“Jeff Levine was different from the rest of the Kitces team in that he has an advisory firm affiliation, as I do,” said Kitces. “The fact that we had affiliations to different advisory firms created a challenge and an opportunity – we were in competition for business opportunities. That led to a decision and a process that started last year but culminated in a final decision this year – we needed to change platforms and find one that we could be aligned to.”

That initiated a search for a new firm that each advisor conducted separately. Both Kitces and Levine thought of Buckingham as a potential landing point individually, said Levine, and when the two met to discuss possible destination firms, Buckingham was at the top of both of their lists.

“At the end of the day, I’ll go wherever Michael wants to go – he’s Michael,” said Levine. “The fact that we were able to come to a decision together speaks volume about who Buckingham is as a firm and what they stand for. We both independently thought that Buckingham was the best place for us.”

The pair were already familiar with Buckingham’s leadership when they began looking to move to the same firm last year, said Kitces, who will remain in the Washington, D.C. area. “I’ve spoken for their conferences, and a lot of their advisors use the Kitces platform,” said Kitces. “Buckingham has a young leadership team, most of their team is in their 30s and 40s. I like a firm where the senior leadership is going to be around as long as I am.”

Buckingham’s scale and national scope also attracted Kitces and Levine, as it provides them a platform with greater reach than their previous firms.

Kitces said that another one of the main attractions of Buckingham was its willingness to consider and act upon academic financial planning research and an appreciation for the “nerdy” side of financial advice.

“Buckingham has very deliberately chosen,” said Kitces. “They have roots with CPA founders, and for the particular style of nerdy, tax-oriented strategies we produce and focus on at Kitces.com, a firm with deep tax and technical roots was a positive alignment.”

At their new firm, Kitces and Levine will deliver research and thought leadership to advisors in its RIA, Buckingham Strategic Wealth, and to those who do business with its turnkey asset management platform, Buckingham Strategic Partners.

Both men will help Buckingham develop and refine it’s financial planning approach. “We looked at this as an opportunity to not just get one future hall-of-famer, but two,” said Birenbaum. “We’re going to utilize their deep, technical planning expertise to develop strategies to train our advisors and to help us not just enhance our advisors’ capabilities, but also truly enhance client care.”

Buckingham has evolved from a one-location, St. Louis-area firm in 1994 to a nationwide firm with over 40 locations today, said Birenbaum. His hope is that Buckingham’s scale combined with the thought leadership of Kitces and Levine will create a “city upon the hill” for the financial advice industry.