Firm: Merit Financial Advisors
Name: Rick Kent
Location: Alpharetta, GA
Team Custodied Assets: $7.9 billion
Forbes Rankings: America’s Top RIA Firms, America’s Top Wealth Advisors, Best-In-State Wealth Advisors
Background: Rick Kent grew up in Southern Indiana, right across the river from Louisville, Kentucky. After attending Indiana University Southeast, he became an entrepreneur, using his proclivity for sales and people skills to start multiple companies. It wasn’t until his mid-40s that he dived into the world of financial services and got licensed in 1998. “I knew I wanted to become a financial advisor so I went to a lot of conferences, where it seemed like most successful ones had a niche specialty or market,” recalls Kent. While working nearly ten years at Securities America, he became an expert on benefits packages. “Most people didn’t understand retirement plans or pensions—I saw this as my opportunity to help clients,” he says. By 2007, Kent set up his own RIA, eventually bringing it under the umbrella of LPL Financial in 2010. He made nine total acquisitions to build his business between 2012 to 2020, then after bringing in new partners in 2021, the firm has since ramped up M&A deals again. It made nearly 20 deals in the last two years and now has 225 employees.
Competitive Edge: Kent describes building up his business over the years by focusing on niche markets and accumulating different areas of expertise one by one when making acquisitions. For example, he would acquire firms with different areas of focus, such as retirement planning or teams who predominantly worked with widows or business owners. “Over the years, that niche marketing really worked—it’s a big part of our strategy and today our client base is all over the map,” says Kent. “It’s very important to run a business with deep relationships—we do this to enrich the lives of those we serve, and we believe that starts with our team.”
Investment Philosophy/Strategy: “We build model portfolios with different sleeves, with everything from a core equity and fixed income portfolio to more opportunistic equity positions and higher yielding fixed income,” says Kent. “This allows for many opportunities to customize each client’s portfolio.” He also points out that it’s important to be proactive about getting regular updates out to clients: One such method of doing so is the team’s podcast, Merit Market Update, which talks about market topics like the Federal Reserve at least once a month. “When uncertainty goes up, clients love hearing from us—it’s the perfect time to communicate more because they have a lot of questions and want to know we’re on top of things,” he says. “An advisor can be most valuable during turbulent times.”
Investment Outlook: Kent and his team are expecting market volatility to continue, advising that clients and advisors should get used to this being “the new normal.” As Merit President Kay Lynn Mayhue describes, “we don’t see things quickly changing one way or another when it comes to interest rates.” The team instead focuses on trying to keep clients focused on their long term financial plan: “relationships are at the core of what we do—our team is very heavy on contact with clients.”
Lessons Learned: “A lot of advisors growing their business don’t necessarily want to invest back into human capital and end up trying to do too much themselves,” says Kent. He recalls similarly struggling with that in the early days of running his own independent firm, but once he was able to successfully delegate, that allowed him to spend far more time actually sitting down with clients. “It’s a great business but it’s going to take a team effort—you need to ask yourself tough questions about priorities and who you need.”
Best Advice: “I find myself telling clients all the time, during good markets everyone is happy, but in tough markets there will always be a lot of questions,” says Kent. “Stick to your long-term goals and remember the strategies we have already put in place to achieve them.” He likes to use historical and other market data to remind clients that short term fluctuations won’t impact their portfolios, especially when those were already built to weather storms in the first place. Kent uses an analogy to describe his interactions with clients in these scenarios: “Some people who don’t fly a lot get nervous in turbulence and feel uncomfortable, but when you look at the flight attendant, they are totally calm, no big deal,” he says. “It’s the same thing when an advisor talks to their clients—I tell them why they shouldn’t be worried.”
Favorite Hobby: Kent is a big fan of boats: Every year, he and a group of friends rent a sailboat in the Caribbean and explore different islands. He also owns a power boat down in Florida which he loves to take for excursions around the South.
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