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January 13, 2022

Ep. 10 Be Intentional About Growing Your Practice ft. Lance Billings, Founder & Financial Advisor at Billings Group

“I always have my faith, my family, and then my business,” says Lance Billings, Founder and Financial Advisor at Billings Group. This Disruption Blueprint episode features Lance Billings, who so powerfully weaves community, the love of his hometown, and his faith into building his business.

Salina, Kansas is home, it’s work, it’s family, it’s the center of everything Lance holds dear. Lance was born and raised in Salina. He raised his family there, started a business there, runs a business there, and will eventually pass the business on to family there. The Billings Group isn’t solely a wealth management firm, it’s a family-run business with deep community ties in Salina, Kansas.

Lance’s two son-in-law’s, Nathan Reynolds and Josh Kilsch, are also Financial Advisors with the Billings Group. Lance’s daughter, Alyssa Mitchell, spearheads client relations alongside an A-player operations team. Prior to founding the Billings Group, Lance watched and worked alongside his father, Larry R. Billings, in his tax practice Billings Tax, who at the age of 86, still does taxes.

Listen to this episode with Lance Billings to understand more about building your business during a transition, creating a multi-generational family business, and why you have to surround yourself with good people.

Join the conversation to hear about:

  • Growth in the future and building your business during a transition (1:15)
  • The importance of hiring good people and surrounding yourself with good people (1:50)
  • Lance’s advice to young advisors getting into the business (5:10)
  • Engaging in a conversation thanks to technology (7:30)
  • Navigating a multi-generational family business (10:15)
  • Relationship building with clients to establish succession-planning (14:25)
  • Walking into independence with succession-planning in mind (18:25)
  • Why is it so hard for advisors to unplug? (22:20)
  • Partnering with Bluemonte for investment management (24:20)
  • Growing up in Salina, Kansas (26:55)
  • Faith first (28:55)
  • Facing growth boldly (30:50)

“I love to hear people’s stories,” Lance says. Over the years, you get to see your client’s passion and you have a deeper understanding of what’s important to them. Those stories make the career both fun and rewarding, says Lance.

Salina, Kansas is home, it’s work, it’s family, it’s the center of everything Lance holds dear. Salina remains in a special place in Lance’s heart filled with stories, history, triumph, and life well lived. Lance was born and raised in Salina. He raised his family there, started a business there, runs a business there, and will eventually pass the business on to family there.

Lance’s two son-in-law’s, Nathan Reynolds and Josh Kilsch, are also Financial Advisors with the Billings Group. Lance’s daughter, Alyssa Mitchell, spearheads client relations alongside an A-player operations team of Deb Rahe and Brenda Sydow.

Prior to founding the Billings Group, Lance watched and worked alongside his father, Larry R. Billings, in his tax practice Billings Tax. (Lance shares in this episode that even today at the age of 86, Larry still does taxes.) Lance’s foray into the finance world started as a child when he watched his father start the family tax business, watching it grow and evolve all through his grade school years, into junior high and high school.

By the time Lance was a teenager, his interest in the family business expanded as his father explained capital gains and dividends, showing him different investment options. He witnessed firsthand the importance of sound financial planning and stewardship. His father introduced him to the financial planning world and Lance never left

“My first four or five years, I had a secondary job. I was working a night shift and I promised myself that when I made enough money doing this as a living, I can quit my night shift job,” Lance says. Lance’s story reiterates the importance of getting 1% better each and every day. Success adds up as a result of daily effort. Life isn’t a smooth, paved path, it’s a twisty, windy path.

After spending the bulk of his career at Waddell & Reed, Lance chose to walk the route to independence. In this episode, Lance and host Shannon Spotswood, President at RFG Advisory, talk about making the move to being fully independent. “We’re making decisions that are going to impact us and, and no one’s out there dictating the steps we have to take, or how many we can take, and what direction it has to be,” Lance says about navigating the path of independence. Technology and a good team help too.

Listen to this episode with Lance Billings, Founder and Financial Advisor at Billings Group. to understand more about building your business during a transition, creating a multi-generational family business, and why you have to surround yourself with good people. Below are three tips from Lance that you’ll want to remember. Huddle up. Join RFG.

  1. Establish an A-team. “Hire good people and surround yourself with good people,” Lance says. You can’t do it all alone. Team up with a good team that has similar goals as you and is willing to work together and focus on the same objective.
  2. Think about succession-planning now. Succession-planning isn’t an immediate process, it’s something you have to plan for. Think about what it looks like when you are ready to step down, changing the ownership, and how much percentage and how fast over time.
  3. Let tools and technology help you. For financial advisors, tools such as Bluemonte, which is a personalized investment platform that utilizes investment strategies to create a financial plan, makes it so you don’t have to constantly think about building a portfolio. Use the tools that are already there.

Referenced Materials

Tags

  1. Faith-Based
  2. Succession Planning
  3. Technology
  4. Next Gen
  5. Practice Management
  6. Growth Strategies
  7. Work Life Balance