Tuesday, August 11th, 2026 | Treat Yo' Self Day
Meals provided: Dinner
Choose between playing golf at the infamous Pete Dye Golf Course or relaxing at one of the two on-site spas located on the French Lick Resort property. Arrival times will vary based on self-selected experience.
9:00 AM – 4:00 PM: Spa Appointments Available at French Lick Resort
11:30 AM: Shotgun Start for All Golfers at the Pete Dye Golf Course
6:30 PM – 8:30 PM: Welcome Dinner Reception at the Pete Dye Pavilion
Wednesday, August 12th, 2026:
Meals provided: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM: Breakfast & Networking
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Michael Kitces, MSFS, MTAX, CFP, CLU, CHFC, RHU, REBC, CASL | Chief Financial Planning Nerd at Kitces.com | Scaling Advice: From Financial Advisor to Financial Advicer (CE Eligible)
The financial planning process is a valuable, but time-consuming, process. And the pressure of ‘spending the time’ to demonstrate the value is only amplified further as advisory firms grow a sizable base of clientele and must support them in an ongoing manner after the initial financial plan is delivered. In this session, we explore the research on what actually makes the financial planning process more efficient and scalable, including the impact of advanced training and designations, how to develop more repeatable financial planning processes with an annual service calendar, how client variability impacts the efficiency of firms ad their planning processes, and the role that technology does (and does not) play in advisor efficiency.
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM: Michael Kitces | Is My Advisory Firm Normal? 6 KPIs to Track and Compare
Every financial advisor builds their advisory firm to their unique vision of how they believe their clients should be served… which can create significant challenges in assessing the financial health of the business beyond “is it profitable (at all)”, and figuring out whether the firm is pricing its services properly, what its capacity should be, and how to determine whether its team is really being as productive as it should be. In this session, we explore some of the Key Performance Indicators that advisory firm owners can use to understand the financial health of the business, including what is a “normal” profit margin and overhead expense ratio, when an advisory firm should (or shouldn’t) expect to scale its EBOC, how to use revenue per advisor to assess productivity and capacity, and how to leverage revenue per employee as a key indicator of when to hire to grow sustainably.
11:00 AM - 11:30 AM: Networking Break
11:30 AM - 12:30 PM: Mark Colaço, CFP® & Bryce Skaff, CFA | Dimensional Fund Advisors | Winning the Competitive Landscape – Leadership, Innovation, and Growth
This talk focuses on practical strategies to drive organic growth, stand out in a crowded market, and innovate. Bryce Skaff discusses the intensely competitive advice landscape, sharing how he’s seen Dimensional navigate the same themes of growth, differentiation, and transformation over his 25 years with Dimensional. He’ll explain why DFA’s so passionate about helping advisors grow their practices and how, over the past three decades, the firm has supported advisors of all sizes in scaling their businesses, communicating their value, and remaining agile in a dynamic industry. Mark Colaço, a Vice President in Dimensional’s Practice Management group, also reveals key findings from our proprietary benchmarking study which has had over 4,000 advisory firms participate globally since it was launched 15 years ago. Discover what High-Performing Firms® are doing differently to grow faster, operate more efficiently, and evolve purposefully. Learn frameworks to help communicate your value proposition to clients and ways to navigate tough fee conversations. Leave with data-driven insights you can apply immediately to elevate your own firm’s trajectory.
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM: Lunch
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM: Steven Jarvis, CPA, MBA | Retirement Tax Services | The Financial Advisors' Silver Bullet: Taxes
This session is all about how advisors can take action on taxes that help them grow and deliver more value on taxes to their clients. No exotic tax strategies that seem to only work on the internet, this is the day-to-day stuff that advisors can consistently execute. Learn the scripts that make a difference in prospecting and the systems that involve the whole team to make tax planning a reality throughout the year. Walk away with actions that can be implemented regardless of where an advisor is currently at on tax planning, including best practices for building relationships with CPAs.
2:30 - 2:45 PM: Break
2:45 PM - 3:45 PM: Peter Lazaroff, CFA, CFP® | Plancorp | Turning Concentrated Positions into Growth Opportunities: Tax-Efficient Diversification Strategies for RIAs (CE Eligible)
Concentrated stock positions can be a significant risk for your clients and a barrier to growth for your RIA. Whether derived from employee compensation, inheritance, or extraordinary investment success, concentrated positions pose substantial financial and emotional challenges. Successfully navigating these situations requires not only financial expertise but also thoughtful tax strategy. In this session, Peter Lazaroff, CFA, CFP®, will outline proven methods to help clients strategically diversify concentrated positions while minimizing tax impacts. Attendees will gain practical insights and strategies, including the effective use of Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs), exchange funds, options strategies, 351 exchanges, and gradual diversification methods. Real-world scenarios and case studies will be explored, providing advisors actionable techniques for managing concentrated stock risk, driving client satisfaction, and fostering practice growth.
3:45-4:15 PM: Networking Break
4:15 PM - 5:15 PM: Thomas Kopelman | AllStreet Wealth | Unlocking Advisor Growth on Social Media
Social media is one of the best ways to grow an advisory firm, yet most advisors still do not know how to leverage it. Why? Because they think about social media entirely wrong. They assume it's about selling, when in reality, it's about nurturing. It's about building your personal brand. It's about showing what you know and how you can help so people feel like they have to work with you. This course is all about teaching advisors how to create on social media. Where to start, what to do, how platforms are different, etc. And how to be able to create on social media for as long as possible.
6:30 PM - 8:30 PM: Dinner at the Stables Pavillion
Thursday, August 13th
Meals provided: Breakfast and lunch
7:30 AM - 9:00 AM: Breakfast & Networking
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM: Ben Carlson, CFA | Ritholtz Wealth Management | Risk & Reward
Ben Carlson traces the wealth management industry from the 1940s through the 2020s and beyond, examining how major historical events — from the Great Depression to the Great Financial Crisis to the rise of zero-percent interest rates — reshaped how advisors and their clients think about money and markets. It covers landmark shifts like the birth of the middle class, the emergence of index funds, discount brokerages, defined contribution retirement plans, ETFs, and robo-advisors, showing how each era brought new tools and new challenges for investors. Ben also covers how he and his colleagues used content to turn Ritholtz Wealth Management into one of the fastest-growing RIAs in the country. Advisors will also learn from Ben's 10+ years of creating financial content: the importance of avoiding "chauffer knowledge," showing genuine personality, staying consistent, mastering storytelling over statistics, and understanding the role of emotional intelligence in communicating with clients.
10:00 AM - 10:30 AM: Networking Break
10:30 - 11:30 AM: Christine Benz | Morningstar | The Science and Art of Safe Withdrawal Rates
Determining how much a retiree can spend from his or her portfolio is arguably the hardest problem in financial planning: Not only is the client's time horizon unknowable, but it's also impossible to predict the asset-class returns and inflation that will prevail over a retiree's future drawdown period. Morningstar director of personal finance and retirement planning Christine Benz will discuss what history suggests about safe withdrawal rates. She'll also delve into how planners can calibrate their clients' spending to account for their preferences in several key areas: their attitudes toward lifetime spending versus bequests, asset allocation, and variability in household cash flows. She'll also discuss underspending among some older adults and tools that planners can use to nudge their clients toward spending in line with their resources. Finally, she'll share how hourly planners are ideally situated to help clients make decisions about lifetime spending and gifting because they're not concerned with maintaining fee-generating assets.
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM: Lunch & Networking
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM: Dan Allison |Feedback Marketing Group and Integrity | The Psychology of Referrals: Building a Scalable Referral Engine for Financial Advisors
Most financial advisors know that referrals are the most powerful way to grow a practice—yet very few have a structured process for consistently generating them. In this interactive program, advisors will learn how to turn satisfied clients into confident referral partners by creating a clear system that reinforces value, educates clients on what they truly provide, and makes introductions natural rather than awkward. The program walks advisors through the real reasons clients do and do not refer, and how small changes in communication can dramatically increase referral activity. Model FA Full Referral Workshop
Advisors will discover a practical framework for identifying ideal referral sources, educating clients on their differentiator, and implementing simple processes that create more introductions without “selling” for them. Through client surveys, better intake language, and intentional referral conversations, advisors will leave with a repeatable strategy to grow their business organically—turning every 100 clients into a sustainable pipeline of new relationships.
2:30 PM: Closing Remarks/Departures