Clients First – Matt Medeiros of The Institute for Wealth Management

Matt Medeiros, CEO of The Institute for Wealth Management

Matt Medeiros, the CEO of The Institute for Wealth Management, grew his company’s revenue from $3.5 million in 2014 to $5.6 million in 2017, a 59% increase, and to around $8 million in 2018.  

The Institute for Wealth Management is a provider of registered investment advisory services.  

In this interview with Eversprint‘s Malcolm Lui, Matt shares how he and his team accelerated their high value sales by:  

  • Capitalizing on the secular trend of advisors going independent.  
  • Creating financial products that the needs of their clients better than what the wirehouses can offer.  
  • Selectively hiring advisors who have the same “putting clients first” culture, beliefs and philosophy as they do.  

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Malcolm Lui:
Welcome to the High Value Sales Show of Eversprint.com. I'm Malcolm Lui, the Managing Member of Eversprint, and today we're speaking with Matt Medeiros, the CEO of The Institute for Wealth Management, a provider of registered investment advisory services. Welcome to the show Matt.

Matt Medeiros:
Thanks Malc, thank you Malc appreciate being here. Look forward to it.

Malcolm Lui:
Matt, you grew your company's revenue from $3.5 million in 2014 to $5.6 million in 2017, a 59% increase, and in 2018 you hit around $8 million. Before we talk about how you grew your company so fast, can you briefly share what your company does beyond my quick intro, and how your company differs from the competition?

Matt Medeiros:
Absolutely. So as you mentioned earlier in the intro we are an investment advisory firm and what that what that means to us is that we provide investment advisory services which in itself doesn't sound terribly unique but I think the approach that we take in the business is unique in our value prop is that we're able to work with advisors who are truly acting as fiduciary is and the value that we bring is trying to bring an extensive service of not just portfolio management but financial services in the context of financial planning you know alternative investments things of that nature that they really can address all client needs

Malcolm Lui:
All right now how would you say you differ from other registered investment advisors out because many of them do the same function as what you would do

Matt Medeiros:
They do I think it is really kind of the independence that we that we work with our advisors. I think a lot of advisory firms are really working hard to promote their own brand. What we're trying to do is we're trying to create partnerships with independent advisors. So these are advisors who really want to almost hang their own shingle and use their own branding. But in partnering with us they're allowed to use that branding but we will do all of the back office services or the. Well all of the things required from an investment advisory service which is again which is the compliance the trading the reporting the money management all of the back office functions. So we think about it almost as a sort of almost like a franchise model. So we're going to we're going to provide all of the products and services and the advisor is going to actually have a very important role in communicating directly with the with the client. So I think to me that is and based on the feedback that we get that really probably is the most differentiating fact between US and other advisory firms

Malcolm Lui:
Right. The growth of your business reflects that as well. Right. As to that model working quite well

Matt Medeiros:
Yeah we're we're you know we're very proud of our growth. I think that we are though it sounds like you know we have we have a very exceptional growth which which I would say we do I would I would I would say that our growth is really a function of having a great team.

Malcolm Lui:
Right

Matt Medeiros:
You know we've been very selective in who we do business with. How we do business. So there certainly shouldn't be an impression that we are taking any kind of business me for our model to work. We have everybody has to be on the same page from the Home Office to the advisors that we work without.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. And just so that I fully understand how your business works. Now the advisors who work with you and where you provide the back office functions are they employees of your company or are they just contracting out the back office to you

Matt Medeiros:
That's amount. That's another that's another distinguishing point. So it's not like just contracting out the back office. They're not employees where a lot of other advisory firms will bring on an adviser and there they become employees. That's again another value of our firm. Again a differential in fact would be with a lot of the people that do business with us have left large firms such as banks or wire house firms that they themselves have become the. The value in the relationship with the client. So there's really not a need for them to be an employee in that. In that construct it's just the way that the wire houses or the banks are set up in our business model. All of the advisors that we work with are ten ninety nine. So again it gives them that flexibility as a as a business owner to create a business that truly is their brain

Malcolm Lui:
Ok. And the way that they're ten ninety nine advisors and the assets of the client their clients are held on to your firm

Matt Medeiros:
Correct. Where we are the money manager. There's no question about that but they are they are treated as as I sort of mentioned earlier I think the best analogy is to think about them as a franchise or franchisees. So you know we we might have the McDonald's complex but there's going to be there might be a bit of a difference between you know the McDonald's in different states for example

Malcolm Lui:
Right. And if they chose the way that you have your arrangement if they chose to move the assets to another firm like Charles Schwab for example I imagine provide similar services. They have investor network of sorts. It sounds a bit similar to yours where they have

Matt Medeiros:
And

Malcolm Lui:
Investors

Matt Medeiros:
I

Malcolm Lui:
Can

Matt Medeiros:
Think actually. So I'm glad you asked that question. We do business with Charles Schwab. We also do business with T.D. Ameritrade fidelity and purging for that matter. Those are those are called custodians so the custodians are who we use to custody or safeguard the client assets. So we do not custody any assets. So for example if I kind of just walk you through the process of onboarding a client the the the the adviser would actually meet with the client and those while they're together they will open up an account at a place like T.D. Ameritrade as it has the custodian where the client assets will reside. Our engagement is that at that point the client signs an agreement saying that we would like the Institute to manage our portfolio so we would be doing the trading making the trading decisions the buy sell type decisions. But we do it at the custodian

Malcolm Lui:
Right. Got it. Now the you said before the adviser maintains their own branding however right.

Matt Medeiros:
Yes

Malcolm Lui:
But then I guess the account statements that their clients receive will have the Institute for wealth management showing on their is where their assets are being held

Matt Medeiros:
They will have it they will have a joint brand. It'll say your investment adviser is the Institute for wealth management. Your representative is Malcolm

Malcolm Lui:
Right. I got it. And if I chose to move my client to another firm who provides what your company does is no problem with that right if they want to do that no stickiness them off.

Matt Medeiros:
Where we open sticky

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah but I mean is not like you would why them. Sorry.

Matt Medeiros:
Yeah. No I get your point. I think you know the way that we view business is that business shouldn't be something that's held hostage it should be something that is earned. And so we we believe that we will make the business sticky if we perform on our duties

Malcolm Lui:
Right.

Matt Medeiros:
And

Malcolm Lui:
Of course

Matt Medeiros:
In the case where you know the where we have a client that thinks that needs will be best served other play somewhere else then there is no penalty. As a matter of fact they can hire another adviser assuming that adviser does business with the same custodian. They won't have to change the custodial paperwork

Malcolm Lui:
Right. Got it. Okay cool.

Matt Medeiros:
Again

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah I like

Matt Medeiros:
That is the part that lends the part of the flexibility. Sorry to interrupt but the gist it lends part the flexibility. So if you are it if you are at a WhiteHouse firm for example you know you're going to have to leave that firm altogether which means you're going to have to repay that whole account which for a lot of investors. That's that's that's very burdensome.

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah. And from what I hear from what I hear anecdotally here at the banks and warehouses of course don't want to lose the assets. It's not something that they will do quickly for you either

Matt Medeiros:
That is that is an industry practice for sure

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah.

Matt Medeiros:
Unfortunately.

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah understandable from their perspective now. And Rick and me. I do like the idea of how you provide stickiness right. You make it easy to leave if they really want to leave but you provides a fantastic service that they don't want to leave to begin with. Right. I mean that's a great way to do it.

Matt Medeiros:
I think when you when you are managing other people's money and the way that we look at it is as you know our ability and our success in managing others money is has a direct reflection on how they're able to run their lives in the future. So you know we take that responsibility very seriously and I think that you know from our perspective that's got to be a two way street. And that's why our business model works frankly is because we really are we are distinguishing or almost silo ing out duties. You know the duty of all of the back office functionality is it is a very intensive duty and needs to be done correctly to to meet the goals of the client. But equally as important or even more important and I think this is where our advisors are so successful is that each client I think even more so today than 10 years ago is almost demanding a deeper engagement with their advisor. If you if you think about the demographics it is the baby boomers now who are getting very close or who are already in retirement. So there is a bit of anxiety once you entered retirement of making sure that you can stay in retirement. So I believe that you know contrary to what we see in a lot of the a lot of the papers now where a lot of robo advisors or automatic investment advisors that are all done through the computer are getting garnering a lot of assets. I don't think that they're garnering the assets of the higher net worth or the clients who are in retirement because we we do see that those clients are actually asking for more engagements not less. So that's where our advisors are we've been so successful.

Malcolm Lui:
Right now you tell me share a little bit about how you support the advisors I know. You mentioned that they have their own brand. How do you help them with their marketing how do you help advisors find new clients and gain more assets

Matt Medeiros:
Sure. So the one of one of again one of the most important things is it said when I say engagements today in today's world engagement is a is a 24/7 process. So you know we may have a client who is on vacation in a different country and they may have read a paper or just seen something them and they feel like they're out of touch with their advisor. So there you know the anxiety kind of builds while they're traveling. You know one of the things that we want to do is we want to create a 24/7 experience for our clients so that they while they're traveling for example they'll have an app where they can pull up at any time and it's completely secure. They can pull up their their accounts. They can look at. They can do any analytics that they want to. They can. They could look up any information if the adviser if we have put out any sort of market update that is beneficial and they find timely and meaningful to them they'll be able to pull it up on their computer or they'll be able to pull it up on the phone and stay engaged on it on a real time basis. So first off that's that's a really important part of the process as being available 24/7 and that helps the advisors grow their businesses.

Matt Medeiros:
Again staying engaged. I think that the second part of the how we're helping advisors market is is essentially providing the tools and talking points. Again engagement in our world doesn't mean you know what's the new sales pitch to sell a product because that's not what we do as a fiduciary but keeping advice keeping clients abreast of what's happening in market. I mean I think that the new cycle is extraordinary these days. I mean you can get all kinds of information both informative and contradictory at the same time. What we're trying. What we do is for advisors we will put out a weekly newsletter that comes directly from our investment committee that not only updates the markets but it gives them the perspectives of what we see happening in the marketplace. So if by way of example if the conversation with the client happens to be around tariffs as an example that's happening in the news now then then you will know our our position on that and you'll know our talking points on that. You'll know in real clients speak we're not trying to speak to the advisors at a at a level that you know that only investment professionals would understand. We're trying to communicate it in a way that we hope that that every investor would understand.

Malcolm Lui:
Right

Matt Medeiros:
I think those have been some of the most popular tools you know some of the other things that we do is just by just by way of the services. Some of the marketing tools like some of the financial planning services that we provide for our advisors engagements through our monthly in addition to the weekly updates on the markets will also do monthly webinars with our advisors to kind of again keep them abreast and let them know what we're seeing. So those are those are some of the important tools and we find that from from our business and the advisors that work with that if they're providing information that is usable information for the client. That's the most productive way to grow your business as opposed to the sales pitch of the day.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. How about in terms of marketing. Like do you advertise for them. Do you generate lead they refer to advisors who are in that geography. How do you help them grow their business beyond giving them the tools that they can use to engage their their prospects and current clients.

Matt Medeiros:
No amount. That's it's an interesting question. And candidly I would tell you that almost all of the business that our advisors have. So best the business that we have is is referral business. And I think that's the smartest way to grow your business. So you know again I don't want to oversimplify it but reality is is that it really isn't that difficult if you're staying in front of your clients and you are keeping them. I don't know. I don't want to stay just abreast of the market. But also if you were if you are standing top of mind with your clients you're going to be getting referrals and that's that. That's I. From my perspective there is no sort of magic pill for this. You know I don't really see a lot of in my again this is this is our opinion a lot of sort of mass marketing strategies that are effective in communicating fiduciary services. I think those type of marketing strategies are productive for product sales but that's not the type of clients that our advisors are working.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. Okay. What do you think about Fisher Investments. Those guys are spending significant sums of money on paper fic advertising from the data that I have in the. I checked out their funnel just just the other day right. Searching for a retirement annuities. There was an ad from Fisher there. If you click on it takes you a page it talks about retirement annuities. There's a download for people to opt in to receive that book and I hope that it they asked for all the key if one needs that they need. Write my name my address know my assets are. Am I interested in having a consultation with them and so on. Right. So I see what they're doing in fisheries you know is huge. I did a ten thousand pound gorilla in this space

Matt Medeiros:
Yes

Malcolm Lui:
Right.

Matt Medeiros:
It's

Malcolm Lui:
And know their account sizes aren't true either I mean they're saying you know your account size is over five hundred thousand. You know we can do a consultation to see if I can help you right. So I'm looking for larger accounts as well. So what's your take on what they are doing as opposed to what you just shared with me about just doing referral marketing based

Matt Medeiros:
You know first off I would say it's impressive. You know I I often get mailed to my house you know a fisher advertising and you know for a firm like ours that is working very hard to provide efficient services at a very good price for the above for the clients. It's certainly not in our budget to have that kind of marketing strategy. I think that that type of marketing strategy is is is really more of a brand awareness strategy which I think you know in business you have to do. And I think they've done a fantastic job doing that. I think the fisher company has done a great job in positioning thoughts and some thought leadership. I but I from my perspective and that might get you some opportunities but at the end of the day you know what we're looking at is developing long term relationships and generally those long term relationships come from referrals. People want to do business in one referred business to people that they like and that they can. And you know I think just by having an advertiser went on television it doesn't it doesn't build trust. And so again we're you know I you know maybe someday we'll be a size of a fisher but that's certainly not our business aspiration and goals.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. Got it. So it sounds like the advisors you bring on board. They have a pretty significant look at business right do not like the young Edward Jones folks who are building the book and literally knock door to door in the neighborhood right.

Matt Medeiros:
Yeah that's you know that. That's correct. Are our advisors are generally advisers that have been in the business for you know an average of 10 years plus you know they the they're they're not they're not knocking on doors. They may have done that to start. I don't know but they've developed good long term relationships. You know some of our advisors have had relationships with clients that are you know 20 25 years long. And so it's it's wonderful when I get to work with the advisor and I get to meet some of their clients and they talk about you know the weddings and the you know the celebrations and things of that nature that they have shared over the years. And when you get to that point it's it's it's really not about you know who's who's got the best commercial on television you

Malcolm Lui:
Right

Matt Medeiros:
Know it really is who's going to be part of my family. And that's intent to us that is the best way to build your business. And so I would say that both of our guys have been in the business considerably longer than you know your average Edward Jones advisor and you know they have a what we refer to as a book of business. So they already have a clientele that you know that they have established over years. Most of them would like to grow that client tell and the reason that they're again attracted to us is that it is the is the perspective in actuality that they're going to be able to deepen those relationships by providing more thoughtful services for those clients

Malcolm Lui:
Right now I do have a question for you about how you bring advisors into the Institute for wealth management fold. But before then maybe we can get a bigger picture view. You grow your business pretty fast. Three point five million in 2014 and you more than doubled it four years later. Right. Two 18 year around eight million. And I and I believe I already touched on this but lets me recap again. What were the biggest drivers of that growth over the past four years

Matt Medeiros:
If I focus just on the last four years I would tell you that the difference in business is if we go all the way back I started the business in 2003 and when I started the business initially we were just a money management firm. So we didn't have direct engagements with advisors. What we would do is we would work with brokerage firms like some of the ones that I have mentioned earlier in this conversation. We would work with them but we would we would be approaching the firms at the firm level just as an asset manager. And so that's that that's how we started the business and we ran it that way for the good for the first. I don't know good too well 13 years and then we made the strategic decision because over the course of years we would continue to give referrals from advisors referrals to advisors that wanted to go independent and we really you know that just wasn't our business model and we wanted to help those individuals. So with those individuals so what we did about four years ago is we decided to continue to do to work with our asset manager only model. But again now allow those those advisors that wanted to break away as we say because you know whether you know this or not there's a there is a there's a dramatic trend in the industry for traditional wire house and bank again brokers is really what they what they are.

Matt Medeiros:
So brokers leaving leaving the brokerage firms and wanting to go independent in one way shape or form so that's sort of been the trend now for you know I would say almost going on 10 years and so with that trend we're getting referrals to those advisors and we would kind of say look once you get your things set up we can help you. And so four years ago we decided to say well why don't we just help you get that setup and work together to put this together and we'll continue working with your clients at that point. So I would say that the that the the the raft. The reason we were able to do that was just a combination of our business strategy and as we continue to grow our business just continue to be thoughtful. But most importantly however our finger on the pulse of the trends in the industry where you know advisers are looking to provide better services for their clients and not necessarily the brokerage firms.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. So the number one driver is a you identified the trend of advisors at the brokerages at the White Houses wanting to go independent. And we saw an opportunity as to how you can help go independent. And at the same time make it easier for them to maintain the relationship with their clients and still provide the same services as they were getting when they were at a brokerage

Matt Medeiros:
That's correct.

Malcolm Lui:
They were there. So. So no one would be capitalizing on that trend is there two other drivers of your business

Matt Medeiros:
Well I think as we mentioned before I mean understanding if you think about it the the advantage that you know working with a firm that is the size of some of these large wire houses is that there's unlimited resources and I don't mean just money. Mean there's lots of money of course but I'm an unlimited resources. Meaning that you're going to have a lot of in a lot of different investment options and a lot of different ways that you can hopefully satisfy the clients the investment objectives. Again the challenge is is that in those. So. So and I guess what advisors get frustrated with is the firm the White House in this case telling that they adviser what they should be putting in the client accounts. So I think the you know for us the second driver of the business was essentially expanding the services so that we can essentially be a resource rich firm like the wire houses but provide the independents

Malcolm Lui:
So far whatever financial product the advisors may need to help their clients your firm for the most part has that available

Matt Medeiros:
We have that available and continuing to again work with our our advisors and their clients to understand what types of things in the future that that we don't have that we should be thinking about so that we can be innovative as well.

Malcolm Lui:
Right

Matt Medeiros:
Again that's that's critically important. I mean we want to make sure that not only are you getting the services and the treatment as you are with the wire with a large warehouse firm but you also get the benefit of working with a firm that is much smaller and nimble and able to make decisions.

Malcolm Lui:
Right.

Matt Medeiros:
You know there's there's there's lots of business things that change the business models that change. There's there's regulatory things that change. There's markets that change. So we believe we're in a much better position to adapt to those changes than you know the big the big the big firms such as say well let's just wait it out and wait till the market comes back to its.

Malcolm Lui:
Right now the big banks for sure they have the balance sheet and the people and the resources to create their products in-house and offer it. Right. And structured products and so on. How does your firm handle that. You partner up with other banks the Kosovo or originate some product for your clients

Matt Medeiros:
We do. And again that's the that's for us that's the advantage is it is sort of you alluded to if I'm if I'm an advisor or if I'm a broker. Pardon me if I'm a broker with a warehouse you know if I needed a structure product for for example I'm I'm getting my firm structure product foot but because of how we've set up our business and what we were doing first starting off as an asset manager we have deep relationships and some of the largest banks in the world. And so what this enables us to do is actually create structures that we think are most advantageous for our clients and then go to multiple banks to get the best pricing for our clients

Malcolm Lui:
Right yeah I can see how that could be advantageous when it meets the client's needs better as opposed to saying what this is all we got.

Matt Medeiros:
And it's

Malcolm Lui:
But

Matt Medeiros:
Really more of a it's it's it's really much more bespoke for the client as opposed to you know being creating a product and saying I need this many clients and this much money and by the end of month me. There's nothing in that that that sounds like it's in the best interest of the client.

Malcolm Lui:
Right with the pricing of your products the competitive still given that's more bespoke

Matt Medeiros:
Well I think it's now competitive. I think it's it's it's way advantageous than doing it in somebody then our price is more advantageous than working with some of these bigger firms because as you can imagine they are a lot more people to feed

Malcolm Lui:
Here.

Matt Medeiros:
You know

Malcolm Lui:
Tens

Matt Medeiros:
And

Malcolm Lui:
Of thousands more

Matt Medeiros:
And and we work one way. We we only work on the fees that our clients pay us. And so there's no commissions to help out with you know with anything else. That's that's how we make money.

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah.

Matt Medeiros:
And so if our clients happy we continue to have a job if they're not happy then we get terminated and we don't have a job anymore.

Malcolm Lui:
Right.

Matt Medeiros:
You know it's it's a very high incentive for us to do a good job for our clients.

Malcolm Lui:
Yep. And going back to the beginning of the interview and I think you might and perhaps mentioned the third driver of your success you mentioned how you're very selective with the advisors you work with. You talked a little bit about that.

Matt Medeiros:
Yeah. And that's it's very interesting because it's there's obviously not a criteria that we were sort of a form criteria for that. There really has to be you know just like I mentioned earlier that we that our advisors have deep relationships and engagements with our clients with their clients. Excuse me. We're going to be working day to day hand-in-hand with that advisor and most often that advisors back office and so we make sure for for everybody's sake that we have some some some cultural matches so that you know we have the same beliefs and the same philosophies and we treat clients the same because you know I believe that if you know you're going to treat your clients the way you treat each other. And so you know if there if there is a disconnect in that in the relationship you know me I'll go and tell you we've probably passed up on twice as much business as we have right now

Malcolm Lui:
Right.

Matt Medeiros:
And it's not to say that they're bad people. We just had different philosophies.

Malcolm Lui:
Now how do you figure this out that the guys are fit because of what you mentioned are very soft skills soft things. It's not quantifiable

Matt Medeiros:
Very very. I'm sure there was a financial firm that said this before me but we do it the old fashioned way. I to spend time with you. I got to meet you

Malcolm Lui:
How long the how long is the typical process before you will say Yeah that's for you onboard on our platform from beginning to end.

Matt Medeiros:
It's it's kind of like you know how long. What's the proper time to wait before you get married. You know sometimes you know sometimes it takes a little bit longer

Malcolm Lui:
De

Matt Medeiros:
You know and you know we don't want advisers to make these decisions lightly because for it to be beneficial not just for their clients but for them and for us. These are long term relationships we're talking about these aren't transactions so you know that kind of goes back to our kind of our marketing strategy and referrals. You know these aren't things that you can build overnight you can't build a reputation overnight. So we you know we will we will spend as much time as we need to. Going through the business with the adviser going through philosophies and cultures going through financials you know we want to make sure that it's also financially beneficial not just for our firm but for the adviser that we're talking to. So there's a there's a variety of different things that we go through before we can make that decision. But you know the decisions that we that we do make. You know I would say for the most part have been very successful because we were we take the time we take the time we need to to to be comfortable in our decisions.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. Give me a range of how long it takes. Are you talking weeks months years.

Matt Medeiros:
No I would say that if it takes years I'm up to the challenge. We're not going anywhere.

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah.

Matt Medeiros:
I think you said earlier you know based upon our progress so that I'm fine with you know it could take it could take a few weeks to.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. Okay. Yeah. Case by case fully understand that

Matt Medeiros:
It really is and that's how we've got. How we've grown our businesses case by case.

Malcolm Lui:
Right now for 2019. What are your plans. What are your challenges. What obstacles does their team need to overcome to hit your targets. And what are your targets.

Matt Medeiros:
Well first off I don't know if you could say this a soft target or not but you know we're always looking at how we can improve and you know we're very fortunate to be in an industry know that being the financial industry that there is always ways for improvement movement and how you did things 10 years ago. If you're doing this the way the business the same way today then you know you're on a on a fast track to exist and there's two.

Malcolm Lui:
Irrelevance

Matt Medeiros:
Yeah exactly. Well we you know one of our big pushes is a new text what we call tech stack. So we are implementing new technology to not only help us more efficiently run the business but also provide more value to our clients with some of the look and feel tools know providing more future tools being able to get our tech stack talking so that we have you know we have a tremendous amount of information and a tremendous amount of clients. And so what we're also trying to do is we're trying to look at some predictive analytics with our technology so that we can generalize with our with with the clients that we have we can generalize some of their needs prior to them needing. So for

Malcolm Lui:
Right

Matt Medeiros:
A while as clients are nearing retirement or perhaps in retirement if they you know if they have a certain net worth they might have some you know estate trust things so that we can. Your trust needs that you know maybe we can talk to them in advance or or give them some useful information to begin a conversation somebody with less less less of a value or less less of a portfolio value. You know there may be different issues. So you know trying to get some predictive analytics so that we can you know help our clients navigate the future before before we get there because that's the best the best way to be successful in the financial industry is anticipate things as opposed to reactive every

Malcolm Lui:
Now. No it's good to have a plan right. Otherwise

Matt Medeiros:
Defense.

Malcolm Lui:
He's kind of floundering

Matt Medeiros:
Yes

Malcolm Lui:
Around now.

Matt Medeiros:
So I said So I think I think back to your question mark. I think the first thing is is know frankly the that the technology you know and I know that's really not super quantifiable but as you can imagine with any firm but you know the to the to the length and depth of what we're doing on the technology side it's quite an ordeal. And you know clients are going to be and advisors for that matter are going to be very excited about

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah makes life easier and let's get a results that they are desiring that they want faster. Now you know how about revenue targets. Can you. Are you comfortable sharing what sort of revenue growth you're looking for.

Matt Medeiros:
Well I mean I'd like to say that we're going to continue our revenue patterns that we have before but candidly for this year we have almost neutralized a bit of our our growth just to make sure that we are dedicating as much resources that we can to the technology implementation. You know it's important for us to make sure that we have a firm foundation of our business. And so you know we don't want it. We don't want to add on a whole lot of new business that we aren't able to support in the manner in which that we have become accustomed to. If we're dedicating more resources to something else. And again right now we are. Our team has been diligently dedicating themselves on the technology so you know I'd be hesitant to kind of give you a revenue projection because I we certainly want to continue to grow the business. We we we have a tremendous pipeline of opportunity right now. But that pipeline is kind of being don't say put on hold but this sort of nurtured if you will right now until we're comfortable adding on to the infrastructure

Malcolm Lui:
Right now when you mean pipeline you're talking about pipeline of new advisors who want to join your platform. That's the primary growth factor here.

Matt Medeiros:
And that is our driver right now. Yes.

Malcolm Lui:
Okay. It's not so much as that as your as the asset management side of your business of accumulating more assets of your own as opposed to through a ten ninety nine adviser

Matt Medeiros:
Well that's I mean they kind of. They kind of feed into the same so that ten ninety nine adviser you know using our our our portfolios builds our asset management. But that is exactly what I'm referring to advisers that want to move over you know and so we are where we are making sure that we are not just continuing conversations but certainly keeping them abreast of what we're doing so that they know exactly what we're doing and not dragging our feet because of them. But you know onboarding new advisors is a is is a tremendous endeavor. You know it takes a lot of a lot of communication and takes a lot of effort a lot of focus to do it properly because you don't want to disrupt a client relationship. So we want this for the adviser to be very very smooth transition. And we're very fortunate to have the support of custodians that are very helpful with us and our advisors you know to help with this business transition. And so that that collective effort is not something that we take lightly. So I think the advisors that we get that are in our pipeline that kind of also builds a bond with them to let them know that you know your business is really important to us and we don't want to hurt your business so we're going to wait and say that would hurt it. But we want to wait until our our tech is completed and then and then bring it on. So I think that helps build the bond as well with the advisor.

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah definitely. But are they going to stick around

Matt Medeiros:
That's know again that's the beauty and crux of it. It's an At Will business.

Malcolm Lui:
Yet.

Matt Medeiros:
You know if we are the best solution for them then and again I know I'm hoping that the people that work with us are thinking what's best for their business long term not what's best for the business next month then I believe they'll be around. And part of them being around is obviously being honest and upfront with them and we've definitely done that.

Malcolm Lui:
Yep.

Matt Medeiros:
So my hope is is that we don't lose them to a competitor but it's the the alternative is not worth it's not worth the risk.

Malcolm Lui:
Yep. And here. So how do you get these guys in your pipeline to begin with.

Matt Medeiros:
Yeah. I wish I could tell you that we had the secret proprietary source. It's a you know we can't tell anybody. But honestly it's the old fashioned way. It's referrals. You know we've we've been in this business a long time. We do what we say we're going to do. And we don't do we don't do any less than that. And I think people that have done business with big business with us over time. Appreciate that. And you know this is it's interesting. It's a it's a huge business but a small community.

Malcolm Lui:
Yep.

Matt Medeiros:
You know everybody kind of talks and so you know we have a very good reputation and you know we work hard for our guys and I think that's how we get the referrals

Malcolm Lui:
Right. And so the referrals are coming from your other from your current investment advisors who are working with you now. They are advising their buddies to consider moving over to your platform.

Matt Medeiros:
That that's one of the that's one of the best sources for us. The other sources are the financial firms that we do business with there. They're touching investment professionals around the country all the time. And you know we have good relationships with them as well and you know if we're a right fit and then you know hopefully we'll get a get a referral.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. Got it. Three. Final question for you Matt

Matt Medeiros:
Sure

Malcolm Lui:
If you were to have a billboard somewhere whether it be in your hometown or perhaps in another market where you want to increase your presence. What would be your billboard message and do the mind of most people only have about six seconds if they drive by a billboard

Matt Medeiros:
Yeah that's that's an interesting question. I would probably say how important is your future. Now you're obviously not. This is that's my off the cuff and you know from from that you know the the there might be a stub text to that that says you know are you working with a finance professional that has your interests in mind or you're interested at your interests first.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. You're interest is a good

Matt Medeiros:
I think

Malcolm Lui:
One.

Matt Medeiros:
You probably know much better at the marketing side than than I. But to me you know we take managing money very seriously which I hope everybody does. But you know for us it's it's it's not a it's not it's not a billboard thing where you know we expect you to do that we expect you to pick up the phone and take an action. We we we want. We want to already create the action with the action to be. And when you think about this don't your future shouldn't be arbitrary. It shouldn't be. It shouldn't be something that you hope happens. It should be something that's planned. And so that you understand what the expectations are. And that's what we're trying to do is we're trying to hopefully in some way when that billboard we would communicate in a way that somebody would say it's time for me to take notice of my future and call someone who is working with me not trying to sell me something

Malcolm Lui:
Right. But people really don't know your company so much as a as an asset manager. Right. So maybe the billboard should be geared toward the advisors to come onto your platform.

Matt Medeiros:
Yeah. And then if it's geared toward the advisors you know I would say something as an investment professional wouldn't you rather work for your client. And that in you know again that's that's for people who want to really examine the question. It really is thinking you know did I do I do that I in my work or my engagement with that client did I do what was in their best interests or did I do what was in the firm's best interests and those don't always line up. I mean I think the deal I was trying to Department of Labor was trying to trying to get some clarity around this because I mean that's the whole point of the fiduciary rule. The RIAA which the Institute for wealth management is an RIAA which means that we are fiduciary which means our objective and our our obligation is to work into what's in the best interest of the client

Malcolm Lui:
Yep

Matt Medeiros:
And conversely a broker which again mostly most clients don't know the difference between a broker is able to sell a client anything they're qualified and there is a big difference there.

Malcolm Lui:
Yep

Matt Medeiros:
And I'm not sure and I think that the Department of Labor would clarify that difference. Which which again has been something that I think is interesting in our in our space. I hope I don't know how it's going to take hold in the future but I do know that many clients don't know the difference between a broker and a fiduciary. I've seen some advertisements lately that are starting to hit that point. But I just don't know if if that's really being paid attention as much as it should but you know we are pushing that point in a where were the advisers that we bring on that are breaking away from. From a warehouse or large bank or something of that nature generally speaking or saying look I can't I can't wear those two hats

Malcolm Lui:
Yep

Matt Medeiros:
Either need to work on what's best interest of the client or the best interests of the firm.

Malcolm Lui:
Yep

Matt Medeiros:
So that's that's hopefully in some way we would be able to communicate again with with much smarter marketing people like yourself. You know that that message in the short six second sound bite

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah. Well we can work on that. I think fiduciary duty ask the common person out there what does that mean. I think that's a tough question for that. For them the answer

Matt Medeiros:
Well I you know I the way that I am part of it comes from from us. I mean you know we're the stewards of this industry. So you know what we have to do as an industry is we have to say look you people become advisers is you because not because they want to sell financial services but because they want to work as a intermediary if you will representing the client. So I don't think any of us would want to go into court and be our own lawyer. So you're going to you're going to get a lawyer because that lawyer knows the laws and his license to be a lawyer in the advisory business and that lawyers representing just you

Malcolm Lui:
Yet

Matt Medeiros:
In the advisory business. It's similar in the sense that when you pass your exam as an adviser not as a broker but as an adviser. Again your obligation is to go to the markets and say one of the best products and services to suit my client's needs before excuse me after you've already gathered the client's information so you know what their needs are.

Malcolm Lui:
Yep Yeah that's probably something we can work with for your bigger message. Best Products and services to suit your client's needs.

Matt Medeiros:
Perfect.

Malcolm Lui:
We've taken that down a bit.

Matt Medeiros:
You bet. You bet. But that's again that's what I would that's what I would like to communicate and I think it's I don't. Well we'll have to find out if that resonates with the consumer because at this point I would say that consumers don't know the difference when a broker in the fiduciary.

Malcolm Lui:
No I don't think they do either. And plus there are no TV shows about half I do Sherri drama unlike the law profession.

Matt Medeiros:
Exactly. Exactly

Malcolm Lui:
So the last two questions I have for you. Who are your ideal advisors and what's the best way for them to contact your company and your team

Matt Medeiros:
Sure. So I would say the ideal adviser as I mentioned earlier somebody who's got a little bit of history in the business that's been that's that has it has a client a book of business that they are already managing they're working on. Generally speaking for us the average adviser would be about 40 million dollars under management and you know that that is going to range from the number of households that they represent is going to range. So that's that's a little bit harder to determine. But about 40 million under management you know we have some guys that have 10 million. But the other part of it is is that regardless of it's 10 or or 40 you know for us the ideal adviser is somebody who's engaged with the clients not just someone who's you know getting a new client and then doesn't anticipate seeing that client for a couple of years or until the client has a problem.

Malcolm Lui:
Right.

Matt Medeiros:
So you know we get into that engagement part

Malcolm Lui:
All right. Is there an average account size that you're looking for that these these advisers have with their clients.

Matt Medeiros:
Currently are our average account size as a firm level is about three hundred thousand dollars

Malcolm Lui:
Ok

Matt Medeiros:
For. But we have clients we scan me we have advisers that their book of business is Representative clients that are probably a median account size of one hundred and seventy thousand. And we also have advisors with us that the median account size is over two and a half million.

Malcolm Lui:
All right

Matt Medeiros:
It's a. And again that speaks very well to our who are clients and who are businesses because again the you know the client that has a three hundred thousand dollars to live off for the rest of their life shouldn't be getting less service than the client who has 3 million or 5 million or 10 million

Malcolm Lui:
Yeah.

Matt Medeiros:
So we've built our business for two That's four for exactly that.

Malcolm Lui:
Right. And the best way for them to contact your team.

Matt Medeiros:
The best way is to eat is to call us word 3 0 3 5 7 to thirty five hundred. You're welcome to Talk to me directly my extension is 3 1 8 5 our email asking me are my email address I'm sorry. Is Matt M M A.T.M. at institutes for its a FLIR wealth dot com Matt M an institute for wealth dot com and certainly check out our Web site which is Institute for wealth dot com. So love to hear anybody who's out there looking to understand how and how an independent professional might work in the space or actually just partnering with a good team that can help them grow their business for the future.

Malcolm Lui:
All right. Matt it's been awesome having you on my show today. I really enjoyed hearing how you grew your company so fast.

Matt Medeiros:
It's been a pleasure. Always exciting to talk about the industry and the business and appreciate the opportunity visit with you.

Malcolm Lui:
We've been speaking with Matt Medeiros, the CEO of The Institute for Wealth Management, about his company's rapid growth. For interviews with other fast growing, high value sales companies, or to learn how we can accelerate your firm's high value sales through automation, visit Eversprint.com.

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