S16 BARRON’S September 16, 2019
Hanson:We promote this idea in our industry of
a goal to sit on some yacht drinking a cocktail.
That isn’t really what life is—it would last about
two hours. It’s about relationships and meaning.
When you leave the workplace, people risk los-
ing relationships and their sense of purpose. A
lot of people struggle at that age.
So as an investment advisor, how can you help?
By explaining that money is just a tool. The
money can help accomplish what’s important to
them. Sometimes, people are still trying to get
clarity on what’s important.
What drew you to the RIA space?
I started my career with a large national firm
where the approach was focused on finding new
customers and selling financial products. I
wanted to create an environment where we put
long-term clients before new clients. We
launched with very little capital and big ambi-
tions, and over the years have grown to 160
employees and $4.5 billion under management.
How would you describe your strategy?
We focus on getting costs down on investments,
but we’re not just an investment shop. We pro-
vide overall financial planning and retirement
guidance. We’re not the cheapest firm in town—
if it’s all about costs, people can set up an ac-
count at E*Trade. Our goal is to help people
live rich and meaningful lives. All of our invest-
ments are publicly traded, so it’s easy for clients
to leave whenever they want. We like that, be-
cause it forces us to earn our keep every day.
How do you invest?
We aren’t market timers. Look at where inter-
est rates are today—who would have thought?
Stocks are expensive. Bonds are expensive. The
danger of predicting where markets are going
to go is that, if things go wrong, there could be
dire consequences for life.
What’s your typical client?
We focus on the middle-class millionaire, the
professional who worked hard and saved hard.
We have much larger clients, but the majority
have from $500,000 to $1 million. Most of our
clients are more concerned about not going
broke than becoming wealthier.
You’ve made a number of acquisitions lately—six in
the past 18 months, including a tax-prep firm.
The average owner of an advisory firm is 64
years old; they want to retire. That’s a succes-
sion plan issue. We wanted to have CPAs who
work directly with our advisors. Taxes can take
such a big chunk out of wealth. Paying attention
to taxes—whether while selling an investment,
taking a withdrawal from an IRA, or considering
a Roth IRA conversion—can mean the difference
between paying 15% [on profits] versus 35%.
Thanks, Scott.
PHOTOGRAPH BY NOEL SPIRANDELLIScott
Hanson
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