And while Wall Street Alliance Group already had specialists on board in disciplines such as law, actuarial accounting and real estate, Zaman said it was a learning curve sorting through all the government programs because many of them were fluid and confusing.
He noted the rules and laws of the PPP, for example, have gone through numerous revisions. “We were studying these laws," he said. "We were dedicating our time to understanding all that was there to be able to help these clients.”
Zaman said he and Nishat formed their firm in 2010 with a focus on being fully fiduciary. They branched off from a broker-dealer who did not support their vision of advising clients both on investments and on broader matters that clients wanted help with including tax planning, setting up wills and updating trusts.
Wall Street Alliance Group has four full-time employees, as well as a broader team of 10 individuals who collaborate on various wealth management specialties. It has approximately $230 million in assets under management.
Zaman said it took time for them to develop their network of experts. “We went through a stringent vetting process over the years before we were able to formulate those key relationships, and that puts us in a position of strength because when a client comes to us, we are able to look at it from a 360-degree angle,” he explained
During the height of the pandemic, Zaman said many of his physican clients who were treating Covid-19 patients were worried about the health risk because they saw colleagues dying. They wanted to know that if something were to happen to them that their personal assets would transition to their family according to their wishes. Clients also inquired about protection against potential lawsuits for wrongful treatment during the crisis. All of this required setting up wills and delving into trust and estate planning.
“We are not just outsourcing this work, we are involved in it every step of the way, and we have deep relationships with all the CPAs, actuaries and attorneys that we are working with for our clients to get that solution,” Zaman said.
In order to cultivate a collaborative network, Zaman suggests that smaller practices assess the biggest needs their clientele has. For example, he said, the biggest need now for the physician community that he serves is saving money on taxes.
“In order to do that, the first alliances we had to make was with CPAs, as well as actuaries, because that allows them to set up certain retirement plans that help them put away money pre-tax,” he explained.
He pointed out that many clients that advisors work with already have a CPA, so a good starting point would be to reach out to those CPAs and see who would be interested in a collaborative relationship.