This blog post is part of a series highlighting Key Management Group team members.

For the past seven years, Andrea Cwiklinski has served as a valuable member of Key Management Group. She came to us from an administrative support role in a financial advisor’s office. Originally, she began in our Practice Management division, but soon found her sweet spot as a Financial Analyst with our Client Meeting Preparation team. Her experience working within a financial advisory practice allows her to bring insight around an advisor’s needs and how an advisor’s office flows. That experience pairs with her strong attention to detail and analytical mind to help advisors assess a client’s situation and uncover valuable opportunities.

Like many of our team members, Andrea is very relationship focused. She enjoys interacting with our clients and doing everything she can to make them feel comfortable and supported. As a result, the advisors who work with her know that she will give them honest feedback and thoroughly prepare them to deliver the best client experience and advice possible.

When not at work, Andrea enjoys jogging and yoga, as well as hiking and visiting the many Michigan beaches in the summer. She loves spending time with her family and her fiancé and makes trips back home to Grand Rapids whenever possible to reconnect with loved ones. She also enjoys exploring local hot spots and restaurants, as well as exotic locations. At least once a year Andrea and her fiancé make a trip down to Mexico. She especially loves visiting Tulum where she can hike and tour the many ruins. She also enjoys the Island of Mallorca off the coast of Spain. Pretty much any sunny beach with access to hiking trails and historical sites is a destination for her.

If all goes well, Andrea and her fiancé will be married this summer. Like many, Covid has impacted her wedding plans and her ability to travel. We’re hoping she gets her wish and can have her intimate wedding ceremony in the coming months. And of course, take a trip to one of her favorite spots for her honeymoon.

If you haven’t connected with Andrea yet, reach out to her on Linkedin or you can email her directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can also learn more about our Client Meeting Preparation services here.

Nick Tucker

This blog post is part of a series highlighting Key management Group team members.

Jessica Walla began her journey with Key Management Group nearly 11 years ago. She started as a data entry person and analyst for the Case Prep team. Five years later she moved into the Team Lead role and for the past two years has been guiding our Case Prep team and helping advisors drive client experience through outsourced client meeting prep services.

Jessica notes that Key Management Group is very relationship focused, but she personally likes to ensure that her clients know she is always there when they need something. Jessica notes that clients comment that she has a “really good phone personality,” which makes it easy for them to connect with her. When asked what’s on the horizon for her and her team, Jessica states, “I’m really looking forward to further developing eMeeting solutions for our advisors and helping them execute a superior client experience with that tool.”

When not serving advisors, Jessica spends much of her time with friends and family. Her 15-month-old daughter and German short haired pointer keep her moving and you’ll often find her outside taking her daughter and dog for a walk or riding her bike. An avid soccer player through college, until a knee injury forced her to leave competitive sports, she loves being active. She especially loves being on the water either paddle boarding or kayaking on the lake near her family’s cabin in Traverse City.

Jessica loves to garden and is in the process of building a new house where she will create a robust kitchen garden that will supply her with everything she needs for cooking and preserving. Namely, tomatoes, zucchini, squash, and other vegetables that commonly make their way into her homemade dishes. Jessica is a talented pasta cook who not only makes fresh past from scratch, but she also makes and cans her own homemade sauces. She loves hosting cooking parties for her friends around major holidays. At Christmas she hosted a lasagna making class and is preparing to host a pierogi class for her friends this Easter. We’re trying to convince her to do one for Key Management as well, or at the very least bring us some leftovers! 

If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Jessica, feel free to connect with her on LinkedIn or you can email her directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can also learn more about our Case Prep/Client Meeting Prep services here.

Nick Tucker

As all sectors of the economy struggle to find and retain talent, advisors are looking at ways to stay ahead of the great resignation trend and keep their staff on board. Many factors are leading employees to resign in record numbers. For the most part, the financial advisor industry has stayed ahead of the curve, thanks largely in part to competitive pay, robust benefits, and flexible work options. But as labor shortages drive other industries to offer more and more enticing benefits in an effort to lure employees away, advisors need to evaluate and redefine their practices to ensure they remain an employer of choice. One way to do this is by designing your team and your practice in a way that allows your staff to focus on meaningful work.

The drive for meaningful work is not new. What has changed is the definition. In the early days of the meaningful work movement, the focus was on “passion” and more philanthropic work. Overtime this came to mean leveraging technology and systems to automate menial and mundane tasks so that staff can focus on more creative, hands-on, and client centered work.

For knowledge workers, like those in the advisory industry, leveraging technology and outsourcing client prep, financial planning, and other administrative tasks allows the firm to direct its in-house staff toward more meaningful assignments. Instead of staff spending their time pulling reports and designing agendas, they can focus instead on developing client relationships, business development, and other strategic initiatives like COI relationships and acquisitions. These initiatives provide staff with more meaning and connection. Staff want to feel important and see that their work is contributing to big goals. The more that they are involved in the front lines, interacting with clients, and supporting strategic initiatives (instead of administrative tasks), the more they are able to draw that connection between their effort and the bigger picture. That connection leads to a deeper sense of loyalty and commitment. Staff are invested in the outcome, and as a result, are less likely to leave.

If attracting and retaining staff is a priority for your practice, in addition to great benefits and culture, look for ways to eliminate menial and repetitive tasks and design more meaningful work into each position. One of the best ways to free up your staff for more meaningful work is by outsourcing client prep. This will free up your team to focus on the client interaction, without sacrificing any value to the client. If anything, it will create additional value, as most outsourced solutions have systems and processes that yield better insights for the client, and consequently, more opportunities for the practice.

Ready to outsource your client meeting prep? Contact us today.

Nick Tucker