At Siller & Cohen, an independent family wealth advisory firm in Rye Brook, the founding principals and their nine-member staff follow this golden rule: “Serve the client”™s needs first, last and always.”
“It”™s a mantra for us,” said Randy P. Siller, a nonpracticing CPA and certified investment management analyst who founded the firm with Jeffrey S. Cohen, a certified financial planner, in 1988. “Do that and everything will take care of itself.”
That service-first approach seems to have worked in financial earnings for both the firm at 800 Westchester Ave. and its clients. Siller & Cohen in 2004 was ranked among the top 30 adviser teams in America by Research Magazine. More prestigiously, Cohen recently was named by Barron”™s to its first Top 100 list of the nation”™s independent financial advisers. The inaugural list by the well-respected financial publication reflects the “increased stature” of the independent financial advising field, Barron”™s noted.
Rankings were based on each adviser”™s assets under management, revenues and profits generated and quality of service. Although investment performance was not a criterion in the rankings, clients won”™t be drawn to or stay with a poorly performing adviser, as Barron”™s noted in its report.
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Independent advisers
Cohen, who ranked 34th, was the only independent financial adviser in the lower Hudson Valley named to the list.
“Everybody and their brother wants to be on the list from a marketing perspective,” said Cohen, whose soft Southern accent traces back to Murfreesboro, Tenn., where his business schooling began in the family”™s home furniture store started by his grandfather.
Cohen previously was listed among Barron”™s annual ranking of Top 100 brokers. But as he noted, he is not a commission-earning broker but a fee-based adviser whose firm offers clients not only investment advice but a range of financial planning services.
“We”™re not just investment guys,” Cohen said. At Siller & Cohen, those additional services include estate planning; retirement or financial independence planning and business succession and business exit planning.
According to Tiburon Strategic Advisors, the independents”™ business model has paid off : their assets under management have increased by an annualized 18 percent over the past 11 years to $2.1 trillion. Brokerage houses increasingly have borrowed from that successful business model.
Meanwhile, the number of fee-only financial advisory firms, which typically charge clients about 1 percent a year, has grown to nearly 20,000 firms, according to Tiburon, six times more than their number 20 years ago, when Siller and Cohen launched their business.
“The accumulation of wealth is really what it”™s all about,” Cohen said of the growth of their financial field.
“There”™s a lot more wealth around now and people feel the need to protect it,” said Siller.
“Very wealthy clients like independent advisers” and the coordinated planning they provide, Cohen said.
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”˜Follow-up maniacs”™
At the Rye Brook firm, which has “a couple of hundred” clients by Siller”™s estimate, the typical net worth of customers is in the $10 million to $100 million range, according to the investment industry consultant who compiled the Barron”™s Top 100 Â list. The firm manages $850 million in assets, Barron”™s reported, though the partners said that investment figure does not include other individual areas of financial planning for which some clients come to them for advice.
“Basically what we do is holistic, comprehensive planning for high-net-worth individuals and closely held business owners,” Cohen said.
“A lot of people in the real estate business,” said Siller.
“We”™re a different breed than most people,” Cohen said. “I don”™t know too many firms that are built like we are.”
“We”™re a one-stop shop for somebody who wants to deal with the whole picture,” Siller said. “We”™re not walking your dog for you. We”™re not going to pay your bills.” But applying computer-driven methods of financial analysis, the firm will chart the long-range investment and lifestyle spending options and associated risks for a client.
Siller, the more demonstrative salesman of the complementary partners, said they function as the client”™s “quarterback” for what can be an uncoordinated and far-flung team of several financial advisers. “We take it together and then we fill all kinds of gaps” that result from different advisers going in different directions, he said. The firm then takes “the current planning that your advisers are doing to a higher level because we do very sophisticated planning.”
“We”™ve built this reputation of being very sophisticated, very thorough and what they like to call ”˜follow-up maniacs,”™” Siller said. “We”™re relentless. We”™re constantly all over the law firms and accountants to get it done, get it done, get it done.”
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The huge issues
Though the firm is independent, it is affiliated with Lincoln Financial Advisor Corp., which primarily provides regulatory compliance oversight, Siller said.
“It”™s a boutique firm with national backing,” he said. “We think it”™s the best way to do it and the most efficient way.”
Estate planning, said Cohen, “is a huge issue” for the Rye Brook firm”™s high-worth clients, about 90 percent of whom are from the tri-state area. “Another huge area is charity and their legacy.” In planning for that, the advisers often work with clients to develop a family mission statement, he said.
“The business succession planning is a monster area” for market growth for financial advisers, Cohen said. “If you look at the age of most business owners in this country, they”™re in their 50s” and considering options for turning over ownership of their businesses to family members, key employees or third parties. “There”™s a lot of opportunities for business owners,” he said.
Siller and Cohen this month were speakers at a Denver conference of their growing breed of independent financial advisers. One of their topics clearly drew on their working expertise in Westchester County: “Sophisticated estate planning for clients with $25 million and up.”
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