Ep 035: Investing In Your CRM And Your Team To Systematically Grow Your Advisory Business with Cheryl Holland
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2017
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cheryl Holland's firm, Abacus Planning Group, is based in Columbia, South Carolina. Working in a mid-sized city such as Columbia might prove tricky for other advisors, but her niche working with families who hold business and other close assets has set her apart. Coupled with her natural drive and a willingness to keep learning, Cheryl has build a firm that rests on the core tenets of learning, growth, empathy, and challenging work.
In this interview, Cheryl talks about how she built Abacus, why she invests so heavily in every one of her employees, and what she’s done to systematize just about every process in the office. She shares how technology has helped drive the growth of her firm, and why she’s put such a strong emphasis on teaching her team (and herself!) how to be keen listeners as well as talented financial advisors.
Get the full show notes and transcript for this episode at: www.kitces.com/35
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 |
| 0:07.3 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading financial |
| 0:13.1 | advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success and get insight |
| 0:18.8 | from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the |
| 0:22.2 | next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:29.2 | Welcome to the 35th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is |
| 0:35.5 | Cheryl Holland. Cheryl is the founder of Abacus Planning Group, a private wealth management firm located in Columbia, South Carolina, that manages more than $1 billion of assets under management for just over 200 affluent clients. |
| 0:48.1 | What's fascinating about Cheryl's firm, though, is the way that she has systematized the processes of the firm in a way that actually helps them to be |
| 0:55.1 | even more high touch and customized for their clients, from automating workflows, tasks, |
| 1:00.9 | and reminders of client needs, to building a templated meeting agenda for every client meeting |
| 1:05.7 | that covers check-in, celebrations, investments, financial planning, administrative tasks, |
| 1:10.4 | to refining an investment |
| 1:12.2 | process around moderate portfolios using DFA funds, Cheryl's firm has invested heavily in |
| 1:18.1 | systematizing the business and invested heavily into customizing sales forces their CRM to facilitate |
| 1:24.1 | the process. In this episode, Cheryl shares how her firm structures its blended AUM plus planning fee structure, |
| 1:31.9 | why Abacus sets a minimum fee rather than an asset minimum in deciding which new clients to work |
| 1:36.8 | with, why the firm decided to make a shift towards focusing on a niche of closely held family |
| 1:41.5 | businesses after already growing successfully for nearly 20 years, and how the firm markets today with a combination of closely held family businesses after already growing successfully for nearly 20 years, |
| 1:45.8 | and how the firm markets today with a combination of COI referrals, client referrals, and |
| 1:50.7 | national board volunteerism to drive its growth. In addition, we also talk about abacus's approach |
| 1:56.6 | to reinvesting into its team. As Cheryl puts it, you can't grow your firm if your people aren't |
| 2:01.3 | growing, with everything from sending employees out to conferences, bringing in psychologists to teach |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -2772 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
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 2025.