Bernie Clark and Tony Blair draw big crowds - but no protestors - at IMPACT
Here's how Bernie Clark rallies the troops. In what almost felt like a snub, Occupy San Francisco kept its distance
5 min read- Schwab's Clark highlighted RIAs' growth, now managing $2.7 trillion and outpacing traditional models.
- Clark previewed Schwab initiatives supporting junior partner financing for RIA succession planning.
- Advisors should target women investors, who are underserved despite representing 37% of affluent market.
After Tuesday’s preconference session with Bill Gross and Liz Ann Sonders, the first official day of Schwab’s gigantic IMPACT conference kicked off with the company’s biggest RIA evangelist, Bernie Clark, rallying the troops. See: Bill Gross and Liz Ann Sonders are Dr. Gloom and Ms. (Fairly) Optimistic before Schwab IMPACT crowd.
Charles Schwab is slated to speak today, but on Tuesday, Clark drew a packed house of nearly 3,000 advisors in San Francisco’s Moscone Center eager to hear his thoughts on the RIA business. Another big draw for advisors was former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Independents are winning
Clark conveys a contagious enthusiasm for the RIA industry and its potential for growth.
“No one wants to leave this industry. The energy is palpable. I’m so inspired by your care for your clients,” Schwab’s RIA chief told advisors.
Clark spoke about the dramatic expansion the poaching of assets from wirehouses has caused in the RIA community, noting that it now comprises 16,000 advisors who manage $2.7 trillion in assets and is growing twice as fast as traditional models.
“You have created the ultimate open architecture model,” he says. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but around you an entire industry has been created ... We’re just getting started.”
Help with succession planning coming soon
After lunch with Bernie Clark, the future of RIAs seems to have no limit
Clark also hinted at new projects Schwab will be announcing next year, including a program to help junior partners with financing so that they can gain ownership in RIAs. “We want to help you create the next generation of partners for succession planning,” he said.
Clark also says the company is continuing to bolster its technology consulting surrounding practice management.
“We’ll stay committed to bringing intellectual capital to you,” he said.
Tony Blair: Some of the things
[Occupy Wall Street is] asking us
to do would make problems worse
and not better. I sympathize with
the feeling people have.
Women investors to the fore
Clark told advisors that their focus should be on female investors, next-generation wealth and young investors. Women account for 37% of the affluent-investor market, yet only 20% of affluent women use advisors, according to a recent survey. See: Forget their reputation; rich women are more fearless investors than supposed.
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“It simply doesn’t make sense. We need to do more and we need to be more attractive to that market,” Clark said.
Following the RIA leaders
Clark also pointed out the company’s efforts at advocacy aimed at teaching clients about what an RIA stands for, and encouraged his audience to think ahead.
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“Can you imagine an industry that’s leading and others are following you?” he asked. “We don’t have to imagine it because others are following you. They’re worried about your model and are worried about trying to grow their model like yours. This is such momentum.”
International importance
Blair took the podium first thing Wednesday morning, and, amid fresh reports of European Union disarray, explained that the growing economic problems have had a profound impact on the international community.
The whole world is connected by the financial crisis, he said, causing spikes in unemployment all over the world.
Jobs, jobs jobs
Without question, the biggest issue the world over is that of unemployment. “There is one question and one question only — how [do] we get the economy moving and get jobs,” Blair says. “We need to use the crisis to make changes because it has exposed problems.”
Taking it to the streets (but not to the convention center)
While granting the dire state of the economy, Blair found little to praise about the grassroots Occupy Wall Street movement, an energetic contingent of which has been protesting in nearby Oakland and, even closer at hand, not a half-mile away from the Moscone Center.
Meanwhile, just down the San Francisco
street.
“I think my problem with Occupy Wall Street is, a protest isn’t the same as a policy,” he said. “Some who are demonstrating will often make demands but they don’t necessarily have answers. Some of the things they’re asking us to do would make problems worse and not better. I sympathize with the feeling people have.”
“What I learned in my time as prime minister is, those who are the loudest don’t necessarily deserve to be heard,” Blair said.
Oddly enough, although dozens of advisors spied protestors in the city, the Occupy San Francisco forces were a no-show at the Schwab conference.
“I’m surprised they’re not there,” says Heather Locus, partner at Balasa Dinverno Foltz LLC, an Itasca, Ill.-based registered investment adviser that manages about $1.9 billion in assets. “If you are directly trying to make a point you should come here with your points and answers. It seemed ironic to me that if they feel so strongly about the cause that they didn’t move a few blocks and come here where all of these advisors are together.”
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