Turn and face the change

For those who may not have heard, there have been a few changes at Carson Group in the past year or so.

Keeping score, Jamie Hopkins, the firm’s managing partner of wealth solutions, stepped down from the Bain Capital-backed RIA for family reasons last September. His departure came only three months after the exit of Nimesh Patel, who had joined as its first technology officer less than two years prior.

Fast forward to this past April and the arrival of Dani Fava as Carson Group’s chief strategy officer. Previously with Envestnet, Fava was tasked with identifying new growth opportunities and encouraging innovation at the Omaha, Nebraska-based wealth management firm.

Fava came alongside Heather Randolph Carter, who joined Carson Group as chief marketing officer following two decades with LPL Financial. Carter was most recently chief marketing and communication officer at LPL, overseeing advisor and client communications and directing its 2021 rebranding efforts.

Regarding the recent shuffling in Carson Group’s C-Suite, CEO Burt White, pictured above, commented, “Over the last 18 months I’ve worked with Ron to get this team to a spot that reflects the leadership that would take this firm to the next level, and that’s come with a few departures and some additions. But now we’ve got the team in place to really take it to the next level, and I couldn’t be more excited about what we have.”

Oh yeah, forgot about that! In the middle of all this managerial maneuvering, industry veteran Burt White assumed the CEO spot from founder Ron Carson this past April, moving up from chief strategy officer. Ron Carson, who legendarily launched his namesake firm in 1983 as a college student with nothing but a phone book (remember those?), in turn transitioned to chairman of the board.

Sorry for letting that last bit of information slip. But obviously there’s been a lot going on over at the $36 billion RIA, including a healthy string of partnership announcements and acquisitions.

THE LPL CONNECTION

Before digging into White’s plans for Carson Group’s future now that he’s officially in the top spot, it’s worth taking a quick look back at his own career narrative for a bit of guidance.    

Prior to joining Carson Group in April 2022, White spent almost 15 years at LPL Financial, rising to head of investments. Before that, he was a managing director and director of research at Wachovia Securities, which became Wells Fargo Advisors after the credit crisis of 2008 and 2009.

Upon joining LPL, White quickly became well known for his high-energy presentations before financial advisors at the firm’s various meetings throughout the year. In fact, White was such a fixture at the firm he became one of the few senior executives to remain at LPL after its initial public offering in 2010.  

In August 2021, however, White announced his “retirement” from LPL after a decade and a half of service.

About his departure from LPL, White reflected, “I truly didn't quit because I couldn't get myself to quit a company that I loved that much. I retired, and while that may sound like semantics to some, to me it reflected the fact that I’d completed more than I’d ever thought I would dream of doing in a single job.”

White’s tenure at LPL also overlapped for a period with that of a certain star performer named Ron Carson, whose firm Carson Wealth Management left LPL in late 2016 with $7.4 billion in client assets to join a broker-dealer under the umbrella of Cetera Financial Group.

“I had a front-row seat watching Carson Group be born. Ron birthed this company at LPL, and so I got to watch him really create that legacy,” said White. “There was a really close connection and admiration and mentorship, frankly, between Ron and me.”

PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER

That connection was rekindled in April 2022 after Ron Carson recruited White to join the Carson Group in the newly created role of chief strategy officer, a mere nine months since White had stepped down from LPL. According to White, it wasn’t a hard sell, even if it did come from perhaps the industry’s greatest salesman.

“I wanted to be a part of the firm that cuts across the grain, that innovates before others, thinks of the ideas – and a firm that others have followed and mimicked. So Ron didn’t have to sell me on anything. I didn't need any convincing, even as great a salesman he is,” said White.

Aside from rejoining Ron, White also saw in Carson Group the opportunity to repeat the amazing run he’d had at LPL, which was privately held when he joined and now sports a $16.5 billion market capitalization.

“What I see here at Carson is the same potential, the same opportunity that was very similar to LPL when I joined there and got to ride that wave,” said White, adding, “Few people get to catch this wave once. How lucky am I to catch it twice?”

A QUESTION OF TIMING

Still, the timing of White’s elevation to the CEO job in April of this year, as well as Ron Carson’s move to chairman of the board after four decades in the top spot, had some industry players wondering if the change was at all related to a lawsuit filed only a few weeks earlier in March by Carson Group’s former chief marketing officer Mary Kate Gulick. Gulick alleges she was retaliated against and ultimately fired for raising concerns about how the firm handled an alleged sexual assault by an employee at an industry conference.

White denies the lawsuit played a role in the firm’s C-Suite shuffle, saying the changes were already in the pipeline, as he had been acting as the firm’s “internal CEO” for more than a year at that point.

“As far as the CEO announcement, what drove that timing was the fact that we had already been transitioning for five quarters. I had taken over at the beginning of 2023 with every person reporting to me. So for five quarters, we had been essentially practicing with me as CEO,” said White.

And with all the new hires coming in, that's what drove the timing of the public announcement of the switch, according to White, and “absolutely nothing else.”

BACK TO THE FUTURE

No, the Carson Group’s Elvis is not leaving the building. White makes it quite clear that the firm’s ubiquitous founder is sticking around, continuing the job he started over 40 years ago even as he steps back from day-to-day management of the firm.

And while Carson Group may have originally been late to the M&A game that has enveloped the wealth-management industry thanks to private equity bankrolling RIA buyouts, White says it has more than caught up with its competitors over the past three years, even in the face of those many management changes.  

For example, Carson Group acquired three new locations – Hagerstown, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; and Johnson City, Tennessee – in May, totaling $840 million in assets. The locations were all under one firm led by Scott Ford, managing director, partner, and wealth advisor at Carson Wealth. Only a few months later, in August, Carson Group added Texas-based Shane Hall Financial and its $169 million in AUM to its advisory network of over 150 partner firms.

Both of those deals came in the wake of a strategic partnership with New England-based Fisher Financial Advisors in February, which enabled Carson Group to break into the East Coast market. And that came on top of last December’s mega-deal to bring over Hastings, Nebraska-based Oakeson Steiner Wealth & Retirement and its $1.2 billion in client assets from Resources Investment Advisors to Carson Group.

Nevertheless, it’s not about the deals or the dealmaking when it comes to Carson Group’s success, says White. And it never has been, going all the way back to the beginning.

“The origin story of almost every other firm is, ‘Let's go out, get money, buy practices.’ It’s about transactions,” said White. “Our origin story is completely different. Our origin story is an advisor in Nebraska that grew so big everyone wanted to join it, and it now has a national firm of advisors serving 50,000 households all across America. That’s our origin,” said White.