In the 19th episode of The COO Roundtable, Matt welcomes Michelle Thetford, Chief Operations Officer of HighTower Advisors and Michael Reed, Chief Operating Officer of Dakota Wealth Management.  HighTower Advisors is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and has $57 billion under management with 108 different advisory businesses and 225 advisors.  Founded in 2018, Dakota Wealth Management has $1.2 billion under management, 30 team members, and is headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.  Matt, Michelle, and Mike discuss how, even in the current climate with uncertainty around every corner, the COO continues to play a key role in a firm’s long-term success and goals.  Other topics of conversation include: Overview of their respective firms and how they each became COOs, including Mike’s interesting transition from a “classically trained medical practitioner” to the RIA space  How the transition to Work From Home has affected both of their larger than average firms’ operations How they have managed team morale, communication, and acknowledged their teams’ needs to ensure great client experience throughout the pandemic An update on how the pandemic has impacted their firm’s M&A pipeline Branding after an M&A acquisition How best to keep advisors focused on their biggest value-add activities We hope you enjoy, share, and subscribe! You can listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio or Stitcher. To read a full transcript of this episode, click here. Sign up here to be notified of new practice management content added to our blog on a regular basis.