When financial advisor Steve Cassaday considers making a change at Cassaday & Company, he often asks some of his clients what they think of the idea.

He and the other advisors in the McClean, Va.-based firm also ask clients for suggestions about how they can improve the firm’s operation.

Turning the business model on its head and asking his clients for advice is one way Cassaday & Company operates differently from most other financial advisory firms. But the twist on normal operations seems to be working for Cassaday, who founded his firm 20 years ago and has grown it to $1.5 billion in AUM with a staff of 31.

One suggestion from the board that the firm implemented was to pare down investment reports it delivers to clients to ones that are shorter and much more readable.

“People who point out your faults are your best friends,” says Cassaday. “I was crestfallen when the clients said they did not want our detailed performance reports, but the clients said they were never going to read those big reports.”

One client who has been on the advisory board for almost a year is Diane Guerra of Fairfax, Va. “They make the final decisions, but they are looking for feedback from us to see if they are going in the right direction,” Guerra says. “I am happy to serve on the board. It helps us, as clients, to understand what goes on behind the scenes in the firm.”

Another client, Barbara Nelson of Fairfax Station, Va., is a teacher who found the experience on the board to be enlightening. “The board has people from a mix of backgrounds on it, so Steve and the others get a range of views. I think that is smart,” Nelson says. “They are respectful of their client base and they are good listeners. They run things by us before they bring it out to the client base as a whole.”

Cassaday says creating the board was the smartest thing he ever did. "The clients appreciate being on the board because they are the stakeholders,” he says.

The firm also holds focus group meetings of clients that are conducted by a facilitator with no staff in the room. Clients can say whatever they think about the firm and it is reported back to Cassaday and the staff anonymously.

Cassaday does not let his innovative style end with the clients. For example, he does not hire experienced advisors -- he hires individuals as soon as they graduate from college and puts them through his own rigorous training procedure. Some start even before graduation as interns.

“I could hire experienced advisors with existing books of business but they have bad habits. I would rather teach them the way we operate,” he says. “I want to hire smart people with vibrant personalities and let them do what they love to do. We dump a lot of stuff on them when they first arrive to see how they react.”

Justin Prescott Harris, now a principal at Cassaday, started with the firm on a Monday after graduating the previous Friday from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va. “When I started, the training process was informal. Now it is much more structured,” but the goal is still the same. “At a Wall Street firm, new hires would be trained in sales; we train them in management and financial planning.”

The system has created a three-tiered staff: Cassaday at the top, a management team and new advisors right out of school.

“I wanted to plan it so that I could become obsolete. If something happened to me, the firm would keep going,” Cassaday says.

The firm has gotten bigger by attracting new clients and growing the assets for existing clients. He plans to add two more advisors this summer and to have a total staff of about 50 in two to five years.

The firm serves as the hub for clients’ financial, insurance and estate planning. It hosts wealth summits for clients that include an estate planning attorney, insurance agent and accountant “to make sure everyone is working off the same page.

“By systematically and comprehensively coordinating all of these components, our clients are able to take advantage of every available financial opportunity,” Cassaday says.