On our recent episode of the Deep Dive Podcast, it was a pleasure to talk with Libet Anderson, President of Concourse Financial Group. Libet’s experience is second to none, and I respect how many people she has mentored, especially up-and-coming women in our industry. I ran out of time and didn’t get to talk to her about her world-class running pursuits, but if you meet her at a conference, make sure to ask her about that, too. She’s run everywhere.
Here are some of the key nuggets from our conversation:
- The hybrid model is still needed in our business as there are certain things that should be completed in a brokerage relationship (I get heat from my fee-only friends, but a 65-year-old widow holding municipal bonds to term doesn’t need to pay 1% a year for that service).
- At Concourse Financial Group, Libet is focused on providing advisors with choice. I think that’s one of the biggest challenges in our industry today for firms with platforms for advisors: allowing enough choice so they don’t feel like they are being put into a one-size-fits-all bucket, yet still having scale because you can’t be everything to everyone and still have any margins in the business. That balance will continue.
- The use of UMAs isn’t anywhere near what people expected in the independent space 10 years ago. Two issues remain: cost and support. Firms using UMAs tend to grow faster, but they also tend to outsource support to a Concourse or to a company we founded, LibertyFi.
- Growth will remain the top topic of industry conversations for the next five years. It’s why every platform is pivoting to a growth message (i.e., Riskalyze rebranding to Nitrogen). Growth will remain the top topic but will also remain elusive to more firms because they aren’t built properly to grow.