Debbie Grose, CFP®, Chief Operating Officer of Lake Tahoe Wealth Management, is passionate about the financial planning profession, and even more passionate about helping the NexGen community to grow. Over the course of her career, she’s been incredibly involved both with her local FPA chapter, and with various FPA programs including NexGen and Residency.
She knew early on in her career that she wanted to do something more than just help clients as a financial planner. Debbie looked back on her own experience as a new planner, and felt that she had truly stumbled into financial planning - and had wished it hadn’t been that way. That’s why a large part of Debbie’s career has been focused on mentorship. She’s a passionate mentor for new advisors, and specifically for women in the profession.
In addition to being heavily involved within the profession, Debbie is also passionate about bringing financial planning to the masses. At her previous firm, she helped to develop one of the first-ever subscription financial planning services on the market.
Debbie pushed to expand her firm’s ability to serve a broader client base, and as she worked to create this new service model and bring additional ideas to the table, she learned more about the ability to grow and change as a practice. She learned what to consider when making big decisions about her firm’s service model, and eventually transitioned to be the firm’s sole owner.
Now, Debbie works as the COO of Lake Tahoe Wealth Management, the firm she chose to merge with a while into ownership. Her original succession planning process at her previous firm, Lighthouse Financial, helped to guide her through the merger with Lake Tahoe Wealth Management.
Debbie is now a thought-provoking, supportive force within the financial planning community. This episode is fantastic for firm owners and new planners alike who are interested in mentorship, succession planning, and growing a firm.
What You’ll Learn:
- How to start organic conversations around succession
- How women can pursue ownership roles within their firm
- Why succession is all about relationships
- How to be proactively interested in succession planning
- The importance of serving clients from every generation
- The challenge that comes with developing new service models within a practice
- How to take constructive criticism and grow
- Why you can’t always make changes for efficiency or ease - and how new planners can learn to refocus on every aspect of the firm when presenting new ideas (including compliance, etc.)
- How to bring your ideas to the table and take ownership, while still being respectful of your firm’s owners
- How succession planning sometimes needs to be flexible to be successful
- Why communication is key