Episode 10: $6B CEO Heather Fortner of SignatureFD on Leading with Authenticity | Why Specialists and Niches are the Future of Wealth Advisory | How Community and Shared Experiences Unlock Growth

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In this episode, Heather Fortner and I discuss:

• Her backstory and the key traits that gave her the ability to adapt and succeed — from a surgical intern to CEO of a $6B+ RIA

• The importance of failing (hope you don’t want Heather to bake you cookies!)

• How surrounding herself with a trustworthy circle allowed her to stand authentically in the face of adversity

• Why specialists and niches are the future of wealth advisory

• A culture of humans first, profit second

• How financially healthy families create generational impact and healthy communities

About Heather Fortner

Join me for an inspiring talk with Heather Fortner of SignatureFD, a $6B+ RIA in Atlanta. She joined SigFD as a client service associate 20 years ago when they had $250 mm. Now as the CEO and Chair of the Board, she is leading the firm to $10B by 2025. 

Heather was awarded CEO of the Year by Wealth Management Magazine in 2021 and Most Admired CEO by the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2022. In 2023, she was selected to the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2023 and named to the Titan 100 List. 

As a longstanding advocate of DEI initiatives, Heather has helped SignatureFD achieve a 90% female executive leadership team. 

Heather is recognized as a thought leader, writer, and speaker, and also has extensive board experience, currently serving on the Fidelity RIA Leader’s Council, the Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions Panel, and the Advisory Board for Mammoth Investors.

Transcript

Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.

Heather: How am I gonna be received? What are people gonna think? How am I gonna be received within the firm? How are other practitioners gonna look at me like, and I'm a woman? For me, it was just a, okay, I'm gonna have to get so crystal clear about who I am and who I'm not, and know and be able to discern what is noise and what is truth, period.

And I had to surround myself. With people that I trust to tell me the truth. Period. End of story, because sometimes the noise is so loud you can't discern it. 

Stacy: Hey, my name is Stacy Havener. I'm obsessed with startups, stories, and sales. Storytelling has fueled my success as a female founder in the Toughest Boys Club, wall Street.

I've raised over 8 billion that has led to 30 billion in follow on assets for investment boutiques, you could say, against the odds. Yeah. Understatement. I share stories of the people behind the portfolios while teaching you how to use story to shape outcomes. It's real talk here, money, authenticity, growth, setbacks, sales and marketing are all topics we discuss.

Think of this as the capital raising class you wish you had in college mixed with happy hour. Pull up a seat, grab your notebook, and get ready to be inspired and challenged while you learn. This is the Billion dollar Backstory podcast.

I got an email from a friend of mine who leads the investment team at one of the most successful RIA firms in the us. He said, I heard you were meeting with Heather, our c e o quote, who incidentally is one of my favorite people in the world and a fantastic leader. End quote, the, that was almost a year ago.

I have had many conversations and interactions with Heather Fortner since, and I'm honored to have her in the podcast studio today. Thrilled to invite you into the conversation. Heather Fortner is the c e o and chair of the board at Signature Fd, an R I A based in Atlanta with over 6 billion in a u m.

Heather has worked at Signature FD for over 20 years. That's right. She spent at one firm for over 20 years and has grown from a client service associate to c E o. Her story will inspire you. She joined Cig FD when they had 250 million, has been instrumental in the firm's growth to over 6 billion, and will lead the firm forward to their goal of 10 billion.

By the end of 2025, Heather has won numerous awards, c e o of the year, most admired, c e o, Titan, and for all her accolades and all her achievements, she is one of the kindest, most genuine people I've met in this business. Heather shows us all that you can go from an entry level employee. To the C E O C, she shows us that trying things is how you grow and it's okay to not be good at something.

She shows us that true leadership isn't perfect. It's progress and it's real. So to my friend, Tom, if you're listening, you were right. Heather is a fantastic leader and she's quickly becoming one of my favorite people in the world too. Without further ado, meet my friend Heather Fortner. So Heather, this is an incredible joy for me.

Almost outside of the fact that you're on the podcast, because I love to spend time with you. And so this is a gift, and I loved, I mean, besides all the tech blotty blah that we were dealing with in the Green Room, I love that we just reached a point where we're like, you know what? Let's just hang out and talk and who cares?

So everybody, that's what you're gonna get today. You're gonna get Stacy and Heather hanging out and talking, and you get to be a fly on the wall. There's nothing better. That's right. Those 

Heather: are the best. 

Stacy: The best. So thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. We have to start with my favorite thing, and that's story backstory, and I know you have an amazing one and.

I'm gonna let you kind of take this in any direction you want. What I've found is when I give people the floor on backstory, I mean you can go as far back to like what you thought you wanted to be when you grew up and kind of pull forward. Like what was the unique part of your journey to becoming c e O of one of the best RIAs in the country?

Signature FD. It's crazy. 

Heather: It's still funny for me to hear people say that. It's like, what? That's what I do. That's nuts. How did that ever happen? So, my dad was in finance growing up. My mom was in nursing, in medicine. And so literally when I went to college, I was a double major business major and chemistry, biology.

I wanted to be pre-med. I know I, I did all this medical mission work, growing. Up and then did, uh, my mom worked in the or and so when I was 17, I did a internship with a general surgeon where literally it was amazing. They just gave me a pager and every time that surgeon went into surgery, They called me and I would just meet them at the hospital and go in and watch these surgeries happen.

It was phenomenal and I loved every minute of it, and so my belief was, you know, I'm gonna get. A medical degree, I'm gonna change people's lives. Like this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna travel the world and do all this mission work, but I'm gonna be smart about it and I'm gonna have this business degree so that I know, you know how to run a practice and do all that kinda stuff.

And in college, you know, doing all the things and couldn't do organic chemistry. 

Stacy: I mean, seriously, can I ask what is organic chemistry, please? It's like how 

Heather: all the elements come together to make things, and I don't know, for the life of me, I j like my brain just could not process organic chemistry, but it's one of those things like every pharmacist you ever see is a genius.

And organic chemistry, and I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it. And so that was one of the things that I eventually had to, I mean, I must have taken organic chemistry like three times. You know, I'm not accustomed to not being able to do something. So it was like, I, but I've got a goal and I'm gonna get it done.

And I literally couldn't do it. And so, There was a moment in time where I really had to sit down and, and you know, I give my dad credit for this cuz my dad always said, Hey listen, you know, once you, once you graduate from college, hey kid, like you're off the payroll, you gotta be able to pay your bills and support yourself here.

Stacy: So six years in, 

Heather: I was like, I just gotta get this degree. I can't fight with organic chemistry in the rest of my life. And so I got my degree in finance and was working, was working my way through school. And you know, I was talking to my therapist one day and he was like, listen, listen, the whole point of why you wanted to do medicine was because you wanted to help people.

There are other helping professions. That can have impact in people's lives. And so I had, you know, still been studying on my own time, took the MCAT and was like, okay, you know what, here's what I'm gonna do. I am going to apply to medical school and I'm going to apply to counseling to, for a degree in professional counseling and whichever one I get into.

That's the way I'm gonna go because they're both helping professions. I can make this work. And so I did not get into medical school, and I got into the professional counseling program at Georgia State and started doing that at night. I had just. Started at Signature FD as a client service associate and literally still was thinking, you know, this is just my day job.

I'm just paying the bills like I my side hustle, you know, I'm gonna go get this degree and then I'm, I'm just gonna be done. And what I found was that I loved the work. And very quickly 

Stacy: after I got here, 

Heather: the s e C said, all registered investment advisors have to have a chief compliance officer. And me in my negativity was like, well, I can do that.

I raised my hand, like, I just don't wanna be bored, like, just let me learn some, some new things. And so went and got some training, became the chief compliance officer, and from there, You know, that was a boardroom seat. And so from there really got into the inner workings of how do we grow this business?

How do we run this business? Like what are we doing? And that's really where once I graduated with my graduate degree, it was just this. Beautiful marrying, you know, I had a decision point to make of, am I going to go pursue my doctorate and be a clinical counselor or am I gonna try to find a way to combine this training in finance with this training in humankind?

And that, 

Stacy: that was just, 

Heather: that was where it ended up, and I've 

Stacy: loved every minute of it. Ooh. I love that. I love it. Such a great story. Thank you for sharing that. You know, I had, I have so many like sort of light bulb moments for me as you talked, of course, one of which is chief compliance offer seems daunting.

Not after you've taken organic chemistry three times. You were like, compliance. Bring it on. Do you know what organic chemistry is? I'm gonna make 

Heather: compliance. I cannot put a molecule together, but I can put some documentation together. 

Stacy: So that was one thought. The other thing, and this has also been a really interesting theme in almost every conversation I've had on the podcast, which is the people who really love what they do in this industry, to me, seem to have both.

Right brain and left brain sides that are very, very developed and in tune and working together, and I think the perception. Outside of the industry, maybe even inside the industry is that, you know, this is all left brain logic. These are mathematicians and scientists and people who think you know very analytically.

And that's true, but that's not all we are ands not ours. And I think your story, Gosh. I mean, there were so many ands to that story. I love it. Thank you. It really says a lot about who you are and how hard you worked to get to the seat you're in. It also says, if 

Heather: we're being honest, I think it also says there were a couple of things that I recognized about myself.

I didn't have the plan. I think that that is just like, I don't want anyone who ever hears anything about me to think. That I had this all planned out and I knew exactly what I was supposed to do. There were two things that I figured out very early on. One was that I was my worst self when I was bored, and so because of that, I was willing to do anything.

I just was willing to learn anything, do anything because. I did not wanna be my worst self. That was one thing. And then the second thing was just because I'm a high performer, I feel like the world was my oyster. Right? It was. Well, I like all of these things. It was so much easier for me to figure out early the things I didn't like than it was for me to figure out the things I did like and that freedom, right?

And making those mistake. Stakes and learning those two lessons by the school of hard knocks, I think has given me a framework, you know, to step into these new roles where these roles didn't exist before I got into them, or I've never been a C E O before. Like I don't know how to do that. But the 

Stacy: backstory of, 

Heather: well, but I know what I don't wanna do and I know I don't wanna be bored, so I'll learn whatever I need to learn.

Gave me the freedom and the ability to just, I don't know, dive in head first and get wrong. What needed? I needed to get wrong and get right what I needed to 

Stacy: get right. You know? I love that you shared that. I relate to that so much. Of course, because every conversation we have, I'm like, yes, we're living the same life.

But you know, it's funny, I think that. Idea of not having the plan, but of knowing what you don't like. That's really tough. You know, when somebody says, well, what do you wanna be or What do you wanna do? You know, those questions are really tough. Que like lifelong questions for some of us. But knowing what we don't like is at least a starting point.

And being okay with not knowing the plan. Similar to you, and we've talked about this, like I didn't think I wanted to be in investments. I only took it as a day job to save money so I could pay from college. Same thought. I wanted to be a professor. Same. And look, here we are. We're both here. We're both killing it.

We both love it. And we never would've written that story if someone had asked us before we ended up here. Exactly. Right. And now we get to write it the way we want. And that's so exciting. And I think for me, part of the beauty 

Heather: of that in having young girls at home now is I don't wanna put that pressure on it, right?

I want to create that safe space for them where they can try a lot of things and decide. This isn't what I want to do. Right. And the earlier that I can get them started in that, of just, Hey, you wanna go try this? Let's go try it. Let's see what happens. You know, teaching them that muscle that if they try something and they fail or they don't like it, it does not diminish who they are.

Ugh, 

Stacy: that's so good. And also, by the way, your organic chemistry part of your story is really important. It's really important because you know what, what happens a lot of times when people tell their story, whether it's to other colleagues in an industry on a podcast or their kiddos, is they edit out the.

Bad parts. I'm using air quotes, which of course no one can see. Right. They edit out the messy and they think that that's like a, you know, here I'm gonna put my best foot forward. I'm gonna, I don't need to tell that part. And what happens when we do that is, and you acknowledged it when you said, I didn't have a plan.

When we give them just the perfect polished bio, people are like, oh my gosh. Like I can't connect with her cuz I'm not perfect. That's right. Or 

Heather: I mean, it's like, are you making your life Instagram worthy or not? Right? And it's, and the reality is, I'm just not Instagram worthy. And you 

Stacy: know, one of the ways that I've seen this play 

Heather: out is my daughter, I.

Oakley, who's six is very much like me, very tightly wound, you know, very competitive, doesn't like to lose. And so what I was noticing in her was that if she thought she wasn't gonna be able to do something perfectly, she wouldn't even try. Oh yeah. And I thought, you know what? I've got to start teaching her.

How to fail. Well, and that is one of the things that we, you know, want to do here at Signature FD as well. So I can't bake. I can't bake for anything. It does. It does not matter. I literally cannot bake. And so I was like, you know what, here's what we're gonna do every weekend. 

Stacy: We 

Heather: are going to make Macrons.

Now, I don't know if there's any people out on the call who are culinary experts, but a Macron is a incredibly difficult cookie to make. And I was like, I'm gonna pick the one that I know I am going to miserably fail every time. And we did. We must have made. Every Saturday. Every Saturday. Over the course of several months, we must have made, I don't know, 50 batches 

Stacy: and they were horrible.

They never got good. They 

Heather: were ugly. I mean, they got better. Like I got the right mixer. My husband literally got me a private Macron baking class so that I could bike. Like we went all in and every time, you know, they would come out of the oven and, and they wouldn't look right or they'd fallen or they were sticky or whatever.

It was raining outside and you don't make macrons when it's raining outside and all the things. And my daughter got to a point, we would have the conversation of, you know what, Oakley practice makes progress. Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice doesn't make perfect practice makes progress. And you know what?

We didn't get 'em right and I'm a little disappointed, but you know what? I'm gonna keep trying and we'll keep working at it. And for me, you know, for me it was just, Oh my word. If I want my daughter to really believe this and take this into the core of who she is, I have to be authentic with myself as well.

And how often, how often am I telling myself, you gotta be perfect? Cuz everybody's looking, you can't make any mistakes.

Yes. 

Stacy: Especially in your role as c e O. Yes. Lot of eyes on you. Yes. And you know, I love that story and if there are any Bakers listening, I need you. Yeah. You can send your tips. We are taking all the baking tips. How have you kind of. Squared, if you will. And it's fine to say you're still on the journey because starting over on that question and don't edit it out because we're here for the real.

Okay. How have you squared going from like chief compliance officer, chief operating Officer, all these very process system behind the scenes a little bit rolls to now you are the face. Of the company as the c e o chair of the board. And you do have all these eyes on you, and especially in an industry where people are like, oh man, you do not wanna, like, you know, you gotta be in this suit.

You gotta, you know, there's a part to play in the investment world. How have you squared that ability to stay authentic? Yeah, that's 

Heather: a awesome question. And um, I think there are a couple of answers. One of them is, Let's also be real in that while my career was built, building infrastructures in teams and technologies and uh, regulatory compliance, I'm also not an advisor.

I am also not A C F P, right? So my whole professional career, like I am sitting here leading a firm of people that I have not sat in their seat and they haven't sat in mine and in 

Stacy: our 

Heather: industry. That is unheard of. It's just unheard of. I don't know many other CEOs of registered investment advisors who have not at some point in their career, been a cpa, A C F P, an advisor of some sort.

And so when you talk about pressure and you talk about. How am I gonna be received? What are people gonna think? How am I gonna be received within the firm? How are other practitioners gonna look at me like, and I'm a woman? For me, it was just a, okay, I'm gonna have to get so crystal clear about who I am and who I'm not, and know and be able to discern what is noise and what is truth.

Stacy: Period. And I had to surround 

Heather: myself with people that I trust to tell me the truth, period, end of story. Because sometimes the noise is so loud you can't discern it, and sometimes. Having those people that you can go to that you know are truly objective, that can look you in the face with love and say, Hey, listen, here's the thing that's invaluable.

It's invaluable to figuring out how you're going to stand authentically, um, in who you are and who you're not, and lead as you were 

Stacy: created to lead. Gosh, I love that so much. There's always this moment in the podcast where I just, whatever like the guest says is so good that I just wanna throw my own mic, like mic drop for them.

That's what I wanna do right now. I mean, that is so good. There's so many levels to that. What fabulous advice. And it's so interesting the things that you pointed out that like in your seat you're like, you wanna know what's challenging for me? I've never been an advisor and I'm leading a team of advisors and I'm building an advisory firm, having never been in their shoes.

Like those are things I wouldn't have even thought of. But yet here are challenges that you're facing and trying to figure out, well, how do I lead authentically with some of these obstacles that I, that I really feel, I also love the acknowledgement. And you didn't share it as advice, but it is advice that we all need somebody in our circle that can call us on our crap.

That's right. That can call us on what is this with peace and love as you said, but you can't just surround yourself with people that are high fiving you all the time. I'm a big, high five person and I'm here for it, but like you also need someone. That can tell you when, hey, like, what's going on here? I see this and is this what's happening?

Let's talk. That's right. So great. So amazing. You know, I have to tell you something. When I was prepping for this podcast, so this is gonna tie back to what you said about being a a female executive. So I was prepping for this podcast. I'm like, yeah, you know, I've known Signature Rty for a really long time.

By the way, your office is one of my favorite offices, just the physical space. I love it so much. We might have to talk about it before we break, but I went on your website. I was like, lemme just see what's new and what they're talking about over here. And there were so many things I was vibing on, not the least of, which was the quiz.

So I did the quiz. I don't know if I actually like hit complete, cause I'm like, ah, there's gonna be like, what is she doing? She's just completed a quiz. But, so I did the quiz cuz I wanted to talk to you about who you serve. And I was like, wow, this quiz is kind of all these identifying questions. And at the end of the quiz, what I loved is you gave me a choice to select, like what type of group do I identify most with?

And one of those groups I believe was female executive. Can you talk about that? So do you, the whole quiz was fascinating. A and people should really consider this. It's a great fun kind of way to, you know, qualify and better serve your target market. But do you have specific teams of advisors within SIG FD that serve different target markets?

Can you talk about that? I love that idea. 

Heather: Yeah, we do. And I'll tell you how that came about was incredibly unintentional in the very beginning. When I joined Signature FD at the beginning of 2003, we were about 250 million under management. And you know, when you're 250 million under management, I mean, you're taking everybody, right?

Like you're just trying to, to get the business off the ground. 

Stacy: What we 

Heather: realized when we made our first female advisor hire in 2008 was that we had brought someone who had enormous experience into the firm, and she was very, very passionate about serving women. And so we said, oh, Dana, that's very interesting.

Like she's got a niche, she's got a community. We wanna try a lot of things and, and see what happens there. Fast forward several years, we did our first merger and that team, two of those advisors had niche markets. Their entire books were in serving corporate executives and attorneys, and so we brought them in.

Stacy: Oh, interesting. Yeah, and it was 

Heather: like, Oh wow, okay. We're starting to see a trend and add in and everything in my head works like, you know, a math formula cuz I can't do molecules, right? But math formula. So the third piece of that was that our advisors who had been here all along their books had started to transition to the types of clients and communities that they were a part of.

And so we saw this just like natural evolution happening where. Very clearly advisors were starting to build their businesses. In specific communities, and you talk differently to a professional athlete than you, to a corporate exec, than you do to an entrepreneur, than you do. And in our world and our belief, the belief around community and the belief around belonging is that it is critical to who people are and that you treat people with.

The respect and what they want to hear and how they need to hear it, and how they need to be communicated to. And so that's where the evolution of our niches came into play. And what it has blossomed into is just this really beautiful way for people who joined Signature FD across the entire firm to experience different communities of people that they're passionate about.

And then build their careers serving those people because they all have different needs. 

Stacy: So we are gonna park on this one for a while cuz there's a lot here that I love. You know, I think one of the challenges for most companies in our business is the idea of kind of owning a niche or owning a target market.

People don't wanna do that. They wanna cast the widest net. It's like, look, I'm just focusing on retirees. And it's like, okay, that is just, that's not, it's very hard to say something specific when you don't have an identified community or niche and you don't. Understand their specific problems, how they speak, all the things you said.

That's so great that you were able to see it happening early and sort of lean into it. What I find also super interesting is that you are now over 6 billion. What's your a u m today? It's almost 7 billion. Almost 7 billion. So think about this, what you've built, and I love that it wasn't intentional. Is basically a collection of boutiques inside of a boutique, r i a.

You now have these teams that are almost like little standalone boutique businesses serving a very specific target market, and they get to have, as you said, kind of a team that you know, really loves that target market, really understands it and build that business inside of the amazing. Infrastructure and support system that you've created at Signature fd, that is how you scale independently and cohesively and authentically because you're letting people be themselves.

Yes. 

Heather: And can we talk about for a minute why people, so here's where I go, all counselor on you. Why people are afraid of that, why advisors are afraid of that, I believe. That many times there is a mindset of scarcity rather than a mindset of abundance, and we're always afraid of what we're going to miss out on versus having the confidence and the belief and the faith in how good we are that a whole new world will open up if we actually take the time, you know, to be super intentional about that one 

Stacy: thing.

I agree with that. It's that idea of attract and repel, you know, because the group that's serving professional athletes, they know what their dream client DNA n a is. That's exactly right. And if a big. Fancy. C e o comes to them. They're like, sorry, I mean, you're a great person. It's no harm, no foul. But that's just not who we're built to serve.

We serve athletes. They have very different problems, needs, you know, all the things versus an executive. And so from a marketing perspective, the content that that team is gonna create, And is gonna be incredibly different than somebody serving, you know, females in finance or whatever it is, right? So I think it's such an important lesson for advisors who are boutiques to think about.

I obviously, you know, think it's critical for the other side. The asset managers need to get really specific on who they serve. But it's a great lesson and it makes me think about. Some things I've read, and I know I've talked to you about your goal is to get to 10 billion, and what's interesting, am I right that you are totally independent or have you taken private equity money?

You have not. I didn't think so. And that's rare right now. Because there's so much money sloshing around and so many people who wanna get, you know, into the R I A space. Can you talk about it? Are you at liberty to talk about just your decision to remain independent? Yeah, sure. 

Heather: When I became C E O in 20 20, 1 of the things, so obviously I am G g2, I'm a successor in the organization.

But one of the things that was. Critically important. You know, I, I did my first a hundred days and I interviewed everybody, and I did all the listening and, um, the conversation from everyone. The one thing that every single owner, and we had, you know, 54 owners at the time, was equity. The transition of equity, this basically the financial succession of the firm.

How is the financial succession of the firm going to happen? Especially in a market where valuations are so high. And so that was a year long work in progress within the organization of, you know, who do we wanna be? Who do we wanna be? What matters to us long term? What do we want for our clients? What matters to us in a resource capacity, in a service line capacity, in a quality of life and culture capacity.

And ultimately the best way that I know how to articulate the vision of our board, which this is one of the reasons PE people ask me all the time, you know, I can't believe you've been somewhere 20 years. And it's like, here's the reason why. Here's why. If you laid it all out, here is why, 

Stacy: because. 

Heather: As independence, we have the ability as a group of owners to make the best decision for our team and our clients, regardless of if it is the best decision financially for the firm and that flexibility.

To be of humans, first and of profit second, just the flexibility to do that and to have that and to say, you know what? We could make more money. But at the end of the day, it is more important to us to be about our team and about our clients. We want to retain that flexibility and that is the 

Stacy: place I wanna be.

Yeah, that's so well said. So obviously because you are leaning into these niches in these target markets, organic growth is gonna happen and I'm sure the stats would bear that out, but is that acquisition strategy, how you envision getting to 10 billion? Is that play a big role? I 

Heather: have to say, you know, in 2000, what, 20 when I took over, just quick back of the napkin math, was that if, if we grew it 20% year over year, we could get to 10 billion.

I mean, that it was just that 

Stacy: easy. I. 

Heather: Which is not easy. Let's be real. Like I'm not sa, I'm not, I'm not saying that's easy, 

Stacy: which is not. Yes, that simple. It was 

Heather: simple math in the sense of, all right, what does that mean? How much could we hit organically? Are we in. Centering the right behaviors in the firm are, are people excited and motivated?

What do I need to do in my new seat? And that has been almost, I would say, freeing for me in the ability to start to. Turn where I was probably my entire career with my back, externally and focused internally to be able to just turn around and focus externally, all of that energy. It has been unbelievable when you actually start to lean in from a service.

Perspective from a community perspective, all of those things that we've always believed. But now I'm doing all the things right? Because if we believe these things, and this is another philosophy I have, which is like, just experiment. Don't be afraid to experiment. Do small experiments and whatever works, do more of that and whatever doesn't work, just don't do that.

Stacy: And so for me it 

Heather: was like, oh, well, okay, we believe in communities. I'm gonna go get involved in community. I'm gonna go do a leadership Atlanta class. I'm going to go figure out how does Signature FD better serve the community of people that we are in the neighborhood with? You wouldn't believe what's come out.

I mean, it's 

Stacy: just, isn't that crazy? It's 

Heather: unbelievable, and I. Sometimes sit back and think, man, I wish everyone felt the freedom to simply go in and serve well, because out of that service, and by service, I simply mean involvement in the community in a measurable way. You do that and you stick in there and you do that, you know, time after time, after time, after time.

That's where relationship happens, and let's be real. People want to work with an advisor that they feel connected to, that they recognize in their own community and that they have a relationship with 

Stacy: that is belonging.

Oh, that is so good. I'm gonna throw my mic again. You know, it's interesting. I was chatting with a founding, um, partner at one of our clients yesterday and you know, it was like, kind of like us. It was supposed to be like a 30 minute chat and, you know, Over 90 minutes later, we're still sitting there and we've talked about this exact thing, which is when you work on an activity together, it does not matter what the activity is.

It could be literally playing Legos or it could be, you know, building a house, habitat for Humanity or whatever, whatever the activity is. When you work on an activity together, the connection and relationship happens so much faster, deeper, more levels to it. All the things, just the act of doing something together.

Absolutely. And so I think you hit on something that. Again, it's simple. It's not easy. It requires time. It requires support of your organization. I saw you guys were just out doing something as a group. I think Ronald McDonald House, you did something right. I saw on social, great job. But look at like, that's how you build connection internally.

But you can also build connection externally. It doesn't have to just be like, go play golf, and, you know, whatever we used to do in the eighties, I don't know. Doesn't have to be that anymore. Um, Stacy, they're still golfing, by the way. Oh, they are? Well, I thought we moved past that. I, I've never golfed, so I've never been cool in this biz.

Yeah, me either, but I, I 

Heather: think I probably need to learn at this point because it's still happening. 

Stacy: So can I tell you, I went through this phase in my career. It must be the counselor in you that's got me talking now. So I went through this phase in my career where I was like, oh my gosh, what am I doing here?

I. Like it really hit me hard. I was really successful, but I'm like, I don't fit the mold. And you know, you go through all these imposter syndrome things, but almost just like, oh my, I wanted to fit in more, I think. So I decided I was gonna take golf lessons, and at the time I lived in Boston and I didn't have a car.

I was like, okay, that's fine. There's like this city golf thing. It was this tiny little hole in the wall. And it underground, and it had a golf simulator. And I mean, I've never played golf, so I decide this is how I'm gonna learn golf. And I go and I do it. And I'm horrible. And I'm horrible and it's a different instructor every week and I'm like, You know, this is not for me.

This is just not for me. And of course people were like, that's not golf. You don't golf like in a basement. And I was like, well, I was trying to learn. It's just not gonna happen. I was like, it's just not for me. If you wanna come and have a drink after and hang out at at a beautiful golf course, I'm so game.

But don't ask me to hit any, I'm not gonna hit 'em. I 

Heather: will drive the cart any day of the week. I will drive the cart and I will try, but it, it is, it is definitely not a skill of mine. 

Stacy: It's funny how that is such a linchpin, but it doesn't have to be. And I think that's the point. So if there's anyone else out there who's raising their hand, like I also am not a golfer, that's okay.

I know lots of advisors who do pickleball or tennis or, so you can find something else, or you can go get involved in the community as a way to connect with people. And hi to all the salespeople of asset management companies who are out there trying to network all the time. Go do something. Go get involved.

Don't just like ask people to go out to lunch or whatever, like go get involved and do something. I mean, this is a great example of how that can help you build any business. I agree. So, so 

Heather: your question is, you know, are we looking, I think our answer is we are. Always looking for amazing advisors, especially if they are passionate about a certain niche that we've already created.

Because we already have the teams, we've got the infrastructure, we've got the platform. And so, man, if you want to just serve clients well and you are passionate about a certain niche, like Signature FD is the home that you need to look into. 

Stacy: I love that message. I hope people hear that message loud and clear, and so I don't know if, is there a way on your website to see all the niches, or do you have to do the Yeah.

Who we 

Heather: are, who we serve, right there. 

Stacy: Okay, so go check that out. That is phenomenal. And again, I love this. I say this a lot in the asset management space. The sign of a healthy industry, of a healthy ecosystem is when the bigs actually feed. The next generation, right? The bigs aren't competing with the boutiques.

They're sort of taking their success and investing in the next generation, and I think you've created that. You've created a way where, A larger r i a doesn't necessarily have to go gobble up everything or, you know, take private equity money to go scale and be the biggest and, and whatever. You can actually build this collection of specialists and give them a home and a platform to continue to grow.

That's different. That's really different. And I think for 

Heather: us, the beauty in all of that is that our belief is that healthy families change the world. 

Stacy: I love that sentiment. Financially 

Heather: healthy families change the world, and so we want to be a collection of individuals. Who bring our passions and our expertise, specifically in the financial world to help families become financially healthy so that they can go change the world.

Because if you have financially healthy families, That are changing the communities that they live in. That is how you make generational impact. And so being a platform for the people to go and do that and serve well and have a wonderful life. Integration and wealth creation opportunity, uh, while doing that.

I mean, that's just, 

Stacy: that's awesome. I love that. Right. It really is. And I know you're not an investment person, but since I know some of your investment team really well, I have to ask this question, and this is not by the way, There's no good or bad to this question that I'm about to ask because every advisor builds their practice and their firm differently.

So I'm wondering how investment management plays into Signature fd. Do you consider it one of your differentiators? Like, Hey, we're really talented at investment management and we have a team that's dedicated to it and they're thoughtful in building portfolios and we create differentiated portfolios for our clients, et cetera.

Or is it more like investment management is kind of not one of our sort of, Edges or something that we really think defines us as a firm. I think you see flavors of that. You have some advisors who are like, you know, I don't want investment management to be like part of my, my vibe. Like, yes, I do it, but I'm not leaning into it, and I just wonder how you think about it as a firm.

Can 

Heather: we be an and 

Stacy: like a partial in? Partial in both. You can totally be an and. Absolutely. So, 

Heather: and this is Heather's belief. 

Stacy: I 

Heather: don't believe that results, performance results differentiate 

Stacy: you. Oh, I agree with you a hundred percent. As an organization, I believe there are 

Heather: hundreds and hundreds of very, very good organizations.

There are a ton of them here in Atlanta, right, that are doing great work, that have great performance results. I believe that's a skin in the game. I. To be a quality 

Stacy: R I A 

Heather: shop. I do believe investments are a core part of an entire 

Stacy: Yes. Okay. That's what I was trying to get at. They are a 

Heather: core function of an entire financial design, so you best be as good as you can be.

Right. And we invest a lot of money. We have a fantastic team in being the best that we can be. At that core pillar. But what we believe is that it is one piece of the overall design. And our belief is that wealth falls into four pillars. There's only really four things you can do with wealth. You can grow it, you can live it, you can give it, and you can protect it.

And so thinking through, you know, helping clients think through, What is the purpose of this wealth? What is the purpose of this bucket? Let's be sure that we have protected everything that needs to be protected so that you then have the freedom that we have appropriate live assets for you. For income purposes, let's be sure that we have clearly laid out.

We incorporate voluntary and involuntary giving in the give bucket. So not only, not only your voluntary philanthropic desires, but what you're gonna have to give away in taxes. Let's be real. You're giving, right? 

Stacy: Yeah. It's funny that that's in give, but yes, it's gotta go somewhere. You 

Heather: are giving it away and you are giving it to somebody that you don't want to give it to.

Let's be real. And then in your grow, right, that all of that structuring, that design frees you up to have less anxiety from a behavioral perspective around the things that are in your grow bucket because we have taken away anxiety when it's all mixed together and you don't know the purpose and there's not a great design when you understand how your wealth is serving you.

From a behavioral perspective, you are much more able to follow a plan over the longevity of time that is required for that plan to be successful. And isn't that our real goal? A hundred percent isn't that Our real goal is to be sure to help our clients in the best way we possibly can to achieve the things that they want to achieve.

Stacy: Yes. And I love how you said you know, the performance is not the thing. It's not, it's a means to an end. It doesn't differentiate you the result, like whether or not you beat your buddy at the cocktail party, if your portfolio outperformed theirs or if you beat the, it doesn't really matter. What matters is what you're trying to build, what you're trying to achieve.

And do you have the right. Pieces, right pillars, as you said, to make that happen. What I love about your and comment is I think there's a perception. For some advisors that it's like I either am a holistic financial planner, or I am more focused on the investment side. And so if I wanna be really into helping people live the life they want, maybe I'll find a way to just outsource the investment piece or just, I don't know, it's not that important.

Let me just, whatever. And what you're saying is you can be both. You can specialize in all four of those pillars. And actually, if you wanna build. You know, a 10 billion sustainable, you know, legacy in the R I A space, you need to be an expert in all four of those pillars. I think that's, that's wonderful.

And then as an 

Heather: advisor, if you 

Stacy: don't want 

Heather: to go through what it takes to build the platform, to be an expert in all four of those, you can come join a signature fd, do what you love, and utilize the resource of the team. 

Stacy: Exactly, and I think that's a really interesting point. You know, if I put myself in an advisor's shoes, Kind of understanding what my options are for, whether it's, you know, thinking about succession or how, like what's the next gen?

Is that G2 by the way? Yes, g2, yes. Um, we actually have G2 G 

Heather: three. 

Stacy: We're on G three at this point, so yes. Okay. So I love that I learned something new. I didn't know that was like the generation second generation. Generation two, generation three. I love it. Okay. So I mean, I think that's brilliant and I, I think it gives advisors another avenue that maybe they're not necessarily thinking about.

So I appreciate you sharing that, and I hope people. Are inspired by what you're building at Signature fd. I'm inspired by all of it, what you're building, who you are, your, your backstory, but also the future story and what you're creating. And I really loved the moment where you shared, you know, I've spent so much of my career with sort of my back.

External and facing internal, and now I'm pivoting. And I can tell you you're doing a fabulous job and it's very authentic and it's very real, and I'm cheering for you. Thank you for that. Yeah. I wanna end with a couple of these questions. You've been very real and authentic. If you have time for a few of these, this is inspired by Bruce questionnaire, which helps us get to know you a little more.

Start with the easy one. I think it's easy. I don't know what book inspires you. Does not have to be a business book, by the way. Oh, it's the Bible. Oh, that's the first times anybody said that on the show. Really? I love that you said that. Wow. Yeah. It's my go-to needs. No explanation. Okay, so let's take it from book to place.

What place inspires you? Like what's your happy place? I am 

Heather: happy. So I have a 17 month old and we have a special little glider upstairs in the nursery that when I'm with my, my girls, you know, reading or in some kind of, I'm just anywhere they are, being with them is, you know, it's my special place. 

Stacy: I love that.

And it's a moment in time, isn't it? It's a season and it's very challenging, but it doesn't last forever. And I love that you are acknowledging that it is so fleeting. Yeah. And leaning in. I relate to that very much. Okay, now a little bit of a fun one. So we're gonna pretend that you, well, you are a rockstar, but now you're a literal rockstar.

You're, Ooh, I love being a rockstar. Yeah. Okay, so you're walking out. On stage somewhere. Okay? You're going to give a presentation and they're gonna play a, a hype song, a walkout anthem for Heather. You're walking out to thousands of your screaming fans. What is the song that they play? She's a 

Heather: brick. P

is that?

Stacy: Sang it is the best. That is so good. I might have to require people to sing. From now on, you can all call Heather and thank her that you'll be singing on Stacy's podcast from this point forward. That was amazing. Oh, that's so good. Okay. What profession, other than your own. Would you like to attempt? 

Heather: Oh yeah.

Mm. I really have this thing and one day if I retire, I may go back to school and, and do organic chemistry. I really, I'm not kidding you. I 

Stacy: was gonna say, that's the answer to the next one. I'm probably 

Heather: gonna take that class just to pass it one day in in my life. I'm just not usually okay with, um, You know something besting me.

Stacy: Yeah, I get that. Have you read the book Lessons in Chemistry? Uhuh. Okay, so I read it this year. Lessons in Chemistry when you're not reading books to the girls and you know, running a company at all and how like. This is a good book for you. Okay. I'll write it down. Lessons in Chemistry. I think you would really like the main character a lot.

Perfect. Okay. Um, so now I don't know what's gonna happen on the next question. What profession would you not like to do? 

Heather: Oh, well there's a lot of those. You know, I would not like to do anything on a big boat. Because I get really motion sick. 

Stacy: How about if it's a bakery on a boat? Is that like the worst?

That would be the worst. Nope. 

Heather: No. Nothing on a big boat. I just, I can't do anything on a big boat. I can do a little boat, but not a big boat. 

Stacy: That is amazing. I love that. Okay. What do you want people to say about you after you've retired or left the industry? That one's very 

Heather: easy. So my mission statement for myself is to love and lead well, and that's what I want people to say that I did.

She loved me well, and she led me well. 

Stacy: I think you're already doing it. And they're probably already saying it. I'm saying it. Yes. You do. You love and you lead. Well, Heather, thank you so much for being here. This is one of my favorite podcasts I've done. I mean, I don't know if you can say that as a podcast host, but I just love how authentic and real it was.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

This podcast is for 

Heather: informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. The information is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy. Investment values may fluctuate and past performance is not a guide to future performance.

All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm. Manager's appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacey Havener or Haven or Capital Partners.

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