Page 40 - Investment Advisor - December 2023

rIA leSSONS & leADerS

served by the firm’s 2,100 affiliated study Zooms in on Asset-Growth Issues
financial advisors. These clients, though,
account for nearly 19% of total assets on Wealth management firms brought in to no impact on profitability.
Commonwealth’s platform. fewer assets last year than they have the size and frequency of fee dis-
Commonwealth is also seeing success in recent history: Organic asset growth counting also increased in 2022, with
with PPS Select, its in-house turnkey was under 4% in 2022 — down from 70% of firms with less than $1 bil-
asset management program, Bloom said. 8.2% in 2021, according to Fidelity lion Aum offering discounts. Among
Looking at data from 2018 to 2022, it Investments’ 2023 rIA benchmarking firms with more than $1 billion Aum,
found that advisors who used its TAMP Survey. Independent registered invest- 89% offered discounts. However, fee
“in a meaningful way grew 700 basis ment advisors were challenged by infla- schedules remained flat, which further
points faster per year than those who tion and market volatility, the research impacted organic growth and profitabil-
didn’t,” he explained. found. these factors led to a nearly 40% ity, Fidelity found.
“I think you can attribute that to just decline in assets under management the firm recommended rIAs review
the time spent doing asset allocation, from both new and existing clients. their books of business and rethink
fund monitoring, fund selection [and] While firms tried to offset the impact offerings and service based on client
managing around systematic withdraw- of market headwinds on profitability segmentation. Advisors who outsource
als,” Bloom explained. by focusing on bringing on new clients, investment management save roughly
“What was particularly interesting is most of them acquired smaller clients, nine hours per week, which they real-
we segmented the users of the service,” Fidelity said. Assets from new clients located to tasks like financial planning,
he added. “Not only did they grow 7% only contributed to a third of organic client relationship management and
more per year … [but] the best advisors growth activity and did not not translate business development, according to the
were the highest users of this service. to higher Aum. Instead, each advisor poll of some 3,550 advisors (which took
And those who used it grew the fastest. ended up serving more clients on aver- place from mid-April to early July this
So it was a pretty fascinating thing.” age, putting a strain on staffing with little year). —Ryan W. neal

Creative Planning Buys Mesirow’s it acquired Kistler-Tiffany Advisors of
Berwyn, Pennsylvania, which has seven
$13B Corporate retirement team financial advisors and $1.38 billion of
assets under management.
he group works with more than 350 Pohlman, Vince Allegra and Chuck In late August, Creative Planning
Tplans and is based in Chicago. Lawless, the Chicago-based team is rec- struck a deal to buy the former United
RIA Creative Planning says it has ognized by the National Association of Capital business from Goldman Sachs.
bought a corporate retirement advisory Plan Advisors (NAPA) as a top defined The firm announced it was forming
team from Mesirow that works with contribution plan advisor. a “multibillion-dollar” strategic cus-
over 350 plans with roughly $13 billion “Our primary goal is to partner tody relationship with Goldman Sachs
in assets. with plan sponsors and their employ- Advisor Solutions a month earlier.
Creative Planning’s Retirement ees to drive positive outcomes by pro- —Janet levaux
Services Practice now services about viding innovative solutions and best
$137 billion in assets under advisement. in class client service,” Dermenjian
The Mesirow team’s “commitment said in a statement. Advertisers’ Index
to tailoring financial solutions while “Joining Creative Planning allows us
championing social responsibility aligns to deliver a new set of products, solu- BRIGHTHoUsE .............................................. 3
brighthousefinancial.com
perfectly with our values,” according to tions and technologies to our current
Creative Planning CEO Peter Mallouk. and future clients, and we’re excited to Jackson national Life Insurance Company .... 11
“They are well-equipped to address the be part of one of the largest independent jackson.com
retirement needs of plan sponsors, plan RIAs in the country,” he added. MFs ................................................................ 5
participants, investors and non-quali- Overland Park, Kansas-based mfs.com/silverlining
fied plans.” Creative Planning’s assets topped $245 state street Global Advisors ......................C4
Led by David Dermenjian, Chris billion as of July 1. Earlier this month, www.ssga.com

38 Investment AdvIsor December 2023 | ThinkAdvisor.com