Episode Details

She helped advisors make the move for two decades. Then she had to make it herself.

A headhunter called. Shannon said she would do a five minute call just to give a name. Several months later she was the new president of Ozark.

This is not a story about being unhappy. Shannon loved Raymond James, still does and is still a shareholder. This is a story about a harder kind of decision: the one where everything is fine and something still pulls you toward more.

The turning point came from advice she had already given her own daughter. Kaylee got into the Naval Academy while her friends headed to Florida State. Shannon told her: if you don't try this, you will be my age wondering what if. That same question came back when she was sitting with her own decision about Ozark.

Now she is leading a firm that calls itself a four billion dollar startup. Ozark completed its Journey to One consolidation last summer, meaning it has only operated as a single unified firm for nine months. It is multicustodial, working with BNY, NFS, Schwab, and Investnet. And it is building a platform it describes as adaptable, designed to put new tools in front of advisors fast, including AI tools already in use across the firm.

Frank and Shannon also get into what AI actually means for advisors. Not that it will replace them, but that advisors who use AI will pull ahead of those who do not. The advisor of the future will manage AI the way today's advisor manages a team of managers. And the thing that will matter most in that world is the one thing AI still cannot replicate: a real human being picking up the phone.

Questions answered in this episode include:

How do you walk away from a firm you genuinely love after 22 years?

What is the mental exercise that helped Shannon finally decide to join Ozark?

Why did Ozark describe itself as a four billion dollar startup?

What does multicustodial really mean for an advisor trying to grow their practice?

How is AI changing the day to day work of a financial advisor?

Will AI replace financial advisors?

What does it look like for a firm to build a platform for the future rather than just the present?

Chapters:

1:00 - Introduction: Shannon Reid, President of Ozark

3:01 - The Conversation That Started Everything

6:44 - What If You Never Try

9:41 - Ozark: A $4 Billion Startup

11:03 - Journey to One and What Comes Next

14:29 - The Multicustodial Advantage

18:35 - AI and the Future of the Financial Advisor

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Elite Advisor Successions | Advisor Mergers and Acquisitions

https://eliteadvisorsuccessions.com

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Elite Wealth Management Insights Report

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