Advisor Spotlight: Moss Adams looks to branding for its next $2 billion of growth in RIA assets

Name: Rebecca Pomering, CEO, Moss Adams Wealth Advisors

Location: Seattle

West Coast accounting firm Moss Adams has had an RIA since 2000, but the company threw its weight behind the business when it handed Rebecca Pomering the CEO job, in July 2008. Pomering brought a wealth of experience from her previous Moss Adams gig, where she was part of the industry’s premier consulting team. Her move came as Moss Adams dismantled its business dedicated to consulting and research for advisors. See: Will the real Moss Adams please stand up?.

Q: Moss Adams Wealth Advisors now has more than $1 billion of AUM. But getting there has been challenging, hasn’t it?

I joined our RIA in July of 2008 with these big visions of, “I’m going to grow this practice, hire a bunch of people, spend money on marketing and do acquisitions.” Within three months the market was in the gutter. I really spent the next two years focused on our business model.

Q: What lessons from your consulting background have paid off as you’ve led the business?

One of the most important lessons from the consulting world is having a really firm grasp on your business economics—not just your top and bottom line, but really understanding what drives your economics: Having a real good understanding of your pricing, product client mix, service model, and how that impacts your financial performance as a business. That was critical and the first thing my operations manger and I really had to wrap our arms around and understand in depth—where we were being productive and where we were not being efficient.

Another thing that was really important was knowing how to structure teams, how to motivate and reward behaviors when things start going well, but also how to structure compensation when the economy isn’t good, to reward behaviors that move your business forward.

How to support leadership development was important. We had nine partners when I joined, and I was able to really plug into that group. They are exceptional people, so it’s not like I did anything to make them better. I think helping them see the role they could play as business owners was kind of a new understanding to them. Enhancing our performance as business owners was something really important and exciting, and it drew us together.

The third translatable concept from the consulting practice was in strategic planning and refining our business strategy. Narrowing the target market, what we were going to deliver—there are so many ways an organization can differentiate itself. It was really narrowing that down to where we thought we could have the greatest impact for our clients.

We focused on building scale and efficiency, which we had to do quickly because of the economic environment. We merged with an excellent firm in San Diego to help us build scale in that market and to add a strong partner to our team. We also refined our investment approach to ensure we were being efficient and consistent in our delivery of advice. Strategically, that was a significant move – to have a “Moss Adams” way of approaching investments, customized to client needs, but always with a consistent underlying philosophy. We also put a lot more definition in place around the roles of our team members, which was a strategic move as well as a logistical one. We are known for exceptional client service – we defined the roles and career path more clearly to ensure we were delivering on that client experience AND progressing our advisors on their career path.

See: Moss Adams launches growth strategy with its first RIA acquisition in a decade.

Q: Now that you have reached $1 billion, what’s the next big challenge?

The next big growth hurdle we have in mind is $3 billion. But there are a lot of refinements we want to do along the way. One of them, and the reason I was hired into this job, is to help the wealth management division get better integrated within Moss Adams, and really have seamless delivery to business owners and wealthy families. We really want to get better integrated because the comprehensive service that we can deliver as part of Moss Adams makes us unique, and I’d like to enhance our reputation in our markets for being that kind of firm. We’re a very well-kept secret in a lot of markets.

Also, growing our team. In the first quarter of this year, we’ve hired, or are working on hiring, six people—which, for a team of 38, is a lot. But finding people in this industry is hard. Finding really good people who are going to be a fit for our business long-term, and developing them into future partners is a huge challenge for our industry, and one we’re very focused on.

Then there is increasing our brand recognition. Branding is one of the areas I thought I’d spend the first two years focused on. I wouldn’t say we’ve made progress. But we have an active p.r. campaign going on right now where we promote our experts. Moss Adams has a great brand in the Pacific Northwest. To be known as a truly unique professional services firm—that’s the piece of branding I’m really focused on. I don’t actually want to brand Moss Adams Wealth Advisors as a standalone. We’re a complete wealth management firm across the board.
See: Moss Adams launches growth strategy with its first RIA acquisition in a decade

Q: Early last year, you hired Fortigent to handle some of your investment research. I understand you are no longer working with them. What happened?

We had a great relationship with Fortigent, and they stepped in at a critical time, as we were reviewing staffing and investment strategies. We and Fortigent knew going in that this might be a short-term need for us. We were refining our investment strategy as a firm. Fortigent played a role on the research side as we redefined our core-and-satellite approach. See: Why Moss Adams signed a big contract with Fortigent.

Q: Are you concerned about brand confusion, with Investment News using the Moss Adams brand for its Investment News Moss Adams study?

I don’t think there’s any conflict there. The Moss Adams brand and the consulting work they do I think fits seamlessly together with that Investment News relationship because we’ve always used research to support our consulting practice, and that’s continuing with the Investment News relationship. Moss Adams is a very active partner with Investment News on that study and (both organizations) really do partner on that work.

There is the issue of an outside party, Investment News, but there have always been outside parties. We collaborate, but they actually do the research work. We needed help constructing and distributing the study, and Investment News is a great partner in that because of their reach and their reputation in the industry.

See: InvestmentNews shows it means business in the consulting business

Q: What for you has been biggest adjustment in this job from your last one?

As a consultant, the beautiful thing is that you get to zip in, give advice, and leave. Then you go to another client and do the same thing. I might have been working with a dozen companies at the same time; I loved the travel and the variety of clients I worked with, and it was a role I really, really enjoyed. But there were challenges to being a consultant as well—you act don’t get to stick around for implementation. When I took this job, I actually thought, I don’t know if I can actually focus on one project for more than a couple of months.

That’s been the biggest change and the biggest surprise, because I actually enjoy it: coming in, making changes and seeing the repercussion to those changes and what we need to change and shift to respond as economy and the environment change along the way. Seeing something through—this is the first time I’ve ever gotten to do that in the industry. It’s been personally satisfying to see this through—not that it’s done.