As University of Miami students and alumni cheer on the
Financial advisor Justin Heller launched Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based
Like the two Hurricane teams that each defeated the Indiana University Hoosiers on their way to the final 16 teams of the NCAA March Madness Tournament, Heller's team is working hard and making moves. A
"Over the last year, I really started to become intrigued by the independent space," Heller said in an interview. "I just thought that the flexibility to grow my practice and service my clients in a way that we find best was really attractive. I started to see the technology and the resources and realized that this can be done."
Representatives for Bank of America-owned Merrill, which unveiled plans
The length of time that advisors spend at Merrill and its wirehouse rivals often varies, with some, like Heller,
Liebman left Merrill two years ago, when his team managed about $700 billion in client assets and picked RIA platform provider Dynasty Financial Partners to provide technology, back-office operations services and other business needs. Now, even after a down year for stocks and bonds, the firm has reached $1.1 billion in client assets through organic growth and conversions of brokerage assets outside the firm to internal advisory accounts, Liebman said in an interview.
At this point, so many advisors have left the wirehouses to go independent that the phrase "the only thing I regret is I didn't do it sooner" has turned into something of a cliché, he said.
"We did it at the right time for us," Liebman said. "Everyone's got to find the right fit for them, and the right fit may just be staying where they are."
Heller began his financial career in 2016 with Merrill after graduating from Miami, where he studied finance while playing on the basketball team from 2010 to 2014. He joined as a walk-on player before head coach Jim Larrañaga awarded him a scholarship his senior year.
He cut down the nets as a member of the Hurricanes squad that won both the 2013 regular and postseason titles of the Atlantic Coast Conference — the first time in 39 years any team besides the Duke University Blue Devils or North Carolina Tar Heels had done that. The Hurricanes made the Sweet 16 that year, but lost in that round to the Marquette University Golden Eagles.
"It was truly one of the best years of my life," Heller said, recalling the times "traveling around the country with your best friends" and enjoying the confetti falling from the rafters after the conference tournament with teammates, coaches and family members on national TV.
He added that he's "super excited" for the Hurricanes squads "getting to experience that this year. Not everyone gets to do it."
A few years after he left Miami and joined Merrill, a one-time assistant with the Hurricanes who's now head coach of the George Washington University men's basketball team, Chris Caputo, connected Heller with Winn, who had recently graduated college after being a student manager and the head of scouting and analytics for Miami's team. Heller hired Winn to his team last year. As independent advisors, the team chose Charles Schwab to be their custodian.
The close personal connections and grueling schedules that permeate college athletics often serve advisors well when they
While in college, athletes also learn to juggle games, practices, workouts and other obligations with studying and attending classes, Heller noted. He's currently putting that experience into practice by selecting and integrating technology vendors while assisting clients through the transition from Merrill to his RIA and Schwab's platforms.
College athletics could really be considered "a full-time job," Heller said. "It definitely set me up for success. You see college athletes or former athletes have success in the business world because of it."
