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How much assets do you think you could manage for friends and family?
Starting off in the low seven figures and working up (hopefully to open to more than just F&F).
It depends on what income you are replacing. If you can get to $15MM in assets and charge 1%, you can take home around $100k after expenses. If you can raise $100MM in assets, you can take home around $800k.
If you have people willing to put money with you right away, it might be worth doing a training program at Raymond James, Merrill, UBS, or Morgan Stanley. They will give you a salary for a few years. Use their brand name to build up a book, then take your clients and join or start an RIA.
Let me know if you have any questions. I have spent my career in the RIA space and have experience with the wirehouses.
That is great insight! I have been thinking about that scalability and it seems feasible for my situation. Thank you for the great info, I will for sure shoot you a ping at some point if I run into more questions.
For an older guy like myself pivoting careers would you recommend opening a RIA myself or trying to join a firm? Thanks
The topic has come up many times on WSO. If you plan on charging fees for your services, it isn't practical, unless your F&F are ultra high net worth, in which case you'd be running a family office. If you aren't planning on charging for your services, you can give them investment advice on a non-discretionary basis, if necessary telling them how to execute trades in their own accounts. Liability would still be a major concern. As a rule, it's unwise to assume liability without being paid for it.
I learned the hard way about the risks of managing money for relatives.
Thank you! I am planning on starting it out as just F&F and if I build a track record and it seems feasible I would like to turn it into something bigger. I will be charging a flat fee across the board for everyone just to limit any headaches if I end up going for this. What kind of things did you run into with something like this?
I agree that assets are crucial here because the start up costs can be substantial. With that said, I am not sure that this company would legally qualify as a family office. A family office situation has a very specific definition under federal law and if it met that definition, the company would not have to register. To qualify, all the clients have to be family members and own the business. In addition the company, can not hold itself out to the public as an investment adviser.
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