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)
· · Hosts: Michael Kitces · Guests: Jenna Biancavilla
Summary
Jenna Biancavilla built Pearl Capital Management around a scorecard and meeting cadence designed to keep a growing advisory firm aligned on the few metrics that actually move the business. The firm, based in Phoenix, oversees about $275 million in AUM for 110 households, and Jenna uses weekly and quarterly tracking to monitor client engagement, new business activity, prospect conversion, and team behavior. She said the scorecard became more important as the firm grew beyond the point where she could keep everything in her head.
A central theme is that the Entrepreneurial Operating System gave the team a way to prioritize work and avoid the chaos of shifting focus every time Jenna had a new idea. Weekly meetings start with emotional check-ins, scorecard review, and rocks, then move to IDS, or identify-discuss-solve, for the issues that need deeper attention. Jenna said this structure has helped the firm catch problems earlier, assign one accountable owner to each project, and keep quarterly work from getting lost in day-to-day servicing.
She also explained that the scorecard is as much about culture as performance. The firm tracks things like real days off, client touch points, referrals, and qualified prospect meetings, and Jenna said the data has changed behavior, improved accountability, and reduced stress. On the business model side, she said Pearl Capital is fee-only, uses tiered AUM pricing, and has found flat-fee planning clients to be a poor fit because they tend to create too much extra work without the same compensation structure.
Key takeaways
- Jenna Biancavilla said EOS helped Pearl Capital Management move from an informal projects list to quarterly rocks with one accountable owner per project.
- The firm tracks weekly client touch points, prospect outreach, referrals, and real days off to drive both growth and retention behavior.
- Jenna said weekly scorecard reviews let the team catch underperformance early instead of waiting until the end of the quarter.
- Pearl Capital uses tiered AUM pricing and has found flat-fee planning clients to be a worse fit because they create more scope creep.
- Jenna said the firm’s meeting structure and IDS process have made it easier to handle issues like shared inbox workflows and staffing coverage.
- Jenna said she intentionally shares planning ideas in prospect meetings so fees are easier to justify and the relationship feels less like a black box.
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”
“one person is in charge of accomplishing that rock that quarter”
“we are tracking flex days and we're tracking real days off”
“if it's not assigned to one person, then it's not assigned to anyone”
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
- scorecard metrics
- client engagement
- employee retention
- aum growth planning
- 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.
