Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with

financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsis to hear stories of how leading

financial advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success

and get insight from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the

next level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone.

Welcome to the 190 second episode of the Financial Advisor's Success podcast. My guest on today's

podcast is Paul Pagnato. Paul is the co-chairman and chief visionary officer

of Crescent Capital, a multifamily office with nearly 9.5 billion of assets in her management

for just over 600 ultra-high net worth clients. What's unique about Paul, though, is the journey

he's had as an advisory firm owner, from a nearly 20-year career Merrill Lynch to breaking away to work

with Hightower advisors as a partner, deciding to go out entirely on his own as an independent

RA to build his own vision, and then deciding to merge his multi-billion dollar advisory firm

into Crescent and give up control in order to further expand the reach of that vision.

In this episode, we talk in depth about Paul's

entrepreneurial journey through the industry, how the stresses the financial crisis on the

brokerage industry created a unique conflict that led him to leave the wirehouse world after 20

years there. The challenging learning curve than advisory firm faces when first breaking away.

The unique stresses that emerge in the client relationship

when the broker protocol and wirehouse employment agreements require that clients not be informed

about the plan to leave until surprising them with it after the fact. And why it's so important

to have a strong support structure in place with experienced vendors when making the decision

to break away as a large team.

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