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March 12, 2020 at 09:00 AM
We interrupt the second day of the current bear market to bring you an important message: Michael Kitces is moving from Pinnacle Advisory Group to Buckingham Wealth Partners.
But stay calm. The popular Nerd’s Eye View blogger and financial planner will not be altering his “branding.”
The cobalt-blue shirt/uniform remains in place, as does his 24/7 Kitces.com content and Twitter presence. And Jeff Levine, CPA, formerly of BluePrint Wealth Alliance is making the move, too; in fact, he just updated his Twitter nickname from “That Secure Act Guy” to “The Buckinghammer.”
Both members of the dynamic duo believe the move will allow them to “up their content game” and grow “the Kitces platform,” said Michael Kitces in an interview with ThinkAdvisor on Wednesday, noting that this content team now includes nine people after starting out with just two.
“As the number of writers has expanded, we wanted to create more alignment on the team and bring it under one umbrella and one advisory firm,” he explained. That led to the recent decision to become part of Buckingham from Pinnacle, where Kitces had been for 17 years.
‘We Want More Nerds to Nerd Out With Us’
Buckingham — a member of Focus Financial Partners since 2007 — says Kitces is now head of planning strategy for the firm and Levine is director of advanced planning.
The St. Louis-based group consists of an independent RIA firm serving more than 140 advisors in 40-plus offices, as well as a turnkey wealth management services platform (including the former Loring Ward business) that serves more than 500 financial professionals; as of Dec. 31, the firm’s affiliated advisors and other clients worked with some $50 billion in assets.
Larry Swedroe, a long-time advocate for and leader in the “evidence-based investing” movement, serves as chief research officer of Buckingham’s RIA.
“We’ve always wanted to be the destination for this industry’s top talent. And in times like these, thought leadership and true counsel with the best planning resources are needed more than ever,” Buckingham Wealth Chairman and CEO Adam Birenbaum said in an interview.
As Kitces sees it, Buckingham “wants to grow its base of advisors and [TAMP] clients, and we drive both.”
But what does really this mean for die-hard Kitces.com fans/”nerds”?
“We want more nerds to nerd out with us on financial planning and advisor content,” said Kitces, who has 57,600 followers on Twitter. “Our focus is to create more specialized nerdy content for advisors, which we’ve always wanted to do.”
As Birenbaum puts it: “Kitces.com will be the platform of content, so we can be the industry-leading destination for planning thought leadership; Buckingham will be where that knowledge is put into practice.”
