Why This Ex-Wirehouse and Bank Advisor Prefers the RIA Space

“When you’re at an RIA firm like Wealthspire, you don’t have to run to the printer after you’ve printed out contact information for a new prospect,” Cox said with a laugh. “I love the team culture here. We are all truly aligned and we want the same thing — success for each other, for our clients and for the firm.”

Here are some additional highlights from our conversation, edited for length and clarity:

THINKADVISOR: Before we talk about your decision to join Wealthspire, can we talk about your entrance into the advisor industry? You moved through the wirehouse and banking channels first, right?

CRYSTAL COX: Yes, thank you for the question. I did start out at UBS as a young person right out of college after being an intern there.

My role on that team was as a registered client service associate, so I wasn’t technically a full advisor at the time. I was responsible for marketing and new client acquisition, and I helped set up events and recruit high-net-worth clients.

It was a great experience and I learned a ton, but I did eventually move over to Wells Fargo, which was a very different environment. Being in both the wirehouse and banking space gave me a lot of insight into the different ways to serve clients and to structure teams.

What attracted you about the RIA model?

There were a few things. To begin with, the RIA model is associated with taking a comprehensive and purposeful approach to wealth management. Our main priority is building deep relationships while ensuring client portfolios are truly aligned with their risk tolerance and goals.

Given our focus on comprehensive planning, we are able to work with a lot of multi-generational families, and we help people solve their financial challenges at all different stages of life. I recently helped a family enact a 529 account to Roth IRA rollover for the benefit of their kid who just graduated college, for example.

I find this kind of work to be so engaging and rewarding. We have clients who are just starting out in their wealth accumulation journey, and then we have clients who are 100 years old who are working on their legacy plans. It’s all across the board, and I really value the ability to work this way. It’s about so much more than picking investments or selling products.

I had the opportunity to pursue the Certified Divorce Financial Analyst designation about two years ago, and that’s become an increasingly important and rewarding part of my planning work. I decided to pursue that designation when one of my clients’ sisters was going through a divorce, and she was just in real need of guidance.

At the time, I didn’t have all the answers to give her, but I had the good fortune of having two colleagues here within Wealthspire who helped me validate the advice I was giving. That’s the second thing: The culture of collaboration that we have within our firm is so important to me.

I also believe the collaboration is important to our success as a firm. We have a super high client-retention ratio here at Wealthspire. I’m certain it’s because of the strong culture and our collaborative approach to serving our clients and growing the business.

How do you effectively establish relationships with multi-generational families? Does the RIA model make that easier?

It’s interesting, because we often find that a client who might have $2 million in their own retirement portfolio is actually more engaged and more concerned about their kids’ new Roth IRA that has $5,000 in it. As fee-only advisors, we’re able to serve both of these generations in a collaborative way that ultimately benefits the firm in the long run.

Too often, commission-based advisors and even many RIAs are only focused on what is earning them compensation right now. We obviously need to focus on compensation as a fee-only firm, but we are also able to take a broader view, especially when it comes to serving two or even three generations in a family at the same time.

The fact is that, if we can help get that kid onto a positive trajectory, it deepens the relationship with the more affluent parent or grandparent. We are also positioning ourselves to be the trusted source of advice and guidance as the next generation either grows or inherits wealth. I love the ability to be able to take a longer view of these things.

I can hear your excitement and optimism about your role as an RIA. Is there anything that worries you about the future of the advisory industry or the RIA space in particular?

I am confident and I look forward to being in this role for a long time to come.

Earlier on in my career, I was one of those people who was kind of concerned with the emergence of robo-advisors and the question about whether or not better technology could some day replace us as advisors or reduce the value we can deliver to clients. It’s still a fear that is out there among some advisors, but I’m not sure I still share it.

Today, I think about this a lot differently, even as we see the same kinds of questions emerge with respect to artificial intelligence. After doing this work for a while now, I’m much more confident that there is no replacement for the human interaction and the human-to-human relationship between advisor and client.

As an advisor, technology has made the math side of the planning process much easier, and that’s a great thing. I can now use Money Guide Pro to run any number of Monte Carlo analyses and talk my clients through their risk of running out of money in retirement, depending on what markets do and how much they spend. I love being able to run a deep tax analysis in five or 10 seconds.

But these things are only part of the equation. I believe clients will always look to human advisors for validation and, frankly, emotional support, and that gives me a lot of optimism about the long-term future and relevance of expert financial advisors.

Pictured: Crystal Cox