Shifting consumer demand, fintech breakthroughs, hyper-efficient new competitors… the game changers are coming fast and furious to the financial services industry. What are the implications for your value proposition, your client base, your fee structure, and everything else that makes up your business as you know it? How do you manage these changes while also contending with increasingly common black swan events?

TJ Dunker, today’s guest on Elementality, has been in the business long enough to have experienced the effects of industry disruption firsthand several times. He knows what it takes to survive and even thrive in turbulent times, and in this episode, he meets up with Reese Harper to share his insights.

Reese and TJ cover a lot of ground on this show. First, they revisit TJ’s time at Charles Schwab, which emerged from the turmoil of the dot-com era by remaking itself from a discount broker into a full-service financial advisory firm. They touch on what he learned helping execute the merger of then industry giants TD Waterhouse and Ameritrade. They discuss the evolution of his current firm from multiple separate small entities to America’s #1 independent investment advisor. Along the way, they reflect on the takeaways of all this for advisors who want to succeed in today’s arguably even more challenging environment.