About

“Ultimately, the holy grail of operations is not the best technology but the inspired leadership of an experienced and dedicated chief operations officer (COO), supported by a talented team of operations specialists.”

Mark Tibergien & Rebecca Pomering in Practice Made More Perfect

HIFON is a private, independent study group.

Your Success is Our Mission

Since 2010, we've quietly built the premier community of RIA Operations Professionals. HIFON membership gives you access to best practices, independent advice, and peer-to-peer support you cannot find anywhere else.

Activate your free trial membership and experience the benefits for yourself.

30-DAY FREE TRIAL

The History of HIFON

Industry Voices

“Membership in HIFON is your best chance to stay on top of all the best practices, software innovations and practical money/labor-saving advances in that all-important operations side of your business.”

Bob Veres

Editor/Publisher, Inside Information

“HIFON is an industry game changer. Shaun has created a community of operational professionals that has a meaningful impact on their firms. If you’re in an operations role at an RIA and not in HIFON, you’re missing out.”

Lisa Crafford, MBA

Vice President, Pershing Advisor Solutions

"I know that the Operations personnel from many of the best managed advisory businesses in the country are members of the HIFON study group for Operations professionals. Imagine being able to leverage your business efficiencies and results using the combined resources and best thinking of nearly 150 other top firms!”

Jean Sinclair, MBA, MSBA, CFP

Avenue Advisors, LLC

“Our clients who belong to HIFON leapfrog other firms when it comes to operational efficiency. We are constantly encouraging Operations Managers and COOs to join. Besides saving inordinate amounts of time by networking with peers who are solving many of the same problems, HIFON is a great professional development resource for anyone in an Operations career track.”

Jo Day

Co-Founder, Trumpet

Member Snapshot

HIFON is the source for best practices, professional networking,
and peer-to-peer operations support.

With the experience of seasoned professionals and the variety of systems and custodians, HIFON delivers expertise you can put to work right now.

On-demand collaboration from the comfort of your desk.

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Median Employees

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Technology Systems

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Custodians

Your Membership

Every HIFON member is committed to advancing our profession and your success.

Operations Forum

Every month you’ll have an hour-long call with a small subset of HIFON’s membership. This private study group let's you dig deep into various topics. You'll better understand what's possible and what other firms are doing right now. You’ll also have a chance to offer up your expertise to the rest of the group – making everyone better with this collaborative effort.

Discussion Board

This message board will become your go-to resource for RIA operations questions. When you’re stuck, need a tip, or just some advice from someone who's been there before, just search the database of prior topics or ask a question yourself. This is your peers helping you solve your most pressing problems.

Member Website

Our member website is designed with your needs in mind. The site is filled with content our members have asked for over the years – tools to collaborate, educate and connect you with your peers and industry best practices. Check out all of our member benefits.

What Our Members Say

Every HIFON member is committed to advancing our profession and your success.

"I love the opportunity to connect with operations leaders focused in space and learn what they are doing that is making an impact on their clients and their organizations. Having access to a collection of materials that have worked for other companies has been a game changer as I entered this role from outside the industry."

Melissa Bushman

AltruVista

"I highly value all that HIFON offers. Whenever I am about to implement some technology or need feedback on something pertaining to Operations and beyond, this is my go to place. Our Portfolio Management migration from would have a very different outcome if I didn't have HIFON as a resource."

Bonnie Maingault

BERNHARDT WEALTH MANAGEMENT, INC.

"This group is the first place I go if we have a question, challenge or change we are looking to make in our firm."

Rob Caverly

Bond & Devick Wealth Partners

"Before HIFON, there was no place for operations and compliance professionals to go to find out best practices and share ideas. I find that this group provides very valuable, practical and useful information and insights that I have used at my firm."

Nicole Bonanno

Peapack Private Wealth Management

"HIFON has been a great group to be a part of. The monthly calls are informative and a way to learn about other firms practices. From these calls/discussion emails our firm has had one off discussions with other firms to learn about particular processes so we could learn from each other. It has really been a way to learn collaboratively without having to leave the office!"

Laura Adams

HCM Wealth Advisors

"The value comes in the ability to communicate with other professionals. When we have a tough question I can often find someone else who dealt with the same issue."

John Evans

Resource Planning Group, Ltd.

"Hearing varying opinions and case studies for how other firms operate and the learning - this is priceless."

Manju George

Griffin Black, Inc.

"I am continually amazed and appreciative of how generous the HIFON community is when it comes to sharing vendor info, contacts, best practices, workflow documents, client-facing documents, tips and tricks, and expertise in general. Being able to leverage the wisdom of the RIA Ops community is incredibly valuable to me, and it helps me do better work for my firm and our clients."

Christine DeMao

Gibson Capital, LLC

"As a small, but growing firm the resources and information I can access with HIFON is immensely helpful to me and our entire firm."

Penny Lobred

EVO Advisers

"The willingness of everyone to share knowledge and original content is amazing. My whole firm knows this and often will ask me to leverage the group's knowledge when we are working on improving our processes."

Cathy Caddell

Murphy & Sylvest

"Joining HIFON was the pivoting point in my career here at CapSouth and has not only changed my trajectory, but also that of our entire organization due to all that I’ve gained and shared with our leadership."

KARA ARMSTRONG

Vice President of Finance & Operations, CapSouth Wealth Management

Choose Your HIFON Membership Option

Begin Your Free Trial

Begin your free trial and experience the benefits of HIFON membership firsthand.

30-DAY FREE TRIAL

Join Now

Initiate your annual membership today and experience the benefits of full HIFON membership.

SELECT YOUR MEMBERSHIP LEVEL

"HIFON is the tool I use to gather ideas and feedback on existing procedures, technology and new ideas. It's my sounding board on most new ideas since I can go to one place and get feedback from so many firms and members."

Casey Kimbler

Hamilton Capital, LLC

"HIFON is HIGHLY valued to our firm. Whenever management is considering a change or new idea, they almost always want me to run it by the group to see how other firms have tackled that particular issue."

Taylor Bell

Colton Groome & Company

"I enjoy having a forum to come to that understands some of the struggles and achievements we have all encounter over the years. This group certainly saves me time and money since I no longer have to go it alone in my research for many topics."

Brittany McGehee

Stone Asset Management

HIFON is a private, independent study group.

Your Success is Our Mission

The History of HIFON