To securitize or not to securitize: Part 2

SMA: Tell us about your licensing.

Dragotta: I hold my Series 7, 63, 65, my 9 and my 10, and my 53. I also got my ChFC designation, and I’m a CFP, which made sense with financial planning as the basis of my foundation. The other designation means I focus on retirees. There was certainly some time, commitment and energy required to get all the licenses and figure out what I needed — and, frankly, many of them were a formality and aren’t really applicable to dealing with people — but I don’t know any other way to compete in this business without being able offering a breadth of products and services. I’m a big believer that you should never stop learning; otherwise, you get stuck in the mud, and it all passes you by. I don’t see non-licensed guys as my competition. The high-net-worth individuals that I deal with as clients are seeking out a well-rounded person to work with them. I come in and give them choices to attack the puzzle and create the equations that are going to work for them, and 90 percent of the time, I win their business after an initial appointment. I sincerely believe that if you’re not licensed, you really need to get re-motivated if you truly want to capture bigger assets.

SMA: What is your approach with your clients?

Dragotta: When I first meet with clients, I wear my financial planner cap, something directly related to my Series 65 — I review their plan, offer planning services and charge a fee for that. Free financial planning, to me, means that there’s an agenda at work. I do the work; then I come back with a rough draft, with a lot of projections and a lot of “what if” scenarios. I don’t make investment recommendations at that point. If they decide to go ahead, I wear the investment advisor/consultant hat, and I can start to formulate investment proposals, again, largely fee-based. I’m also a pretty good advocate of variable annuities as one solution, though not the only solution. They’re clearly very helpful in alleviating the short-term volatility. I also think that ETFs provide the best bang for the buck, provided we can manage them with a tactical model. And then there’s good old bonds, which are more of a “buy ‘em and hold on” solution. I also handle mutual funds, and hybrids of all of the above.