Visionary Advisor

Who goes first when it’s time for “the conversation”? 

Inheritance, legacy, and values transfer are on everyone’s minds, but families keep waiting for the perfect moment, and it rarely comes.

In this episode of Visionary Advisor, Alex Kirby (founder of Total Family) chats with Emily Harper and Jessica Gibbs of Monument Wealth. Together, they tackle the universal anxiety around initiating wealth conversati...

You can hire the best investment manager in the world, but if a family’s stories are lost or never spoken aloud, resilience and wealth may not last. Most advisors overlook the power of storytelling, even though research shows it shapes legacy and fosters well-being across generations.

On this episode of Visionary Advisor, Alex Kirby (founder of Total Family) features Dr Robyn Fivush, psychologist at Emory University and co-cre...

Most advisors gather clients for dinners and updates. But when it comes to building genuine connection – and trust that endures beyond markets or products – most conversations play it too safe.

On this episode of Visionary Advisor, Alex Kirby (founder of Total Family) sits down with Tim Brown, co-founder of Somos22, to unpack the 225-year-old Jeffersonian dinner format and why its architecture for trust-building is more ...

Advisors have heard it for decades: robots and technology are coming for your job, so what actually keeps you indispensable in a world awash with AI, automation, and fee compression?

In this episode of Visionary Advisor, host Alex Kirby (founder of Total Family) welcomes Rich Ryffel, Professor of Finance Practice and Executive Director of Business Leadership at Purdue University, Mitch Daniels School of Business, whose 35-year caree...

When a spouse dies or a marriage ends, most women leave their advisor. 

The real risk isn’t lost assets — it’s lost trust and connection that should never have been a single point of failure.

In this episode of Visionary Advisor, hosted by Alex Kirby (founder of Total Family), guests Katie Randall and Lisa Jones of Prime Capital Financial bring decades of experience working with women, couples, and families thr...

AI isn’t coming for advisors’ jobs. It is quietly reshaping what clients expect, how firms differentiate, and where true value lies. The challenge is simple: will you be transparent about the technology supporting your work or let clients fill in the blanks themselves?

In this episode of Visionary Advisor, Alex Kirby (founder of Total Family) sits down with Mat Matthews, Chief Product and Engineering Officer at Advisor36...

Even the wealthiest families can be unprepared for their own complexity. Most advisors aren’t trained to handle what matters most: communication, culture, and preparing the next generation for leadership.

In this episode of Visionary Advisor, Alex Kirby (founder of Total Family) is joined by Mark Tepsich, co-author of the UBS Family Enterprise Governance Report. Mark and Alex dive into what governance really looks like for fam...

Legacy letters give families the words that outlast any estate plan. Blake Brewer, founder of the Legacy Letter Challenge, joins Alex Kirby to show how wealth advisors can make this practice standard for every HNW client without it feeling heavy or hard to start. If legacy conversations are missing from your client relationships, this is the episode that changes that.

Death can come shockingly fast — and with it, a flo...

Intergenerational wealth is about far more than money. Legendary family wealth author James E. Hughes returns to Visionary Advisor to walk through the full capital stack: human, intellectual, social, and financial. Advisors who understand complete family wealth are the ones multigenerational families trust and keep for decades.

Wealth that isn’t lived as wellbeing is a tragedy—one advisors help write unless they ...

When a family loses someone, the grief tax is real, and most wealth advisors are not equipped to help carry it. Ron Gura, CEO of Empathy, joins Alex Kirby to discuss what HNW clients actually need from their advisors during loss and how showing up in those moments builds the kind of trust that survives generations. This conversation will change how you think about client care and legacy planning.

Death is not an if — i...

Harris Poll data shows what HNW families expect from the great wealth transfer, and most advisors are missing the mark on what those families care about most. The research makes clear that values, relationships, and legacy conversations rank higher in client priorities than the financial mechanics of wealth transfer. Advisors who understand this shift are far better positioned to retain rising gen clients.

Most wealth adviso...

HNW clients talk about their wealth advisors to each other, and most advisors have no idea what those conversations sound like. Matt Shechtman of Long Angle, a private community for high net worth investors, joins Alex Kirby to share candid data on how these clients evaluate and compare advisors in private. If you want to understand what drives HNW client loyalty and referrals, this episode gives you that honest view.

Most f...

Legacy is the defining work of a great wealth advisor. Robert Balentine, CEO of Balentine, has spent decades building a firm rooted in values-based advising and multigenerational planning. He joins Alex Kirby to discuss what separates advisors who become trusted family institutions from those who get replaced when the next generation inherits.

Some names in wealth management are respected. A few are legendary. Robert Balenti...

HNW clients know they need an estate plan, but most still delay taking action. David York of Entrusted joins Alex Kirby to explain why the barrier is almost never information, it is inspiration. He shares a practical framework for advisors to open legacy conversations in a way that motivates clients to follow through on the planning that protects their family wealth.

What if the problem with estate planning isn’t that ...

Family mission statements are going mainstream, and the Wall Street Journal is covering it. Whitney Webb of Cresset joins Alex Kirby to explain why this matters for wealth advisors working with multigenerational families and how documented family values make both family governance more durable and advisors more indispensable to the process.

Since the Wall Street Journal is writing about Family Mission Statements, it’s ...

How do HNW families decide between a multifamily office and a wealth advisor? Rachel Hyman of Family Wealth Alliance brings clear, research-backed perspective on where the line is, what services families actually value, and how independent wealth advisors can compete for and retain the most complex multigenerational client relationships.

The term “multifamily office” gets used by nearly every wealth firm today, b...

Capgemini's global wealth data shows the great wealth transfer is accelerating faster than most advisors realize. P.V. Narayan joins Alex Kirby to share what the numbers reveal about rising gen expectations, advisor retention risk, and the window of opportunity that exists right now for advisors who lead with family wealth strategy rather than portfolio management alone.

Over the next two decades, $83.5 trillion in wealth wi...

Ultra-high-net-worth clients carry emotional weight their advisors rarely see. Ken Haman of the AB Advisor Institute has spent years researching the psychological dimensions of wealth and joins Alex Kirby to translate that research into practical guidance. Advisors who understand the emotional journey of HNW clients build deeper relationships, have harder conversations, and keep families across generations.

Ultra-high-net-wo...

Legacy isn’t just what you leave behind—Estate planning is broken for most families, and Cody Barbo built Trust and Will to fix it. He joins Alex Kirby to discuss how digital estate planning tools are changing what wealth advisors can offer clients, why legacy planning has to start earlier, and how advisors can use this moment to deepen relationships with both current clients and the rising gen.

it’s how yo...