At Women Advisor Summit, Summit Place’s Liz Miller will offer key steps to advisor success

At next month’s InvestmentNews Women Advisor Summit Liz Miller, president and founder of Summit Place Financial Advisors, will join other industry figures sharing their expertise around building a successful advisory firm.

Miller, one of InvestmentNews’ 2026 5-Star Financial Planners and last year’s CFP board chair, will participate in a Fireside chat on the topic of “Building a Business That Doesn’t Need You.” She will be joined by Cecilia Williams, chief operating officer of Halbert Hargrove, Marcia Kamiak, and Michelle Bryant, managing partners at Premier Planning Partners.

InvestmentNews caught up with Miller to get some insight into the issues she will be addressing at the Women Advisor Summit, which takes place on Nov. 5 at 583 Park Avenue in New York City.

InvestmentNews: What are the key things that advisors need to be aware of when building a firm that can thrive beyond any individual advisor?

Miller: “At a certain point, most single advisors think about building a team or creating sustainability beyond themselves. To begin, it's important to look inward and understand your own approach to advising and the characteristics you believe define your success. These key value points then have to be translated into both systems and talent. To build beyond the one, I believe it starts with planning those key success factors into future talent hires and systematizing service delivery.”

InvestmentNews: How can advisory firms create capacity to serve more clients without sacrificing quality?

Miller: “Capacity can be built out in multiple ways. Some firms find that adding administrative support allows them to scale while maintaining an advisor’s secret sauce. Some firms leverage technology to scale, but for technology to truly support scale, it’s all about the firm that implements it. By that I mean, technology can only help to the extent a firm knows its own data and processes well enough to translate them into technology systems. Still other firms find that growing into a team structure allows for more scale. In these firms, a lead advisor, a customer service person, and a junior or associate advisor serve clients together. Firms that grow into this structure often find that it allows greater capacity at the lead advisor level.”

InvestmentNews: What do you see as the big takeaway from the session for advisors?

Miller: “I think whether by success or longevity, most firms are going to reach a point where they are trying to figure out how the firm can sustain beyond them. Whether it is the desire to move away from business management responsibilities or to grow into a leader of many, I believe this session will provide insight into how others have taken the steps to success.”

The Women Advisor Summit will feature more than 20 speakers across more than 10 content sessions. More than 200 attendees from the wealth management industry are expected to attend the event.

The Summit will conclude with the Women to Watch awards, which honor the most influential women in wealth management.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to attend the Women Advisor Summit. Register now.