Exit Strategies

For 20 years, I focused my energy, ambition, and career on building a successful and respected retirement and wealth management advisory practice within a large and well-known wirehouse.
 
As a practice manager, I invested heavily in adding new talent with additional skill sets and professional delivery. I enthusiastically sought out mentors and consultants to help me develop and refine our business development plans each year. Our business model for the retirement business was a deliberate and collaborative effort.

We believed in a comprehensive approach to plan sponsor consulting that included planning, plan design, administrative outsourcing, employee education, and one-on-one participant meetings. We differentiated ourselves with plan sponsors by delivering a complete due-diligence process from committee charter and investment policy statement to meeting minutes. We utilized third-party investment analytics to maintain objectivity, made proactive calls to fund managers, delivered full fee disclosure, engaged in provider fee negotiations, and ensured consistent fiduciary documentation for plan fiduciaries.

My partners, Susan Clausen and Paul Stibich, and I actively participated on our firm’s Advisory Board, attended and served on industry conference boards, were recognized with various industry awards, and volunteered for speaking engagements on emerging industry topics.

In a sense, we were doing all the right things, but it was clear that our current and future clients were responding to market changes with an increasing demand for unbiased, truly independent advice. The requirement to acknowledge our co-fiduciary status in writing became part of most conversations. My decision to join CAPTRUST Financial Advisors came only after a 16-month review of options along with substantial and successful negotiations both with my partners and trusted colleagues.

My Dad was a builder and gave me little business advice. However, the two things he did tell me were “Find something you love to do and you will be successful” and “Do not burn any bridges.” Throughout my decision, I stuck to these principles and can look back as well as forward with confidence that they guided me appropriately.

In the spirit of hindsight, I offer the following seven pearls:

While not always easy, part as friends. The world has changed and the deck chairs are being rearranged. We remain friends with our past team members, colleagues, and even management from our old firm.

Follow protocol. There is no reason not to do so and, if you do not, the ramifications may be severe.

Understand this is a time of reinvesting in your future. Compensation, new business, and personal free time may take a back seat as you solidify relationships and expand your practice.

Listen. Don’t assume your clients will understand and immediately follow you. You have energy behind your decision while your client may have other concerns. Be prepared for clients to benchmark your new arrangement.

Be mentally and physically ready to market yourself and your new firm aggressively.

If opening a new region as we did, get out there. Call on centers of influence and invest the time to reinforce these relationships. Understand, in this economy, their clients may be hurting and looking for a “new” approach. Work to be top of mind.

Run the numbers every which way. Understanding the financial impact of the decision is critical. Once you have a crisp understanding of the economics and it is down to the final few, throw [economics] out the window and accept that the decision will end up being an emotional one. Decide who you want to be partners with and where you can grow the fastest and you will have your answer.

In the end, I focused on what was most important for my clients: objective­ advice based on deep, expert knowledge; trust, to act in my client’s best interest without bias or conflict of interest; and proactive, continuous service.

Stephen D. Wilt is Senior Vice President, Financial Advisor, at CAPTRUST. He provides investment advisory services to fiduciaries of corporate retirement plans and high-net-worth individuals. Wilt is a national speaker about retirement issues and led the team that was named the 2007 Retirement Plan Adviser Team of the Year by PLANSPONSOR magazine. Wilt is co-author of 401(k) Sales Champion, one of the first guides for advisers on how to sell and service corporate retirement plans. Wilt also holds a Certified Investment Management Analyst (CIMA) designation.