Episode summary
Unreasonable Hospitality and the Future of the RIA with Jennifer des Groseilliers
Model Fa Podcast
· · Hosts: David DeCelle · Guests: Jennifer des Groseilliers
Summary
Jennifer des Groseilliers said her career path moved from law to financial advising, then through the broker-dealer world and ultimately into the RIA model, which she views as the future of the industry. At The Mather Group, she leads a platform built around financial planning, in-house investment construction, in-house tax work, and a family office offering for clients with current or future liquidity events.
She also said the firm’s growth is being driven by acquisitions, including the close of Hogan and Knots in Red Hook, New Jersey, a roughly $300 million addition that expands the firm’s East Coast footprint. Jennifer emphasized that the operational side of integration is straightforward compared with the cultural work, which she sees as the real heavy lifting. To support that, The Mather Group uses an advisory council of top equity owners and client events designed to introduce teams, deepen relationships, and reinforce one firm-wide experience.
Jennifer framed success through the lens of “unreasonable hospitality,” arguing that if the firm overdelivers for clients, the numbers will follow through referrals, wallet share, and retention. She also said the firm has pushed equity ownership above 90% and that her experience as a woman leader is shaped by finding a workplace with alignment, diversity, and room to focus energy on performance.
Key takeaways
- Jennifer des Groseilliers said she sees the RIA model as the future of the business and built her career around that view.
- The Mather Group closed Hogan and Knots, a roughly $300 million deal, and Jennifer said cultural fit mattered more than operational overlap.
- Jennifer said the firm uses an advisory council of top equity owners to surface ideas, align goals, and spread best practices.
- She defined success as “unreasonable hospitality,” saying referrals, retention, and deeper wallet share should follow.
- Jennifer said equity ownership has risen to above 90% at The Mather Group, which she believes strengthens alignment and culture.
Notable quotes
“The cultural integration is really where the heavy lifting happens with really making sure that when we bring firms over, they're aligned with our culture”
“the theme is always unreasonable hospitality. I love that book”
“if we are providing unreasonable hospitality to our clients all the metrics are going to take care of themselves”
“when people have you know there's different ways to give people a voice and ownership um and a clear way to do that is equity in the firm”
How the episode opens
Welcome Model FAS. David Dell here, CEO of Model FA and your host of the Model FA podcast. And we are joined today by Jennifer Deg Groier, who is the CEO of the Mather Group, which is arguably one of the fastest growing RAAS in the nation. Uh Jennifer, I know we spoke a little while back on our intro call. Um but good to see you again here post post holidays.
Likewise. Great to be here and happy new year. — Happy new year. Um so give us a sense Jennifer of uh your background. So you're obviously CEO of the Mather Group uh right now but you didn't start there. How did you get started in the industry and tell us a little bit about your journey to get to where you are today?
Absolutely. So um I spent the majority of my career in the broker dealer world. um starting as a financial advisor um on the east coast which is where I'm from originally um I came to the world of financial advising via uh practicing law.
So I'd gone to law school and I practiced for several years and um a friend of a friend got me really excited about coming into this industry. So I started as an adviser and I think that was a great place to to really create a foundation of understanding the business, understanding clients, understanding how clients think about things. Um so I I really feel very privileged that I was able to start at the ground and work my way up.
So spent the majority of my time in the broker dealer world. Um, prior to coming to the Mather Group, um, I had my own firm under the Mass Mutual umbrella and, um, really knew for quite some time that the RAIA world in my opin in my mind was where this industry is going in the future of this industry.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ria model growth
- holistic wealth management
- ria mergers and acquisitions
- client retention referrals
- financial advisor career transition
Companies and tickers mentioned
- The Mather Group
Watch the episode
Watch “Unreasonable Hospitality and the Future of the RIA with Jennifer des Groseilliers” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Model Fa Podcast, this episode and its artwork belong to David DeCelle. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
