High-earning RIAs gather at TD's Elite Advisor Summit

There were many first-timers at TD Ameritrade Institutional’s 2011 Elite Advisor Summit held in Miami Beach this week, and if a summons to the invitation-only event for advisors with $100 million or more in assets was not quite the same as scoring one of Willy Wonka’s Golden Tickets, the RIAs in attendance still seemed delighted to be among the chosen.

With Robert Braglia’s AUM hovering just around the $100 million figure, the principal of American Financial and Tax Strategies jokingly called himself “the poorest guy in the room.”

Braglia started his firm 19 years ago while still working on the broker-dealer end of a large insurance company. If he had it to do over again, Braglia says would have “leapt off the bridge much sooner.” He counsels RIAs thinking of going independent not to be afraid to make the jump. Assuming proper due diligence and planning, “You can’t wait until all the lights are green.”

Milling about the Fleur de Lis ballroom of the swanky Fountainebleau Hotel after the opening session – and dressed almost identically in white Polo shirts – were father and son John and Chris Arthur, principals of RDA Financial Network based in North Liberty, Iowa.

Ocean’s Eleven

John and Chris started their firm in May 2008, as the clouds of the financial tempest were gathering. In anticipation of a worst-case scenario, RDA sold its equity positions but held onto its bonds – a decision that hurt them when the bond market collapsed. Happily, it rebounded in ’09. Starting with $30 million AUM, the firm now has $340 million and about 2,500 clients, said Arthur senior, and TD has custodied their assets throughout.

Nathan Paulson: It reminds me of
'Ocean’s Eleven.’

“The tech platform and service are great,” says Chris. “The sales guys are awesome. It’s a good fit.”

Joe Anderson and Michael Fenison of Pure Financial, a San Diego RIA with $350 million of assets under management and about 450 clients, also started their firm three years ago. The 2008 crash, says Fenison, was a boon for business. “[Investors] were looking for other advisors,” he says.

Pure Financial started with Schwab as their custodian but switched to TD a couple of years ago. The client service just “felt better,” Anderson says.

Nathan Paulson, principal of Paulson Wealth Management noted with pleasure the retro-ambience of the conference site, the former stomping grounds of Frank Sinatra and his “Rat Pack.”

“It reminds me of ‘Ocean’s Eleven,’” says Paulson, whose firm is based in Wheaton, Ill.

Men’s club

Of course, the Rat Pack was a men’s only club, as is, for the most part, today’s financial advice industry – a fact not lost on another first-time attendee, Sandra Atkins.

Sandra Atkins: An all-girls club

Atkins is president and one of three principals in an all-woman firm, Focus Wealth Management of Middleburg, Va., which manages $140 million. Focus, whose clientele, by the way, is 50% male, recently switched from a large custodian to TD because, Atkins says, it is more RIA-centered. “They’ve sent out great teams to help,” she says.

Editor’s Note: Dina is sitting down tomorrow with Fred Tomczyk and Tom Bradley to get thoughts about TD Ameritrade as an RIA custodian and TD as a larger corporation with its own retail clients. See: TD Ameritrade and Schwab at odds on franchise model Look for her coverage of those chats and a speech by Ric Edelman, perhaps TD’s largest RIA client.