Follow Henry Bragg’s journey from working at a larger practice to striking out on his own. Advisors like Henry often face unique challenges when they leave a firm where they are used to having ongoing support and structure. The Wealth Advisor Alliance (WAA), in conjunction with parent company Forum Financial Management, LP (“Forum or “Forum Financial”), strives to equip firms with the support and structure needed during the crucial startup period. For a deeper dive into Henry’s experience, read our Case Study: Leverage for Scale.
In Parts One and Two of our three-part blog series, we delve into the experiences of two financial advisors who joined Forum Financial to help them move forward in their professional journey. In Part One, Beginning the Financial Advisor Journey, we highlighted the experience of Nicole A. Campbell, CFP®, CDFA®, AEP® who joined Forum as she embarked on a career as a financial advisor. Part Two of the blog series, Meeting Career-Switching Challenges, looks at the support Joey Schultz received as he switched careers to become a Financial Advisor at Forum Financial.
NOTE: While this three-part blog series explores the avenues open to financial advisors establishing their own practice, Forum Financial also offers opportunities for growth for established registered investment advisors (RIAs) through the WAA. For further insights, read our Q&A session with Jennifer Cray, CFP®, who, along with her partner, Julie Schatz, CFP®, joined Forum Financial and the WAA in 2023.
Outsourcing Solutions
Starting a business as a financial advisor can feel overwhelming, especially when juggling client needs, compliance requirements and back-office tasks. Advisors who decide to go out on their own often need help getting up to speed quickly and setting themselves up for future growth. Joining a firm that offers scalable technology, marketing support and streamlined processes can enable a financial advisor to start their practice without needing to build an infrastructure from scratch.
We spoke with Henry Bragg, founder of Henry Bragg & Co., about how he was able to run and grow his own business by receiving the support he needed as part of the WAA.
A Circuitous Path
Henry obtained a CPA early in his career while working for Ernst and Young. After graduating from business school, he joined a small RIA firm, where he was involved in every aspect of the business. After successfully becoming an equity partner, Henry eventually resigned to start a consulting practice serving ultra-high-net-worth families. However, he soon realized he couldn’t leverage his time to grow beyond his small core client base.
As Henry looked for options other than starting his own RIA, he reached out to a firm he was interested in joining and came to an agreement to start and grow an office in his hometown. As his client base grew, he became an equity partner in 2016. After strategic shifts within the company, it became apparent to Henry that he wouldn’t be able to maintain his goal of running the office independently.
Maintaining an Entrepreneurial Spirit
Henry knew that running his own business was important to him. He began to explore options that would allow him to leverage his existing client base and strike out on his own. Regarding his evaluation process, Henry noted, “I evaluated many different firms, and, for me, it came down to a few things: 1) ensuring we shared a common investment belief and philosophy; and 2) a shared commitment to using technology to make the job more efficient.”
As part of his discovery process, Henry met with Forum Financial and the WAA to explore their available options for advisors in situations like his. They offered Henry two options for support as he started his firm. He could join Forum as an independent advisor or start his own RIA and become a part of the WAA. Henry determined that establishing his brand in his hometown would be a pivotal factor in his long-term success, so he decided to develop his brand identity and take advantage of the support offered through the WAA.
Scaling for Growth
To set himself up for successful future growth, Henry joined Forum Financial and the WAA shortly after launching Henry Bragg & Co. in 2020. He set specific goals that required scaling as quickly as possible. He knew from experience that he needed support to grow the business into what he wanted. Henry’s words of advice for other advisors in a similar situation: “I knew I had to do something as good if not better than firms I worked for previously. Because I had the scale to begin with, it was easier for me to hire a partner. I was able to bring in a book of relationships and immediately leverage the WAA’s tools and resources to give my clients a good experience. What I have with Forum and the WAA is as good as, if not better than, what my other firms had.”
Three Pillars of Leverage
With the support of the WAA, Henry was able to onboard a large amount of business in a very short period to keep his RIA status with the Securities exchange Commission. He noted, “I had to scale as quickly as possible, especially in trading and investment technology. I had 70 households that I had to onboard very quickly. I was aligned with Forum on their investment philosophy, and I was able to learn their systems within one week with their support. Without their support, I would have been drowning.” The WAA’s ongoing support in three key areas has enabled him to continue growing after his business’s successful launch.
Pillar One: Technology
Regarding his experience with Forum Financial’s technology, Henry said, “I had a place for all the information that an advisor would need in a system that I didn’t have to build. It is a fully integrated system. It has trading, household management, task management and workflows for things like raising cash and transfers—all the things that an advisor does daily.” Forum’s technology also amplified Henry’s ability to service his clients through an online portal that allows clients to access documents, including those uploaded from custodians.
Pillar Two: Community
Henry takes advantage of Forum Financial’s monthly staff meetings, peer group meetings and conferences held twice yearly. “I’ve been to so many conferences in my career. When I went to the first Forum conference, I thought, ‘Wow, I’ve never been to a conference where I’ve been in a room with as many people with the same wants, needs, challenges and opportunities as I have.’ That was important to me.” By choosing to become a member of the WAA, he has independently hired two client service associates in his office. The WAA provides access to best practices to help teams cross-train to reduce redundancies, improve efficiencies, leverage technology and create additional capacity to ultimately improve profitability.
Pillar Three: Operational Support
Forum Financial integrates tools and technology that help firms maintain a high level of service to their clients. For Henry, having the support of teams who are experts in what they do is extremely important. “Forum has a trading team, an advisor support team and an operations team that I don’t have to manage.” Henry provided a specific example of how Forum’s operational support has helped his team become more productive. “There’s a meeting prep process in the HUB [technology center]. I document meeting notes; within those notes, I can add associated tasks and assign them to team members. I modeled our workflows after Forum’s samples, which showed me how to integrate my customer service people so that they would be part of our team effort. This has allowed us to cross-train our employees.”
Future Opportunities
Support in trading and other operating areas frees advisors from time-consuming processes and tasks, giving Henry more time to focus on client engagement, referrals and revenue. Solutions in reporting, trading and billing, as well as technology, and compliance resources, provide efficiencies so that he can focus on the growth and client-facing activities necessary to build his dream.
Final Thoughts
Commenting on the value that being a part of the WAA brings, Henry noted, “I onboarded $200 million in AUM within six months of joining the WAA with 1.75 full-time equivalent personnel and $220 million within 12 months with 1.95 FTEs.” He went on to explain, “I’ve been in this business for 20 years. I saw how two different firms do it. Both of those firms have more people than I do. Yet I have better tools; I can do more and do it faster. There are 15–20 people [at Forum] that I interact with quite regularly. If you equate that with the fee that I pay for this access, it is worth it for the work that they are doing.”
Get to Know the Wealth Advisor Alliance
At Forum Financial, advisors are entrepreneurs — as such, we are an advisor-owned firm and intend to stay that way. Everything we do — from our ownership model to the client experience we help you provide —is built by advisors, for advisors. We formed the WAA to provide support to established RIA firms so that they can prioritize client-facing activities above everything else. We enable you to better leverage your time and increase the chances of raising your client engagement, referral and revenue rates. The same efforts that define your success are the priorities of our incredible team and technological investments: it is all about you. Contact us if you’d like to discover more about how the WAA, in conjunction with Forum Financial, can help you achieve your professional goals.
We help advisors establish and grow successful wealth management practices. To learn more about how we can help you amplify your life’s work, contact us at team@waalliance.com. You can follow us on LinkedIn.