Who would know better how to provide planning services to a multigenerational client than a multigenerational financial planning firm?

That’s part of The Kelly Group’s appeal, advisors at the firm say, as they work with their clients to accumulate and manage wealth not just for today but for decades to come.

The Florham Park, N.J., firm was founded more than 40 years ago by Brian Kelly Sr., who was eventually joined by his son, Brian Kelly, Jr., and then his daughter, Marybeth Emson, and finally by his grandson, David Emson.

“Each of these people have been recognized by their peer groups as one of the very best in the country,” said moderator Steve Gresham, CEO of The Execution Project, as he introduced them at the Next Chapter: Rockin’ Retirement conference held virtually earlier this week. The three generations of Kellys include two Forbes Top Advisors, he added. The firm currently manages about $750 million in assets.

“There’s a uniform acknowledgement that families are accumulating money, and it creates complexity. And complexity needs objective, informed, educated, experienced advisors. It needs mentoring and counseling,” Brian Kelly Sr. said. “We bring to the table a collective experience of over 100 years in financial services’ global industry.”

One of his strengths as a leader, Marybeth Emson said, is that he’s allowed his children to come to the table with their individual talents and strengths, where no two are carbon copies of the other, or of him.

“We all have a different skill, we all have a different area of focus,” she said. “And there are opportunities for each person to be in the room in front of the client and deliver their information, their guidance and specialty. So the client learns to share their trust with not just the lead advisor, but they learn that other people on the team have roles where they can share their trust. And those people have learned about them and their idiosyncrasies and who they are and what they’re trying to accomplish.”

So while Brian Kelly Sr. remains market analysis and equity investment strategies, Brian Kelly, Jr.’s focus is on estate planning and executive compensation. David Emson’s is on financial planning, account rebalancing, insurance, and impact investing. And Marybeth Emson is a CFP who focuses on family wealth.

This diverse team approach is the best way the Kellys have found to manage all their clients smoothly, efficiently, and with an eye on their own transition planning needs.

“Coming in when I was in my mid-20s, the phone would ring. One of Brian Sr.’s clients would call in for some stock advice, and I would attempt to help them with that. And I’d get the equivalent of, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, put your dad on the phone now,’” Brian Kelly Jr. said. “What we realized is we had to come from a different but equally valuable standpoint. I chose to stay in trust funds. Now I can come in to discuss a subject that was not a focus of Brian Sr.’s, and extend that relationship from an investment discussion to one of holistic financial planning, moving it toward those areas that include estate planning.”

Beyond keeping the firm “all in the family,” this multigenerational setup is providing The Kelly Group with new opportunities that it would not necessarily have developed as quickly and intentionally. David Emson, for example, had worked elsewhere first before joining the family firm, and he brought with him a different way of thinking, he said.

Putting that insight to work, he’s helped the firm create a new category of quasi-client it calls High Potential, where the mandate is to create early relationships with the great clients of the future.

“I think of some of my more successful friends—CPAs, engineers, tech sales. They’re all smart and doing well, but no one really has the faintest idea of where to start investing,” he said, adding that if they’re left to their own devices, they’ll research 401(k) investing online until they find the articles that suggest 401(k) investing is not a good idea. “We’re certainly not earning our time up front as they’re low on assets, but they’re coming in earning two, three, four hundred thousand, ages 28 to 34, and we’re trying to get ahead of their mistakes, and ahead of anyone else.”

All of this makes sense to Brian Kelly Sr., as he’s acutely aware that when it comes to building wealth, time matters, he said, and it’s a fact he wants his future clients to know.

“If they’re lucky and don’t get sick, they live long and they’re employable. They only have 50 years to accumulate whatever that pie is going to be. So if they don’t have advisors that have a broad background in finance, estate planning, risk management, etcetera, they are not going to hit their potential,” he said. “We all know the numbers, if you average 7%, it doubles in 10 years, but if you lose 10 years starting your plan, you’ve lost half your wealth.”

In addition to figuring out how the Kelly family team should work with its clients, The Kelly Group had to create an environment that would be encouraging and rewarding to the advisors and staff who are not related to the name on the door.

“As we’ve expanded, and we as a team look toward the future of building out a multi-generational team, it’s been exciting with the different ages, but let’s face it, family teams don’t tend to be very diverse, and we were missing that part of the team,” Marybeth Emson said. “So we’re taking on more formalized ways of compensating, and sharing the revenues. Everyone on the team, whether they’re related or not related, is clear about what their contribution needs to be, how it’s measured, communicated, and rewarded. And then on the family side, we take care of that separately.”