Ep 066: Turbocharging Inorganic Growth With Outside Capital To Fund Mergers & Acquisitions with Adam Birenbaum
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2018
⏱️ 129 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
My guest on today’s podcast took over as CEO of Buckingham Strategic Wealth and BAM Advisor Services a little over 10 years ago (at just 32 years old!) and has nearly quintupled its size since then. One of the youngest CEOs of any major advisory firm, Adam Birenbaum leads his organization in serving over 22,000 clients and overseeing more than $30 billion in assets under management.
In this episode, Adam shares the growth strategies that have worked for Buckingham Strategic Wealth and BAM Advisor Services, as well as why the company has chosen to grow offices in multiple locations. Listen in to hear his advice for leaders of large wealth management firms, how he looks at the mergers and acquisitions marketplace today, and what he says will determine the most successful advisory firms in the future.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/66
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with |
| 0:07.1 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading |
| 0:12.5 | financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success |
| 0:17.5 | and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the |
| 0:22.0 | next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:29.2 | Welcome to the 66th episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast. My guest on today's podcast |
| 0:35.1 | is Adam Beerenbaum. Adam is the CEO of Buckingham Strategic Health and BAM Advisor Services, a combination of wealth management and firm and Tamp platform that oversees more than 30 billion of assets under management. |
| 0:48.9 | What's unique about Adam, though, is that he took over as the CEO of the Buckingham companies just over 10 years ago at the |
| 0:55.1 | age of just 32 when the company was only $6 billion of Assets Center Management and is nearly |
| 1:01.6 | quintupled its size since then as one of the youngest CEOs of any major advisory firm. |
| 1:07.6 | In this episode, we talk in depth about the Buckingham and Bam growth strategy, particularly |
| 1:12.0 | on how a major investment by Focus Financial has helped to power the firm's growth, giving |
| 1:16.9 | Buckingham access to capital from Focus at near 0% interest rates to fund its acquisitions, |
| 1:23.4 | because Focus ultimately profits from the growth as an owner anyway. And the way that Adam and Buckingham had been able to leverage the capital to accelerate |
| 1:31.4 | their organic growth. |
| 1:33.4 | We also talk about the actual structure of Buckingham and Bam itself, why Buckingham is chosen |
| 1:38.4 | to grow offices in multiple locations, how Bam Advisor Services aims to work with advisory firms |
| 1:43.4 | by providing what they call a turnkey |
| 1:45.7 | wealth management platform that provides the back office services but does not necessarily |
| 1:50.4 | require its advisors to use their standardized investment models. |
| 1:54.5 | And how the company is positioning itself for an increasingly competitive environment with threats |
| 1:58.8 | from both low-cost robo advisors |
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