Twelve groups have signed with Spire so far, and only six of them work in the firm's Virginia headquarters. The rest work in offsite locations in a network that spans Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Colorado. The key to Spire's success, says Blisk, is that the hybrid firm offers advisors superior technology, complete freedom and top investment platforms, along with a registered investment advisor affiliation and a newly minted in-house broker-dealer. "Now we control our destiny," says Blisk, a principal of the firm.

With broker-dealers like LPL and custodians like Schwab lining up to recruit breakaway brokers-those ready to trade in their employment with Wall Street firms for more flexibility, profitability and control-Blisk's strategy seems to be a masterful one. Instead of competing with the likes of Schwab and Fidelity, who don't want to offer commission-based products anyway-why not partner with them to recruit newly independent brokers who still have commission business and want someone else (Blisk hopes it's Spire) to worry about computers, lights and the like?

Spire, he says, gives brokers and advisors who still want somebody else running their back-office, compliance and due diligence a place to go for advisor registration without giving up commissions or having to stay in a traditional wirehouse setting.
In fact, Blisk argues, Spire has created a win-win situation for everyone: Advisors who join its group get elite producer status and full access to a number of platforms, including Schwab and Fidelity's offerings. Supermarkets like Fidelity and Schwab get a shot at the Spire advisors' fee-based assets. And Spire gets a piece of everyone's pie.

So far, so good. Spire's hybrid business model seems to be a big draw these days-especially for transitioning brokers who want to keep some commission business (it's about 70% fees, 30% commissions at Spire and may never change, according to Blisk). In fact, the entrepreneur says, he and the director he's hired to recruit advisors and brokers have $1 billion in new advisor assets in the pipeline for early 2008 and may be able to add as much as $3 billion more this year. The firm generated $7 million in revenues in 2007 and expects to increase that to well over $10 million in 2008, Blisk says.

"It's an amazing time to be in this business," he adds. He believes the firm is a natural fit for those fleeing wirehouses, but not necessarily committed to creating their own firms from scratch. "I believe we've built this firm to a much higher plane," says Blisk, who is himself a Smith Barney veteran-a big breakaway broker who struck out on his own in 1997.

Blisk created Legacy Advisors with his wife Brenda, herself a broker from their Smith Barney days, and Larry Gaffey. Legacy was affiliated with Lockwood and Cambridge Investment Research, before they split off and created their own broker-dealer late last year.

The goal for years has been to create a network of independent advisors that would give the wirehouses a run for their money.Their growing number of advisors, assets and revenues and the positive notice of companies like Fidelity seem to be proving that the Spire model has staying power. In fact, Blisk and Paul Murphy, his vice president and national sales director, recently made a presentation at Fidelity's national sales conference in front of the giant's own salespeople about the benefits that hybrid firms like Spire can offer them as they recruit breakaway brokers-especially those who still have commission business and don't want full independence.

"We're very pleased to get this kind of opportunity," says Murphy.

Blisk calls the presentation an audition. "I think it's only a short matter of time before we hear that we've become one of Fidelity's preferred friendly broker-dealers. Then we'll get referrals from them about advisors who need a broker-dealer."

While a vocal component of the advisory industry has touted fee-only advice as the superior service, Blisk calls this attitude sanctimonious and contends that a hybrid model combining fees and commissions is a more profitable way to go. "Advisors need a broker-dealer for five things," he says.     "Mutual fund trails, variable annuities, private placements, 401(k)s and 529 plans."

While fee-only readers don't have to worry about these things, Spire is an option for those brokers and advisors who are sick of the traditional broker-dealer relationship, but don't want to spin off entirely on their own, Blisk says.

Liliana N. Molina is one of those advisors. She left Ameriprise a little over six months ago after ten years there to work with a group of four advisors at Spire who call themselves the VZN Group. "I was unhappy when I left. I felt, even as part of Ameriprise's independent model, that it had become a cookie-cutter firm."

Molina was also frustrated by the investments she couldn't offer. "I couldn't offer Vanguard or T. Rowe Price mutual funds. I couldn't offer Virginia's American Funds 529 plan, because it wasn't on our platform, but my clients lived in Virginia, so I recommended the funds anyway, without compensation. After ten years, that was really adding up." The sales culture was also chafing, Molina says. "There were always contests and expectations. When you have a large number of people vying for top spots, you don't know if it's client needs driving sales or the urge to win."

As Molina looked around at her options, she realized that while she wanted independence, she didn't want to create her own firm. What she wasn't willing to sacrifice anymore was access to the full universe of funds, insurance and variable annuities. "I can't say I particularly like variable annuities, but having the full breadth of services available to my clients is important to me." Currently, her business is about 75% fees and 25% commission, and she says she could see moving it to 80% fees in the next year or so.

Since joining Spire in early August 2006, Molina says she is even more impressed with the firm. She says the one-screen total desktop client management system and other tools Spire provides surpass what she had at the wirehouse. "The client data system here is Web-based, so it's much easier for mass mailings and keeping track of tasks. I'm impressed," Molina says.

Clients had already seen her go through a number of changes at Ameriprise, so they weren't surprised when she moved to Spire. "They knew this was an important transition for them and for me," Molina says. Being around "seasoned, anchored people" who she could turn to for expertise with complex cases was the culture she was seeking when she moved to Spire, she says.

She brought $50 million with her (selling off $30 million in assets that weren't transferable), and she expects to grow by 20% annually, starting this year. "I already have six new clients as a result of referrals, and existing clients have transferred more assets to me because they believe I have more expertise available to me here."

The firm's business consulting services have also helped her, she says. "I wasn't necessarily trying to become a complete entrepreneur on my own, but the tools and templates have helped me value my practice and identify and focus on my strengths and weaknesses. The principles and structure of this firm have made my transition and managing my business as painless as possible," Molina says.

Scott Airey, a onetime Legg Mason broker who left his branch manager position with Charles Schwab in 2003 to create his own firm, quickly found his time overtaken by regulatory filings, compliance issues and general operations. Within several months, he opted instead to join Spire and create the VZN Group there, which Molina joined last year. He has grown his business from $0 in assets to $200 million in just five years. "When I came to Spire, it allowed me to focus on what I should be doing-client account work. They've given me a lot of support here." Spire's business consulting "gives you perspective. They've been there, done that, so it's easy for them, as I grow, to pinpoint areas, like staffing, where I can be more decisive and effective." The firm is also creative, suggesting he share a temp with another advisor group, to free up his five-person team to make client calls.

Airey, who says he is 99% fee-only and only accepts an occasional commission for real estate investment trusts or a variable annuity, manages a portfolio of individual equities and also likes private equity, especially deals financing local businesses. Spire itself scouts for private-equity deals to make available to advisors, Airey says. "The idea that each advisor team here can manage money the way they want is great," says Airey. The advisor says individual equities enhance his ability to manage money tax efficiently-something he'll underscore with clients now that he has hired a tax preparer.

"I could never get all of these services-the marketing pieces, compliance, technology and operations, let alone the consulting and this office space, for what I pay (about 20%)," Airey says. "I can't be an expert in everything. Just the thought that I don't have to do all these things myself is important to me."
In fact, Spire may have built a better broker-dealer, albeit one that welcomes investment advisors. Paul Murphy, the firm's national director of sales, says the response from advisors and brokers has been fairly overwhelming in his first six months on the job. The firm expects to recruit between 15 and 25 consultants in 2008.

"We're in negotiations with one advisor who wants to grow his business through acquisition," Murphy says. "He has a specific investment model he's created, but not the expertise to analyze acquisitions. That's where we'll come in. We're in discussions with him about growing his aggregate practice under the Spire umbrella. He believes our infrastructure will be conducive to his strategy."

Elsewhere, he says, a "million-dollar team of brokers are interested in us because they have both advisory and stock and bond business. Individual stock and bond trades aren't being encouraged by wirehouses right now. But we can accommodate both kinds of business." At the same time, this team of possible recruits wants to implement a succession strategy, which they believe Spire can help them maximize.

"We really are about the 30-somethings buying the business from the 50-somethings," says Blisk, who offers a stock option and company ownership plan as part of Spire's benefit package. That helps with recruiting and helps get advisors through the initial pain of transitioning to a new firm. It also gets employees and advisors to take ownership of the firm and its success-a buy-in he says is critical to the firm's success. "And unlike firms like Smith Barney where the stock price is under water, our stock options float with our valuation," Blisk says.

Currently, while the firm is attractive to former wirehouse brokers, a third of Spire's advisors come from independent settings and a third from insurers and regional broker-dealers. "We're not looking to be the biggest guy on the block, but rather the highest quality RIA-BD firm," Blisk adds. "We don't want tons and tons of reps. We want the mid- to higher-level person who wants to grow, has a more demanding clientele and more complex product needs."

Whether it's gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico or the best long-term care insurance policy, "as long as we can audit the deals, we'll let advisors do them," Blisk says. "We have an investment management committee, and we meet regularly on what our folks are doing and what they want to do, but we don't dictate a master parental relationship here. We allow the advisors to be truly independent in their choices."

Sue McKeown, the firm's vice president of operations and compliance, says Spire prides itself on "fast turnaround and a group effort" when it comes to due diligence. While the 12 advisor groups around the country take advantage of Spire's infrastructure, back-office support and-when needed-brokerage services, they can choose to brand themselves however they like, and can expect professional-level help when doing so.

The firm employs a marketing graphics designer to create advisors' Web sites, brochures and marketing literature, as well as a copy editor to write all the content. "Each of the advisors can have a private label Web site, but many like the Spire name," says Phillip Fournier, a senior vice president at the firm who works with new teams coming in to ensure they have the office space and infrastructure they need to get up to speed quickly.

Fournier helped author a Spire transitions workbook and oversees the firm's 30-day jump-start program for incoming advisors to make sure that they don't get lost trying to figure out the systems, products and services. "I've noticed that it can take advisors about six months to get back on the horse when they bring their business here, so we do everything we can to shorten that time before they can get out there and start working with clients and growing their assets. We try to craft 30-second commercials for them, identify their niches, make sure their investment strategy is sound and give their practice a checkup," Fournier says.

To aid growth, the firm has made massive technology investments, creating Web-based systems and virtual and paperless office capacity that allow advisors to get their phone calls, programs, documents and data from any location. "We had one consultant who worked from a family member's office in the Bahamas every month and a half or so, and no one knew when he wasn't in the office," Fournier says.
The real goals? Efficiency, productivity and a cultural fit for advisors seeking greater ease of doing business. "We want to help advisors grow and be happy. Our goal is to take 20% to 30% of their junk time and help them put it to use someplace else. That allows them and us to continue to exceed 25% growth each year," Fournier says.

Brenda Blisk, a CFP licensee, who has been named to Barron's top 100 female financial advisors list two years running, was one of the first brokers to join the firm after a 12-year career at two major wirehouses. The Blisk Financial Group, which she created, now encompasses two other wealth managers, an analyst and two administrative staffers who help her manage $250 million for clients.

"My goal has always been helping clients exceed their financial expectations," says Blisk, whose clients average $2 million in assets. "But I have to say it's a lot easier when you're independent. People come to us because we are the independent choice. Spire has no proprietary products, no REITs or mutual funds. It allows me to sit on the same side of the table as my clients, with the only goal being to ensure their goals and dreams are met."

While she often finds herself competing for larger clients, the fact that Spire isn't owned by a bank or insurance company helps immensely, she says. So does the level of customization her group provides in the planning and investment management arena. "I think that surprises people. But we don't feed their information into a machine and spit out the same roadmap over and over."

The future, especially with boomers exiting the work force, is very bright for their firm, both Blisks agree.

The challenges going forward? "We have to execute what we say we're going to execute," David Blisk says. "We've committed a great deal of capital. We want our consultants to always feel like we're moving ahead. That's why we're always out there looking for the next technology, the next investment that will move us forward."