Joining a New Club

Dan Skiles spent years working for large companies, typified by eight years at Charles Schwab Institutional. Now that he’s an executive VP at the much smaller Shareholders Service Group custodian based in San Diego, Skiles says he now feels “an alignment with advisors,” and that many advisors that he’s known for years that run their own relatively small practices, “have become great coaches” for Skiles in his new role. They’ll say, “I remember when I left Merrill Lynch, when I left a big company and had to give up some of those things and started my own firm, let me tell you about these two things that you guys need to stay focused on.” He reports that long-time friend and advisor Greg Friedman, of Junxure software and principal of Salient-Friedman Wealth Management, has “been an entrepreneur all his life, and now I think he actually respects me.” Skiles says “It’s a new club that I didn’t know existed and now I guess I’m a quasi-member.”