This is how the industry can develop the next generation of leaders: Summit Place founder Liz Miller

Since founding Summit Place Financial Advisors in 2008, the company’s President Liz Miller has been laser-focused on developing the next-generation of leaders, an area where she feels the broader industry needs to ramp up its efforts.

“I think our industry has a real need to be getting this right,” she told InvestmentNews. “With this great wealth transfer you just have that many more people looking for experienced, developed advisors.”

Miller is part of a six-person team at the Summit, New Jersey-based firm, three of whom, including herself, are advisors. But talent, and the nurturing of it, have always been a priority for her.

“My whole team, the whole rest of my team are basically 30 somethings,” she said, and outlined her philosophy for hiring and developing talent. “When we bring in new advisors, they're spending at least a couple of years learning to be good advisors, shadowing, being mentored,” Miller explained. “And when the time comes that they need to start thinking about building business on their own, we also give them training, skills and support to be ready to do that instead of expecting that as soon as we hire them."

“Basically, the first two years is spent learning to be a good advisor, and then business development comes later,” she added.

Miller explained that the company’s approach to talent development differs sharply from the traditional model used in, say, wirehouses or the insurance industry, where a brand new hire will start with business development. “We need to swap that around and have them start with the human aspects and learning how to advise, and then start training on the business development and those goals several years in,” she said.

This approach certainly seems to be working for Miller’s company – Summit Place Vice President and Wealth Advisor Kate Feeney has been honored as one of InvestmentNews’ 2026 5-Star Financial Planners, while her colleague, managing director and senior wealth advisor Assunta “Susie” McLane was honored on last year’s list.

Miller explained that she has also been developing the company’s senior investment strategist from “just a few years out of college,” explaining that “he's a brilliant market strategist.”

In addition to running the boutique firm, which has $325 million in assets under management, Miller has also devoted plenty of time to the broader advisory industry, and was chair of the CFP board last year.

She is certainly conscious of the advisor shortage facing the industry. “We hear, and research shows, that high schoolers, college age, male and female, have a very outdated vision of the opportunities in financial services and really don't even know about the role of a financial advisor,” she said. “Maybe they've heard the old term broker, but most of them are sitting in business classes and finance majors, only knowing about banking.”

“And we have an incredible need in this country … for students who love the topic and also love working with people,” she added. “When we can get the message at that college age that this is a role that combines both of those … we bring even more people into the talent line.”

Last year a report from McKinsey & Company highlighted the looming advisor shortage in U.S. wealth management. McKinsey estimates that, by 2034, the industry will face a shortage of about 100,000 advisors.

Miller pointed to the growing links between the CFP and colleges as a step in the right direction to solve this problem - there are currently 367 CFP Board Registered Programs at 252 universities and institutions.

She also urged advisors to get involved in outreach, particularly at the high school level. “At CFP Board, we continue to encourage all CFP professionals to give back to their community through pro bono opportunities,” she said. “And a lot of CFP professionals want to go into the high schools and talk about the careers.

With regards to major trends in the wealth management industry, Miller also pointed to the Great Wealth Transfer and the growing number of assets that are shifting into the hands of women.

“With the great wealth transfer, suddenly it's in vogue to say, let's teach you how to be an advisor to women and I'm sure there are some firms that can change what they're doing, but our firm chuckles at that," Miller told InvestmentNews. “Because right from the start, we were focusing on complete families and we always brought both people who are a couple into the discussion.”

"I think any firm like ours that has women in senior positions and has long been working with women and men alike says, it's not a light switch where you change what you do," she added. "It's not about me, but the great team that we've built."