Episode summary
Ep 503: Organically Growing To $800M AUM In Less Than A Decade By Investing In Educational Market...
Financial Advisor Success (Kitces)
· · 1 hr 31 min · Hosts: Michael Kitces · Guests: David Brooks
Summary
David Brooks describes how Retire SMART grew from zero clients in Nebraska to roughly $800 million in AUM by treating marketing as a system rather than a single channel. His core argument is that firms should keep adding successful funnels instead of replacing them, and that the best growth comes from building repeatable processes around a clear niche message. For Brooks, that message is taxes: every seminar, radio segment, class, and media appearance is built around tax planning for retirees, pre-retirees, and business owners.
He says the firm originally spent 25% of revenue on marketing and still spends about 12% today, with about 20% of the marketing budget devoted to brand-building. The most measurable channel is in-person educational seminars, where he says the firm mails about 10,000 pieces, spends roughly $11,000 all in, and can generate six to nine clients from two dinners. He also says the firm has expanded into radio, TV, YouTube, podcasts, and social media, with each medium feeding the others and extending trust over time.
Brooks emphasizes that the real advantage is operational discipline: track book rates, show rates, closing ratios, and assets closed, then match the right lead to the right adviser. He also ties marketing to value by layering in tax planning, financial planning fees, and even tax-service retainers for business owners, which he says helps justify the firm’s pricing and deepen client relationships.
Key takeaways
- Brooks says Retire SMART grew by keeping multiple marketing funnels running at once instead of abandoning older channels that still produced acceptable ROI.
- He says taxes are the firm’s central marketing theme, and that a consistent tax-focused story is what makes seminars and media content convert.
- Brooks says a typical seminar campaign costs about $11,000 and can produce six to nine clients, with roughly 40% to 45% of appointments closing.
- He says the firm now spends about 12% of revenue on marketing, down from 25% in the first two years, and allocates about 20% of the budget to branding.
- Brooks says the firm’s growth depends on tight process control, including tracking book rate, stick rate, and closing rate by adviser and by asset value.
- He says media channels like radio, YouTube, and podcasts work because they build credibility over time and keep feeding educational events and direct inquiries.
Notable quotes
“if the ROI is at least 3 to one, why would you stop? At least in my humble opinion”
“taxes is it. So, I've been talking taxes since day one”
“you have to start with what we call a flashbang. You got to start with a sentence that just catches everybody offguard”
“we can talk about this more later, but processes are critical to everything for from the marketing upfront to the sales process being the exact same to the allocation process, the planning process, the service process”
“we're going to spend probably 12% of revenue this year on marketing. Um where the first two years I spent 25%”
How the episode opens
Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsus to hear stories of how leading financial adviserss navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next level in your advisory business. And now, here's your host, Michael Kitsus.
Welcome everyone. Welcome to the 5003rd episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is David Brooks.
David is the founder of Retire Smart, an RIA based in Omaha, Nebraska that oversees approximately $800 million in assets under management for 1,000 client households. What's unique about David, though, is how he has achieved rapid growth in part by investing in multiple marketing tactics, including in-person educational events and an extensive network of audio and video media formats. In this episode, we talk in-depth about how David committed to spending 25% of his revenue on marketing during his first two years in business and still spends approximately 12% of revenue on marketing today.
Why David is willing to continue to invest in legacy marketing tactics that have a lower return on investment than newer ones he implements. and how David invests 20% of his marketing budget in pure branding activities, both to expand name recognition of his firm and because of the synergies these activities have with his marketing funnels that have a more direct ROI. We also talk about how David has found success by holding in-person educational events including traditional lunch and dinner seminars as well as classroombased discussions in his firm's offices.
How David built a large audience through radio and television shows which have now expanded to include a podcast, YouTube channel, and social media content.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- advisory firm growth
- marketing roi
- educational events
- tax-focused planning
- operational scaling
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Retire SMART
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Financial Advisor Success (Kitces), this episode and its artwork belong to Michael Kitces. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
