Dynasty Financial Partners drops its passive-referral strategy and hires a ex-HighTower talent to engineer proactivity

Dynasty Financial Partners hired Edward Friedman as its new director of strategic relationships. Put another way, the New York-based firm is no longer going to market to RIAs simply by answering inbound calls.

The outsourcer of all advisor software and services under one umbrella now has 24 employees, 20 firms in its network and 60 advisors who advise and oversee about $19 billion.

But most of that business resulted from an early slew of unsolicited referrals — an approach that president and chief executive Shirl Penney would no longer like to leave to chance. Friedman, in his newly created position, will be charged with entering Dynasty into a more fluid relationships with the big RIA custodians. See: What exactly is Dynasty Financial Partners and why is the Smith Barney execs’ startup gaining so much attention?.

“We’ve never make any outgoing calls — and our clients come mostly from referrals from custodians or direct inquiry,” Penney says. “Now we’ll be a little more proactive working with custodians.”

Been there

Friedman left Hightower Advisors, the big Chicago roll-up, in 2011. There, he was involved with bringing over 18 teams, including a heroic extraction in Watertown, NY in a blizzard. He was part of founding management there in 2008. See: HighTower veteran helps Morgan Stanley Smith Barney team break away upstate New York style.

After competing against Dynasty, Friedman is pleased to be joining his former foe.

“They have proven over and over that they provide the industry-leading platform for advisors seeking independence or to RIAs looking for a growth partner,” he says in a release. See: HighTower shifts into high gear with a three-team, $1.2 billion AUM in-three-weeks spree.

Dynasty works mostly with the big custodians and recently did one big deal with Pershing. See: Pershing, Dynasty and Envestnet gang-tackle Credit Suisse and jolt loose $1 billion duo.

It did a second biggie with Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services right after that. See: Dynasty Financial leads a second $1 billion-range team — now Fidelity RIA — out of Wall Street in as many weeks.

Asset-based hire

Friedman is expected to also take over certain duties relating to clients from Penney and Edward Swenson, chief operating officer of Dynasty, creating a practice-management program for advisors and implementing expense controls, vendor selection, organic and inorganic growth strategies, and succession planning.

Dynasty made a good hire in Friedman, according to David DeVoe, chief executive of DeVoe & Co.

“Ed will be an asset to Dynasty. His background is tailored for the role — few have a breadth of experience that includes managing wirehouse branches, consulting to RIAs, and helping advisors make the move to independence,” he says.