From Intern to Partner: Building a Firm Worth Growing Together

From Intern to Partner Building a Firm Worth Growing Together Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to RIA Confidential, your source for the truth about going RIA. I’m your host, Jonathan Andrews, with Brave Hearts TV Network, here to explore the questions and concerns financial advisors have about transitioning to the RIA business model. This episode uses AI in production created from human-created dialogue.
[00:00:31] We’re excited to be embracing the use of AI and look forward to your feedback. With that being said, let’s dive in. Here with Ray Gettens, our local RIA expert. Welcome to the show, Ray. Thank you, Jonathan. Great to be here. Ray, you recently sat down with a team at Miami Valley Financial Partners. I did.
[00:00:48] Brian, Cole, and Cam. They’re with MVFP, one of the 20-plus firms using United Advisor Group as an RIA I wanted to bring them on because I think other advisors will find their approach interesting. I heard golf played a pretty big part in bringing these guys together. Oh, yeah. There’s a caddy in the story, a former professional golfer, so naturally I had to find out who had the best game.
[00:01:12] Naturally, before you could discuss anything else. Well, you’ve got to establish a few things. Fair enough. So what made you wanna get them on the podcast? I wanted to hear how those relationships developed into a partnership. Brian did an amazing thing. He brought younger people into the business, one of them started as an intern, and gave them a path to become owners.
[00:01:35] This model has worked out really well. Wow. How early are you talking? In Cole’s case, during his first internship. Really? So while he’s still learning where everything is, they- they’re already talking about what his future there could look like? Yeah, there were expectations and steps along the way, but he could see where it might lead.
[00:01:55] I, I like that. If you’re coming into this business, there’s a lot to figure out. Having some idea of what you’re working toward would help. Absolutely. And then there’s the way they work with clients. All three of them get involved. Even when one person brings the client in? Right. So I wanted to understand how they divide up the work and keep everybody on the same page as the firm grows.
[00:02:16] And how everybody gets paid. You know I ask that. Well, you have to ask. A client comes in, there’s work to do, and there’s revenue attached to it. How have you worked that out? Because you want everyone to understand the arrangement before they’re in the middle of it. Exactly, and they were willing to talk about it, which I appreciated.
[00:02:34] So whether you’re building a team or thinking about joining one, there’s something here, um, to listen for. Right. Let’s, let’s hear from them. Here’s my conversation with Brian, Cole, and Cam at Miami Valley Financial Partners. Brian, Cam, Cole, thank you for joining us on RA Confidential podcast. Gentlemen, you comprise Miami Valley Financial Partners.
[00:02:54] Asked you guys to join our podcast because of the way you guys do business, very simply. So do me a favor, take a step back and tell me how you got to where you are today, and then let’s dig into literally that, how you guys are working with clients, what you’ve created with Miami Valley and so forth.
[00:03:10] Please, Br- start me from the beginning or where it makes sense. Thanks, Ray. My name is Brian Yeakley, and I’m the president of Miami Valley Financial Partners. Our story kind of started really in, in 2017. I had been a part of the insurance company broker-dealer side of this world, and loved the relationships I had there.
[00:03:32] But MetLife, which was the broker-dealer I was with at the time, decided to sell to MassMutual. And MassMutual, being a mutual insurance company, was a little bit more captive in nature and wanted us to basically sell MassMutual products, and we had never been a product-specific financial advisory firm.
[00:03:51] Okay. So that was not to our liking. Right around that time, it was also not to our OSJ’s liking, and we were using their name as a DBA. And so we had to come up with a, a DBA. And we decided on Miami Valley Financial Partners, partly because we’re located in the Miami Valley, and then part- partly because I created a pretty unique logo.
[00:04:13] Simplistic, but unique. And we kind of went from there. We joined Cambridge in 20- at the end of 2017. And then right around that time, I was … I’m a big golfer, and that’ll be a reoccurring theme through our conversation. And I had joined Marine Country Club, and there was a young man by the name of Cole McGuire, who started caddying for me.
[00:04:36] And so we were at Cambridge at the time, in Cambridge for about three-ish years. Okay. And then Cole had approached me. He was going into his junior year at Miami and was looking for an internship, and that’s when we started working together. That’s the start of the story. The things really accelerated in 2023 when myself and some other individuals started United Advisor Group and really embraced the independent RIA space.
[00:05:11] So that’s a, a little bit of our story from an overarching perspective. But I think Cole can probably go into a little bit more details on his interning experience. Cole, what was it like to in- to intern at Miami Valley Financial Advisors? It started out, like Brian mentioned, through Cambridge. Gosh, when I first came in, I was green.
[00:05:30] I, I- To be com- to be completely, I was like 20- Now that you’re a seasoned veteran. Yeah, I don’t know if I’d consider a seasoned veteran. To be completely honest, I didn’t have a clue what was going on. Brian mentioned at Cambridge, and then I hadn’t even taken the SIE or the 7. I was more just organizing files, meeting some clients here and there.
[00:05:48] Oh, yeah, doing the grunt work. Very nice. Yeah, the fun stuff. But no, I came in as, as an intern, as a junior in college. Thought I wanted to go in- into finance, trade stocks, whatever the case was at that point in time. Really didn’t have a clue what it was. So but we were at Cambridge at that point in time, and then I was hearing meetings through the door of maybe potentially changing to an RIA.
[00:06:11] And I didn’t really know what it meant. Now, I will say- After I had three, four months experience interning the first year at Cambridge, had taken the SIE, the 7, started to learn a little bit about what the industry actually was. I went back to school, and that’s when United Advisor Group and Brian was switching in from Cambridge to United Advisor Group.
[00:06:32] I came in for the second internship, and it was a completely different change. Now we’re in the RIA world versus the Cambridge world, and I could really … I didn’t understand the differences then, but I could see that things were completely different, and that’s when the RIA world. And that’s what I’ve been exposed to really because I came in full time after I, I graduated.
[00:06:48] Then it was in the RIA world and we were off and running. Now we are where we are today. Even that’s adapted as United Advisor Group has, has grown. All right. Before we go too much further down that road, Cam, how’d you get roped into this whole thing? Yeah, it’s similar to Cole but on a different side of the golf world.
[00:07:05] I was … I’d met Brian through Moraine. My parents were out there, and so we would play together quite frequently on Saturdays in the scratch group and got to know each other through that. I took a different route at- after school and played golf for a little bit professionally before moving on to the real world.
[00:07:23] And- Now we know who’s got the best handicap of the three of you. All right. Now we got that established. Okay, keep going. Sorry. Yeah, it’s al- it’s always me ag- me and the client against Brian and Cole. Brian likes the challenge of trying to take me down. But no, once I finished that, I knew I could … I had a few different options.
[00:07:39] But I was accounting and finance in school. I did an accounting internship, knew that wasn’t the route, and so I bounced over to the finance side and reached out to some different people that I knew in the industry, whether that was a firm I shadowed. There was a large national brokerage firm. Yeah. I shadowed them and then came over here to Miami Valley Financial Partners and shadowed Brian and Cole.
[00:07:59] And the difference was just pretty drastic in terms of kind of what you got, what I was exposed to, what I was walked through, and how the processes went, went on within the firms. One side was more cookie cutter approaches, one side, versus the other where you were doing a lot of personal planning, a lot of hands-on with each individual person, knowing what’s going on with their situation and trying to help them the best you can versus one size fits all is what it felt like.
[00:08:28] So the more I’ve gotten into it, the more it’s just exposed me to getting way more information and learning from Cole and Brian as we go through any client meetings or different planning processes. All right. So o- obviously know a little bit of the, the inside story on you guys. Brian, how are you accomplishing both things?
[00:08:46] Ca- Cam’s talking about in-depth analysis, very personalized. You guys are growing too darn fast to be doing this, all this stuff ad hoc, okay? So i- do me a favor, explain the difference between cookie cutter and a system for me. H- h- how are you guys accomplishing the best of both? Well, I learned really quickly that no two clients are the same.
[00:09:05] So while there’s similar circumstances, no two clients are 100% the same. So throughout my career, I’ve always tried to gather as much information about what we could offer and what we could do for clients, and then blend it together on an individualized basis. Okay. So yes, we’re not cookie cutter. We create our own portfolios, we monitor our own portfolios, but we utilize other expertise from the industry to really make those hum, if you will.
[00:09:38] Okay. So you’re taking industry expertise and you’re able to then spread it… You, you take that, those kind of analysis, those kind of resources, and spread it across the, the client base. Am I understanding that right? Yeah, and that creates a lot of customized financial plans and customized asset management.
[00:09:56] But still efficiencies. Yeah. Technology is a beautiful thing. It can be. With the technology we have now, we can do that. 20 years ago when I was young in this business, probably not. Okay. It probably would’ve been a lot harder to pull off. But- Okay … things like model reallocation and, and things like that inside of custodial platforms, and then having an, an overlay like we have over top of it with a black diamond, uh, really make it seamless to be able to monitor and trade accounts.
[00:10:28] All right. Guys, so- somebody jump in and talk to me a little bit about structure, okay? So you guys, uh, you guys are the team for every single client, some clients? How do you guys handle that?
[00:10:40] Yeah, that’s where we differ from a lot of groups inside. I gotta tip my cap to Brian and how he designed it, which is, yeah, that’s what we offer here is, doesn’t matter which one of us brings a client in, if it’s Cameron, if it’s myself, if it’s Brian, all three of us are eventually working on the case and bouncing all ideas around from one another.
[00:10:59] So it’s not just, oh, I bring in a cl- I may be the lead on a client that I bring in, but now the client now has a resource to Cameron if I’m out, or to Brian. They’re gonna meet all three of us, and all three of us are gonna work on their account, no matter what it is, really. Some of us are, maybe have different skill sets or different interests, or maybe we have the relationship at Schwab or SEI to handle if there’s a problem or we need information, things like that.
[00:11:23] But once a client comes in the door, they’re not Cole McGuire’s client or Brian Aakles’ client, they’re Miami Valley Financial Partners’ client. Understand. And that’s really helped us grow in scale. Any… All right, guys. L- let’s, l- l- let’s get down to it. Any, any issues on comp with that? Because the, the historic model has always been one of you’s gotta be the rainmaker, and the other two gotta do what you’re told.
[00:11:45] So one guy does this, one guy does that, and one guy plays rainmaker. You’re telling me you guys are not following th- that game. It’s a completely different setup. No. We’re all three rainmakers, and we run it like a business. So we’re a partnership. It was laid out for Cole in his first internship exactly what this was gonna look like if he wanted to be- You’re not a planner, are you, Brian?
[00:12:10] Not at all. Wa- wa- why net planner? But I’ve seen a lot of teams formed and failed. Okay. Over 20, 25 years in the business. That just made me feel old. Where everyone fails is around money. Yeah, that’s why I asked the question. So if you don’t make it about money, you have a lot higher percentage chance of being successful.
[00:12:33] So basically, with our whole team, it was six-month internship. Okay. O- one year, full-time salary plus bonus. Okay. And then if you checked all the boxes in that year, then you’re buying into the practice. Okay. And we do that internally. Basically, it’s seamless. I’ll let those guys talk to how comfortable that is from a household standpoint, but that’s the way it is.
[00:12:59] So we all have a share in every dollar of revenue that comes through Miami Valley Financial Partners. All right. So Cam, Cole, you guys both got skin in the game. You guys are, y- you guys have successfully checked those boxes and you’re heading down the road. You guys are building this out together. You’re all rowing in the same direction.
[00:13:14] Correct. Yep. Sounds too damn easy, guys.
[00:13:21] How do you guys stay on the same page?
[00:13:26] I’m gonna put you on the spot, Cam. You been … No, Brian, you got … Hold on. Let’s see what the younger guys say. How do you guys stay on the same page on stuff? I think Wealthbox has been a huge help for us with that. Getting people to use Wealthbox is another th- situation. Some people like using it, some people- I think somebody got called out.
[00:13:41] I don’t want to go too far with it. Okay, keep going. No, we talk about it plenty. But yeah, I think we just try to be on top of things as best we can, whether it’s email, having notes on client accounts, being on top of what’s going on with each one, whether they’ve just come through the door or we have some maintenance we’re keeping up on with them.
[00:13:58] But that’s where it comes to all of us have our individual strengths. Cole might be dealing with more of the Conor Group side of things. I might be more on, right now, the Aperio or Core side of things. It just depends on what type of money manager we might be accessing that who, who Brian might take some work to, and it’s divided out that way.
[00:14:17] And not really by any decision other than that’s just how it naturally happened, and the work’s been evenly divided, it feels. I’ll also chime in there and answer- Yeah … help you answer that question, too. I think the reason that this office works well and with the model that we work on is, number one, we all care about one another.
[00:14:37] If I’m slacking, Cameron’s picking up my work or Brian’s picking up my work. Vice versa, if one of those two are slacking, then I’m picking it up. We’re also all three very competitive. On the golf course, managing assets, any- anything like that, we’re competitive. We don’t want to be the one that’s dragging the boat.
[00:14:55] And then most importantly, though, I think we all three care deeply about the work that we do for people. We’re involved in a very personalized business, dealing with people’s money. That’s some- that might be the most important thing to people, when we care about those clients. So staying on top of it in that realm is why we all work together, ’cause we all three check those three boxes.
[00:15:19] Outstanding. How much bigger does Miami Valley get, guys? And then if you get bigger, you gotta bring more guys in, how does it look? What’s the, what’s the … Give me three years, five years down the road. That’s a question that we’ve been batting around. Five years down the road, I think we should be at a billion Okay.
[00:15:39] Brian, you agree? And I don’t know how many advisors that means, but depends on how efficient our technology gets. There you go. How often Brian goes to Wealthbox? Yeah, there you go. Brian, you gonna … A bi- billion in five, is that, is that realistic? Yeah. I… That’s definitely realistic on our trend. I would tell you that we don’t throw out goals lightly.
[00:16:04] Okay. We’ve exceeded every one that we’ve set, so if Cole tells you a billion in five, I don’t have any reason to distrust him. Okay. Cam, you’re smiling, so I don’t think you’re gonna argue the point. I’m not gonna argue. I hear a goal, and that’s all I’m focused on. We gotta get to it, so- … the more, the merrier.
[00:16:26] All right, guys. Let me, let me ask this, just a, a, a, a final thought from each one of you. I’ll, I’ll start with you, Cam, and then onto Cole, and then finish up with Brian. Cam, best advice you can give advisors to, to put together a team that really works together. What’s, what pops into your head right off the bat?
[00:16:42] I, I think it’s the caring level. I think Brian said it since I walked in the door. It’s his famous quote. You could put it on a, a board above his head right now to fill that empty space. It’s, people don’t care how much you know until you kn- they know how much you care. And I think that goes for how we treat clients, but also how he’s treated Cole and I getting into this business.
[00:17:03] And I think once you have that internally, then the rest kind of takes care of itself. As you’ve heard from all three of us, it’s a business partnership but also a friendship in this office. Perfect. Thank you. Cam? Or I’m sorry, Cole? I think, I think impressing that it’s not about the amount of… It’s not forcing you to bring in people just because so you can get more meetings and things like that.
[00:17:33] I think it’s about learning the right thing to do for people. ‘Cause if you bring in 10 people and you close one in a month, you’ve got one new client. But if you bring in three and close two in a month, you got two clients. So, and if you’re doing the right things versus bringing in the wrong people or just soliciting, making these calls, and not doing the right things, just trying to sell product, it’s, you’re not gonna grow.
[00:17:55] It’s not about incen- it’s about incentivizing to bring the right kind of clients in and doing the right thing for them, and that’s where you’re gonna grow your business. So numbers game on one side, thoughtful on the other. I get it. Yeah. Okay. Brian? We’re in a business where a lot of people focus on the money all the time I feel like if you focus on the relationships, the money will take care of itself.
[00:18:22] Okay. There you go. Gentlemen, anything else we should add to this, this podcast? Otherwise, I appreciate you. Thank you for being as forthcoming and insightful, and congratulations on what you guys have accomplished. Thank you, Ray. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you, Ray. Thank you.
[00:18:42] Well, Ray, I think Brian’s gonna hear about Wealthbox for a while Yep, yep Probably, but you could hear how comfortable they are with each other You could, and there’s a real business purpose underneath the teasing. If all three of you are working with a client, everybody needs to know what’s going on Right.
[00:19:00] I think Brian talked to them only gets you so far Exactly. What did they talk about? Did somebody promise to follow up? And who is that somebody? Yes, that’s, that’s usually the part you’d like to know So, um, the ownership conversation really stood out for me, too. Brian described the internship, then a full-time role, and then an opportunity to buy into the practice Yes, and I think having that conversation early is worth paying attention to.
[00:19:25] It gives both sides a chance to understand what they’re working toward You guys really dug into some details, but, but I have a few questions Go ahead For starters, what, what does ready look like? How do you decide someone’s ready to become a partner? That would be worth a whole, whole conversation on its own And then the buy-in itself Yes How do you work that out so everyone understands what they’re agreeing to?
[00:19:49] Absolutely. We really didn’t get into all of that here because those details would, would need to fit the firm and the people involved But they did explain something that helps the rest of it make sense. They all share in the revenue coming through the business Right, so when one of them brings in a client and another helps with the work, they’re all participating in what they’re building That gives some context to the way they described helping each other It does, and they talked about taking responsibility for the work because they care about each other and their clients.
[00:20:19] You could hear that throughout the conversation There’s something in it for the client, too. You’re getting to know more than one person at the firm Yes, and that becomes pretty useful when your usual advisor is unavailable That’s beautiful. Let’s, let’s say you call with something you need help with.
[00:20:34] Are you comfortable talking to the other person, and do they already know your situation? Or are you starting the whole explanation over again? Exactly. That’s a useful question for an owner to think through from the client’s side It is, and on the team’s side I’d ask, “Do the people here understand what their future with this firm could look like?”
[00:20:53] Yes, yes. That’s good stuff It’s important to know Absolutely. Y- you could find out you’re picturing two very different things You could, and that gives you somewhere to start the conversation Well, I’d enjoy having these guys back as the firm grows. We’ve already put together a few questions for you Apparently I have homework now You do, and Brian has Wealthbox We’re gonna get him in trouble.
[00:21:15] Thanks again to Brian, Cole, and Cam for joining us and being so open about how they work together at Miami Valley Financial Partners And, uh, thanks to everyone listening to RIA Confidential. You can find more conversations, resources, and tools at riaconfidential.org. We’ll see you next time
[00:21:37] RIA Confidential, your source for truth
[00:21:42] Uh, the investment strategy and themes discussed herein may be, um, unsuitable for investors depending on their specific investment objectives and financial situation. Information obtained from third-party sources is believed to be reliable, though its accuracy is not guaranteed. Opinions expressed in this commentary reflect subjective judgments of the authors based on conditions at the time of publication and are subject to change without notice.
[00:22:05] Past performance is not indicative of future results.