Still Spinning: What Jet Engines Teach Us About Continuity in Wealth Management

There’s a quiet moment on the tarmac that says more about resilience than almost anything else in business.

A few years ago, I landed in Detroit on a connecting flight from Tokyo. My wife and I were headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand. As we waited at our gate, I noticed something: the same aircraft that had just completed a transpacific journey was preparing to take us on the next leg to Seoul—without ever shutting down. Its engines, though idling gently, were still spinning. Still ready.

That image stuck with me.

Today, I realize that moment holds a powerful lesson for wealth management firms.

Your Firm Is Not a Jet Engine (Yet)

Most wealth management firms operate more like a collection of small propeller planes than a commercial jetliner. Some engines are sputtering. Others need hand-cranking just to get moving. There’s no unifying flight plan. No redundancy. No black box. Just duct tape, handoffs, and whiteboards.

And yet… you’re still flying.

But the goal isn’t to just stay in the air.

The goal is to fly through any storm. To navigate complexity. To scale altitude and speed without your passengers being unnecessarily jostled. And most of all—to ensure you can land the plane safely, not just once, but again and again. From one generation to the next.

That’s what real continuity looks like.

The Power of Operational Continuity

Jet engines are designed for continuous operation. Some long-haul flights last over 16 hours. The engines don’t get to catch their breath. They cool down on the move. They idle with precision. They only undergo major service every few thousand flight cycles.

That’s not accidental. That’s engineering + process + expectation.

Your firm needs the same.

Wealth management, at its core, is about long-range planning. But most firms lack a “mechanical system” that enables uninterrupted propulsion. When one advisor or team member leaves, a process breaks. When a client dies, the relationship evaporates. When your tech stack glitches, you resort to Excel and prayer.

Operational continuity means:

• You can land the plane in any weather.

• You can pass the controls to the next generation.

• You have a flight plan, a checklist, and telemetry.

If your engines aren’t spinning when you’re on the ground, you won’t be ready for the next flight.

Build the Right Engine

Your job is to build a business engine that doesn’t need constant maintenance and keep the propulsion going—supporting the long, sustained success of your clients through thoughtful planning, seamless service, and enduring relationships.

Document your workflow. Don’t rely on tribal knowledge. Document how you onboard clients, how you run meetings, how you process trades, and how you prepare for generational transitions.

Build operational telemetry. Know your numbers. Know which parts of your firm are lagging, where your revenue leaks, which processes stall.

Assign crew responsibilities. Pilots don’t refill fuel or load baggage. Your team should know what they own and how to hand it off.

Create redundancy. A two-engine plane can fly if one fails. Make sure your firm has built in backups.

And when you do it right, you’ll move from a firm that hustles to keep up… to one that hums with continuity, ready for the next leg of the journey.

Final Thought: Still Spinning

I’ve thought about that plane on the tarmac many times since that trip to Thailand.

Engines still spinning. Crew in motion. Flight plan filed. Passengers onboarded.

Ready again.

If your firm aspires to serve for generations, it can’t shut down between each flight. It needs continuity, clarity, and a culture of preparation.

Because the most important part of the journey… might just be the one after this one.