Tim McAfee, co-founder and CEO of the independent brokerage and financial services firm J.P. Turner and Co., admits his industry has a black eye and current market conditions are hurting the firm's bottom line.
"There's not a broker in the industry that can say the amount of revenue he is generating right now is not lower than it was a year ago," McAfee said.
Yet, he's optimistic, arguing that the long-term outcome of current market conditions should benefit his company. For one thing, he said, consumers are hungrier than ever for help managing their finances.
"People are starved for information because they have lost money, and unfortunately a lot of brokers out there aren't being proactive about letting their clients know what is going on," McAfee said. "For our brokers, from a business-building standpoint, our opinion is that the next two years are probably two of the best years that we will have in our careers."
Also, he said, recruiting at J.P. Turner is "though the roof." Brokers at big firms are looking for a different kind of company, and they typically bring between 70 percent and 100 percent of their clients with them, he said.
Headquartered in Buckhead, J.P. Turner has 160 branches with 535 people nationwide.
Q: Can you talk about your early career and what led you to start your own firm?
A: I started out like most brokers with no clients, a big bunch of leads and a telephone on my desk. I built my clientele base through cold calling.
Q: And where were you?
A: My first firm was called Stuart-James. I worked at that firm and then they sold out to another firm and I continued to work at that firm too until I got to a point where I saw that for me, regardless of what firm it was, you seemed to be somewhat limited in your scope working at most traditional brokerage firms. My now-partner, Bill Mello, and I decided to go independent back in 1993. We saw, after talking to independent firms, an opportunity to offer our clients whatever kind of products were in their best interest, wherever they were coming from, instead of the products of the firm where we were.
Q: So was that the main motivation, you wanted to be able to offer a more diverse range of products?
A: That was the prime motivation, being able to offer all those things to our clients. Also, Bill and I had decided at that point we wanted to build our own firm. I had been in management at the firms where I was. I had built large branch offices. Bill and I were at a point where we wanted to take our careers to the next level, to build our own brokerage business.
Q: Have your broadened your services since you opened?
A: As the market has changed, we have fortunately remained nimble enough to be able to change with it and to pursue what we thought were the best opportunities for our clients. That's including getting into a lot of different business lines, including the managed money line of business, where you are hiring professional money managers to run clients' monies, including looking at real estate investment trusts, which are not residential real estate but commercial real estate trusts. We've looked at oil and gas investments for those investors who are looking to offset some income and have long-term investments. We've also looked at different mutual funds, as well as the annuity products, which I have to tell you, in this marketplace, we have had some clients we have absolutely done a tremendous job for with annuities. They would have a lot less retirement income right now than they do without those annuities.
Q: How is the business different than when you started?
A: One of the things our brokers do today to build their business — as opposed to the old days when cold calling was pretty much the only way to do it — is a number of our offices do educational seminars for investors. They put on a free dinner and, while people are eating, they talk about the different investment products and how they fit into a person's portfolio. Everyone goes away with a full belly and some new information.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
