Ep #108: Finding Success by Transitioning from AUM to Monthly Retainers - The Career of Helen Ngo
July 12, 2017
Helen Ngo shares her experience working her way into the financial planning world and starting her own successful business by the age of twenty-six. There’s a whole lot to take away and apply to your own business plan, whether you want to start a business or you're already in the process.
Starting out in a male-dominated field definitely didn’t make Helen shy away from business; it actually gave given her the motivation to quit an aging practice and start her own unique, passion-driven firm. She talks about everything from getting her CFP certification to the beginnings of her business. She started out by getting clients through knocking on doors, and now she is starting to face scaling issues that demand she re-work her pricing and marketing.
Part of Helen's scaling is shifting her focus from AUM to charging an hourly or monthly rate. She elaborates on how this is a more effective way to generate a reliable income, as well as focus her attention on what she is best at and most enjoys. Helen is inspiring and informative and leaves us with some great takeaways, including what she wishes she knew when she started out.
Listen to the Full Interview:
Want more from XYPN Radio? Become a VIP to access our private community!
What You'll Learn from This Episode:
- Why Helen took interest in the financial planning field and her journey from student to business owner.
- Why the financial industry is transforming from investment first to planning first.
- The unique offering that was missing in the financial planning industry, which Helen was able to offer herself and her clients.
- Why she started with an AUM fee structure, and why she is now focusing on hourly and monthly clients (and moving away from a focus on investing).
- The scaling issues and growing pains a young business goes through and how Helen is tackling them in her own way.
- Why she does not plan to hire other financial planners to help her business grow.
- How she plans to generate passive income and reach out beyond just her face to face clients.
Featured on the Show:
Share
- Financial Planning (179)
- Advisors (172)
- Fee-only advisor (136)
- Financial Planners (136)
- Millennials (116)
- Finance (115)
- NextGen (114)
- Advice (113)
- Marketing (92)
- Training (87)
- Professionals (86)
- Profit (85)
- Growing Your Firm (78)
- Entrepreneurship (75)
- Financial Advisors (75)
- Advisor Posts (61)
- Business Development (52)
- Niche (48)
- RIA (44)
- Building Your Firm (40)
- Growth (34)
- Career Changers (26)
- Networking & Community (26)
- Starting a Firm (26)
- Family (23)
- Launching a firm (23)
- Financial Plan (20)
- Social Responsibility (18)
- Compliance (17)
- Careers (16)
- CFP Certification (14)
- Online Marketing (14)
- Financial Freedom (12)
- Financial Success (12)
- Michael Kitces (12)
- Partnership (12)
- Advisor Success (11)
- Communication (11)
- New Business (11)
- Taxes (11)
- First Year (10)
- Women (10)
- Family Business (9)
- Financial Education (9)
- Staffing & HR (9)
- Transitions (9)
- Assets Under Management (AUM) (8)
- Perseverance (8)
- Scaling (8)
- Broker-Dealers (7)
- Ethical Advisor (7)
- Industry Trends & Insights (7)
- RIA Owner (7)
- Tax Preparation (7)
- Work Life Balance (7)
- Benchmarking Study (6)
- Business Coach (6)
- Financial Life Planning (6)
- Financial Therapy (6)
- Hourly (6)
- Leadership & Vision (6)
- Preparing to Launch (6)
- Student Loan Debt (6)
- Certified Public Accountant (CPA) (5)
- College Planning (5)
- Discrimination (5)
- Female Financial Planners (5)
- Financial Independence (5)
- Investment Management (5)
- Leverage (5)
- Lifestyle practice (5)
- Mergers (5)
- Passions (5)
- Preparing to Launch (5)
- Relationships (5)
- Remote (5)
- Small Business Owner (5)
- Technology (5)
- Business Owner (4)
- Challenges (4)
- Finances (4)
- Firm Ownership (4)
- Impostor Syndrome (4)
- Inspiration (4)
- Military Finance (4)
- Pricing Models (4)
- Retirement (4)
- Side Hustle (4)
- Support System (4)
- Teamwork (4)
- Time Management (4)
- Virtual (4)
- Working Mom (4)
- Advice-Only Planning (3)
- Company (3)
- Data (3)
- Divorce (3)
- Evolving (3)
- Experience Wealth (3)
- Facebook Groups (3)
- Faith-Based Finance (3)
- Finding Success (3)
- Grief (3)
- Intention (3)
- Lessons (3)
- Management (3)
- Minorities (3)
- Monthly Retainer Model (3)
- Operations Manager (3)
- Perspective (3)
- Philosophy (3)
- Recession (3)
- Reflection (3)
- Regulators (3)
- Small Business (3)
- Spouse (3)
- Strategy (3)
- Succession Plans (3)
- Tech Stack (3)
- Virtual Advisor (3)
- Wealth (3)
- Authenticity (2)
- Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA) (2)
- Changes (2)
- Charitable Donations (2)
- Check in (2)
- Christine Amill Centeno (2)
- Conversations (2)
- Custody Rule (2)
- Dual-Entrepreneurs (2)
- Emily Purdon (2)
- Empathy (2)
- Equity Compensation (2)
- Fiduciary (2)
- Firm Within a Firm (2)
- First Six Months (2)
- Growing Income (2)
- Healing (2)
- Homeschool Families (2)
- Hui-chin Chen (2)
- Immigrants (2)
- Impact Folio (2)
- Investing (2)
- Kevin Mahoney (2)
- Life planning (2)
- Maddy Roche (2)
- Marriage (2)
- Meg Bartelt (2)
- Mental Health (2)
- Mindset Shift (2)
- Modern Money Advisor (2)
- Morgen Rochard (2)
- Moving Forward (2)
- Outsourcing (2)
- Pandemic (2)
- Part Time (2)
- Physicians (2)
- Planning (2)
- Pricing (2)
- Processes (2)
- Public Relations (PR) (2)
- Purpose (2)
- RIA Consultant (2)
- RIA Registration (2)
- Real Estate (2)
- Referrals (2)
- Regulations (2)
- Ryan Frailich (2)
- Security (2)
- Selling Insurance (2)
- Solutions (2)
- Survey (2)
- Systems (2)
- Tech Professionals (2)
- Visionary and Integrator Roles (2)
- Wealth Management (2)
- Arlene Moss (1)
- Automation (1)
- Balance Sheet (1)
- Behavior (1)
- Business (1)
- Care (1)
- Cash Flow (1)
- Cash Flow Planning (1)
- Chad Holmes (1)
- Clarity Wealth Development (1)
- Client Acquisition (1)
- Consulting (1)
- Consumer Protection (1)
- Corporate Banking (1)
- Corporate Finance (1)
- Couples (1)
- Cryptocurrency (1)
- Custodians (1)
- Dave Ramsey (1)
- Delegating Tasks (1)
- Depression (1)
- Differentiation (1)
- Disability Accounts (1)
- Dream Firm (1)
- ESG Investing (1)
- Early Retirement (1)
- Economics (1)
- Educators (1)
- Effectiveness (1)
- Elaine King (1)
- Elements (1)
- Emlen Miles-Mattingly (1)
- Engineer (1)
- Equally-Owned Firm (1)
- Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF) (1)
- FINRA (1)
- FSG (1)
- Fields Financial Services (1)
- Finance for Parents (1)
- Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) (1)
- Financial Life Management (1)
- Finding Your Why (1)
- Formula Wealth (1)
- Goals (1)
- Greater Than Financial (1)
- Health Care (1)
- Heather Townsend (1)
- Hedge Fund (1)
- Holistic (1)
- How to be a Financial Advisor (1)
- IRA (1)
- Ian Bloom (1)
- Impact (1)
- Impact Acceleration (1)
- Implementing (1)
- Independent Financial Advisor (1)
- Independent RIA (1)
- Insurance (1)
- Integrity (1)
- Internal Revenue Service (1)
- Interns (1)
- Investment Planner (1)
- Investor (1)
- Kendra Rehm-Dehn (1)
- Kori Lennon (1)
- Leslie Ransom (1)
- Listener survey (1)
- Loan forgiveness (1)
- Make Money Mindshift (1)
- Malcolm Thomas (1)
- Mandatory Payroll Withholding (1)
- Marlon Wesh (1)
- Martha Williams (1)
- Matthew Ricks (1)
- Measure Twice Financial (1)
- Michael Reynolds (1)
- Mike Troxell (1)
- Mistakes (1)
- Money Management (1)
- Money Quotient (1)
- Motherhood (1)
- Motivation (1)
- Nancy Hetrick (1)
- Natalie Slagle (1)
- Natalie Taylor (1)
- Native American (1)
- NexJenn Financial Services (1)
- Operations (1)
- Opportunities (1)
- Patrick Clark (1)
- Patrick King (1)
- Paul Allen (1)
- Payment Model (1)
- Peace of Mind Waypoints (1)
- Pivot (1)
- Portfolio Management (1)
- Pro Bono (1)
- Progress Report (1)
- Progressives (1)
- Quinn Arnold (1)
- RIA Audit (1)
- Rachael Burns (1)
- Real Estate Investing (1)
- Real Estate Wealth Planning (1)
- Realtors (1)
- Recruiting (1)
- Redwood Money (1)
- Reese Harper (1)
- Reg BI (1)
- Registered Life Planner (RLP) (1)
- Restricted growth (1)
- Retirees (1)
- Risk (1)
- Risk Management (1)
- River Nice (1)
- Rob Colon (1)
- Robo Advisors (1)
- Rowan Financial (1)
- Ryan Grieser (1)
- Ryan Mohr (1)
- SEC (1)
- Sales (1)
- Sarah Ponder (1)
- Scholarship (1)
- Selling a Firm (1)
- Smarter Divorce Solutions (1)
- Special Needs (1)
- Start Ups (1)
- Stefanie Pickard (1)
- Steven Fox (1)
- Stigma (1)
- Study Group (1)
- Sue Peck (1)
- TAMP (1)
- Target Audience (1)
- Task Management (1)
- Taylor Deardorff (1)
- Team Communication (1)
- The Market (1)
- Trader (1)
- Transparency (1)
- Trusts (1)
- Unexpected Challenges (1)
- Virtual Assistant (1)
- Virtual Paraplanner (1)
- XYPN Books (1)
- XYPN Invest (1)
- XYPN Membership (1)
- XYPN News (1)
Get episode alerts by email
You May Also Like
These Related Episodes