There are many options for someone looking to get into the financial services business, from behemoth wirehouses to small independent firms and everything in between. After recently leaving a regional broker-dealer to start my own firm, many people asked me a simple question…why?

While the question is simple, the answer is more nuanced. The more I think about it, the longer the list of reasons grows. It’s not personal, and it’s not business. It's both.

Business:

There’s just something special about building something of your own. When I was working through the branding exercises to help determine how I would present my firm, I tested several firm names but always came back to including my last name. For one, it’s a great last name. But more importantly, having my family name in the business name holds me accountable and is a constant reminder of why I decided to go independent to begin with. On the business side, there were several key drivers in my decision to start Vermillion Private Wealth.

1. Despite having the title “financial advisor,” I always felt more like a salesperson. It’s not that there is anything wrong with sales. I didn’t feel I could truly be myself. During our weekly meetings, the conversations always seemed to revolve around growing revenue. Even when discussing financial planning and helping our clients, the profit motive always seemed to be lurking, quietly driving the decisions. Don’t get me wrong, as a business owner, I have to be mindful of the bottom line, but I truly believe my best sales tool is satisfied clients. By not feeling the weight of quotas or anxiety of judgment, I can be myself and work with clients that I deem a good fit, not all comers, so I hit some arbitrary target.

2. Independence allows for flexibility to seek and implement the best tools available and not force my methods into pre-selected solutions provided to me. That flexibility extends beyond the technology. Now I can truly provide the best solutions, financial planning capabilities, and research I can acquire without waiting on layers of approval and permissions. I believe I will be able to provide superior service to my current and future clients.

3. I’ve had a passion for investing since I was a teenager, and my strength has been portfolio construction. Unfortunately, managing custom portfolios is often discouraged at larger firms as advisors are pushed to outsource investments to other managers, large funds, or internal products. Not only can I eliminate some of the added costs of outsourcing investments I can also be more transparent and create investment models I believe in.

4. Passion brings out the best in people. When I look at the world around me, I genuinely get excited about the innovations that will shape our future. The disruptive technologies that will upend the status quo contribute to economic growth, gains in productivity, increases in quality of life, and provide solutions to societal problems. Exciting fields like automation, robotics, genomics, software-as-a-service, and cloud computing will change how we live our day-to-day lives. These same technologies can provide excellent long-term investments and will make up the foundation of several model portfolios. Positioning my firm to bring innovation-based investment strategies to my clients energizes me and fuels my desire to put forth my best effort each day.

Personal:

The entrepreneurial force has always been alive and well in me, and to be honest, I always anticipated starting my own firm, but I expected that move to be at least a few years away. However, a couple of things happened to accelerate this timeline and compel me to take the plunge sooner:

1. First, the world was thrown a curveball when COVID-19 rocked our world in early 2020. The pandemic altered daily life for people around the country and world, a truly remarkable event that will mark the pages of history books for years and years to come. Like most people, I transitioned to working from home and quickly recognized how productive I could be as I transitioned to a predominantly virtual practice. I enjoyed having the flexibility to eat lunch with my family, take a break to walk around the neighborhood, and generally enjoy being home more often, all while still providing service to my clients.

2. On April 1st, 2020, my daughter Natalie Claire was born, marking the best April Fool’s Day ever! Watching Natalie grow and develop has been incredible. I immediately knew I had to structure my professional life to allow for the freedom to watch her grow for years to come.

The future is undoubtedly bright, and I’m incredibly excited for the opportunity to serve my clients in this new capacity. I’m ready to tackle this challenge and look forward to seeing the places it takes my family and me as I build VPW into a firm I’m proud to call my own.