InvestmentNews teams with Ensemble Practice on research

As the publisher of InvestmentNews, I consistently look for business opportunities that will afford us the ability to provide our financial adviser readers with relevant and timely data to help them build and improve their practices. That is why InvestmentNews jumped at the opportunity to form a strategic research partnership with The Ensemble Practice, an industry-leading business consulting firm. The firm is headed by Philip Palaveev, a practice management expert and industry thought leader. In our first official collaboration, InvestmentNews will team with Ensemble on the 2013 InvestmentNews/Moss Adams Adviser Compensation and Staffing Study. We also will work with Ensemble on another important benchmarking study, the InvestmentNews/Moss Adams Financial Performance Study of Advisory Firms. Mr. Palaveev was one of the original Moss Adams LLP team members to work on these benchmark studies, making him an invaluable resource for the InvestmentNews team. In discussing the potential partnership, he and I felt a connection, because when we looked at the future of the financial advisory industry, we both saw a thriving and successful community of firms that deliver tremendous value to their clients and make sound management decisions to create rewards and opportunities for their owners and employees. We think that the future leaders of the industry need the right information to continue to guide their respective businesses to success. To that point, we see it as our mission to supply that relevant information to the industry. With this year's compensation study, InvestmentNews and The Ensemble Practice will focus on providing a broader spectrum of advisers with the ability to use and benefit from the findings that many top advisers use to make critical personnel decisions. In addition to making the survey easier to complete, InvestmentNews will develop digital tools that extrapolate the core data and findings from the compensation and staffing research, allowing for more seamless and customized access to the data.  Providing rich data is paramount for Mr. Palaveev. “The value of benchmarking does not lie in the simple comparison of mechanical numbers but rather in the ability to glean insight from the experience of the industry,” he said. He noted that the study will address key areas of interest for advisory firms. For instance, it will help firms evaluate if they are growing faster than their competitors. It will also address some key questions that firm owners should be asking themselves: When is it time to hire another adviser? Are our teams at capacity or are we being inefficient? Should we be investing more in technology? InvestmentNews and The Ensemble Practice will make some exciting changes to our 2013 benchmarking study focused on key compensation and staffing issues. We trust that these changes will provide firms that have already participated in the Moss Adam studies with additional benefits. For those firms that haven't taken part in the study, now is the time to participate. We understand your needs as business owners and financial advisory professionals. Taking part in the study will help you make solid business decisions. We look forward to working with you and delivering key data.