko is the owner of Tenon Financial, an RIA based in Metuchen, New Jersey, that oversees $323 million in assets under management for 105 client households. He joins the show today to share why he chose to hire two additional advisors (even though his solo practice already met his lifestyle goals), as well as why he prioritized hiring mid-career professionals who could operate independently and stay for the long haul. We also discuss how his flat-fee model makes it easier to evaluate the time-and-revenue tradeoffs of adding clients, paying competitive salaries, and growing the team, as well as how he fuels a steady prospect flow through content creation, combats the loneliness of a small remote firm, and has adjusted his workload across seasons of life to be able to focus on his highest priorities.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/479
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. |
| 0:29.0 | Welcome to the 479th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's podcast is |
| 0:35.1 | Andy Panko. Andy is the owner of Tenin Financial, an RIA based in |
| 0:39.4 | Metachin, New Jersey, that oversees $323 million in assets under management for 105 client |
| 0:45.1 | households. What's unique about Andy, though, is how he has been able to add additional |
| 0:49.6 | advisors to his firm, quadrupling the assets he manages in the process, while maintaining the strong |
| 0:54.7 | level of work-slash-life balance that he desires. In this episode, we talk in depth about how |
| 0:59.8 | Andy decided to bring on two new advisors, creating additional business management requirements |
| 1:03.9 | for himself. Despite running a highly profitable solo practice that met his lifestyle goals, |
| 1:09.0 | why Andy sought out mid-career professionals when making |
| 1:11.4 | his new hires due in part to their established professionalism ability to operate independently |
| 1:15.7 | in the likelihood they would stick around for the long haul, and how Andy decided to set a |
| 1:19.8 | client capacity of 60 households for himself and for each of his advisors based in part on his |
| 1:24.4 | firm's tax focus planning and meeting calendar. We also talk about how Andy |
| 1:28.7 | charges his clients on a flat fee basis with one price for single clients and another for couples, |
| 1:33.6 | which is enabled in part by having clients who fit a similar profile of those nearing and in |
| 1:38.4 | retirement who want tax-informed accumulation and retirement planning advice, why Andy decided to pay |
| 1:44.0 | his advisors a highly |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
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.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.