Making The Tough Decision To Change Firms To Find The Path To Equity Ownership You’re Seeking: #FASuccess Ep 462 With Maggie Rapplean

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 462nd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today’s podcast is Maggie Rapplean. Maggie is a partner at Moneta Group, an RIA based in St. Louis, Missouri, where she oversees $250 million in assets under management for 108 client households.

What’s unique about Maggie, though, is how she made the tough decision to switch industry channels and firms to eventually find the path to equity ownership that she was seeking (and building a successful advisory team in the process).

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Maggie began her career working within a wirehouse where she benefited from strong business development training and camaraderie with fellow advisors but didn’t have a path to ownership, how Maggie then transitioned with her team from the wirehouse to start an independent RIA but found it challenging without the resources of a larger firm and saw no clear path to equity ownership, and how Maggie decided to move to Moneta Group, which offered her the resources of a larger firm (from technology to advanced planning expertise) as well as a well-defined path to partnership.

We also talk about how Maggie has built her team within Moneta not only by transitioning some of her previous clients and adding new clients through a growing referral network but also by taking over the clients of a retiring advisor, how Maggie retained the vast majority of these clients by first working alongside the retiring advisor (creating a warm handoff that built client confidence in her) and then by showing how she could offer additional value by refreshing these clients’ financial plans and offering deeper advice in tax planning and other areas, and how Maggie’s success serving these clients and growing her business led to both an opportunity to buy the book of business from Moneta (through an earn-out structure) and to eventually become eligible to buy a stake in the firm as a partner.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Maggie shares how her early success winning new clients gave her the confidence that she could have long-term success in the industry (and how she encourages newer advisors to seek out business development training to build those skills), why Maggie wanted to pursue an ownership stake in a firm not only to share in the success of the business where she worked but also for the flexibility it could provide her down the line when it comes to her own succession, and how Maggie has found that leading her own team has helped allow her to balance her career and growing practice with the ability to be engaged with her family at home.

So, whether you’re interested in learning about charting a course towards partnership, the pros and cons of working in different industry channels, or effectively transitioning a book of clients from a retiring advisor, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Maggie Rapplean.