Celebrity Advisor David Bach Launches ‘Business in a Box’ for Advisors

“Whatever DOL [fiduciary rule] ends up being, your business is going to cost you more, cost more to run, be more complicated, and have more liability issues,” Bach said. “By being part of a bigger organization with a complete compliance overlay, with turnkey marketing solutions and asset management and technology, you are well more protected than being a solo practitioner with a couple assistants.”

If an advisor has been in the business for 20 years and is “stuck” at $50 million in assets, “because you’ve hit a ceiling of complexity, we can show you how to build a business that takes you from $50 million to at least $100 [million] within 36 months,” Bach continued.

What if the firms would prefer to merge, or consolidate with a larger firm, rather than grow?

“We’re looking for 1,000 RIAs that want to grow,” Bach said. “Once we’ve grown them with our systems and they are all on our platform, we will be able to candidly consolidate them, buy them, merge them. By having an organization which is truly a network, we will be able to help these advisors either grow by acquisition of each other, or we’ll be in a position to ultimately buy them.”

AE Wealth’s model is not a “rollup,” Bach says.

“We’re not buying anybody, so we’re not writing any checks, we’ve raise no outside capital. What we are doing, though, is providing all the turnkey solutions, and we’re not rebranding them.”

As it stands now, the AE Wealth Management network consists of nearly 380 IARs and RIAs spread across 225 offices throughout the U.S., with $2.8 billion on the platform, Bach said.

“We think we are now set up to handle inflow,” Bach said. “We have 50 employees and now that we’ve been doing this for 18 months, we’ve gotten pretty good at it — there’s a lot of work involved in transitioning RIAs; we’ve transitioned nearly 50,000 accounts. Our goal is 50 to 100 RIAs a year.”

During his Wednesday remarks, Bach cited four reasons that advisors should strive to be stars in their markets:

• It’s easier to get clients;
• It’s easier for your clients to refer their friends to you;
• For advisor who are already celebrities, “there’s a lot of kissy-kissy going on in the buying of firms; when you’re the pretty girl you have a better chance of getting a date”; and
• It’s easier to raise money.

Upcoming educational sessions that AE Wealth will be conducting include:

• The “Smart Couples, Smart Retirement” seminar program. starting in January, based on the new edition of Bach’s New York Times bestseller Smart Couples Finish Rich.

• The “Understanding Market Corrections” seminar, to help advisors get ahead of current market conditions, which indicate a possible correction next year.

• “The Art of the Client Referral,” a training program designed to help advisors turn their best clients into effective advocates. 

• The “Smart Women, Smart Retirement” seminar, which will begin in the third quarter of 2018, based on the new 2018 edition of Bach’s New York Times bestseller Smart Women Finish Rich.

— Related on ThinkAdvisor:

• Should I Stay or Should I Go (Independent)?
• Ric Edelman: DOL Rule Will Kill Off Half of All Advisors, Gouge Wirehouses