A third-generation wealth manager, Drucker Wealth in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., has formed a new RIA, taking about 800 clients and $750 million in assets under management from its former broker-dealer.
Father-and-son partners Lance and Gideon Drucker last month received Securities and Exchange Commission approval for their fee-based firm, which has its origins in a business started by Bernie Drucker, Lance Drucker’s father, back in 1959.
“It wasn’t called Drucker Wealth at the time, but we’re actually still working with some clients my grandfather started with back in the day,” said Gideon Drucker, the firm’s chief executive officer and president. “At one point we were called Drucker Financial Group, then Drucker Wealth Management, and then we took off the ‘Management’ and became Drucker Wealth.”
The 12-person team that Drucker Wealth is today left their relationship with their former broker-dealer—Hornor, Townsend & Kent—to pursue a strategic evolution that focuses on younger clients, which is an area of growth for the company, and to have control over technology and client engagement, he said.
Lance Drucker took over the business from his father about 40 years ago and now, along with senior advisor Kitty Ritchie, runs the retirement income side of the client base, Gideon Drucker said. Most of those clients are age 60 or older, are retired or approaching retirement, and are focused on generating income after leaving work and making sure they have a retirement road map.
When Gideon Drucker joined the firm about seven years ago, he created its wealth-builder division, which he said caters to high-income, mid-career professionals and their families.
“That’s the fastest-growing segment of our business. That’s why we onboarded three new advisors in the last few years, with plans of adding more,” he said. “A lot of what we were thinking about in terms of reasons to go independent was really about this growing division at the firm.”
These clients tend to be in their late 30s and 40s and have between $300,000 and $1.5 million in annual income. They live in areas with a high cost of living (including New York; San Francisco; Los Angeles; and Austin, Texas) and are looking for a full financial plan.
Drucker said the firm begins all relationships with a full financial plan that takes about eight weeks to develop, and only after that does it move forward with investing money if the client asks for it.
“Retirement is a goal, but it’s not the immediate goal. It’s not what’s coming next,” he said, adding that putting kids in private school or college, and buying a home or a second home are more immediate concerns for the clients in this segment.
The firm wanted the freedom to curate the best experience for its clients, which was a deciding factor in the launch of its RIA, he said, adding that the firm wanted to be able to choose its own technology partners, have integrated client portals and control the ways it engages with its clients.
“It’s what the true independence of having our own RIA would provide,” he said. “We can think about—a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now—how we want our clients to experience Drucker Wealth. Bringing in new partnerships and services—and responding to evolving client needs—we’d like to be the arbiters of those types of partnerships rather than a broker-dealer.”