Young advisors also have helped inform Plancorp’s client services. For example, the firm founded a women’s initiative on the recommendation of one of its youngest employees. “Some of our excellent female advisors have pushed the initiative forward; it’s also some of our younger folks who have become passionate about diversity,” he says. “They raised the idea on their own. The leadership team, who had their own grand design for more gender parity, quickly approved of the initiative and supported it. Since then, it’s grown at a fantastic rate, and it has been well-received by our female clients.”
Kerckhoff says encouraging more diversity internally is also a focus at Plancorp, and the firm is developing relationships with universities to create a better talent pipeline into its ranks.
Attarian is one of the young talents cultivated by Plancorp. Hired with only a handful of years of experience in the industry, he was attracted by Plancorp’s fiduciary practices and collaborative philosophy. After nearly nine years with the firm, he recently opened the company’s new Nashville, Tenn., branch office.
“The marketplace in central Tennessee is dominated by broker-dealers and bank-owned trust companies. There really isn’t a top RIA in this area, and I think it’s an opportunity for us,” he says.
Attarian will focus on attracting doctors and entrepreneurs to Plancorp. Doctors, in particular, often receive bad financial advice from their peers, their families and from the financial services industry, he says.
Attarian, who is married to a doctor, believes he can effectively build a network of medical professionals in Nashville and differentiate Plancorp with its status as a fiduciary and a comprehensive planning firm.
As Plancorp and Prumentum continue to integrate, and their clientele’s appetite for digital advice and communications increases, the synergies between advisor and technology should continue to create a higher quality of advice that can be more efficiently delivered to a larger cohort of people, says Kerckhoff.
As BrightPlan gains users, Plancorp will grow to serve the new clientele, says De Beer, both by expanding into additional offices and by purchasing additional RIAs.
“We are working to expand the Plancorp footprint,” De Beer says. “We will need other locations to continue the work of Plancorp. In the future, we may need to acquire other smaller RIAs that will fall under the Plancorp banner.”