Trusted Advisor Podcast Series

Rod Zeeb speaks with Kasia Flanagan of Everyday Legacies, as she highlights the importance of preserving a family’s stories, values, and identity—its “qualitative capital”—as intentionally as its financial wealth. Through books and films, she helps families create lasting records that strengthen resilience and connection across generations.

Parents with substantial assets face an important question - how do I transfer a significant inheritance and plan for a good result? Rod Zeeb and Charles Schultz discuss ways to build an excellent plan for successful inheritance.

in this conversation, Rod Zeed speaks with Kristen Heaney, founder of In 3 Generations, who shares her own journey of finding opportunities for development as a second generation inheritor, and Rod and Kristen discuss the challenges individuals and families face in finding consultants and educators to assist on their journey of development and engagement across generations. 

Trusts are meant to protect families, but what happens when the trustee isn’t trained to carry out the role? Rod Zeeb and Jennifer McCloskey dive into the hidden pitfalls beneficiaries face when trustees lack formal education and the skills to truly serve. We explore why the education gap exists, the human costs of unprepared trustees, and how real trustee education—grounded not only in law and tax, but also in empathy, communication, and listening—can transform outcomes for families.

Rod Zeeb and Christopher Holtby explore why the true transformation in trust administration doesn't lie in statutes or jurisdictions, but in the shift in posture and mindset of corporate trustees as they engage with families and their financial advisors.

Rod Zeeb and Caleb Breakey explore the power of honest storytelling as a pathway to healing multigenerational wounds, showing how transforming painful memories into tools for legacy—rather than sources of shame—can reshape family narratives. By facing the past with truth and compassion, we create space for the rising generation to reclaim their voice and write their own story with freedom, strength, and purpose.

When it comes to preparing the rising generation, traditional financial literacy programs often miss the mark - failing to create meaningful behavior change 99% of the time. Rod Zeeb and Rachel Gil discuss why effective rising generation engagement begins with the entire family, not just the kids or heirs in isolation, offering practical tools for advisors and families to build real engagement, cultivate values-driven decision-making, and foster lasting stewardship. Listeners will walk away with strategies to shift from information-dumping to true education that sparks responsibility, connection, and growth.

In this episode, Rod Zeeb sits down with Doug Gray to explore the power of effective 360 assessments in driving business performance. Together, they unpack how well-designed 360 assessment tools can uncover blind spots, enhance team dynamics, and develop stronger leaders at every level. Whether you're a business owner, executive, or advisor, you'll gain practical insights into using 360 assessments as a strategic tool for growth and transformation.

Rod Zeeb speaks with Josh Kanter as Josh dives into the world of modern estate planning, exploring how to build flexibility into your trusts so they evolve with your family’s changing needs. Josh breaks down strategies to create adaptable, resilient structures that protect your legacy and serve generations to come—because a trust should grow with your family, not hold it back.

Beneficiary Well-Being Trust Provisions Beyond the 2024 Delaware Trust Act

Rod Zeeb speaks with Matthew Jarvis about the importance of collaboration between financial advisors and estate planning attorneys to ensure clients' estate documents align with their wishes. Learn about the key factors that clients take into consideration when choosing professionals to work with and strategies to encourage clients to take action on estate planning to avoid complications in the future.

Rod Zeeb and Lori Coonen, Chief Learning Officer discuss culture, how to build it, and why it is important to the success of families.

Why do families set up family trust companies? Why is now an important time to consider doing estate planning and setting up a family trust company? Rod talks with Cindy Steeb of Clearstead about her new book and how private family trust companies can help families preserve multi-generational wealth.

Kristin Keffeler, Marlis Jansen, and Rod discuss what the Practice Element of Wealth 3.0 really is, and how it differs from many professionals’ perceptions of what it is.

How do you find your Focus? Rod and Tammi Brannan of Blueprint Process, discuss how you can find your Purpose, which is your reason for being here. Once you know that, you're motivated to select only those projects and relationships that help you fulfill that reason. Focus is then naturally achieved and on point for you, your people, and God.

To sustain a legacy of transgenerational success requires a focus on the family side of the family wealth equation. Conventional wisdom says that family governance is the way to do that. In this episode, Thomasina Williams, Founder of Sankofa Legacy Advisors, shares a leadership development approach for going beyond family governance to build a Connected & Capable Family™ of engaged stewards of both a family's financial and non-financial resources.

How important is the coordination of a family’s legacy plan and their values with their assets and valuables? In this podcast, Rod Zeeb and Paul Binnion of Hanlon Investment Management discuss where the industry is lacking today and how they envision correcting those shortcomings.

Are your Clients’ families prepared if they lose the ‘recordkeeper’ of the family? Whether that is the family patriarch, another family member, or trusted professional, Rod speaks with Josh Kanter of leafplanner on how to create a leafplan to apply a family office lens to the collection, organization, and mapping of a family’s and family enterprise’s information in a single-source manner, allowing a family to identify blind spots, take proactive and corrective actions, educate family members and advisors, and prepare a family for an effective, comprehensive, and efficient succession-of-information. 

Exciting changes are afoot in the field of family wealth advising! Instead of focusing on the negative behaviors that lead to the dissipation of assets and degradation of family relationships, we are now being called on to emphasize the client’s strengths and focus on constructive behaviors and conversations to help them thrive. Join Rod as he discusses this topic with Marlis Jansen, a licensed therapist and wealth dynamics coach who, through her firm Graddha LLC, serves ultra high net worth individuals, couples, families and family offices.

Rod Zeeb and Donald Dee of Rare Coins of New Hampshire, discuss how precious metals and numismatic coins are considered safe havens in the investment world as they provide an effective hedge and help to mitigate losses when financial investment vehicles falter or fail. Given the current economic environment, precious metals and numismatic markets are now providing robust returns and are of great appeal to many investors. However, investors must be aware that all precious metals and numismatic firms are not created equally and must choose firms wisely.

Rod speaks with Cary Fry of Kalamath Consulting Group about how to uncover opportunities with business owner clients in transition planning that monetizes the value of their business to help them live their best life as a result of their work.

Rod’s conversation with Kristin Keffeler, Founder & Principal of Illumination 360, continues with a discussion of Wealth 3.0 and how this concept proposes that our profession needs to take a new direction that emphasizes family strengths, developing capability, and collaboration.

Rod talks with Kristin Keffeler, Founder & Principal of Illumination 360, about how to focus on the path to thriving for the rising generation and the key role that the trusted advisor plays.

Rod Zeeb and Ryan Zeeb of Genacy, talk about building a collaborative team and using collaboration to provide services your clients want and/or need that you do not provide and to build a multi-family office practice.

Rod Zeeb and Lori Coonen, CLO of The Heritage Institute, talk about why our training was created and how it's evolved over 20 years.

Rod and Hugh Ballou of SynerVision Leadership Foundation, talk about the importance of leaders continuing to develop their leadership skills and overcoming challenges to create a high-performance team culture. 

Rod & Doug Gray, Co-Founder of Assess Next Gen and a Consultant with The Family Business Consulting Group, discuss trends in both qualitative and quantitative assessments that are available, information for access to the assessments, and collaborators to help you if you need it.

Rod and Gayle Reaume, Founder of Moolah U, discuss the importance of teaching children what money is and how money works through hands-on experiences, building confidence and stability in the financial future of the Next Generation.

Rod chats with FairSplit founder, David MacMahan about FairSplit.com, an online platform for transparent and efficient, listing and dividing assets online. Whether simply needing a proven process, or needing an independent third-party to manage a fair division, the FairSplit.com platform and services address one of the most challenging areas for executors, trustees, and heirs.

A conversation with Rod and Doug Markewich, Family Coach at Quadrant Private Wealth, regarding the impact that framing (or lack thereof) has had on real cases.

Rod talks with Dianne Chipps Bailey, National Philanthropic Strategy Executive at Bank of America and Chair of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute (WPI) Council, about the future of philanthropy. Dianne shares the latest research from Bank of America and WPI and explores top trends including the demographic shifts in religion, priorities, and practices of affluent Americans, and the growing power of women as philanthropists.

Rod talks with Paul Edelman of Edelman & Associates, about how to make it easier for clients to tap your expertise by fostering their sense of efficacy and control. They also address when and how to make a referral to a third-party coach or facilitator.

Rod talks with three Independent trustees - Daniel Felix, Frank Mullins, and Steven Marken, who explain what they do, how they work with professionals, and the benefits for both the planning professionals and the clients in the right situations.

Purposeful Planning Institute - Changes Over the Last 20 Years

Rod speaks with Melissa Mitchell Blitch, author of "In the Company of Family - How to Thrive When Business is Personal" about the importance of boundaries in families and helping them to thrive both as a family and as a business.

Rod speaks with Rodger Johnson and Tiffany Kirgan from Johnson Financial Group to learn how they have integrated the Heritage Process and multi-generational planning into their financial services practice and the impact it has had on their clients, their relationships with their clients, and their business.

Thayer Willis is an author, speaker and leading authority in the area of wealth counseling. Born into the founding family of the multinational Georgia-Pacific Corporation, she brings to her field a unique insider’s perspective on contending with family dynamics as they relate to the mental and emotional challenges of wealth. Our topic is the psychology of wealth and the issues faced in the rare world of inheritors including some of the wrong assumptions that people make about that world.

Paul Binnion with Hanlon Investment Management talks about the changes that have happened and are happening in the investment advisory world from transactional relationships to consultative relationships.

Marty Dutch, VP, Director of Philanthropy Services at First Foundation in Irvine, CA and Past President of the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy talks about philanthropy and how it benefits both professionals and the families they serve.

Providing experiential learning experiences for your clients will lead to deeper relationships, higher client retention, more and better introductions, more revenue now and in the future, happier clients, and a more satisfying experience for the advisor.

There is a tsunami-level shift taking place in the planning world. You might not be aware of how deep it is. This shift is being driven by clients who are being more vocal than they have ever been about the outcomes they are seeking from the work they do with their advisors. Rod Zeeb suggests that you may not have the big picture about this shift, and what it means to your business.

Most people experience different levels of trust with their various advisors, and your clients certainly trust you. But, are you the trusted advisor they call when anything major (not just legal or financial) happens in their lives? Here is how to move up to that level of trust.

Heritage Institute founder and CEO, Rod Zeeb describes the origins and mission of the Institute, the value it delivers to advisors, and its development into the premier source of training for advisors who are ready to take their practices to the highest level.

Lori Coonen, Master HDP & Chief Learning Officer, interviews Rod Zeeb about the use of a powerful and specialized kind of “Alignment Conversation” that advisors can use when enrolling new clients.

Rod Zeeb tackles the age-old question that advisors regularly deal with when it comes to issues of inheritance and philanthropy: How much is enough to give the children? The answer, of course, begins with the phrase, “It depends!”

Rod Zeeb talks with estate planning attorney David York about the shift that has been taking place in estate planning, where understanding and identifying what matters most to the client takes center stage.