Johnathan Rickman | Blue Vault
The best leaders are those who pay it forward. Rather than simply set a good example, they are driven to help pave the way for others’ future success. Jimmy Lee is that kind of leader. After working almost 30 years as an independent contractor and self-employed financial advisor, Lee now heads a fast-growing financial firm with a mission to expand opportunities for budding advisors everywhere.
Lee heads The Wealth Consulting Group (WCG), a Las Vegas, NV-based firm with a history that dates back to 1995. Since 2014, WCG has enjoyed a hybrid relationship with leading independent broker-dealer LPL Financial, working with LPL’s broker/dealer and custodial services to maximize sophisticated solutions for WCG’s high and ultra-high net worth clients. WCG also utilizes Charles Schwab and Fidelity to custody assets for the firms clients.
WCG started as a sole proprietorship but has since evolved into a comprehensive wealth management company led by Lee, its Founder and CEO. WCG also has roots in Lee’s prior experience as a solo financial advisor, building on alliances he forged between different firms across different regional markets.
At the time of its founding as an RIA, WCG had about 30 advisors managing upwards of $900 million in assets across five separate branches. Today, WCG has over 129 advisors located in 44 branch offices in 13 states and manages more than $7.9 billion in client assets as of July 5, 2024. Its advisors are supported by an Advisor Resource Center that employs a CPA and CFP’s and an investment strategy committee headed by their CIO who is a CFA, CAIA, and CMT.
Helping Advisors Grow
WCG provides a range of financial services to individuals, families, and businesses, but stands apart for its focus on helping independent advisors grow their skills and influence.
“I wanted to have a platform that would allow advisors to transition as seamlessly as possible from a corporate RIA advisor with a broker-dealer to a hybrid firm like ours, and then maybe to RIA-only someday,” says Lee. He notes that most of WCG’s advisors are hybrid with LPL, but about 25% are RIA-only. Lee also supervises a few of LPL’s advisors.
“We try to align with advisors that value the services that we provide, and our mission is to help independent advisors grow their businesses and provide them with a succession plan for their businesses that can help optimize their enterprise value,” he adds. “We aim to take away a lot of the heavy lifting that independent advisors face and to help them with their client relationships by centralizing services such as portfolio management, financial planning, and insurance brokerage.”
He says when independent advisors align with WCG, they can potentially increase the value of their own enterprise, with the chance of monetizing that further down the road. “Our firm is set up to help independent advisors who may be knowledgeable in one area of financial planning or investments become a much more well-rounded wealth manager with a team of professionals that work for them on a daily basis.”
Alts and Sustainable Investing
Two investment areas that WCG specialize in are alternatives and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing. Lee says the firm got in the ESG game early and believes there are still many investors who care deeply about sustainability. “The broad nature of ESG is becoming much more defined around investment strategies,” he says. “I think it’s a very important option for advisors to have, specific to client needs. We’ve also created a strategy to target wealthy female investors that has a gender lens for security selection.”
He also says alternative investment strategies are “critical” to helping diversify investment portfolios for high-net-worth clients and for potentially generating excess returns via private equity vehicles. Lee says members of WCG’s investment strategy committee have decades of experience with alts and help provide the firm’s advisors with due diligence. The firm also leverages LPL for some of the alts strategies it vets and offers through its platform.
Lee says WCG seeks out institutional grade-like alts products that are well-managed by large sponsors. More specifically, he says the firm typically prefers “fresh-money private debt products” that involve loans to companies with lots of EBITDA. Private equity and public and private real estate offerings are also of interest to WCG leadership, he adds.
Lee first interacted with Blue Vault after being invited to speak at the 2024 Alts Summit in March, bringing his interest in alts full circle after more than two decades in the space.
Learn more about The Wealth Consulting Group and consider joining them in becoming a Blue Vault member today!
