Wealth management firms come in all shapes and sizes. While there is no one-size-fits-all answer to how large or small the perfect firm is, when it comes down to it, wealth management is all about striking the right balance. What is the right size firm for your needs?
Assuming you are a high-net-worth investor with a portfolio of $1 million to $20 million, or a ultra-high net worth investor with a portfolio above $20 million, you likely have ongoing complex wealth management needs that a boutique wealth management firm like Janiczek Wealth Management is well-positioned to address.
We define boutique wealth management as a perfect sized, sophisticated wealth management firm, offering highly specialized, integrated, and personalized services to a select group of clients. Not too large of a firm, not too small of a firm, the perfect size firm for your specific needs, and just as important, a firm that is a 100% fee-only fiduciary, 100% of the time with no hidden agendas or conflicts of interest.
Working with a boutique wealth management firm has 3 distinct advantages:
Advantage #1: Your client experience feels right.
If you are working with too large of a firm, you can easily feel like a small fish in a HUGE pond. Similarly, if you are working with too small of a firm, you can feel like a big fish in a TINY pond. When your client experience feels right, you instantly feel you are in the right place, with the right people, doing the right things.
Boutique wealth management is centered on authentic, deep relationships with your advisory team, resulting in a highly personalized experience specific to your situation. This is in stark contrast to the more corporate driven, bureaucratic, and impersonal experience of a too large firm. When it feels right, you have input on your ongoing client experience, as contrasted with being on a “cookie cutter” assembly line of planning and investment options so often found at larger firms.
At Janiczek Wealth Management, our proprietary and patented systems and technology are driven by client input and feedback, not an outside corporate agenda. Our clients have direct access to firm decision-makers at all times, helping them own their client experience in partnership with us.
Advantage #2: Big firm resources enabling unique investment and planning opportunities.
Working with too small of a firm can narrow your investment and planning opportunities due to lack of resources, lack of perspective and lack of leverage in the marketplace. A perfect size boutique wealth management firm like Janiczek Wealth Management has sizeable assets under management that they can utilize to gain access to certain investments and investment managers unavailable to those working with a smaller firm or doing it themselves. They aren’t beholden just to the publicly traded securities markets, they can gain access to private market investments, maximizing risk adjusted returns for their clients. They can also leverage their size to negotiate preferred institutional pricing on behalf of clients, a key ingredient to long-term investing success, something that smaller advisory firms and retail investors have difficulty competing with.
Similarly, on the planning front, by specializing in helping high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals and families continually navigate their unique and complex wealth management needs, boutique wealth management firms like Janiczek Wealth Management build up valuable expertise and perspective that can be shared among the client group, for the betterment of the client group. This wealth of experience and expertise drives the continual enhancement and innovation of our systems, processes, deliverables and technology. Not trying to be everything to everybody, and having a specialized client group, means we can provide ongoing true thought leadership to our clients in the wealth management areas they care most about, like cashflow management, tax management, risk management, philanthropic and estate planning.
Advantage #3: A team approach you can count on.
If you’ve ever worked with a “too large” firm, you know that frequent team turnover is the norm, not only for advisors but their support team as well. You spend your time and energy trying to build a trusted relationship with your advisory team, only to have them depart to another firm or to move somewhere else within the bureaucratic structure. Not only can this revolving door negatively impact your results because your advisory team never really gets to know you, your financial situation, your goals and fears, but it can be downright draining, disconcerting and stall your progress.
On the flip, if you’ve ever worked with a “too small” firm, you might get some personal attention from your one advisor and possibly a small team, but you likely worry about their level of expertise, especially when it comes to specialized matters impacting high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients, matters like selling a business or property, receiving an inheritance, dealing with concentrated equity compensation, retiring successfully and/or transitioning wealth to the next generation in a tax optimized way. Are they more of a generalist in the way they handle your complex situation, lacking internal and external specialists to get you the best advice possible? Are you left on your own to figure out complex decisions by seeking out specialists outside of your advisory team? In addition, their technology is likely unsophisticated compared to a larger boutique firm. Probably the most worrisome part of working with a “too small” firm is the succession risk you assume, meaning the firm might be one team member away from the firm closing and you needing to start over somewhere else.
At Janiczek Wealth Management, we’re proud to have a highly credentialed team with 100 combined years of experience exclusively spent at Janiczek, with an average colleague tenure of over 10 years. That means continuity of service for our clients, and our clients gaining great traction in all aspects of their financial lives year after year. We insist on a team approach with all clients, so that each client not only receives the best possible advice from our group (several minds working on a client situation is better than one mind), but they can take comfort knowing that multiple people at our firm know their situation inside and out at all times and they aren’t going to ever experience the need to start over with a new advisor/team like they might at a “too big” or “too small” firm. Boutique wealth management at its finest.
Choosing the right wealth management firm is an important decision for any investor, particularly those with significant assets and complexity. Boutique wealth management firms offer numerous advantages and resources that make them attractive for high net worth and ultra-high net worth investors, business owners, and real estate investors.
Janiczek Wealth Management has been recognized as one of the nation’s leading and most exclusive financial advisors for decades*. By leveraging the resources of a boutique wealth management firm like us, you can trust that your investments and overall wealth will managed in an optimized way in accordance with your goals and objectives giving you peace of mind so you can continually focus on what is most important to you.
If you’re interested in learning more about us, just click the link below.
Talk with Me About the Janiczek Boutique Advantage
Or speak with an advisor at Janiczek Wealth Management today by contacting Cathy Wegner, Director of New Client Engagements, at 303-339-4480 or cwegner@janiczek.com.