In the future, the firm may incorporate more private opportunities as part of its alternative offering, Antenucci says.
Bartlett claims the mantle of socially responsible investing pioneer, having first offered such investments to clients in 1977. “It started with religious organizations unwilling to invest in things beyond their core values,” says Poole. “That was more of a negative screening out of bad actors. Now people want more of a positive screening of companies who are doing better for our environment and our economy.”
Today, Bartlett’s ESG strategies typically follow the same discipline as its equity and fixed-income strategies with both positive and negative ESG factor screens overlaid. The firm also uses some ESG-oriented mutual funds, Poole says.
Thus far, Bartlett has mostly been focused on organic growth—though in the past, the firm made some acquisitions, its growth generally comes from new clients and clients adding new assets.
That may change with the Focus Financial acquisition, says Downing. Bartlett has retained a new marketing provider and is beginning to explore ways it can target high-net-worth clientele and high-earning millennials through digital channels.
Hagerty and Downing are also open to the possibility of buying other advisory firms, but have little interest in becoming “serial acquirers.”
Why? “There are smaller firms that lack the infrastructure that we have,” says Hagerty. “The business is changing, regulations are changing, handling investments is changing. These firms may be dealing with their own succession issues. We think there will be some consolidation in the industry moving forward and we may be an attractive platform for some smaller firms.”
Regardless of which channel drives its future growth, Bartlett’s leadership aims to preserve the firm’s culture of openness, service and innovation as it enters its 13th decade of business.