Kitces switches advisory firms

Buckingham Wealth Partners is increasing its nerd quotient by hiring Michael Kitces, the firm announced Thursday.

Mr. Kitces, well-known for his social media presence and his Nerd’s Eye View blog, had spent 17 years at Pinnacle Advisory Group, where he was a partner and director of wealth management. In his new role as head of planning strategy at Buckingham, he is tasked with helping “design and further enhance its evidence-based planning approach.”

Buckingham could also benefit from the association – Mr. Kitces’ blog draws about 250,000 readers per month, according to the firm.

Buckingham also hired Jeffrey Levine, previously CEO of BluePrint Wealth Alliance. He started March 2 as director of advanced planning at Buckingham, responsible for leading the firm’s financial planning strategies and providing education and support to its advisers. Mr. Levine is also a contributor to Nerd’s Eye View and the “lead financial planning nerd” for Kitces.com.

“We had a bit of an implicit conflict” in driving business to two different firms via that site, Mr. Kitces said. “I needed to make a change so we could align ourselves to be on the Kitces platform and have a common advisory firm on the other end.”

They saw joining Buckingham as a way to further focus on “evidence-based” financial planning, Mr. Kitces said. In addition to his duties as head of planning strategy, he will help Buckingham determine its corporate initiatives, the firm said in its announcement.

Mr. Levine’s partner at BluePrint, Patrick Kuster, also joined St. Louis, Mo.-based Buckingham as a wealth adviser. Mr. Kuster and Mr. Levine will serve as Buckingham’s new Long Island, N.Y., office.

“This is the headline talent news of the year,” Adam Birenbaum, Buckingham chairman and CEO, said in an interview. “To add Michael Kitces and Jeff Levine, who are the industry’s two premier financial planning talents, it’s an opportunity for us to enhance advisory capabilities in a way that we’ve never had before.”

The firm’s RIA unit, Buckingham Strategic Wealth, includes 140 advisers in 40 offices, according to the company. Its wealth management business, Buckingham Strategic Partners, has a staff of about 500 and provides services to “thousands of independent financial advisers” since its recent merger with Loring Ward, the company stated. That wealth management unit oversaw a total of about $50 billion in assets as of the end of 2019, according to the firm.

Mr. Kitces said he saw a match with Buckingham, as the firm was founded by CPAs and has focused on evidence-based investing.

“It’s just a dream scenario to have this ability – I get to spend part of my life working on the theoretical with Michael Kitces,” Mr. Levine said. “And on the other hand … put that [financial planning theory] into practice with Buckingham.”

Mr. Kitces will work remotely from his current location near Washington, D.C. He will not have individual clients at Buckingham, he said.

Along with his work on the website bearing his name, Mr. Kitces co-founded the XY Planning Network. His other ventures include AdvicePay, New Planner Recruiting, fpPathfinder and FA BeanCounters. He is also a regular contributor to InvestmentNews.

“We enjoyed 17 years of working with Michael,” said David Poulos, director of marketing at Pinnacle. “He’s always been a friend of the firm and will continue to be. We look forward to seeing him at the next conference.”