For Katherine Lintz, CFP, a simple introductory breakfast meeting with a potential client or employee frequently turns into a three-hour, in-depth, getting-to-know-each-other session.

Lintz is a financial advisor who won't cut corners when it comes to finding out if a person is the proper fit for her St. Louis firm, Financial Management Partners (FMP), which caters to high-net-worth families. She wants to grow, but growth is not the ultimate goal like it is at other financial organizations. FMP turns away as many clients as it accepts.

That is not the only thing that sets the firm apart from its peers. In addition to an institutional-grade investment platform, the firm places a high value on the education of its clients and employees and even has a teacher on staff.

Because of these unusual attributes, FMP has a loyal clientele that has helped the firm grow from $250 million in assets under management in 2000 to more than $3 billion today. Those assets are primarily attributable to 70 high-net-worth families who hire FMP not only to set out a financial plan but to act as a family office-managing every aspect of financial life the family desires.

Lintz attributes her firm's success to collaborative solutions that others might avoid.

"There are many excellent firms that serve the high-net-worth market," she explains, "but our sales process is slow and thoughtful. We gather a great deal of information to assess the gaps in the services, communication, costs and efficiencies that our clients have. Then we build a unique solution using the best of FMP and the best of the other professionals that serve the family."

FMP's primary competitors-banks and brokerage houses with ultra-high-net-worth practices and multifamily office divisions-focus on aggregating assets under management in a closed system, Lintz says.

"We are truly an open network with only one purpose-to provide the best result for the client. If that means using JPMorgan for municipal bonds, Bank of America for airplane loans, private partnerships for real estate, low-cost index funds for large-cap equities and great talent around the world for concentrated equity management to complement the index funds, then that is what we make happen," she says. "We feel our current and potential clients see the differences very quickly and appreciate the objective and unbiased delivery of a service model."

Lintz started her career at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City in 1978 during the beginnings of the financial planning industry. She was one of the first 200 people in the nation to earn a CFP designation. At Chase, she developed her appreciation for education and created a financial educational program for Chase customers. She taught individuals how to invest and worked with employers to do outreach to employees to determine what services they needed to offer.

"It was an unusual program at the time, targeting those with $100,000 to a few hundred thousand in investments," Lintz says.

Her next career step was a move to St. Louis where she began her own firm, KBL Financial, which she describes as a small practice with three employees and a holistic approach to advisory work. The firm had 22 high-net-worth families, most of whom were first-generation wealth, similar to the average client family FMP now serves.

"The catalyst to change the name from my initials to Financial Management Partners was that we began to evolve into a firm with a deep expertise provided by a diverse group of professionals to back us up. Back then, we were a financial planning group that did taxes, mortgages, investments and estate planning," she remembers. "We handled the investments and had accountants and attorneys for other services."

FMP has maintained that deep bench of professionals, either on staff or through its national networking, which the firm can call on when needed. Although the firm is headquartered in St. Louis and has a new office in Denver, FMP's clients are located all over the United States.

Between the early 2000s and today, FMP has grown by five to ten new clients per year as a full-service family office for high-net-worth families. New clients are only accepted if they seem to be a good fit for the firm and if the firm can serve them well. There are 21 staff members, 17 of whom are considered professionals, including 12 financial advisors. In addition to CFPs, the staff's credentials include JDs, CPAs, MBAs and an M.A. in teaching.

"We need to know we will enjoy working with a family for years or generations to come before we accept them, and we have to know we can serve them well," Lintz says. She is building a business which she says is designed to be multigenerational; the younger staff now being hired will take on the next generations of families in what will always be a privately held financial firm.

FMP serves about 120 families, though only about 70 of them are big and complex enough to require the full breadth of FMP's family office services. Most clients are owners of closely held businesses, so Lintz and her staff often become involved in business sales or transitions to new generations. In some cases, the firm is dealing with four generations of one family. Typical clients have between $20 million and $100 million in liquid assets, though that figure can go as low as $5 million and as high as $250 million. Most are the creators of their own wealth.

"Our clients understand how to build a business and usually have a strong work ethic and a strong passion for what they do," she says. "For instance, we have spent a tremendous amount of time with one couple like this who is debating what legacy they want to leave their children. It is fifty-fifty whether the next generation in that family will take over the business or sell it, but the couple want to pass on the family culture and values whether the children are working in the business or not."

This is one of the ways Lintz says the education program she developed helps.

"For some families, we are in our ninth or tenth year of family meetings," she says. "We started when the kids were in their teens. Now they are young adults with their own families and we have talked a lot about finances and whether they want to work individually or together."

The members of the families say it is the personal and in-depth attention FMP provides that makes them loyal clients. Flip and Candace Cady of St. Louis were referred by an estate attorney to three financial planning firms when they were looking for an advisor.

"We interviewed the first one and then interviewed with Kathy, and I wondered why we should bother with the third, because I knew we already had found the firm we wanted at FMP," Candy Cady says. "Kathy provides a one-stop shop for everything we need financially, and she has relationships with professionals throughout the community, if we need a lawyer or someone else."

The Cadys, who have been FMP clients for about ten years, have three children between the ages of 27 to 32, and the youngest and oldest are married. FMP is starting to help the children with their financial planning, too.

Flip Cady feels FMP does more in-depth investment research and has access to more financial instruments than many firms, and FMP has connected them with alternatives such as private equity funds and real estate ventures, as well as typical equities and bonds.

"She is so personable that we ended up socializing with her and her family," notes Flip Cady. "Kathy made us feel so at ease that they have become part of our family."

The personal side of the relationship is also important to St. Louis resident Kevin Short, who has been with FMP for about six years.

"I was running my growing business and family, and I felt the pressure begin to grow. Sometimes it is hard to separate the business and the family," Short says. "I interviewed banks and financial institutions, but needed the individual attention that a boutique firm could offer. Kathy and her staff got to know us and reflect our investment interests.

"Kathy was the only one who did not expect me to sign something after the first meeting," Short says. "I don't recommend many things in my life, but I recommend my dentist, my business coach and my financial advisor."

The feeling of personal relationships with clients permeates the office, according to the employees. Brian Fernandez, a partner at FMP, says handling the wealth for clients is not always the most important aspect of the relationship.

"Whether a client's investment performance is marginally better or worse than their golf buddy's will not have a material impact on their lives. However, if we can help improve their personal and financial lives and have a significant impact on their families, their legacy and perhaps generationally, then we have helped them in a way others don't," Fernandez says. He has worked at large firms in the past and has been with FMP for four years, in part because of the boutique nature of the firm. "There is a collaborative atmosphere here that lets us bring in anyone we need and there is practically nothing we will not do for clients."

The firm will work with other members of a client's family even if they are not clients themselves.

"We can help educate the clients about what they need for their parents or how to set up family leadership," Fernandez says. "For our clients, their parents may be the ones with the greatest needs right now, and we have the luxury to spend time with them on those important things in their lives. Or we can do things like have coffee and doughnuts with a client who just needs to talk, which is something I did the other day with a 95-year-old woman."

"Kathy works to assure that our families are preserving their wealth, and at the same time, she is hiring young, talented people who will be here 20 years from now to assure that FMP will be here for the next generations of those families," says Eric Lawrence, who has just been named FMP managing partner. Lawrence is one of those people who scheduled a breakfast meeting with Lintz and came away three hours later convinced he wanted to work with her.

Whitney Kenter, another FMP partner, had a similar experience two years ago when she interviewed with Lintz over what turned into a four-hour breakfast. She has worked with high-net-worth families her entire career on the wealth, tax and estate planning end, but she also wanted to incorporate education for family members in a multigenerational setting.

"Kathy and I were on the same page from the beginning. In addition to my client responsibilities, I have been asked to lead our business development efforts. I want to make sure we have a crisp, clear message that our core competencies include family office services. We realize investments are critically important, but the clients value family leadership, wealth planning coordination and execution just as highly. That is what differentiates us."

The FMP team members spend most of their time on the "big picture," managing the asset allocation before focusing on specific solutions. While FMP does not manage money on a discretionary basis, the firm does manage the architecture of the entire portfolio and has the flexibility to seek out the best solutions for clients, whatever the investment may be. Being completely agnostic to platform, but keenly focused on risk, potential reward, fees and tax efficiency, FMP is in a position to execute on the liquid part of the portfolio.

"We are highly sensitive to making sure the structure and allocations are right before making a recommendation on changing anything in the portfolios," Kenter says. "That is another approach that sets us apart. There is absolutely no incentive or disincentive for us to take over assets. If they have a good relationship with a money manager or bank, we do not disrupt that. We aim to minimize the disruption in their lives, but make sure it is efficient and working well for the family."

Lintz feels it is important for the firm and the clients to "fit" each other, having the same dedication to integrity and courage, an emphasis on multigenerational thinking and a respect for human capital as well as wealth. It is almost a chemical reaction as much as a logic-based decision when clients and staff mesh, her employees explain. She also relies often on "thought partners" to assist with clients' needs. And FMP recognizes that they need to grow a little each year to maintain relationships with the best professionals, wherever they are needed geographically, both internally and externally.

"We do not dictate to anyone," says Fernandez, "but we frame the options for them to make a decision."

If FMP finds another investment firm in place when it takes on a client, "we use them for what they are great at," Lintz says. Almost nothing is ruled out for investments, and investments can be handled in passive or active trading and could be public or private enterprises. None of the staff have a large client load, which enables them to meet as often as monthly with clients.

The investment process at FMP is driven by a formal investment committee made up of members of FMP and the investment research consultant Asset Consulting Group.

"We work together on capital markets, manager selection, strategic and tactical management decisions and creation of investment policies. We look at all of the relevant asset classes and build model portfolios using our combined best ideas. We monitor these investments daily together," Lintz says. "The result is that we have institutional rigor, pricing and expertise for all of our clients. We believe that the clients, large and small, benefit from this institutional level of pricing and access and thoughtful leadership."

For these services, FMP charges between 35 and 100 basis points for assets; family office services run $10,000 minimum to about $175,000 a year, depending on the family's needs. Family office services include estate plan coordination, transition plans, other financial services and plans for life's changes. Because Lintz was in the financial planning industry when it was in its infancy, she always has maintained a fee-only practice.

But the education that remains a top priority, not only for staff, but for clients and their entire families, is one thing that gives Lintz particular pride.

"Other firms sometimes try to emphasize education, but they are focused on profits, and education drops to the bottom of their priority list," says Kenter.

FMP holds financial education classes for adult clients but also holds sessions for the children in the families to teach them how banking and finances work, to illustrate what their parents needed to do to earn the money and what values their parents hope to convey.

"Teaching is an art; that is why we have a teacher on board," says Kenter. "It is so much fun to see the difference in a spouse or the children from one meeting to the next as they become educated and engaged in the finances of the family."

While many firms struggle with succession planning, Lintz says she has been thinking about it for a long time. Though she is many years away from considering retirement, she is working to build a structure that will keep FMP a privately owned company, with her staff mirroring the multigenerational profile of her client families.

"You know, basically, it's about people and about integrity and commitment and trust and judgment-about solving problems and nurturing relationships. We have great client families, and I'm focused on finding great people to serve them for a long time to come," Lintz says.