Ep 266: Reinventing The Wirehouse Model As An Employee-Owned Locally-Managed Partnership with Jim Gold
Financial Advisor Success
Michael Kitces
4.7 • 719 Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2022
⏱️ 99 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jim Gold is the CEO and co-founder of Steward Partners Global Advisory, an independent advisory firm with multiple locations across the country that serves nearly 10,000 client households. Managing $16 billion of AUM under 180 financial advisors, the firm is unique in that it is attempting to recreate the wirehouse model of old by merging the "large firm" infrastructure with an employee-owner partnership model.
Listen in as we dive into the "why" behind the formation of Steward Partners Global Advisory, including how Jim's firsthand experience at a wirehouse led him to build his dream business model with all the benefits of a large firm—and none of the corporate scandal or compliance issues that usually follow old-school wirehouses. Jim also shares the details of his firm's partnership model that allows for advisors to have greater career flexibility while also having a stake in the company, as well as the personal challenges he faced along the path to building the firm he had always dreamt of.
For show notes and more visit: https://www.kitces.com/266
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Financial Advisor Success Podcast, where you go behind the scenes with |
| 0:06.8 | financial planner, speaker, and consultant Michael Kitsas to hear stories of how leading financial |
| 0:12.7 | advisors navigated the inevitable challenges that arise on the path to success and get insight |
| 0:18.3 | from leading industry consultants about how to break through to the next |
| 0:22.0 | level in your advisory business. And now here's your host, Michael Kitsis. Welcome, everyone. |
| 0:29.0 | Welcome to the 266th episode, the Financial Advisor Success Podcast. My guest in today's podcast is |
| 0:35.2 | Jim Gold. Jim is the CEO and co-founder of Stewart Partners Global Advisory, an independent advisory firm |
| 0:40.8 | that supports nearly 180 financial advisors, managing more than 16 billion of assets |
| 0:46.0 | under management, and serving close to 10,000 client households in multiple locations across |
| 0:50.6 | the country. |
| 0:51.7 | What's unique about Jim, though, is how he and his firm are attempting to |
| 0:54.8 | recreate the wirehouse model of old by offering locally managed large firm infrastructure to |
| 1:00.1 | financial advisors, but utilizing an employee owner partnership model to provide all the benefits |
| 1:05.2 | of independence. In this episode, we talk in depth about how Jim and Stewart partners offer |
| 1:10.6 | financial advisors, |
| 1:11.8 | the wirehouse framework of access to proprietary investment products, research, and technology, |
| 1:17.1 | but without the constraints of large firm compliance and the conflicts of a parent firm |
| 1:21.4 | trying to manage its own risk over its clients. How the firm leverages its partnership equity |
| 1:26.0 | plan to give a wide base of employees a stake in the company and its culture, |
| 1:30.0 | and how the firm's foundation is built to grant flexibility to advisors, allowing them to affiliate as W2 or 1099 employees, |
| 1:36.5 | and to still take their books of business with them if they ever decide to leave. |
| 1:40.3 | We also talk about how Jim's firsthand experience as a complex manager of a major |
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