Ep 067: The Future Of The Broker-Dealer Model As Advisor Support Without FINRA Or Products with Elliot Weissbluth
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.8 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 10 April 2018
⏱️ 108 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elliot Weissbluth is the founder and CEO of HighTower Advisors, a unique back and middle office support platform for independent advisory firms that now oversees more than $50 billion of assets under management, with nearly 600 employees. As if those numbers weren’t impressive enough, HighTower built their own data platform to house all their advisor and client data. With this unique setup, they can not only build deeper integrations between popular software programs, but they also have the option to easily swap out their software solutions if a newer best in class comes along.
In this episode, Elliot shares the details of his company’s one-of-a-kind structure with a subsidiary broker-dealer, including how the HighTower model ultimately produces significant cost savings—even at a cost of as much as 15 - 20% of a firm’s revenue. Listen in to hear Elliot's unique perspective on the industry, having built and grown his company with a very different model, as well as the inspiring story of how he coped with severe dyslexia, and ultimately turned the challenge into skills that allowed him to excel in the business world.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/67
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 |
| 0:12.4 | financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success |
| 0:17.4 | and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next |
| 0:22.2 | level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:28.3 | Welcome to the 67th episode of the Financial Advisor's Success podcast. My guest on today's podcast is |
| 0:34.5 | Elliot Weisbluth. Elliot is the founder and CEO of High Tower |
| 0:38.2 | Advisors, a back and middle office support platform for independent advisory firms that now |
| 0:42.9 | oversees more than 50 billion of assets under management with nearly 600 employees. What's unique |
| 0:49.3 | about High Tower, though, is the way that they built their own data platform that houses all the data of their |
| 0:55.0 | advisors and clients, making it possible for them to build deeper integrations between popular |
| 1:00.3 | independent advisor software programs than what virtually any other advisory firm can accomplish |
| 1:04.9 | on its own, yet still be able to easily swap out for a newer best-in-class software solution |
| 1:10.4 | in the future, should one come |
| 1:12.2 | along. In this episode, we talk in depth about how High Tower structures its service model, why |
| 1:18.0 | platforms like High Tower have been successful by leveraging their size, scale, and sophistication |
| 1:22.4 | to reduce costs for independent advisory firms while bringing new capabilities, And why even at a cost of as much as |
| 1:29.1 | 15 to 20 percent of a firm's revenues, the Hightower model can ultimately produce a significant |
| 1:34.3 | cost savings relative to the overhead expense of a typical large independent advisory firm. |
| 1:40.0 | We also talk about Hightower's unique structure with a subsidiary broker dealer, used not to implement new commissionable products like mutual funds and annuities, |
| 1:48.1 | but instead for the original purpose of a broker-dealer to help facilitate the implementation of trades. |
| 1:54.1 | And the way that Hightower leverages the control it has through its broker-dealer subsidiary structure |
... |
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