Episode summary
Ep 506: Building A 'Killer' Scorecard To Track Key Weekly Metrics On The Path To $275M AUM with J...
Financial Advisor Success (Kitces)
· · 1 hr 31 min · Hosts: Michael Kitces · Guests: Jenna Biancavilla
Summary
Jenna Biancavilla built Pearl Capital Management around a weekly scorecard that makes the firm’s goals visible and actionable, from client touch points and referral activity to new households, AUM, and employee days off. She argues that once a firm has enough people and moving parts, memory is no longer enough; the team needs a shared operating system so issues surface quickly and accountability is clear. Her approach uses EOS structure to separate routine updates from deeper problem-solving, and she says that has made meetings more efficient and reduced the drift that comes from a long, unprioritized projects list.
A major theme is that the scorecard is not just about production. Jenna tracks retention-oriented items like real days off, flex days, and L10 attendance because she wants the firm to model the work-life balance it promises clients. She also gives each adviser and staff member their own metrics, with goals set in quarterly planning so targets fit the seasonality of the business. The firm uses a Google Sheet as both a scorecard and a live operating database, letting the team log business activity as it happens.
Jenna also explains how she serves retirees, entrepreneurs, divorcees, widows, and real estate investors through different adviser niches, and why her fee model is fee-only with tiered AUM pricing. She says flat-fee planning created scope creep and unhappy client dynamics, while AUM pricing better matches the complexity of the work and supports a high-touch service model.
Key takeaways
- Jenna says EOS gave Pearl Capital Management a weekly and quarterly structure that keeps rocks, scorecard items, and problem-solving from competing with day-to-day work.
- She tracks real days off and flex days because she wants a culture that supports rest and prevents clients from reaching team members when they are truly off.
- The firm’s scorecard includes both growth metrics and behavior metrics, such as touch points, referrals, qualified prospect meetings, new households, and AUM.
- Jenna says one person must own each rock, and she found that trying to assign the same project to multiple people diluted accountability.
- She says flat-fee planning created too much scope creep, while tiered AUM pricing better fits the service level and complexity of her clients.
- Jenna uses prospect meetings to share planning ideas early, which she says reduces fee friction because prospects can see the value before they sign.
Notable quotes
“if you're looking at it and talking about it and reporting on it weekly, you can catch things that look like they're falling off track in the moment”
“the first game changer wasn't actually just the scorecard and the KPIs and the tracking. It was how we run our weekly meeting”
“if it's not assigned to one person, then it's not assigned to anyone”
“by tracking real days off and we define that as you cannot be connected to the team or a client in any fashion”
“we really only want to track data that we can do something with”
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 56th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest on today's podcast is Jenna Bianca Villa.
Jenna is the founder of Pearl Capital Management, an RAIA based in Phoenix, Arizona that oversees approximately $275 million in assets under management for 110 client households. What's unique about Jenna though is how she leverages a scorecard that tracks key weekly and quarterly metrics that helps keep her on track to achieve company goals, which range from new client growth to days taken off by team members. In this episode, we talk in depth about how Jenna's scorecard starts with metrics that measure engagement with clients.
For example, how many client touch points an adviser had and work done to attract new clients, such as meetings with key centers of influence. How Jenna also includes metrics targeted at employee retention, including tracking the number of days team members took off where they weren't contacted by someone at the firm, and how Jenna tracks other metrics quarterly, including the close ratio on prospects, total aum, aum per household, and revenue per household. We also talk about how implementing practices of the entrepreneurial operating system relatively early on has helped Jenna and her team better address business issues that pop up during the week and run more efficient meetings in the process.
how Jenna and her team set and prioritize quarterly rock, which typically represent projects that will help the firm grow into the future, but might otherwise have been ignored amidst day-to-day responsibilities at the firm.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- killer scorecard
- weekly and quarterly metrics
- client engagement
- employee retention
- entrepreneurial operating system
Companies and tickers mentioned
- Pearl Capital Management
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.
