Walker took the concept of setting up a financial planning division within the company and started out on his own. "I teamed up with my insurance agent-I knew about investments, and he knew about insurance. I was involved in financial planning and separate accounts from the earliest days. I've watched this business grow, and I've grown along with it."
The separate account business originally was fostered at the large brokerage houses. "A lot of this really goes back to Jim Lockwood and E.F. Hutton," says Walker. "The big wirehouses, particularly Hutton, developed the separate accounts concept, but it was aimed at high-net-worth individuals and institutions." This left smaller, independent advisors like Walker out in the cold.
But advances in technology began making separate accounts feasible for individuals with smaller investment amounts. As a result, independent brokerage firms, such as Raymond James and LINSCO/ Private Ledger (LPL), began offering separate account services to their reps. "Raymond James was a real pioneer in separate account management for independent advisors," Walker says. "They had a division I was affiliated with called Investment Management and Research (IM&R), which has now been merged under [the umbrella of] Raymond James Financial Services."
Walker's career catapulted, and his managed account business grew, so he joined such leading industry organizations as the Institute for Certified Financial Planners (ICFP) and the Institute for Certified Investment Management Consultants (ICIMC). A member of both boards, he also was past president and chairman of the ICFP and the ICIMC. "One of the best things I ever did for my business was to get involved with these organizations in a leadership position. None of these organizations had any money back then. That was the beautiful part, the volunteers who were on those early boards were true pioneers. We did it because we loved it and we believed in it," says Walker. Through networking, learning more about the profession and a sincere desire to provide unique solutions for clients through separate accounts and financial planning, Walker found that more business followed.
He believes networking with colleagues is even more critical today. "We're bombarded with information," he says. "There's a big difference between information and knowledge. Some of the best friendships I've made and some of the best ideas and best resources I've had access to have come from networking at industry organization meetings. I don't think anything beats sitting around with a group of colleagues talking about ideas."
Walker always has viewed managed money as part of a much bigger picture. When speaking of separate accounts today, Walker says that, more and more, people crave the human touch. "They want to meet and talk and have things done personally. Technology is a tool, a good part of our business, but you cannot beat personal interaction." Walker's main concerns today are that the separate account business is reverting to the days of selling product, especially with the advent of Multi-Discipline Accounts (MDAs), and that it's getting away from financial planning and consulting.
"We're dealing with a big model-tremendous estate planning needs, tax-planning needs, legacy concerns, charitable giving, business planning, business-succession planning-all sorts of things enter into the equation," he explains. Walker's firm provides its clients the extra value of finding strategic partners to help serve their clients in highly sophisticated areas. "It may be elder care, concentrated stock positions, how to deal with concentrated wealth, any number of things. In a sense, I'm becoming a 'financial concierge.'"
In keeping with that idea, Walker has developed and trademarked a training program called the Strategic Financial Consultant, focused on the blending of holistic financial planning with fee-based asset management. He's also writing a book on the subject, and he currently visits interested advisors at their broker-dealers and trains them on the concept.
The extra services he provides his clients, including managed accounts, are part of the next evolution Walker sees coming in the industry. He feels advisors today need to go the extra mile to really differentiate themselves. "You're not going to add value strictly with managed money, though," he says. "You're going to have to do it some other way. That's the evolution that's going on in the industry now. The training program is my role in it."
Venerable Mutual Fund Company Joins The MA Biz