On September 16, 2026, Barron's Advisor put a question to wealth management team leaders in its weekly Big Q feature: which contributions from people outside the advisor chair are the easiest to overlook? Jim Dew, founder and CEO of Dew Wealth Management, LLC and author of Beyond a Million, answered with one name. Nellie Jess, the firm's office operations manager.
Why Barron's asked about support roles
Most firms describe themselves through their advisors. Barron's asked the opposite question, and it is the more useful one for anyone trying to understand how a firm actually runs. A client's experience is assembled from a long series of small decisions, and a large share of those decisions are made by people whose titles do not contain the word advisor.
What an operations manager actually does
Nellie's work starts before anyone sits down. She knows who is coming into the office, what they care about, and what is going on in their family, and she makes sure the advisor walking into that room knows it too. She also exercises judgment about what someone needs in a particular moment, which is not something a process document can specify in advance.
A Fractional Family Office® is a coordinated team rather than a single relationship, and the coordination is the part clients rarely see. That is why this firm does not treat its operations roles as back office.
Jim's full answer appears in Barron's Advisor, the publication's advisor-facing title, in Financial Advisors Aren't the Only MVPs at Wealth Management Firms by Steve Garmhausen. The article is available to Barron's subscribers. More of Jim's appearances are collected on his speaking and media page.
