The Value of Independence Without Going It Alone

Brandon Haines | The Wealth Plan Company | Wilmington, NC

Brandon Haines has spent over 20 years in the financial advisory landscape, starting at a traditional large broker-dealer and financial advisory firm before moving to larger broker-dealer platforms that promised scale and sophistication. Along the way, he learned that bigger doesn't always mean better — something that takes most advisors years to figure out.
“Generally, when you called up somewhere, you could not speak to the person that understood what was going on.”

The frustrations were predictable: relationship managers who rotated every six months, compliance teams that cited policy without explanation, and a creeping sense that his established, client-focused practice was too small to matter at the firms that were supposed to support it. As founder of The Wealth Plan Company, Haines had considered opening his own RIA and handling every piece of infrastructure himself. But he was clear-eyed about what that would  cost.

“I have the full capability of opening up an RIA today, but I don't think I could do it as efficiently as Strategic Blueprint at SFA Partners. By the time I pay for custodial relationships, archiving, compliance oversight — I'd have to be the compliance officer. And I don't want to do that. SFA does the things I don't want to do, for a price I can't do them for, and they do it very well. I've yet to find anything here that I wish was different.”
 
What Haines wanted wasn't more products or a bigger platform. He wanted access to people who could answer real questions — and the ability to reach them directly. He got that at SFA Partners.  “I can message people I know and within hours or 24 hours, we're communicating — I'm communicating with them, not with some bottom-level person that's got to get permission. That is the number one value I see in any firm I'm with.”

 Photo: James Willamor, licensed as CC BY-SA 2.0.