Coellaborate

09/07/2026

Back to school season has arrived! The big yellow buses are back on the road, Target shelves are wiped clean of pens and notebooks, and the post-drop-off rush of moms at Starbucks is about to ramp up.

I loved going back-to-school as a kid – new sneakers, a new Trapper Keeper, and new classes with teachers who hadn't yet pegged me as an Eddie-Haskell-type troublemaker.

I still get the back-to-school feelings each September and it inspires me to clean my office, break out a fresh notebook, and start making plans – BIG PLANS – about how organized I'm going to be this year.

Step One is to make a list of all the things I'm going to accomplish in the next twelve months. Step Two is to build the schedule that dictates when those tasks will happen. Something about getting it down on paper feels so good. And having my own little "business syllabus" to review when I'm getting anxious helps calm the "am I doing everything I'm supposed to do?!?!" jitters.

It's similar to one of the chief concerns I hear from advisors - they worry they will miss something important for their clients. When I ask to see their annual service calendar though, they blush and tell me they don't have anything "formal" in the way of a calendar. They just address things as they come up.

Yikes.

This would make me nervous too. And although I absolutely LOATHE the idea of any one-size-fits-all template for advisors, I decided to draft a basic annual service calendar to help them out.

The problem is though, you can't apply the same calendar to a 25-year-old accumulator that you would use with a 74-year old retiree. They have different needs and your service calendar should reflect those needs.

So I decided to create four basic client avatars – accumulator, pre-retiree, retiree, and high net-worth clients - and built service calendars for each of them. And that felt a bit better.

But then I got to thinking about all the special scenarios that can pop up with individual clients. What about those who have special needs kids? Or are small business owners? Or still have outstanding student loans?

My basic annual service calendars could get bloated quickly if I tried to cram all of those special scenarios in a single calendar.

Then I thought - why not create a bespoke calendar – one that is as unique as each client. It's not really that difficult to do. So I did. Tell me what you think.

09/01/2026

I love touring old homes – you get to see the culmination of all the changes made over the years and wonder what events may have inspired the modifications. The milk window that now serves as a cute little cabinet; the telephone niche where the fancy vase now sits; transom windows that were installed originally to circulate air but have long since been painted shut.

Occasionally you can see signs of a big structural change that happened - a room with a brick wall indicating it was an addition, a heavy beam added to a room that was enlarged, a modern electrical panel placed next to an older fuse box.

Reviewing onboarding workflows give me a similar experience. There's rarely a collaboration where I don't at least take a peek at the advisor's onboarding process. It's fun because they are all so unique. They come in all shapes and sizes. I've seen short ones and long ones; ones that are accomplished in a single, drawn-out, in-person meeting; and ones that are completed with a bunch of small baby, steps spread out over an entire quarter.

The reason they all look so different is because they were initially built around the original combination of systems and software that the advisor selected when they first opened their firm. Over time though, compliance requirements changed, advisors were added, CRMs got swapped out, and custodians merged – and the onboarding got tweaked to accommodate each change. Very rarely do I work with an advisor who has done a ground-up overhaul of onboarding. It's simply not high on the to-do list because technically the client is getting onboarded and as the old saying goes “if it ain't broke, don't fix it”.

Unfortunately, these workflows are like a house that has undergone numerous renovations without anyone calling in an engineer to ensure the structure is still sound. The end result of these overly-modified systems is an onboarding process that feels disjointed and may eventually buckle under a heavy load.

Today I'm going to help you re-evaluate your client onboarding system and determine if you still have a solid foundation to build on, or if it's time to call in the architect and draw up fresh plans.

Run through this scoring system and see where you stand. There's an interactive version on my website if you'd prefer to have the scoring done for you and a printed report of the results.

https://bit.ly/46yWl3S

A structural-engineer scoring system to inspect your client onboarding workflow and find out if it needs repairs or a full rebuild.

08/24/2026

Your heart is suddenly beating a little faster. Your body is starting to feel clammy – like you're coming down with something. Your stomach is knotting up and, for reasons you can't quite explain - you feel like you might start to cry.

You just opened the letter from your State Examiner letting you know that your firm is going to be audited. He wants documents. Loads and loads of documents. And he wants them in two weeks or less.

Meanwhile, you have just started surge meetings and are scheduled to see nine clients this week and ten the following. Your Client Service Associate scheduled Thursday through Monday off for an out-of-town wedding, and your Associate Advisor isn't ready to fly solo in meetings yet.

It is officially time to FREAK OUT.

Or is it?

It's not like you're a bad advisor. You adore your clients. You always act in their best interest. And you use the latest technology to serve them. You'll be fine, right? Of course.

Assuming, that is, that your CRM has clean, up-to-date information. And it does. You think. You hope. I guess you're about to find out.

Or maybe it would just be better to check yourself on these eight high-priority metrics BEFORE the letter arrives.

https://bit.ly/4xbVAJM

08/18/2026

Are your automations auto-failing? Workflows not working?
The problem may not be your processes - it could be dirty data.

Just like your teenager's bedroom, your CRM data needs regular cleaning to keep it ship-shape. But how, exactly, does one scrub a CRM?

I'll teach you how to get it clean and, more importantly, how to keep it clean. Because nobody likes a filthy CRM.

https://bit.ly/3UFg8fe

08/11/2026

You've written an SOP. You emailed it to the team. You pinned it to the top of your shared drive and even held a training session.

And yet, every person on your staff seems to have their own interpretation of how client onboarding should actually get done.

One person sends the welcome email on day one; another waits until the transfer paperwork is sent for signature.

A digital workflow is initiated for some clients, but DocuSign packets are sent for others, depending on who's handling it that week.

The CRM notes don't capture the same information each time a client is onboarded, and the downstream consequences of that hit weeks later.

Sound familiar?

The problem isn't your team it's not a training issue, either.

Most SOPs fail because they were written to document what should happen in theory, not created as an executable workflow that will be completed by real people.

The SOP became an aspirational record of good intentions rather than a system that guides real-world behavior.

So today I'm going to deep-dive into how to build effective workflows that consider the behavior of the user. Workflows that make it easy for a real human being to do the right thing in a consistent manner every single time.

In other words, how to build workflows that actually work – both in theory and in the real world.

How to get your team to follow procedures: a 7-step framework for building SOPs and workflows that actually stick.

08/07/2026

Honored to be included in the Kitces Financial Advisors Services Map! If you squint *really hard* you can see Coellaborate under Operations - Technology Support :-)

Latest version of the Financial Advisor Service Providers Map. Discover outsourcing solutions from marketing to business management to operations.

08/04/2026

“What’s the Best CRM for Financial Advisors?”

I get asked that question a LOT! The answer I give surprises a lot of my clients.

What’s your response?

The best CRM you can buy is the one you enjoy using. Here's why the CRM debate misses the point, and what actually using a CRM well looks like.

07/28/2026

✅ CRM? Check.
✅ Financial Planning Software? Check.
✅ MS Office or Google Workspace? Check.

Portfolio Management, Risk Tolerance, Rebalancing, Zoom, AI Assistant, Behavior Assessment, Client Portal, Scheduling App, Tax Review Software, Social Security Analyzer, Estate Planning App, Document Management, Advisory Billing, Compliance, File Sharing, Communications, Prospect Generator, Data Gathering, E-Signatures, Education Planning, Business Metrics, Proposal Generator, AI Chatbot, Notetaker? ✅ ✅✅✅✅✅

My goodness, when did our tech stacks get so out of control? If you look at the Kitces FinTech Map you'll find FOUR HUNDRED different software tools for advisors.

Do we really need all of this tech to effectively serve our clients? Or are we being sold plug-ins and add-ons that don't bring any additional value but cost us time and money every month?

This bloat doesn't happen overnight. Often, these tools are added onesy-twosy as a firm evolves. You see something cool at a conference and decide to do a free trial. Now you pay a monthly fee. You heard another advisor brag about his new app and you get FOMO, and now you have another piece of software to manage.

Each new app doesn't just mean another monthly subscription, it means time spent learning the software, installing updates, building integrations, and training new hires. It also adds one more potential exposure point for your clients' data.

Worst of all, it often adds unwarranted complexity without adding substantive value to a client's financial well-being. Seeing yet another indecipherable chart in their annual review doesn't make them sleep better at night.

Your clients don't want to drown in numbers, they want reassurance from a trusted person that they are on the right path.

And the funny thing is, while you thought you were filling in a missing gap in your tech stack, your existing software could already perform that task, you just didn't realize it.

The next time the office slows down a little consider performing an audit on your tech stack. What do you currently own? How much are you currently paying? Have you fully optimized your core apps? Are you duplicating functionality anywhere? Is everything integrated that could be?

Performing this audit on a regular basis can not only reduce your monthly overhead, it can be the life buoy that keeps you from drowning in a sea of tech.

https://bit.ly/4vUILSH

07/21/2026

Imposter Syndrome is real, and so is the anxiety it creates.

But it's not a sign of incompetence - it's a sign that you care. Research has actually shown that people with frequent imposter thoughts often have better interpersonal skills and higher ethical behavior than their peers.

But how do you keep the Imposter Monster from adding to the stress of being an Owner/Advisor stunting your firm's growth?

Here are five practical steps you can take to quiet the monster and get him off your shoulder.

That voice telling you 'you don't belong here' isn't proof you're failing. It's proof you care. Four ways to quiet it, starting today.