Welcome back to the 264th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!
My guest on today’s podcast is Dan Callahan. Dan is a Partner and the Chief Investment Officer at Capasso Planning Partners, a rapidly growing independent RIA based in Charleston, South Carolina that oversees about $250 million of assets under management for 300 client households across the country that are all served virtually.
What’s unique about Dan, though, is the way he and his firm began with nearly zero clients but grew substantially in client acquisition over a 3-year period, especially in areas outside of the local Charleston area, by outsourcing lead generation to online third-party platforms.
In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Dan incorporates third-party lead providers like Zoe Financial, SmartAsset’s Smart Advisor, and Fee-Only Network (to name just a few) to maximize the reach of potential clients beyond his local area, how Dan highlights his firm’s fee structure and flexible meeting times to position the firm to stand out amongst a crowded marketplace of other virtual financial advisory firms pushing for the same leads, and how Dan justifies the non-trivial revenue-sharing and other marketing costs that it takes to buy leads by having gotten from $0 to almost $50 million of assets under management in barely 3 years.
We also talk about how Dan’s perseverance in client outreach allowed him to keep pace with larger firms (despite not having a business development or marketing team), how Dan’s experiences at fee-only firms gave him opportunities early in his career to experience senior-level investment and portfolio work (which lead him to acquire his CFA designation), and how those experiences and his CFA designation gave Dan the confidence to start and grow an advisory firm from the ground up.
And be certain to listen to the end, where Dan shares how developing a financial firm from scratch involved enduring a rollercoaster of fluctuations in his own satisfaction and disappointment (especially when dealing with acceptance and rejection from prospects), why Dan feels strongly about taking risks and being vulnerable to create better career goals and overall achievements, and how Dan places importance on the flexibility of meeting clients virtually to create a less stressful work-life balance for him and his firm.
So whether you’re interested in learning about how Dan leveraged online third-party platforms to generate client leads, how he aids his firm in standing out to compete with larger firms, or how he grew his firm to $50M of AUM in close to 3 years, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Dan Callahan.
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