Paving The Future

“If we’re out of the office it really doesn’t matter,” she says. “Another advisor will step in to help a client and they know that.”

John Oberdick, who leads Ann Arbor State Advisors in Ann Arbor, Mich., has HFW subadvise his individual clients’ fixed income assets. He visited the firm and “kicked the tires,” he says, before forming a business relationship about two years ago. HFW advises its affiliate Ann Arbor State Bank and advised the bank’s predecessors.

“We have been worried about a rising yield environment for a long time and don’t have the resources to manage a portfolio of individual bonds,” he says. “They [HFW] filled a niche.”

HFW enables Ann Arbor State Advisors to use individually laddered bond portfolios for clients. Oberdick describes HFW’s depth and breadth as comforting and says the firm is “reactive and proactive from a service standpoint.” HFW provides performance reporting for the fixed income piece, which Ann Arbor State Advisors incorporates into the reports it prepares for its clients.

One of HFW’s wealth management clients, a retiree who declined to be identified, owned a business in the recreational industry and was involved in manufacturing. He was initially introduced to HFW when he served on bank boards and says he was impressed with the balance sheet suggestions it offered to banks.

HFW handles the majority of the financial planning needs for the client and his wife. “They do a very good job of forcing you in a nice way to review your objectives on an annual basis,” he says. This includes looking at success and failures, he notes.

Gersonde has also provided the couple with suggestions regarding long-term care—a subject they hadn’t previously looked at—and estate planning.
The client says it was important to find an advisor his wife would be comfortable working with if something happened to him. “Although I’m the primary contact, she is extremely pleased with Becky and the organization,” he says. Gersonde adds, “I actually consider them as part of my own family.” Most of her customer relationships go beyond business relationships, she says.

HFW is also expanding its institutional practice and expects to add an insurance company client later this year, says Barnes. It is sending its third annual satisfaction survey to institutional and individual clients. “Without knowing how clients think about our service, we’re feeling around in the dark,” he says.

What would the firm’s founders think of the direction in which HFW is moving? “I think they’d be very pleased,” says Wendin. “We’ve got good people working here doing good things for their clients, and what counts is what your clients think.”