The Bridgemark Strategies Difference
Bridgemark Strategies is an advisor centric consulting and recruiting firm. We work with advisors and advisory teams to help them evaluate their next transition. A transition is defined as changing broker-dealers, breaking away and starting or joining an RIA or selling or partnering your business.
As a part of our research we have talked to well over 100 different solutions including Independent Broker-Dealers (B/Ds), Insurance B/Ds, Employee B/Ds, RIAs, OSJs, Custodians, Aggregators, Consolidators etc. to be able to understand their capabilities, strengths, weaknesses and key differentiating factors.
Our extensive research and decades of combined experience in conjunction with our unique process is what makes Bridgemark Strategies different in our ability to help advisors.
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Solutions are customized for each advisor to help them evaluate and determine the right partner for their needs. When advisors are evaluating a transition of their business whether it’s a change of B/Ds, becoming or joining an RIA, or selling or taking on a partner, advisors must identify and research different solutions. Most advisors not only don’t know where to begin, but frequently they don’t know how to compare firms either.
At Bridgemark Strategies we work to understand your needs and goals as we help you find your individualized solution. When evaluating solutions, there are three key areas to research which can be summed up in three words: Feel, Fit and Financials.
Feel is as simple as do you like the people at the solution firm, does it feel right. Advisors frequently know what they don’t like and can discern it quickly on an initial call. However, when that first call goes well and they like the salesperson, then they begin to trust that salesperson. That trust of the salesperson can often supersede the need to learn the details about the firm.
The Fit is learning the details of the solution firm to make sure it fits with your business. Fit is often one of the most critical categories and one of the areas many advisors spend the least amount of time evaluating. Often advisors assume the products, services and capabilities offered by their existing firm are the same everywhere. Products and services can vary greatly even among two firms that may seem similar and are competitors. As we have worked with advisors coming from scores of different firms we have been able to learn a lot that firms wouldn’t want you to know.
The last category is financials. The financials may seem like an easy item for a financial advisor to evaluate. Unfortunately, this can be one of the most difficult categories to truly understand and calculate. Different firms have different components that will be used to determine how profitable you are to them. The most obvious is payout, but it can also include other areas such as platform fees, production bonuses, trading costs and frequency, products selected, client fees, transition money or even how many employees you have or how profitably you run a business. Payout is often one of the least important numbers to compare when doing this analysis. With Bridgemark Strategies, in addition to helping you assess the financial implications, we will also help you negotiate final terms as well.
Bridgemark Strategies has decades of experience and has researched over a hundred firms to help you navigate the marketplace to find the solution that has the right Feel, Fit and Financials for your needs.