Episode 14
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What happens when you stop asking what’s safe—and start asking what’s true?
That’s the real story behind Gerber Kawasaki, a Santa Monica-based RIA that’s grown to $3.36 billion in assets under management and serves over 7,000 households. In the Season 2 kickoff of Growth Leaders of Wealth Management, Meg Carpenter sits down with Ross Gerber (President & CEO), Danilo Kawasaki (VP & COO), and Hatem Dhiab (Managing Partner) to explore how this firm has broken nearly every rule in the traditional wealth management playbook—and scaled because of it.
The story starts on a beach in Rio. It’s 2009. The financial crisis is unfolding. Ross and Danilo, both working under the AIG umbrella, watched their parent company lose $50 billion in a weekend. “These people are clueless,” Ross recalls thinking about AIG leadership. “They had no idea what we actually do.” So there, at a beach shack in Brazil, the seed of Gerber Kawasaki was planted. The traditional institutions had failed—and in their place, there was space to build something radically new.
From the beginning, the firm’s growth strategy was clear—and different. First, they embraced social media long before it was mainstream, even helping FINRA shape some of the first compliance guidelines around it. Second, they intentionally built a firm to serve a wider audience—not just the ultra-wealthy. “Most firms focus on the 1%. We wanted to speak to the other 99,” Ross explains. And third, they invested heavily in talent development. Rather than poaching advisors with books of business, they built a culture of training and mentorship, hiring from CFP programs and growing people from the ground up.
It wasn’t easy. It took nearly a decade to reach their first billion in AUM. But once they did, the momentum kicked in. COVID proved to be a major inflection point. Client preferences shifted toward Zoom, increasing advisor productivity by 100%—without sacrificing their high-touch service model. From 2020 to 2022, the firm more than doubled AUM from $1 billion to $2.2 billion. At the same time, their online presence exploded. Appearances on YouTube shows like Meet Kevin brought in thousands of leads. And because they were already digitally fluent, they were ready to scale.
Their investment approach also stood out. Rather than outsourcing portfolio decisions, Gerber Kawasaki made early, high-conviction bets on companies like Tesla and Nvidia—partly because their clients worked there. “If you’re going to serve tech employees,” Ross says, “you better understand the companies they work for.” That kind of alignment between client insight and investment strategy helped them build trust—and real growth.
But this firm’s secret sauce isn’t just marketing, or technology, or even a differentiated investment philosophy. It’s culture. Ross is the bold, media-facing provocateur. Danilo builds the operational engine. Hatem brings the investment discipline and relationship depth. Together, they’ve built a firm where differences are a strength and where collaboration beats competition. There’s even a healthy dose of peer accountability—advisors who don’t generate referrals one week get a little public shaming in the Monday meeting. “And guess what?” Hatem laughs. “They have referrals the next week.”
Their strategy is clear-eyed and long-term. While most firms hope for referrals and focus on near-term wins, GK plays the long game. Many of their top clients today started in the firm’s entry-level “Get Invested” program, where there are no account minimums. They bet on people early—and those people often grow with them. “We help people when no one else will,” Hatem says. “That creates loyalty you can’t fake.”
Today, they’re investing more than ever—in their office, in their tech stack, and in a new advisor platform that will allow them to scale into 10 new cities. But their motivation isn’t just about numbers. “We make a difference in people’s lives,” Ross says. “That’s what keeps us going. If we can double the number of families we help, why wouldn’t we?”
What Gerber Kawasaki has built is rare: a high-growth firm that still feels personal. A place where authenticity scales, not because it’s engineered—but because it’s real. Most firms either stay small to protect their culture or scale and lose it. Somehow, GK has done both. And as they look to the future, they’re not trying to be the biggest. They’re trying to be the most useful.
In a world where most advisors sound exactly the same, that might be the most powerful growth strategy of all.
Connect with us:
- Meg Carpenter on LinkedIn
- Ross Gerber on LinkedIn
- Danilo Kawasaki on LinkedIn
- Hatem Dhiab on LinkedIn
About Ficomm Partners
Ficomm Partners is the embedded growth partner for results-driven RIAs, and wealth management platforms. With a track record of helping over 250 clients achieve their growth goals, Ficomm understands that while industry patterns may repeat, each firm's growth challenges are unique. Ficomm prioritizes strategy and finds the most impactful ways to move you toward your goals. We align all your marketing activities with your business objectives, acting as your dedicated growth partner with our human-first approach, strategy-first methodology, and unrivaled team of industry marketing experts.