Insights

An RIA aggregator that launched into the crowded sector earlier this year has made its first M&A deal and opened its first location on the West Coast. Financial advisor Kristin Bartlow joined Journey Strategic Wealth after nearly a dozen years with Northwestern Mutual, where she had grown the ensemble practice to a team of four managing $195 million in client assets, Bartlow said in an interview. Journey announced the new outpost of the RIA on April 13, four months after advisor coach Penny Phillips and planners Michael Brown and Brian Flynn launched the firm. The parties didn’t disclose terms of the deal. Journey aims to stand out from the field of wealth managers serving RIAs with a strong foundation in practice management and a focus on “solo-preneur” practices with between $100 million and $1 billion in client assets, according to Phillips. The firm's newest advisor picked Journey out of nearly 20 firms in a due diligence process beginning almost two years ago.

summit, New Jersey-based Journey Strategic Wealth has expanded with the opening of a new San Francisco office that is home to the first advisor team under the new RIA partnership business model that Journey launched in January, it said Tuesday. The San Francisco advisor team is led by Kristin Bartlow, previously of Bartlow Wealth Management, a Northwestern Mutual (NWM) firm. Bartlow was registered with NWM since 2010, according to her report on the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s BrokerCheck website.

Journey Strategic Wealth, the new registered investment advisor/partnership launched earlier this year, has recruited its first tuck-in, adding financial advisor Kristin Bartlow and her team, who bring $180 million in client assets, from Northwestern Mutual. Journey was founded in January by financial advisors and former Dynasty Financial Partners executives Michael Brown and Brian Flynn, along with practice management coach Penny Phillips, founder of Thrivos Consulting. The addition of Bartlow’s team brings its assets under management to about $2.7 billion.

Summit, N.J., April 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Journey Strategic Wealth (“Journey”), a registered investment advisor and practice management partner, today announced the launch of their San Francisco office led by award-winning advisor Kristin Bartlow, CFP®, CLU®, RICP, ChFC®, WMCP®, previously of Bartlow Wealth Management, a Northwestern Mutual firm. The team brings $180M in assets under management to Journey. Bartlow’s team includes Brett Agnew, CFP®, Kevin D. Rinow, CFP®, CLU®, RICP®, ChFC®, and Adrienne Braccia Conrad. They are the first advisors to join Journey’s practice management-centric RIA model and will primarily serve institutional and other pre-retirement clients, including high-net-worth technology executives and their families. Bartlow has been recognized by Forbes as a “Top Women Wealth Advisor of 2020” and by Working Mother & Shook Research as a “2020 Top Wealth Advisor Moms” recipient.

On this week’s episode we speak with Penny Phillips, President and Co-Founder of Journey Strategic Wealth. She has extensive experience coaching and consulting financial advisors, business owners and wealth management institutions on assembling the resources and tools they need to powerfully serve clients. The pandemic has altered the way advisors interact with clients. Phillips observes that “everything is changed and nothing has changed” for advisors. She characterizes the developments of the past year as more of an evolution in the client journey.

A lot has been said in recent years about fee compression and new fee models for investment advisors, but not every fee model works for every RIA firm and every client, according to the founders of three RIA firms who spoke Wednesday in an online “Discussion on RIA Fee Practices and Trends.” “I’ve always been a stickler on fees of all types,” including mutual fund fees, where some firms “charge way too much money for what they do,” said Rick Ferri, CEO and founder of Ferri Investment Solutions in Georgetown, Texas.

Advisors should try to focus on those parts of the business that they like the most and are the most skilled at, turning to other team members or outsourcing the parts of the job that they don’t like or know much about, industry executives said Friday during an online Riskalyze RIA Roundtable event. “Don’t be a lone ranger” or attempt to be a “Jack of all trades” who does everything on your own, said Marty Bicknell, CEO and president of Mariner Wealth Advisors, offering advice to those just starting out in the advisory business.

In this video, Penny provides best practices around articulating fees to clients and structuring advisor services and fees.