Cultivating a corporate mien leads to profits for advisory firm

E. Jeffrey Roof says that a C-suite mentality is the key behind his financial advisory firm’s stellar profits.

“Registered investment advisory firms have often looked at themselves as practices,” he said, comparing financial advisers to private-practice lawyers. “When you have practices with practitioners, then everybody kind of does their own thing, and hopefully, at the end of day, it works out.”

That might be fine for an attorney, but it simply isn’t how Mr. Roof does business.

“We have always approached our firm in a corporate type of mode as opposed to a group of practitioners,” said Mr. Roof, president of Harrisburg, Pa.-based Roof Advisory Group Inc. “Every client is a client of the firm.”

It is a subtle twist, but one with unusual ramifications for the way clients interact with Roof Advisory Group. The firm’s clients have a primary relationship manager, as with any other firm, but they can also go to another adviser when that person is unavailable.

And clients take more-routine tasks such as filing updated beneficiary designation forms directly to administrative personnel, according to Mr. Roof.

ALL HANDS ON DECK

All seven of the firm’s employees work with clients, taking some measure of responsibility in developing new business and answering the questions of existing clients. The firm’s annual reviews with clients, for instance, are always conducted by at least two people.

And the firm makes what Mr. Roof described as disciplined use of its client relationship management software to keep track of everything.

Roof Advisory Group is the only firm to be ranked as a top performer in the InvestmentNews/Moss Adams Adviser Compensation and Staffing Study as well as the InvestmentNews Adviser Technology Study. It received high marks for profitability, revenue growth and owner income, as well as technology integration.

Mr. Roof’s attempt to develop firmwide relationships with his clients is part of a larger vision he has of a firm driven by a corporate approach: consistent processes, rigorous analyses and, perhaps most importantly, a plan for growth.

By making sure that clients build relationships across the firm, Roof Advisory ensures stability if there is staff turnover and as the firm continues to grow.

It is also a model that should make the firm more valuable when Mr. Roof retires, as it isn’t so closely aligned with his personality.

“DISCIPLINE’

“Our clients — they’ve been around the track. They’ve seen the schmoozers, they’ve seen the superstar salespeople,” he said, alluding to successful brokers.

“We’d rather hang our hats on the management, the discipline,” Mr. Roof said.

“From the very beginning and to this day, we are firm believers that ongoing growth is essential to a firm’s health, and particularly in this industry, because by definition, as clients get older, they’re going to be in most cases using more of their assets than what they are generating,” he said.

Without growth, “your firm will waste away,” Mr. Roof said.