Shirl Penney

This may be the largest financial transaction an adviser will handle.

This may be the largest financial transaction an adviser will handle.

Going the RIA route is not an easy decision, but thoughtful preparation can get you there. Here’s how.

Here are some of the top questions advisors have when they consider outsourcing parts of their business operations to a third party.

What advisors should know about setting up an independent practice.

Profitability and control still rank high on the list of reasons advisors go independent, but the ability to have new and better systems – especially software – also plays a compelling part.

For advisors looking to break out of wirehouses, legacy firms or banks, going independent doesn’t necessarily mean they have to go it alone.

Advisors must make several key business decisions to go independent, says Shirl Penney, founder of Dynasty Financial Partners.

Advisors can avoid risks and find success in breaking away to independence, says Shirl Penney, founder of Dynasty Financial Partners.

Building your own business, even with a team of experts behind you, requires making tough decisions regarding resources, clients and employees. But most of all it requires leadership. Dynasty's CEO Shirl Penney offers a few lessons his firm has learned as it continue to build a business.

Growth can mean a number of things: professional development, growing assets, increasing enterprise value of the business, raising revenue or expanding profits. Shirl Penney examines a few lessons learned from the Dynasty Network on what advisors are doing to raise revenues and widen margins.

Legal and regulatory considerations on the path to independence.

How important is naming, branding, promoting and marketing? For some independent advisors who came to independence from larger employee advisor models, you may not have thought as much about your brand in the past. As an independent firm in a growing and increasingly competitive landscape, it’s important to recognize that you are building a brand as much as a business.

If there is a constant in the investment advisory landscape, it’s change. And few things are changing faster than the independent sphere.

As the trend toward independence continues, the opportunities raise questions from those advisors who are considering making the move. Shirl Penney of Dynasty Financial has created a helpful list of frequently asked question (and answers) for advisors who are thinking about going independent.

Even the best independent financial advisors can benefit from an occasional or even regular program of coaching and mentoring. It sometimes takes an outsider with a fresh perspective to see the best way for you to take your team and your practice to the next level.

As the trend toward independence continues, the opportunities raise questions from those advisors who are considering making the move. Dynasty Financial Partners' Shirl Penney provides some answers.

There have been more advances in technology for independent advisors in the past decade than there were in the previous 30 years. And the speed of this change is accelerating even faster today, giving advisors more tools to provide even better service to an even larger group of clients.

There has been plenty of industry buzz over the past few years around the breakaway advisor movement, a long-term industry trend that is likely to continue. However, little attention has been paid to an equally powerful industry trend: the breakaway client movement.