Stifel Financial Advisors Embrace the Intellectual Challenge

While any financial advisor can sell pre-packaged finance products, it takes empathy, intuition, and intelligence to offer financial advice specifically tailored to the needs of each individual client.

Successful financial advisors must possess a special set of skills — the ability to operate under immense pressure, maintaining your clients’ trust in the face of uncertain and volatile markets, and the flexibility to meet clients’ ever-changing needs. At Stifel, we’re dedicated to finding and empowering these financial advisors to bring truly valuable guidance to their clients.

We seek out talented advisors who display an aptitude for creative problem-solving and relationship management — and we do everything we can to provide a flexible, hands-off environment in which they can thrive, equipped with the resources necessary to serve their clients’ needs.

Clearly, Stifel doesn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach, and our advisors pride themselves on forging a unique path to success for each client. We talked to Holly Baroway, John Bledsoe, Liz Naquin Borger, and Debbie Weiner, a few of Stifel’s most successful advisors, about how they’ve embraced the intellectual challenge of personalized financial consulting in the 21st century.

Steering Clients Through Volatile Markets

The work of a financial advisor has changed in many ways over the years, but the profession is defined by one fundamental constant: Predicting market changes is hard. When your success depends on frequently fluctuating prices and exchanges, it’s no easy task to earn and maintain the trust of your clients. So how do our financial advisors manage to steer clients through these volatile markets?

Debbie Weiner, Senior Vice President/Investments, says a huge part of providing effective financial guidance is simply being there to listen to clients. “One of the reasons that everybody's not using a robo advisor is because people really, really want to talk to somebody when they're scared,” she explains. “You can’t control when markets go down, but by staying calm and reassuring your clients instead of falling apart, you can prevent further damage from being done. Simply listening when people are worried or concerned does a lot to build trust, and keeps people from making hasty decisions.”

But advisors are investors too, and are therefore not immune to the worries of the markets. “I know that sometimes I can be my own worst enemy, so I have to turn off CNBC and focus on the long-term instead,” explains Holly Baroway, Senior Vice President/Investments.

“I started my career in the industry just before the crash of 2001-2002, then came 9/11, and then 2008-2009. These periods in the market really teach us where our value lies, how to empathize with our clients, and have patience to ride it out.”

Baroway says her constant goal is to focus on the plan that the client has in place for the long-term. “We can’t control the market, so I have to stay concentrated on what I can control. We have to continuously adapt to changing markets, client expectations, and changes to our industry in general.”

Reputation Management

Along with rapid booms and busts, another problem that plagues financials services professionals is the scandals that can undermine trust in institutions. The economy may have recovered from the 2008 recession, but consumer confidence in banks and other finance firms has been slower to bounce back. While it seems that news of shady dealings at bigger firms breaks nearly every day, Stifel remains committed to maintaining its reputation as a firm dedicated to people — not just profits — for more than 125 years.

“Most advisors will tell you the biggest hurdles they’ve had to overcome are those periods during which markets are falling and people are losing money left and right,” says Managing Director/Investments Josh Bledsoe. “Another problem is the stigma that people in our industry face when these scandals break. Even when there’s a negative story that has nothing to do with you or your clients’ investments, you’ve got to do everything you can to assuage their concerns about it.”

Liz Naquin Borger, Senior Vice President/Investments, argues that as long as you maintain a laser focus on the client’s needs, you’ll maintain their trust. “The first and foremost rule in this business is to never take your eyes off the client,” she says. “It's the client's needs that need to be met, and it's the client situation that you need to be thinking about — not your own.”

“Stifel succeeds because it hires financial advisors who share those values,” she adds. “The emphasis is on building long-term relationships with clients — not just meeting the corporate bottom line.”

Complex Clients With Complex Needs

Being a financial advisor demands many skills, but at Stifel, we believe that the most important among them is the ability to understand and appeal to each client’s individual needs. This takes more than just a firm handshake and a friendly demeanor: advisors must work to understand the often complex and unfamiliar situations in which clients find themselves, and tailor their advice accordingly.

“One of the biggest challenges I ever faced as an advisor was trying to serve the individual needs of clients from within a huge, bureaucratic institution,” Borger recalls. “The problem is that many of these firms don’t always see their clients as people, but sometimes as financial liabilities instead. It’s refreshing to be at a firm like Stifel, where providing us with the support and resources we need to serve our clients’ needs is priority number one.”

Debbie Weiner echoes Borger’s sentiment, explaining that Stifel’s flexible approach to managing its financial advisors allows her to work more effectively towards the success of her clients: “You have access to the entire suite of products that the firm offers, and then it's up to you to run your own business the way you want to run it.”

As she succinctly puts it, “The $320 million I manage today didn’t just appear overnight. You have to work hard, be creative, and water your flowers all the time.”