Is there a better way to measure success?

The veteran wealth management executive took over the post atop Advisor Group’s Seattle-based independent broker-dealer subsidiary last April, a year after she joined the firm from Cetera Advisors.

In the podcast interview with FP Senior Editor Tobias Salinger, she explains how she has boosted the firm’s recruiting, discusses a key regulatory question for ensemble practices and talks about the private equity capital that is fueling M&A deals like Advisor Group’s acquisition of Ladenburg Thalmann.

KMS Financial Services

Asked how she would like to see the industry move forward, Ford says she would like to see it focus on some different metrics.

“How are we impacting client lives? How many more kids are going to college because of the work that we do? How many are able to successfully retire?” she says, adding that the industry should“make sure we always remember the purpose and meaning for what we stand for and to measure ourselves more in those terms than in numeric terms.”