Ep 126: Climbing The Path Of Personal Development To Partnership At A Large RIA with Martine Lellis

Financial Advisor Success

Michael Kitces

News, Business, Entrepreneurship, Business News

4.8 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2019

⏱️ 111 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Martine Lellis has had a unique career with Sullivan Bruyette Speros & Blayney (SBSB). She started out as an associate advisor, and after seeing the firm sold to a bank, she later moved into a mid-level management role and continued climbing all the way up to become the firm’s Chief Operating Officer and Principal. She then joined four other principals to buy the firm back from the bank, making it private again.

In this episode, Martine shares the process of selling and buying back the firm and how her role has changed throughout the years with SBSB. We also discuss the company’s model for serving affluent clients and why they offer tax preparation services on top of financial planning and investment management. Listen in to find out the challenges that surprised Martine the most and her biggest breakthrough in her career.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/126

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
0:17.5	and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the
0:22.0	next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsas. Welcome, everyone.
0:29.0	Welcome to the 126th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's podcast is
0:35.5	Martine Lelis. Martin is a principal and the chief operating officer at Sullivan, Briette Spiros, and Blaney,
0:41.1	an independent RAA with nearly 4 billion of assets in our management serving 1,100 affluent
0:45.9	clients in the Washington, D.C. area.
0:48.7	What's unique about Martin, though, is the way that she climbed the ladder at SBSB.
0:56.1	Starting out as an associate advisor, only to see the way that she climbed the ladder at SBSB, starting out as an associate advisor only to see the RA sold to a bank shortly thereafter, and then later moving into
1:01.5	mid-level management roles and climbing all the way up to become the firm's COO, and then
1:06.5	participating with four other principals who did a management buyout of the firm back from the bank
1:11.9	and take the company private again. In this episode, we talk in depth about Sullivan Brayette's
1:18.0	model for serving affluent clients, why the firm offers tax preparation services for its most
1:23.1	complex clients on top of their financial planning and investment management. The way the business
1:27.7	involves its dedicated investment team directly with clients, to the point that it's the investment
1:32.8	team and not the advisors themselves who are primarily responsible for discussing investment results
1:38.2	in the markets with clients. Why Sullivan Breyette hired a director of advisor services and development to become an internal
1:45.7	practice management coach for their 10 advisor teams and how the firm prices out its core financial
1:51.0	planning and investment management services, a separate fee for tax preparation, and another
1:55.5	separate fee for the especially big and complex financial planning projects their affluent
	...

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