{"id":22190,"date":"2024-07-19T21:41:35","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T21:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thinkadvisor.com\/2024\/07\/19\/mega-rias-will-grow-to-rival-wirehouses-in-next-decade-mariners-bicknell\/"},"modified":"2024-07-19T21:41:35","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T21:41:35","slug":"mega-rias-will-grow-to-rival-wirehouses-in-next-decade-mariners-bicknell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2024\/07\/19\/mega-rias-will-grow-to-rival-wirehouses-in-next-decade-mariners-bicknell\/","title":{"rendered":"Mega-RIAs Will Grow to Rival Wirehouses in Next Decade: Mariner’s Bicknell"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The number of RIAs has grown rapidly in the past several years, but none has become as vast as a sprawling wirehouse. Not yet.<\/p>\n

Marty Bicknell offers an authoritative prediction.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn five to 10 years, there will be a handful of truly large independent RIAs that can rival the size of the wirehouses,\u201d Bicknell, CEO and president of Mariner Wealth Advisors, tells ThinkAdvisor in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good bet that Mariner, fourth on Barron\u2019s list of top RIAs, could be one of those.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Overland Park, Kansas-based firm, founded in 2006, has grown at a fast clip \u2014 it has 110 locations nationwide and now advises on a total of $230 billion in assets. Its 1,800 financial advisors include employees and independent contractors. <\/span><\/p>\n

Inorganic growth has been a significant key to its success. To date, Mariner has made 55 acquisitions, the most recent of which, a combination of institutional consultants AndCo Consultants and Fourth Street Performance Partners, closed in April. <\/span>The deal kicked off the firm\u2019s Mariner Institutional brand and brought in $104 billion in assets under advisement. <\/span><\/p>\n

Other brands include Mariner Ultra, for ultra-high-net-worth clients, and Mariner Workplace, for business owners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bicknell argues that it\u2019s critical for advisors to offer a variety of additional services, and Mariner itself has 125 tax professionals preparing clients\u2019 income tax returns. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have all the bases covered,\u201d Bicknell says.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the interview, Bicknell, who spent 16 years with A.G. Edwards before founding Mariner, also talks about the challenge of working with ultra-high-net-worth clients and closely held family businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are highlights of our conversation:<\/span><\/p>\n

THINKADVISOR: What has been Mariner\u2019s chief way of growing?<\/b><\/p>\n

MARTY BICKNELL:<\/b> We grow organically, but we also grow through acquisitions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Are you making more of a push to step up inorganic growth?<\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a continuing effort. We made our first acquisition in 2012 and have done 55 in total. The last one [closed] in April 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll be announcing another one at the end of July or in early August.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the biggest challenges for RIA firms today?<\/b><\/p>\n

The main challenge for most firms is talent: advisors, non-advisors, leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are more firms in the registered investment advisory space that are growing, but [the field] is very fragmented. Most firms are at $1 billion or smaller.<\/span><\/p>\n

The average firms that are growing are having trouble growing beyond the founders and bringing other leadership into the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

To what extent does Mariner have an active recruiting program?<\/b><\/p>\n

We have a recruiting team that\u2019s fully dedicated to advisor recruiting and another team that\u2019s dedicated to non-advisors.<\/span><\/p>\n

What differentiates Mariner from other top RIAs?<\/b><\/p>\n

We have some of the most talented advisors in the industry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our organic growth is a differentiator, and it helps attract advisors to the firm. As they grow, we can provide more opportunities for them to serve more and more clients. <\/span><\/p>\n

Our expanded services is one of our differentiators. Advisors are coming to us because of them. We have all the bases covered.<\/span><\/p>\n

We call our advisors \u201cadvisors to our advisors.\u201d If an advisor needs help taking a client through the sale of a company or estate planning, for example, they can advise them on how to best serve the client.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s a significant reason for an advisor joining your firm rather than a wirehouse?<\/b><\/p>\n

The main reason is our ability to have services in-house that surround them in order to elevate their value proposition and the client experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tell me about your firm\u2019s breadth of services.<\/b><\/p>\n

We\u2019re expanding from just investments into tax services, trust services, insurance and others. <\/span><\/p>\n

Demand from clients is driving many firms to add services. It\u2019s a great opportunity to differentiate themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The number of RIAs has grown rapidly in the past several years, but none has become as vast as a sprawling wirehouse. Not yet. Marty Bicknell offers an authoritative prediction. \u201cIn five to 10...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[1],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/mega-rias-will-grow-to-rival-wirehouses-in-next-decade-mariners-bicknell.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}