|
|
 |
|
| Advisory Jungle |
Emerging from the Thicket
Suzanne McGee
01/01/2006
|
The Heideggers admit that while
switching brokers is a hassle that cost them and their personal attorney nearly
five months of work, the change has been for the better so far. “Now we know
that you have to ask all the questions to make sure you know your advisor and
that you can trust him to do what it is that you want,” Klaus says.
Former chairman and CEO of Shell Oil Co.
Need: A wealth advisor to manage an increasingly complex portfolio from a
geographic distance.
Strategy: Seek out an upstart firm where his account
would be considered very large and important. Rather than relying on credentials
or an impressive client list, Miller looked for eager professionals who could
devote a significant part of their time to his affairs.
It has been more than a decade since Steve Miller moved his growing
investment account to Houston, Texas-based financial planners Deborah Stavis and
Mary Margolis, now co-owners of Stavis, Margolis Advisory Services.
Periodically, he will get pitches from advisory teams working at the private
banking divisions of Wall Street’s biggest firms. “I’ll look seriously at what
they offer, and I would consider switching again if I saw a reason to, but I
don’t,” Miller says. “It’s not the name of the firm, but who is working on your
account that matters, and if they aren’t good, it doesn’t matter how good the
firm is.”
 In 1992, when Miller shifted his investment accounts from two large
national brokerage firms to Stavis, Margolis, it was on the eve of his family’s
departure for what became a seven-year series of progressively senior management
appointments overseas. “It was clear that I needed someone who was going to
really care about how my portfolio was going to be managed, who could stand in
for us while we were overseas,” he says. That was even more important in the
days before email and the Internet, because Miller’s job involved spending as
much as two-thirds of the year on the road. “I simply would never have had the
time to handle personal financial matters.”
Looking back, Miller chuckles
when he recalls that he went on gut feelings when he hired Stavis and Margolis.
“They had no track record, or very little track record, at that point—it’s a
hell of a way to choose your financial advisor. But because they were starting
out, they were able to give clients the kind of individual attention I realized
I couldn’t get from the brokerages,” he says. “If I had relied heavily on formal
credentials, I might never have hired them.” His gamble paid off: Within a few
years, Miller had become a managing director of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, and
he called on Stavis and Margolis to address a range of complex financial issues
that resulted from his promotion. “Income was flowing in from multiple
countries, and the benefit plans were different. Suddenly both my asset and my
tax situation became even more complicated than that of an ordinary expat,”
Miller says. On one occasion, he recalls, his two advisors sat down in a room
with 16 different Shell tax advisors from various jurisdictions to thrash out a
complex tax issue.
| “It’s not the name of the firm, but who is working on your account that
matters. And if they aren’t good, it doesn’t matter how good the firm
is.”–Steve Miller |
In his search for new financial planners, Miller looked
specifically for experts who had the skills necessary to manage his portfolio
and his range of financial issues as those grew. Stavis and Margolis proved
their mettle by developing a plan that included a variety of assets and
retirement benefits. But they won the job by being able to show Miller that they
could devote enough attention to his needs to serve as his de facto personal
CFOs. Three years ago, Miller retired from Shell, and now serves on the board of
Reliant Energy, as well as several nonprofit boards. He also chairs the board of
trustees at the University of Illinois. Now that his portfolio is far larger and
he is being actively wooed as a potential elite client by other private banks,
Miller says there is no reason for him to switch again. “Their performance is
superior and so is the sense that I have that they have my interests at heart.”
Indeed, he has entrusted the firm with the management of assets in a foundation
he and his wife have established.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
