Most advisory firms say they offer comprehensive financial planning. Fewer actually deliver it. The difference between the two usually comes down to how the firm is structured — and whether the advisor is set up to be the central coordinator of a client's entire financial life, or just another specialist in a fragmented lineup.

Eric Kittner, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Moneta Group, has spent his career building and refining what he calls the "quarterback model" — an approach where the advisor sits at the center of every client relationship, orchestrating tax strategy, investment management, estate planning, and beyond into a single, cohesive plan.

In a recent conversation on the Next Mile podcast, Kittner walked through what it takes to operationalize this model at scale — and why he believes it is the defining advantage for independent advisory firms.

The problem with piecemeal advice

Walk into most advisory firms and you will find smart people doing good work in isolation. The investment team manages portfolios. The tax team files returns. The planning team runs projections. Each group optimizes for their piece, but nobody owns the whole picture.

Clients feel this. They sit in a review meeting and hear about their portfolio performance, but nobody connects it to their tax liability. They get a financial plan update, but it does not reflect the trust changes their estate attorney just made. The experience is fragmented — and clients know it, even if they cannot articulate exactly what is wrong.

"I think a lot of firms have a desire to be that quarterback and drive comprehensive planning," Kittner explained. "But if you have two, three, four, 500 clients as an adviser, it's impossible to do. You do one task and you move on to the next."

The math simply does not work. An advisor juggling 400 client relationships cannot be the thoughtful coordinator each one deserves. Something has to give — and usually it is depth.

How Moneta operationalized the quarterback role

Moneta's answer was structural. Rather than asking advisors to do more with less, they redesigned the relationship model itself.

"We've really designed a relationship that is truly personal," Kittner said. "The average adviser is working with somewhere between 40 to 50 clients depending on the nature of those relationships."

That is not a typo. While the industry average hovers around 100-200+ clients per advisor, Moneta deliberately keeps ratios low enough that each advisor can genuinely serve as the central hub. The economics work because Moneta built out specialized teams — tax professionals, estate experts, investment analysts — who support the advisor. The advisor does not need to be an expert in every domain. They need to understand the client well enough to coordinate the right resources at the right time.

This is what makes the quarterback model different from the generalist model. A generalist tries to know everything. A quarterback knows their clients and knows who to bring into the conversation.

What the quarterback actually does

In practice, the quarterback role means the advisor is:

• The first call for any financial decision. Buying a house, selling a business, inheriting an asset, changing jobs — the advisor is the one the client calls before the specialist.

• The coordinator across disciplines. Tax strategy informs investment decisions. Estate plans shape insurance needs. The quarterback ensures these threads connect.

• The one who sees the whole picture. When individual specialists optimize for their silo, clients can end up with conflicting advice. The quarterback catches these conflicts before they become costly.

• The relationship anchor. Specialists may rotate. Markets change. The quarterback is the constant.

"We've been very intentional about doing what we do well — being that quarterback, providing advice, and coordinating resources," Kittner said.

Why tax is the connective tissue

One of the most striking aspects of Moneta's model is how central tax strategy is to everything they do. This is not an afterthought or an add-on service. It is woven into the fabric of how they advise clients.

"The tax aspect is crucial," Kittner noted. "It impacts every client service we provide. By minimizing liabilities, we're effectively maximizing client outcomes."

This is a point many firms miss. Tax planning is not a standalone service — it is the connective tissue that links investments, estate plans, charitable giving, business decisions, and retirement timing. An advisor who does not understand the tax implications of their recommendations is giving incomplete advice.

For firms considering how to implement a quarterback model, tax is often the best starting point. It touches everything, clients immediately see the value, and it creates natural opportunities for deeper engagement across other planning areas.

The practical impact

Consider a client approaching retirement. A siloed firm might have:

• The investment advisor adjusting the portfolio for income

• The tax preparer filing this year's return

• The financial planner running a retirement projection

Each is doing their job. None is coordinating the Roth conversion strategy that could save the client hundreds of thousands in lifetime taxes. None is timing the charitable giving to maximize deductions in the highest-income years. None is connecting the Medicare planning to the income management.

A quarterback sees all of these connections because they sit at the center. They do not need to execute every strategy — they need to see where strategies intersect and make sure the specialists are coordinating.

Scaling the model without losing the personal touch

The obvious challenge with any high-touch advisory model is scale. If every advisor manages only 40-50 clients, growth requires proportionally more advisors. That is expensive. It is also hard to maintain quality and consistency.

Moneta's approach to this challenge has two components: intentional growth and deep investment in people.

On the growth side, Moneta has been deliberate about where and how they expand. They are not trying to plant a flag in every market. "We expand in areas where we believe we can create meaningful relationships, ensuring cultural fit and operational synergy," Kittner explained. "Growth for its own sake can be dangerous — it's all about alignment."

On the people side, Moneta invests heavily in developing talent rather than just recruiting it. More on that below — but the key insight is that the quarterback model only works if you have quarterbacks. And great quarterbacks are built, not bought.

The technology that makes it possible

A quarterback model is only as good as the information flowing to the advisor. If client data is scattered across seven different systems, the advisor cannot see the whole picture — which means they cannot coordinate effectively.

Kittner acknowledged that technology is both an enabler and an ongoing challenge. "We leverage advanced analytical tools and CRM systems to streamline workflows," he said. "However, some older systems still create friction, and we're working on that."

This is a reality most growing firms face. The quarterback model demands connected data — a single view of the client across investments, tax, planning, and beyond. When systems do not talk to each other, advisors spend time hunting for information instead of synthesizing it for clients.

The firms that execute the quarterback model best are the ones that invest in data infrastructure alongside their people. Technology should buy advisors time to be more human, not create more busywork.

What "good" looks like

For a quarterback model to work at the technology level, firms need:

• A unified client view that aggregates data from every system the firm uses — CRM, custodians, portfolio management, tax preparation, planning tools

• Automated workflows that surface the right information at the right time — upcoming events, planning opportunities, compliance triggers

• Collaboration tools that let the quarterback loop in specialists without making the client feel passed around

• Real-time data so the advisor is working from today's picture, not last quarter's

None of this requires building custom software. It requires intentional choices about how systems connect and how data flows through the firm.

The bottom line for firm leaders

The quarterback model is not just a service philosophy — it is a competitive moat. Firms that can genuinely serve as the central coordinator of a client's financial life build deeper relationships, retain clients longer, and generate more revenue per relationship than firms offering transactional or siloed advice.

But it requires commitment. Lower client-to-advisor ratios. Investment in specialist teams. Connected technology. A culture that rewards collaboration over individual production.

As Kittner put it: "The future belongs to firms that can blend empathy with efficiency. Tech should buy you time to be more human."

For firms evaluating their own advisory model, the questions worth asking are:

1. How many clients does each advisor serve? If the number is above 100, depth is likely suffering.

2. Who coordinates across disciplines? If the answer is "nobody" or "the client," you have a coordination gap.

3. Is tax integrated into the advisory relationship? If tax is a separate service rather than a planning input, opportunities are being missed.

4. Can your advisors see the whole client picture in one place? If they cannot, your technology is not supporting the model.

The quarterback model works. But it only works if the firm builds the infrastructure — human and technological — to support it.

This article is based on a conversation between Kyle Van Pelt and Eric Kittner on the Next Mile podcast. Listen to the full episode: "How Moneta Group Builds Scale, Culture, and Connection Without Losing the Human Touch."

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