Modern American Advisor spoke with Christine Wedell, founder of Volare Wealth Advisors and co-creator of StrongHerMoney, about what it takes to move from a strong advisory practice to a more durable enterprise. In this conversation, she reflects on leadership, culture, serving women investors and building a firm designed to thrive beyond its founder.
Leadership Insights
- Scaling an advisory firm starts with building an organization, not simply adding more clients. Sustainable growth requires systems, delegation and a leadership team that can carry the business forward.
- Culture is an operating strategy, not a perk. Investing in people before growth demands it creates the foundation for stronger client experiences and long-term enterprise value.
- Leadership evolves as firms grow. The skills that build a successful practice are not always the same skills required to lead a scalable business.
- Client relationships are strengthened through empathy, not efficiency alone. Lasting trust comes from understanding clients’ lives, priorities and goals—not simply managing their portfolios.
- Building beyond the founder means creating a firm that can thrive for decades. The most enduring advisory businesses are designed to outlast the individual who started them.
The independent advisory industry is entering a period defined by transition. Cerulli Associates projects that $124 trillion in wealth will transfer through 2048, while more than 105,000 advisors are expected to retire over the next decade. At the same time, women are becoming a more influential force in household wealth decisions, with Cerulli projecting that $54 trillion will transfer first to widows through 2048, with more than 95% going to women.
For Christine Wedell, co-founder of Volare Wealth Advisors, those trends are not abstract industry talking points. They are shaping how she thinks about growth, continuity and the role of an advisor. Since joining RFG Advisory in 2017, Wedell has grown from roughly $30 million assets under management to approximately $185 million today. That growth was enabled in a variety of organic and inorganic ways through the creation of Volare as a distinct brand, a deeper investment in her team, and a focus on the principles of StrongHerMoney®. Wedell is quick to frame the story as something broader than asset growth. In her view, the real evolution has been moving from a practice centered on one advisor to a business built to serve more people, develop more talent and endure beyond any one person.
How Did Your Early Experience in the Industry Shape the Kind of Firm You Wanted to Build?
Firstly, I started out in the independent channel from day one, which is pretty rare. Early on, I saw the difference between an environment that was focused on new client production and one that was really focused on continuously taking care of existing clients. I learned very quickly that I loved the industry, but I was much more drawn to financial planning than to the product or stock-picking side of the business. I wanted to help people understand how money connected to their actual lives, not just their portfolios.
In pursuit of this in 2008, right before the financial crisis, I moved to St. Louis and joined a practice that was more planning-focused. I eventually purchased a portion of that book of business in 2010. In essence, that’s really how the growth of my practice started. The timing was challenging, but it was also formative. I was young, newly married and starting a family, and I felt like I had something to prove. Going through the financial crisis with clients helped build a level of trust that became the foundation for everything that followed.
What Changed When You Joined RFG Advisory in 2017?
Joining RFG Advisory was a major turning point. I give a lot of credit to Shannon Spotswood, she was president at the time and she reached out with so much enthusiasm it was just infectious. It is rare to see that kind of female leadership in the industry and there was and still is an energy around the firm that feels different. When I joined RFG, I think I transitioned around $30 million in assets and we are around $185 million today. There are a number of things I can point to that enabled that growth, but it came from a combination of acquisitions, the work we have done through StrongHerMoney®, the creation of Volare Wealth Advisors as a unique brand and the overall hard work and growth of the team. I really cannot imagine that happening the same way if I had not become part of the support platform provided by RFG Advisory. This gave me the support, encouragement and infrastructure to think bigger.
What Were the Biggest Inflection Points on This Journey for Your Business?
The first was outsourcing investment management. When I joined RFG Advisory, I was still doing that myself and Shannon kept pushing me to recognize that it was not where I should be spending my time. At first, I assumed outsourcing might mean taking a pay cut. What actually happened was that it freed up my time to focus on the things that added the most value to the practice, and that is a major lesson for advisors. It’s really important to take a step back and assess what it is that “only you” can do. If you are spending too much time on investment management, operations or maintenance issues, you may not be spending enough time on planning, client relationships, business development and leadership.
The second inflection point for me was investing in the team. I truly believe in taking care of your people and hiring before the need becomes urgent. Waiting until everyone is at capacity before they hire is a common mistake that many advisors make, and one that I would advise anyone reading to avoid. If you wait, client service is likely already suffering, so try to be proactive by regularly checking in with the team on capacity and looking ahead. It is similar to how we talk with clients about risk tolerance. You don’t want to discover someone’s real risk tolerance after the market pulls back. In the same way, you don’t want to discover your team is overwhelmed after the client experience has already been affected.
What Leadership Lessons Have Become More Important as the Firm Has Grown?
Communication is crucial, it solves a lot of problems and I find that proactive communication is best.
My life is busy on both a personal and professional level, just like many of my colleagues’ and clients’. Running a business across different cities and having a blended family that live states apart means I’m constantly on the move. Because of that, I have learned that I need to be very intentional about being available to my team. They know that if they need me, they can put time on my calendar and know I will make myself available, and that I have their back.
That is very important to me.
I have seen advisors operate with a strict hierarchy, where the advisor is above and the team is below, something which I have never and will never subscribe to. The trains run on time because of the team, the work they do and the support they offer. Without the team, most advisors would not be able to deliver the client experience they promise.
“I truly believe in taking care of your people and hiring before the need becomes urgent.”
How Did StrongHerMoney® Originate?
Shortly after I joined RFG, Shannon and I started brainstorming ways to educate women about money. She shared with me that she had been at an event and saw a real need for more financial education and investment education for women. At the time, I didn’t picture myself getting up in front of groups and speaking. But Shannon has a way of pushing me just enough to get out of my comfort zone and I’m so thankful she did. We got together at a whiteboard one day to map out what eventually became StrongHerMoney® and now it’s one of the things I am most passionate about. I get to stand in front of groups of women and help them become more confident talking about money, investing and planning for their futures.
The Industry Talks a Lot About Serving Women Investors. What Does That Mean to You in Practice?
For me, it comes down to presence, relatability, empathy, nurturing and quite honestly, love. That’s not a word you hear very often in financial services, but I really think it matters. There can be a lot of jargon and rigidity in this industry and sometimes the client is made to feel like the advisor is the smart one and they are just supposed to listen. I don’t think that’s what people need- what they want and need is to feel understood. Money is an incredibly personal topic. It is tied to fears, family, independence, identity and the life someone wants to live. We joke at our women’s events that women will talk about almost anything before they talk about money and that tells you how vulnerable the conversation can be.
If someone is going to open up about their fears and hopes, they need to feel that you are willing to be open with them too, this is where trust comes from and how it’s built. This is not only about female clients either, it’s how we try to serve everyone. We want all clients to feel that we understand them and that we care about more than their portfolio. That is also where I think the industry has to evolve. J.D. Power’s 2024 U.S. Full-Service Investor Satisfaction Study found that 41% of advised client experiences fell into the “transactional” category on its advice continuum. To me, the opportunity is to make advice feel more human, more personal and more connected to real life.
As Volare Grows, How Do You Preserve That Personal Client Experience?
Growing your business is important, but it can never come at the expense of the client experience. Clients should never feel your growth is creating distance between you and them. That means having the right team, with the right capacity and structure to ensure the relationships are still personal.
In practice, this also means making sure clients have relationships beyond just me because if something were to happen to me, I want clients to know they will be taken care of. That is an important part of moving from a smaller practice to a business at scale. While a practice can be very dependent on one person, a business has to be able to stand on more than one set of shoulders.
What Do You See as the Biggest Opportunity for Volare Over the Next Few Years?
There’s a lot of conversation about the wealth transfer to women and the broader generational wealth transfer, and those are both very important to Volare’s growth in their own rights. But I like to think about the opportunity a little differently. I have always wanted to help as many people as possible and what I’ve learned is that I can’t do that alone. To help more people, I need to find and develop more advisors who can then help more clients.
For example, one of our team members is transitioning into an advisor role. She asked to pursue that path after being with us for a few years and I was delighted to be able to support her in her growth and career ambition. Some advisors might say, “No, you are a great client service associate, and we need you to stay there.” I see it differently. If someone on the team wants to grow into an advisor role, we can support that and the firm can ultimately help more people. That, to me, is another real opportunity: developing people, creating capacity and extending the impact of the firm beyond just one person.
What Advice Would You Give an Advisor Who Has Built a Strong Practice but Wants Something More Durable and Scalable?
Outsource the activities you truly should not be doing. That could be investment management. It could be operations. It could be client maintenance issues. Advisors need to spend more time on the value-added activities that only they can do. For newer advisors, I would say patience. Growth is not linear. It is a J curve. You have to trust the process and understand that the work compounds over time.
For advisors who have been doing this for a while, I would encourage them to think about whether they grow better together than alone. That could mean joining a team, partnering with the right RIA or becoming part of a more established firm. There is no one right answer. But if you want to build something scalable, you have to be honest about where your time is best spent, where you need support and whether your current structure is really built for the future you want.
About Christine Wedell
Christine Wedell is the founder of Volare Wealth Advisors and co-creator of StrongHerMoney®. Since joining RFG Advisory in 2017, she has grown her practice from approximately $30 million to around $185 million in assets under management through a combination of organic growth, acquisitions, team development and a planning-first approach to wealth management. She is passionate about helping advisors build enduring businesses while empowering women to become more confident investors.
About Volare Wealth Advisors
Volare Wealth Advisors is an independent wealth management firm dedicated to helping individuals and families navigate life’s financial decisions with clarity and confidence. Through comprehensive financial planning, long-term investment guidance, and a relationship-driven approach, the firm partners with clients to build strategies that evolve alongside their goals. Guided by the belief that the journey is just as important as the destination, Volare emphasizes thoughtful advice, lasting relationships, and purposeful planning.
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This interview is featured in Modern American Advisor’s Torches of Freedom magazine, alongside interviews, commentary and analysis exploring how leading advisory firms scale, develop future leaders and build businesses designed to endure beyond any one individual.
