Tim Davis of Steward Partners
After almost 20 years in the business — the bulk of it at wirehouses — Tim Davis made the leap to an RIA nearly a year ago.
Davis, who had stints at Merrill Lynch, UBS and Morgan Stanley, is now managing director and partner at the Davis Executive Wealth Management Group within Steward Partners. Steward, an independent practice affiliated with Raymond James Financial Services, is a $10 billion RIA with about 100 advisors around the country.
Davis opened up to ThinkAdvisor about his transition from wirehouse to independence — and how in less than a year at Steward his total assets are up more than 20%.
Davis said he had "plateaued" as a wirehouse financial advisor.
"Based upon the tightening noose that these big banks have, there's fewer and fewer choices for both clients and advisors, [and] the constrictions upon how you run your business become such that it's a hindrance for efficiently running your business on a day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year basis," Davis said. "And the question becomes ultimately to the advisor and their practice, 'Can I do this somewhere else better?"
As Davis found, he certainly could.
Davis joined Steward Partners in October 2017 and as of July 31 his business has grown 25%.
He cites the independent structure of Steward — compared with the more rigid operation of wirehouses like Morgan Stanley — as one of the reasons for this growth.
"The ability to have the flexibility to manage my own team members was much more limited at Morgan Stanley than it is at Steward Partners," Davis said. "At Steward Partners, I am in complete control of all the members of my team … I call my own shots, whereas that's never going to happen at a wirehouse."
Steward gave him the resources and time to restructure his team. According to Davis, that flexibility helped increase efficiencies and freed up more time for him to spend with clients and prospects, which in turn drove assets up.
