At most firms, these financial professionals would be called financial advisors. But at Brighton Jones, they’re personal chief financial officers and wealth alignment managers.
That’s because, CEO Jon Jones maintains in an interview with ThinkAdvisor, these professionals are concentrating on both sides of the client’s balance sheet.
“We focus on both assets and liabilities, not only the investments,” Jones says. “What’s most important to the individual should be their net worth.”
When hired, recruits undergo “retraining,” Jones says, to become clients’ personal chief financial officers and to manage their wealth in alignment with their values. The advisors train for about eight years before they’re expected to bring in new business.
Brighton Jones, launched in 2000 when Jones left Deloitte Touche, advises 4,000 households and has $25 billion to $30 billion in assets under advisement. Since 2019, it has increased headcount 60%, to 280 employees, and grown from five to 18 offices.
In the interview with Jones, he explains what prompted him to strike out on his own. At Deloitte Touche, he says, “financial plans would sit there gathering dust and wouldn’t get implemented.”
Here are excerpts from our conversation:
THINKADVISOR: What sets your firm apart from many other advisories?
JON JONES: When we opened, we took the role of the client’s personal chief financial officer managing their balance sheet.
We focus on both assets and liabilities because net worth should be the most important [financial aspect] of the individual.
What about investing?
We don’t sell products. We [recommend] both private and public investments. We don’t do the underlying investments. We shop to find the best product we can at the lowest price.
We do the same with mortgages. And we do taxes.
Broadly, what’s your clientele’s asset level?
They’re high net worth — busy people that have money or are good at making money but not necessarily good at tending to their balance sheet.
But having a personal CFO isn’t a need only for people with a lot of money. Regardless of wealth, everybody could use a personal CFO.
Can you explain your proprietary wealth alignment process?
It [matches up] the client’s wealth with their values, ranging from financial planning to charitable giving.
What’s missing from our industry is aligning people’s resources with what they care about. The process of uncovering values and passions is a really key component of wealth management.
We define passion as something that people spend at least an hour of their time on [regularly].
What’s your approach to recruiting financial advisors?
The type of advisor I’m trying to recruit isn’t being produced by colleges. They produce investment people — econ, finance and accounting majors.
That isn’t what a personal CFO does and certainly not what a wealth alignment manager does.
How do you develop advisors to be personal CFOs?
We recruit them out of school and from other firms. We have to retrain them to be good CFOs and wealth alignment managers.
They’re salaried starting at age 22, but they’re not expected to bring in new business for about eight years.
When they’re somewhere around 30 or older, we expect them to network on nonprofit boards and do other things to get new business.
All our personal CFOs have to be a CFP, a CPA or a CFA.
You train both advisors and clients in what you call “Mindful Emotional Social Intelligence.” What’s the purpose of that?
It’s our mental fitness program: People’s mental fitness is as important as their physical fitness. The more they work on their mental fitness, the happier they’ll be and the more they’ll thrive.
People get really emotional about the market, which isn’t the best thing for long-term returns on their portfolios.
When you’re in a highly emotional state, your brain gets hijacked. You can be fighting, running away or frozen. MESI helps you regulate your emotions so you get hijacked less often and therefore make more rational decisions.
What are the MESI components?
“M” is for “Mindful,” being aware that in any life situation, a lot of things go on in your head. You think and feel based on your values, and whether your needs are being met or not.
“E” stands for Emotional Intelligence: your own thoughts, feelings and emotions, and awareness of what’s happening within you and how you manage yourself given those things.
“S” is for Social Intelligence: It’s helping someone to act in alignment with their values in order to meet their needs.
It’s about what they’re feeling, what’s happening in their life and what they can do about it.
“I” is for [overall] Intelligence.
Another unusual aspect of your firm is arranging for clients to take trips to Africa. Why Africa?
I like to [focus on] impact areas where I can give or invest money to make the world better. We categorize that into people, planet and animals. For example, we go to Kenya and do social work with a school we support, and we help support animal conservation there.
How does a client qualify for a trip to Africa? I assume they don’t have to pay for it.
They pay for their own trips to Africa. We host the trip and make them as cost effective as possible. As you add services for clients, it’s important that they pay for them.
What’s the next country you’re planning that clients visit?
Nepal. One of our team members is from there and has two or three nonprofits that we like. We’ll start taking clients there and raising funds for those nonprofits.
What were you doing before you opened your own firm?
I was with Deloitte Touche doing investments and what we called financial plans. But what I found was that the plans we put together would just sit there gathering dust and wouldn’t get implemented.
Why and when did you leave Deloitte?
In 2000 I [co-founded] our firm to play the role of the client’s personal CFO.
Investments are just one line item on a balance sheet, but the CFO approach [covers] all the client’s assets and all their liabilities because, as I’ve said, what’s most important to the individual should be their net worth.
How much has your firm grown since its launch?
We’ve reached $100 million in revenue through organic growth only.
What’s the biggest key to your success?
Work hard for people, and they’ll remark about you. You’ll get referrals — and the cycle continues.
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