With some firms, you can attribute success to sheer and undeniable demographics. The boomers are aging. There are 78 million of them. They need assistance. The reasons for Boyer's success, however, are deeper than that. It's not just about being in the right business at the right time. "It's about realizing that the better clients do, the better we all do. It's about how we share success that propels us all forward," the 60-year-old Boyer says. Sharing success and wealth is something Boyer takes seriously, as evidenced by his stock purchase plan for employees, the firm's generous profit-sharing and its 2% annual charitable contributions-a whopping $110,000 in combined donations for 2007. Wal-Mart only gave at 0.08%. "I think if every company gave at 2%, we'd solve the world's problems," Boyer says.
Spreading the wealth is something he benefits from, too, he says. In fact, he just got back from a trip he made to Italy with six other couples, five of them clients. "Some business people don't like to work with friends, but Bart will look you dead in the eye and tell you he only wants to work with people he likes. And he means it," says one of his newer recruits, Michael J. Bruder, a longtime trust and commercial lending officer in Asheville who worked with Boyer for years on mutual trust accounts before joining Parsec just last fall. "As I approached age 55, I asked myself: 'Is this really what I want to do with the rest of my life?'" Bruder remembers. "I had my CFP and wanted to do wealth management, but not just any place. So, I called Bart and said: 'I want to go into wealth management and yours is the only firm I'd work with in Asheville.' A week later, we shook hands." Today, he sits in Boyer's office and will take over many of the president's clients in the years ahead as Boyer begins to take a little more time off to pursue his wanderlust, work on his tennis prowess and shore up his fledgling golf game.
By all reports, Boyer's reputation and the culture he's created are key components of his growing firm, which today has offices in both Asheville and Charlotte, N.C. Boyer says he can see opening four to five more offices in the next five years. While advisory firms' worst challenge these days is a shortage of quality staff, the best and brightest advisors seem to find their way to Parsec's doors. Many of the firm's 13 advisors have come on board in the past five years, some in the past two months, from leading financial services institutions including Charles Schwab & Co. and Wachovia. This creates deep bench strength for Parsec's clients, many of whom, like Christianson, have evolving business and family needs. It also ensures the firm's growth and profitability as senior employees begin to depend on their Parsec stock values and dividends for retirement. "It's a win-win situation for everyone," says Boyer. "Employee ownership is better for clients, it's better for the founder [meaning himself], and it's dramatically better for employees."
Parsec partner and advisor Barbara Gray agrees: "We have two managing partners, both in their late 30s, and they'll be here for 20 years at least as owners. When I retire, I can be assured I'll get dividends," says Gray, a neighbor of Boyer's whom he recruited as a client service specialist in 1999. Today, Gray, who is lead advisor for 100 clients and oversees Parsec's compliance efforts, owns 2% of the firm.
Everyone gets to buy stock at Parsec, from the receptionist to the CEO. Their reward? A 100% employer match, average annual returns of 15% and dividends of 10%. Employees can pay for their shares over the course of the year through paycheck deduction, but they immediately begin to earn dividends. For a $150,000 investment over 30 years ($5,000 annually), rank-and-file employees can walk away with $4.5 million at retirement, according to the firm's stock buying opportunity handout. Dividends alone are projected to pay more than $381,000 in year 30. "Beyond creating passionate ownership, this is a way for everyone to create tremendous wealth," says Gray. Couple stock ownership with the Parsec profit-sharing plan, which is funded exclusively by the firm at 20% of employee pay up to $42,000 annually, and it's easy to see how Boyer attracts and retains top talent.
More advisors in the industry are beginning to hear Boyer talk about the benefits of employee stock ownership firsthand as an integral part of succession planning. He presented his vision at two NAPFA conferences this year, including the organization's Advanced Planners Conference. "When you think about ownership transition in our industry, typically advisors sell to [a] financial entity or one of those roll-up firms," Boyer says. "For our clients, it would mean an increase in fees at the very least. I'd have to pay taxes on all that money. And it would take away our ability to build and earn together."
Undoubtedly, stock ownership has been a great recruiting tool for the firm. "I worked with one of the trust officers who joined Parsec recently from Wachovia," says estate attorney Andy Strauss. "New folks have no doubt been very attracted to the fact that they could become owners of Parsec and have a piece of the action. Bart's model for sharing in revenues and growth is a successful one."
So is the service offering the firm continues to develop and build out for advisors. At the core, says Barbara Gray is "the road map for success," the firm provides. "If you come in early and follow the plan, you succeed. We just had a 55-year-old retire with quite a nice portfolio. She says: We owe it all to Parsec and Bart."
The firm's dedication to building out trust services is also paying off, especially as client needs get more complex, Gray adds. Roger James, a senior trust advisor at Parsec, is one of five people who moved from Wachovia's trust department this past summer. "Sometimes with large institutions it becomes about the institution and it's harder to balance trustee and beneficiary needs. We looked at a number of options over nine months and found that Parsec offered the most client-focused package with great investment management and a reasonable fee scale," says James, who managed 336 clients in his former life as a trust banker.
While Boyer is the first to admit that the fees the firm charges clients are low, especially for the comprehensive planning and investment management Parsec provides, he says he is steadfast in his belief that Parsec's value pricing "will allow us to make more money and ultimately attract more assets and larger clients over time." He laughs when a reporter tells him many advisory firms are adding annual planning fees to client bills. Parsec isn't on board with that, he says. "Our largest client is in the range of $12 million," Boyer says. "We hope to get more of those opportunities and think the low fee helps us do that."