“I could hire experienced advisors with existing books of business but they have bad habits. I would rather teach them the way we operate,” he says. “I want to hire smart people with vibrant personalities and let them do what they love to do. We dump a lot of stuff on them when they first arrive to see how they react.”
Justin Prescott Harris, now a principal at Cassaday, started with the firm on a Monday after graduating the previous Friday from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va. “When I started, the training process was informal. Now it is much more structured,” but the goal is still the same. “At a Wall Street firm, new hires would be trained in sales; we train them in management and financial planning.”
The system has created a three-tiered staff: Cassaday at the top, a management team and new advisors right out of school.
“I wanted to plan it so that I could become obsolete. If something happened to me, the firm would keep going,” Cassaday says.
The firm has gotten bigger by attracting new clients and growing the assets for existing clients. He plans to add two more advisors this summer and to have a total staff of about 50 in two to five years.
The firm serves as the hub for clients’ financial, insurance and estate planning. It hosts wealth summits for clients that include an estate planning attorney, insurance agent and accountant “to make sure everyone is working off the same page.
“By systematically and comprehensively coordinating all of these components, our clients are able to take advantage of every available financial opportunity,” Cassaday says.