Let the Hiring Experts Handle It.
We work with Registered Investment Advisory clients all over the United States to find key talent needed to take their organization to the next level. Often times we work with the founder and CEO who is excellent at raising assets and client relations, but overburdened with the daily tasks needed to run a successful company. One major task that can be easily overlooked is hiring great people.
The solution to this problem takes many forms, but GRN Mid-Cities’ extensive network within the investment management community allows us to consistently source great candidates.
RIA firms are most often founded by highly successful Financial Advisors that have a desire to run a truly independent firm that can tailor it’s services to a high net work clientele. After the initial start-up phase, as AUM begins to grow beyond the first couple hundred million, what begins to surface are a couple of common needs:
1. Chief Operating Officer or Operations Director.
The most common search we are asked to perform is to find someone capable of running the firm, while the original founder(s) do what they do best: business development and financial planning.
Our goal is to find a trusted Operations expert who can seamlessly integrate into an RIA’s culture and begin to institute better processes and practices to improve profitability, accountability and employee retention.
2. Chief Investment Officer.
As our RIA clients grow into the half-billion dollar AUM range, a need develops to bring CIO duties in-house. Often our clients are using a TAMP and paying something akin to 45 bps for portfolio models and allocation work. This fee usually does not provide any economies of scale, so the fee grows exponentially.
A common search for us in to bring these services in-house either by bringing a CIO onto the team, or by finding an excellent Outsourced CIO (OCIO) who can provide these services at a fixed cost, thus providing incredible cost savings as AUM grows over time. Some of our clients use the CIO to create proprietary products that can be purchased outside of the RIA, which turns the position from a cost-center to a profit-center.
RIA related roles we have recruited:
CEO | We have successfully recruited several different CEO types:
- The Visionary | Can take a local RIA and build a plan to expand its reach regionally, or even, nationally.
- The Skilled Operation Leader | Many founders of successful RIAs find themselves unable to focus on the aspects of the business they love; asset gathering and asset management. Adding an Operations expert to run all phases of the business outside of sales and marketing can make a massive difference.
- The Tough Decision Maker | Sometimes the personality or eccentricities of the RIA owner can lead to turnover issues or poor profitability. When this is the case, bring in someone who can make the tough decisions. Ensuring the right people are on the bus and everyone knows which direction the bus is moving is crucial to the success of your business.
Chief Investment Officer | Often we are asked to find a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) or Chartered Market Technician (CMT) that can take over or create the investment models, create branded research and white papers, or even create proprietary investment products. Being in a fiduciary-based marketplace, having a clear investment thesis and process is paramount. We are skilled at bringing these talented candidates to our partner firms.
COO / Head of Operations | One of the highest demands we have is finding someone who can take over the operations side of the business and let the founder focus on sales and marketing. Many RIA founders become overburdened by the back and middle-office functions of running a growing firm. Finding someone who can handle those responsibilities well makes the business fun again.
Business Development Specialist | Some RIA founders absolutely love the asset management portion of the business and simply don’t have time to prospect. A good solution is to bring in someone whose focus is solely on bringing new clients into the firm and growing Assets Under Management (AUM). We are continually asked to find skilled “rainmakers” who spend their time in client development and asset gathering.
Chief Compliance Officer | Growing RIAs have ever-changing needs and often the compliance manager who was originally hired becomes overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work. This can require a JD, who has the education and skillset to take a firm from advisory to fiduciary services.
