High Net Worth Clients Find a Home at Stifel

The attentive service of a neighborhood bank with Wall Street capabilities.

In today’s competitive investment landscape, financial advisors and the firms they work with must constantly adapt in order to best serve high net worth clients. As a period of leveling off sets in following decades of explosive industry growth, advisors must be relentlessly innovative in order to build successful businesses with the potential for expansion.

At Stifel, our advisors work with clients of all financial backgrounds to create – and strive to exceed – ambitious goals. In particular, the firm provides the freedom and resources necessary for financial advisors to attract and retain clients even in the highest income brackets.

We understand high net worth individuals need financial advisors who can guide them through the complexities of the current investment arena, tailoring strategies to their unique circumstances. It’s equally important that our advisors communicate transparently and efficiently, and successfully anticipate emerging trends and growth opportunities.  

A Different Kind of Business

Stifel is a growth-focused organization, and we work with high net worth clients with an eye toward long-term relationships and development. Instead of offering unnecessary services that don’t fit a client’s individual needs, we work collaboratively to seek fiscally sound solutions to the unique set of challenges and circumstances that high net worth individuals face.

“High net worth clients are extremely cautious when selecting a financial advisor, and rightly so,” says Josh Bledsoe, Managing Director/Investments. “They’re very conscious of proprietary products and self-dealing.  As a place that’s built a platform that is about serving clients and not selling products, I think we’re at an advantage over our competition.”

Advisors won’t find a top-heavy bureaucracy at Stifel, nor are our financial advisors motivated by complex commission structures that reduce the client to a number. “Compensation is an outcome, not a driver,” says Bledsoe.  

While our competitors are sometimes confined by these rigid internal structures, our advisors are free to think creatively and remain focused on their top priority: the client.

A Reputation for Service

Stifel offers an alternative for clients who are unimpressed by the impersonal and often unnecessarily costly services offered elsewhere. Instead, we work tirelessly to provide a more personalized experience facilitated by advisors who possess the same skills and resources as their counterparts in the field.  

“There's nothing that you can't do here at Stifel,” says Bledsoe.  “We’re not tarnished by the legacy issues that some major brands have.  We have a reputation for being client-focused, and we’re extremely protective of that.”

Experience Matters

Experience breeds wisdom. At Stifel, our seasoned advisors have the insight necessary to offer sage, long-term advice to high net worth clients looking to grow over time.  Our advisors come from many of the biggest banks in the industry, and specifically chose Stifel as the place to continue growing their business as our industry evolves.  

Indeed, the forces and trends that built the financial industry from the ground up have shifted dramatically in recent years, and while markets may be on the rise today, our financial advisors are equipped to help guide high net worth clients through the industry’s long-term evolution, anticipate disruptions, and seek to capitalize on new unexpected opportunities for growth.

Stifel’s infrastructure is designed in a way that gives our financial advisors the freedom they need to serve high net worth clients efficiently – a model that Bledsoe says is “built for an industry-wide shift that’s already underway.”

Rather than be inhibited by bureaucratic hoops and loopholes that drive up both costs for clients and overhead for advisors, Stifel takes a different approach. Here, we encourage our advisors to remain flexible, develop creative ways to diversify client risk, and provide sophisticated services that exceed client expectations.