Industry News

Firm built on trust responds to the needs of its clients

Dedicated client service and getting to know clients at a deeply personal level has resulted in a steady stream of referrals that keep this firm growing

Lewis Altfest started Altfest Personal Wealth Management in 1983 with the goal of being a sort of Consumer Reports for financial planning.

He wasn’t seeking to offer industry reviews, but he wanted to build a firm based on trust, where clients were confident the advice its professionals offered on investments and planning was straightforward and unbiased.

That mission remains paramount, said Karen Altfest, who is principal adviser of the New York firm Mr. Altfest still heads. She’s also his wife.

“I love it when a client says, “Nobody ever asked me that,’” Ms. Altfest said. “It shows that we’re helping them think about new things.”

A STEP AHEAD

The firm’s professionals call clients to alert them to changes that may affect their planning, or with ideas in reaction to something that has occurred or will occur in the client’s life, she said.

The firm keeps tabs on client service and satisfaction with periodic surveys and regular informal discussions. The feedback results in changes, such as creation of a new tax program after clients said they wanted more information on how their planning could affect their tax burdens.

“If you don’t know what your clients think, you could live in your fool’s paradise and think all is going along well, and it may not be,” she said.

Dedicated client service and getting to know them at a deeply personal level has resulted in a steady stream of referrals that keep Altfest Personal Wealth Management growing. The firm has $1.2 billion in assets under management and about 600 clients.

Last October, Altfest Personal Wealth Management received an InvestmentNews Best Practices Award after being identified as one of the top performers among participants in the Financial Performance Study of Advisory Firms. Of the metrics studied, Altfest Personal Wealth Management ranked high in revenue per professional and pretax income per owner.

READY TO TRY NEW THINGS

The firm, which has teams of four to five people working with clients, also isn’t afraid to try new things. Most recently, it deployed an open work environment in its new office.

The office is configured so that the firm’s managers are in offices along the outside with large glass walls facing the inside of the office “so you can see what’s going on,” Ms. Altfest said. Pods are set up in the middle of the office where people who work together are clustered, and separate rooms are available for anyone who needs to have a private conversation.

The growing firm left behind office space with only two conference rooms because they seemed to be overbooked constantly. Now there are five meeting rooms of different sizes and configurations to meet everyone’s needs.

GOOD PLACE TO WORK

In addition to caring for clients, the firm extends special attention to its employees. It recently introduced a new kind of flex-time for some people, allowing someone to take time off one day to attend a school event and make it up another time when they can, Ms. Altfest explained.

Altfest Personal Wealth Management also supports employees seeking designations, including the certified financial planner mark, and sends them to industry conferences throughout the year.

The firm’s leaders are, at heart, planners, and they work hard to keep operations running smoothly, Ms. Altfest said.

“We may overthink a lot of things,” she said. “But things happen when you plan well for them to happen.”