MarketCounsel buys Beneficial Concepts Group with an eye toward calming smaller RIAs' compliance fears

In a move to counter what he calls “fear-mongering” about the increased regulatory burden on small RIAs, Brian Hamburger has deepened his law firm’s resources devoted to compliance with the purchase of Stockton, N.J.-based Beneficial Concepts Group LLC. The firm specializes in practice management and operational risk issues.

Hamburger, the founder of the Hamburger Law firm and MarketCounsel, is increasingly vocal about how large companies are using the new regulations stemming mostly from Dodd-Frank financial reform to convince RIAs to fold up their independent practices or outsource major parts of them. He sees a tendency on the part of pundits, media (RIABiz did not escape his criticism) to overstate the risks of out-of-control regulation and says that the swell of attention to the issue is giving companies that can create big, supposedly safe regulatory umbrellas too much credibility.

See: See: New Fidelity survey shows advisors are running scared about compliance costs.

Noise-canceling

“My criticism of our industry is that they always scare the heck out of their advisors” with a ton of static, he says. “We need to be the noise-canceling headsets.”

Brian Hamburger: My criticism of our
industry is that they always scare
the heck out of their advisors.

RIAs are worried about the regulatory environment – and clearly there are plenty of companies looking to capitalize on the more complex regulatory environment. Whether increased regulation becomes so much of a burden for small RIAs that it forces some out of business remains to be seen.

See: Cambridge, Commonwealth see reverse breakaways due to compliance fears and After a decade of unsteady results, SEI Investments is attracting financial advisors again.

Combat fears

Hamburger says he can combat the fears by addressing practice management and compliance issues with a single solution. “By enveloping the core strengths of Beneficial Concepts Group, MarketCounsel will accelerate its efforts to develop and implement operational best practices,” the company says in a statement.

With the acquisition, MarketCounsel now has 35 employees. A little more than a year ago, Hamburger Law Firm purchased Kupfer & Associates, with offices in Brooklyn and Manhattan, also with practice management in mind. The company does corporate law including intellectual property, commercial dispute resolution and tax-related matters. Those offices have been consolidated to Englewood.

Gary D. Davis Jr., the founder of Beneficial Concepts Group, is joining MarketCounsel as vice president, practice management.

“Our goal is to educate and drive the industry towards approaching compliance as a key part of the overall operations of the firm, not something to be addressed in a silo,” he said in a release.

Speaking highly

Hamburger says that Davis’ presence in the market convinced him to seek a merger. “Advisors spoke so highly of him and we just kept running in to him.”

Prior to founding Beneficial Concepts Group in 2007, Mr. Davis managed the operations, compliance and investment departments at two financial planning and investment advisory firms.

He has also managed operations for a broker/dealer and has served as a financial planning analyst. He received a Masters in accounting and financial management from the Keller Graduate School of Management, and holds a Bachelor of Science in Financial Planning from Purdue University.