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March 08, 2019 at 04:55 PM
No doubt about it, difficult clients can be a hideous nightmare. But to portfolio manager Antonio B. Rodrigues, they’re ideal.
A senior vice president with Procyon Partners, Rodrigues, 40, prides himself on delivering to demanding, exacting folks what other advisors can’t or won’t, as he tells ThinkAdvisor in an interview.
With $110 million under management, he has 40 client relationships, including individuals, families, nonprofits and corporations.
Rodrigues’ high-maintenance clients — who require more attention than most and want customized, not cookie-cutter portfolios — are apt to fire their FA over a relatively minor administrative mistake. Typically, they’ve been through multiple advisors before signing with him. Deeply understanding of their high standards and expectations, he boasts a 95%-plus client retention rate over the last decade.
In the interview, Rodrigues talks about difficult clients’ biggest gripe and what he does to serve and satisfy them.
Previously a 20-year advisor with People’s United Bank’s Olson Mobeck Investment Advisors and People’s United Advisors, he joined Procyon in May 2018 to offer a higher level of client service, he says.
He doesn’t market himself as an FA, preferring to partner with those who do. Instead, he specializes in constructing and managing portfolios. “That’s a full-time job. A financial advisor needs to take a 30,000-foot view — and that’s a separate job,” he argues.
Dynasty Financial Partners, providing back-office support for Rodrigues, helped the asset manager connect with Procyon when he decided to leave Olson Mobeck.
An RIA offering institutional consulting and private wealth management, Procyon was founded in 2017 by five partners who broke away from UBS.
ThinkAdvisor recently interviewed Rodrigues, on the phone from his office in Shelton, Connecticut. He was reared in nearby Trumbull, Connecticut, son of a Portuguese immigrant employed as a construction worker who ultimately launched his own construction company. As for Antonio, he gave himself a head start in finance by reading newspaper business sections when he was 9 years old and buying his first shares of Apple stock at age 12.
Here are excerpts from our conversation:
THINKADVISOR: What’s your client niche?
ANTONIO RODRIGUES: I’m not afraid of clients who have high expectations. In fact, I actively seek them out. I work with a select group of self-made entrepreneurial clients who are masters of their own universe. They’re used to running their businesses and have delivered exceptionalism to their clients. Similarly, they expect that from me.
What’s these folks’ general investing experience?
They’ve been invested over the course of their lifetime and have likely been through two, three or four financial advisors before they get to me. What they need is a money manager who can compete with other money managers. Most advisors don’t want to get into that.
What’s an example of a difficult client you’ve recently signed?
At the end of last year, I took on a brand-new client who had hired and fired investment managers on a number of occasions over four or five years. She’d just fired one last August because they took the fee out of the wrong account.
