Tony Sirianni had the chance to sit down with Scott Brown, CEO & Founding Partner and Ben Spiker, COO & Founding Partner of Shore to Summit Wealth Management (STSWM) to talk about their success growing their practice, and the industry in general.
Overwhelmingly, the trend of advisor movement is going from large wire houses to independent broker dealers or RIAs. Tell me about Shore to Summit Wealth Management’s path to independence.
Scott—Our practice has its roots going back over 25 years. My wife Kelly Brown, Managing Partner, and I, have worked together since 1996 . Ben Spiker joined us in 1999. Most of the history of our partnership occurred at Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch. We followed the trends in the burgeoning independent movement with interest and felt our values aligned strongly with what true independence stood for. It became obvious to us that we could no longer be truly independent minded advisors for our clients as a W-2 employee of a major wire house. In September 2017, we resigned and launched Shore to Summit Wealth Management. When considering the landscape of independent broker dealers, it was evident to us that our clients, who had been accustomed to the depth and breadth of sophisticated products and services as well as access to a global bank through our years at the wires, would be best served by us affiliating with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network as our broker dealer. It was the only one of the largest broker dealers in the country with global banking services, which offered an independent channel.
A few facts I picked up—STSWM has grown by 500% in AUM and T-12 over the past 3 years and now boasts over thirty associates in the practice in 6 offices across the country. What makes STSWM such an attractive landing spot?
Ben—I really think it is a result of three things. 1) Experience, 2) Our partnership model, and 3) our culture.
Tell me about those things.
Experience is key. Scott and I have worked together for over 25 years, operating as a true partnership while we were affiliated with some of the largest broker dealers in the country. We have experience running our practice in geographically disperse parts of the country for nearly 15 of those years. We have a proven track record of organic and inorganic growth and success. We have received numerous industry awards and accolades over the years. Having gone through three separate transitions and three practice acquisitions during our career together, we have the experience to help our partners with those things as well! In addition, the other three Managing Partners, Chris Fiacco, Chuck Smith, and Ken Jubert, all bring a long tenured history of success in the financial services industry.
Scott—Our partnership model is truly unique. While we provide the infrastructure to help affiliated advisors embrace independence easily such as transition support, compliance support, marketing support, office infrastructure and technology, as well as HR support for staffing needs, we shy away from being referred to as another “Aggregator” or “Super OSJ.” Our model encourages partner advisors to participate in the deliberate growth of the practice through compensation awards in the form of recruiting revenue and partner profit sharing. In addition, to maximize the compensation of our advisors and teams, we pay based on a uniform net profit target, not a fixed grid.
So, I think a lot of practices struggle with having that kind of flexibility in terms of structure. How do you make it work?
Ben—The final key for us is our culture. A lot of practices claim that their culture is unique and is what differentiates them from their competitors. But what does culture mean to them? At STSWM, we refer to a few key points when it comes to describing our culture. 1) Optionality. As a partnership, we are not in the business of requiring our partners to operate in a manner that they do not want to. We partner with highly ethical and experienced advisors that have proven they already know how to take care of their clients and manage their own business. 2) Transparency. Because of some of the unique hurdles to running STSWM as a partnership, with a net profit target driving payouts along with the profit sharing of this net profit, we must be transparent to be successful. We believe that transparency is key to our success.
Scott—I will take the last one—because I love abbreviations!—Finally, 3) An abbreviation we refer to as C.O.C. defines us. It stands for The Compensation you have earned, the Ownership you deserve, and the Control you want. Last, we like to keep things S.I.M.P.L.E. This stands for a supported, independent, model, producer partnership, led, enterprise with equity alignment.
