\n Katie Cullen, chief growth and integration officer at Beacon Pointe Advisors.\n <\/p>\n
\n From ROTC to the C-suite, Beacon Pointe\u2019s new growth chief says military leadership lessons translate directly to wealth management\n <\/p>\n
For Katie Cullen, Veterans Day honors the families behind the uniform as much as the people wearing it.<\/p>\n
Cullen is the new chief growth and integration officer at Newport Beach, California-based Beacon Pointe Advisors. Having grown up in\u00a0a military family and serving for 11 years as an Army Reserve logistics officer, she says the leadership principles she learned before turning 22 still shape how she helps wealth management firms grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only is Veterans Day, in my opinion, an important day for veterans. It\u2019s a very important day for their families who stand behind them,\u201d Cullen, who is nine weeks into her new role at Beacon Pointe, told InvestmentNews in an interview.<\/p>\n
Cullen joined Beacon Pointe this fall from BlackRock, where she headed the business consulting division for advisors. Her arrival in September<\/a> \u2013 at the same time as Vanguard veteran\u00a0Sarah Green, who stepped in as chief risk and compliance office \u2013 is part of the firm’s broader push to achieve mega-RIA status.<\/p>\n A military family and the financial literacy gap<\/p>\n With a father, husband, brother, brother-in-law and father-in-law who all served, Cullen’s life has revolved around the military. From that vantage point, she realized how little financial education most people receive.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew very well the importance of financial literacy \u2013 that most people are not taught about financial literacy early on,\u201d she said. \u201cYou could spend your whole career, as my dad did in the military, and come out and still have a basic understanding of finances.\u201d<\/p>\n Always being the new kid at school, she said, taught her to build relationships quickly, a skill she later brought to client work after earning her CFP designation. Over time she moved from advising individuals to coaching RIA founders and business owners, drawn by what she called the \u201ccompounding effect\u201d of helping one leader improve outcomes for an entire team and client base.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t go into financial services because I had a passion for finance,\u201d she said. “Perhaps. I had a passion for helping people.”<\/p>\n Read more:\u00a0High-tech, high-touch: Why the future of advice still hinges on human connection<\/a><\/p>\n Leadership lessons learned before 22<\/p>\n Cullen started ROTC at 18; by 22, she recalled preparing to lead a platoon of 20 to 30 people responsible for tens of millions of dollars in equipment. Among several principles she still carries from that training, she stressed:\u00a0\u201cMission first, people always.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to deliver on the mission, but you have to do it through and with your people in mind always,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n And while strategy and preparation has its place, she also emphasized that the desire for perfect information can be its own trap.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t always have to have all the data,\u201d Cullen said. \u201cI find a lot of leaders will just wait \u2013 ‘I need more data and I need more information.’\u201d<\/p>\n Commander\u2019s intent in the RIA world<\/p>\n The strongest parallel Cullen sees between military and RIA leadership is what the Army calls commander\u2019s intent. under that principle, leaders have to state the goal and the reason for it, then trust their teams to work out how to get there.<\/p>\n \u201c’This is what we have to do. This is why it matters. This is our purpose. And this is where we need to be ultimately,’\u201d she said, describing how the best RIA executives brief their teams. \u201cThey give them the guardrails and they say, ‘go do it.’ And the most incredible innovation comes out of that.\u201d<\/p>\n More fundamentally, Cullen sees clear paralells between the type of dedicated ethic among servicemembers and the fiduciary standard<\/a> driving leaders in the RIA space.<\/p>\n \u201cI make the decisions I do [as an advisor] in the best interest of the client,\u201d she said. \u201cThe military does the same. They do things in the best interst of the mission and the people around them.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more:\u00a0‘It’s a choice’: Fee-only fiduciary RIAs win client loyalty but lose market share<\/a><\/p>\n Integration as a process, not a moment<\/p>\n