Bahnsen said the investment management side of Story Capital’s business is shifting, and that was a big driver in their outreach to team up with The Bahnsen Group.
“They are enamored with the way we manage money,” Bahnsen said. “That’s what started our courtship.”
The Bahnsen Group’s bread-and-butter investment management philosophy centers on dividend-paying equities. Bahnsen noted that Phillip Barnhill contacted him after he read his book, “The Case for Dividend Growth: Investing in a Post-Crisis World.”
“He loved it and reached out,” Bahnsen said. “He started reading more of my material, and from there we developed a relationship around our shared beliefs and principles.”
He noted that the advisor group at the former Story Capital will continue to focus on providing wealth services to corporate executives in the Twin Cities area. Bahnsen added that aside from their C-suite market segment, which he said hasn’t been an intentional focus area at The Bahnsen Group, the other big thing the Barnhills bring to the table is their deep background in insurance services and planning.
“The Barnhill family has three generations of involvement in life insurance,” Bahnsen explained. “We’ve always done risk management, but have done so incidentally. It’s something I think we need to do better. Our intention after we get this transition complete is to have them build out for us a risk management department that will be much more suitable for a company of our size.”
David Bahnsen left his job as a managing director at Morgan Stanley and started his independent firm in 2015 by affiliating with registered investment advisor HighTower Advisors LLC. The firm now has 34 team members with offices in Minneapolis, New York City and Newport Beach, Calif.
The company made a splash last February when it announced that former Trump administration National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow joined the company as an economic advisor.
“I talk with Larry almost every day, and he will be a part of our organization for many years to come,” Bahnsen said.