Ep 420: Making Financial Planning More Repeatable Without Losing The Customization Where Clients Prioritize What Matters Most with Michelle Underwood Gass

Financial Advisor Success

Michelle Underwood Gass is the Founding Principal of Paradigm Advisors, an RIA based out of Dallas that oversees approximately $110 million in assets under management for 80 client households. What’s unique about Michelle is how she developed a structured meeting process to guide new clients through her in-depth planning system, ensuring a standardized experience while retaining the flexibility to customize each client’s financial plan, prioritizing their unique needs and goals.

Listen in as Michelle shares her 5-part planning process, beginning with a “Get to Know You” meeting that incorporates Life Planning exercises to uncover client priorities and ensure a mutual fit, followed by a tech-enabled “Uncluttering” process to streamline document collection and onboarding. She explains how her “Intrinsic Discovery” and “Discovering Opportunities” meetings prioritize key planning areas, avoiding overwhelm for busy working-age clients, while tools like eMoney’s Decision Center and Hubly workflow management software support efficient plan implementation. Michelle also discusses her combined flat planning and AUM-based fee structure that allows her to serve high-earning professionals and hedge fund veterans, and how launching her financial planning business brought her a renewed sense of purpose after stepping away from managing a hedge fund.

For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/420