Jim Gold serves as CEO, is a founding partner, a board member and a member of the executive leadership team at Steward Partners Global Advisory. He has extensive experience in the financial services industry, having held several senior-level roles, most recently as executive director at Morgan Stanley.
Russ Prince: Steward Partners has had amazing success since the firm was launched nine years ago. How has Steward evolved to meet changing trends and demographics in the business?
Jim Gold: As the industry has continued to evolve, we’ve worked to stay at the forefront of the industry. We've tried to take advantage of the opportunities around us while continuing to offer our advisor partners the tools they need to grow their own businesses.
We have steadily built out our platform. We have a corporate RIA, which was recently recognized as the 20th largest RIA. Through our acquisition of Umpqua Wealth Management, we added our own broker/dealer, Steward Partners Investment Solutions. This dramatically expands our offering and gave us a West Coast footprint. We know that there’s no such thing as one size fits all, so we’ve entered into an arrangement with multiple custodians. And as we have expanded our offering, we’ve also opened up the universe of potential advisor partners. We give advisors and their teams a choice whether they join us as a W2 (employee partner) or an Affiliated (1099) Partner.
Prince: With so many hybrid RIA platforms now competing for elite advisor teams, what draws new teams to join Steward Partners?
Gold: If you asked our advisors and teams what drew them to Steward Partners, the primary answer would be equity ownership. Everyone is a shareholder of Steward, regardless of how you choose to join us.
I don’t know of another firm that offers an advisor equity in the parent company in a 1099 model. This allows an advisor who wants to own their own business to join us and still receive all the benefits of being a partner. We truly believe that Steward Partners can only be successful when all our partners share in that success.
Understandably, being an owner is a huge attraction and so is the idea of having a voice, but as advisors get to know us, I think it’s the culture we’ve built that really wins them over. We always tell people to talk to the advisors who have already joined us.
The first year we won a Best Places to Work award, the firm was nominated by local advisors, which is a testament to how our advisors embrace this culture and are proud to be a part of it. We’ve gone on to receive this award in five consecutive years.
A third reason, which is critical, is that we provide local support. We have a regional structure where there are operations managers, compliance officers and divisional presidents who serve as coaches and problem solvers. That’s highly atypical. In most other firms, advisors with a problem are told to call the home office, but there’s no one there with boots on the ground. What we give advisors is the best of both worlds—the benefits of being independent, including better payout, equity ownership, more autonomy and respect, coupled with the resources of a firm with a national footprint.
Prince: Steward Partners has been active in dealmaking. What’s your M&A outlook and where do you see the industry heading?
Gold: The advisory profession is going through a period of dynamic evolution right now. This is primarily due to the growing number of firm founders implementing succession and exit strategies, as well as the number of teams and advisors leaving the wirehouses. Additionally, more advisors are embracing an independent business model, and the vast majority prefer to join an existing firm.
Although there’s been a lot of M&A activity recently, I think we’re still probably in the early innings. Right now, between low-interest rates and private equity money, it’s pretty easy to raise capital but having the cash on hand and finding a willing seller really isn’t enough. We try to be thoughtful about what we do and work hard to find the right partners.
Over the past couple of years, Steward Partners has passed on dozens of potential deals either because we felt the valuation wasn’t reasonable for the firm, or the business we were looking at just wasn’t a good fit. It’s not just about the numbers—the revenue stream or assets under management. For any deal to be truly successful for all stakeholders, there must be the right cultural fit and an alignment of values.
Any wirehouse advisor who wants a change can easily move to a similar firm and get a big check for coming on board, but the advisors for whom that’s the most important thing are usually not considering independence. Every single advisor who has joined Steward Partners has done so because, in addition to owning their own business, they also receive equity in the parent firm, giving them the opportunity to build their own net worth and to better serve their clients with better resources and flexibility.
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