When Bill Koss and Bill Olinger met as University of Florida athletes, they were likely unaware that years later they would begin to change the course of the wealth management industry.
A reigning problem in the wealth management field is that advisors tend to enter retirement at the same time their clients are entering retirement. When it comes time for clients to retire and they are in need of assistance, their wealth managers are often retiring alongside them and are unable to give needed advice. Furthermore, as younger generations rise to take control of family assets, their family advisors are no longer involved. The clients are then forced to look for new wealth managers who are unfamiliar with their family’s history and situation.
Koss Olinger strives to avoid this problem. As a result, the wealth management firm exhibits a unique multi-generational structure. After Koss and Olinger established the business, they welcomed in a second generation of partners and advisors — and then a third. All of the generations work as a team in order to better serve the families they welcome in as clients.
Second generation managing partner Will Olinger described the purpose behind this team-based approach.
“Everyone in the organization knows the families that we’re working with and understands what they’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “So although something might happen to one of us, that’s not going to stop the direction or the ongoing things our firm is working on to keep our clients on the right track.”
The purpose goes far beyond just efficiency, however. Koss Olinger aims to take care of families, not just individual clients.
Shannon Hord, a third generation advisor, explained, “We’re here to help not only our clients but their families for generations to come. We’re building a foundation within our company to be able to do that, so there’s not a turnover — it’s not like every time a client comes in they are dealing with someone new.
Shannon Hord and Tim Roark
We truly care for our clients and we want to build those relationships, and we want those relationships to continue for years to come.”
Will Olinger likes to compare the firm’s structure to a law firm, where each client is a client of the entire firm, not an individual advisor. Although clients might meet with only two or three advisors, the whole Koss Olinger team plays a part in establishing a game plan for each client.
He illustrated the benefits of this structure: “It is truly unique because when you have that many years of experience and that many eyes looking at a situation, it gives a great advantage to the outcome of that family.”
In order to continue adding talent to the Koss Olinger team, the firm has set up a prolific internship program. The program welcomes top performing college students and immerses them in the world of wealth management with the idea that the best and brightest who are a fit with the Koss Olinger culture and values will later join the firm as advisors. Several of the current Koss Olinger advisors began as interns, including second generation advisor and partner, WJ Rossi, third generation advisor Shannon Hord and fellow third generation advisor Tim Roark. Hord and Roark explained that through their internship experiences, not only were they able to gain the skills to become effective advisors but they were also given an early feel for the goals and culture of Koss Olinger.
“We really knew what went on underneath the hood before providing service to clients and taking care of people,” Roark said.
Hord agreed that the experience gained as interns allowed them to be more effective advisors once they joined Koss Olinger.
“The team did a phenomenal job of getting us involved with everything and mentoring us so that we’re confident when we sit down with a client. Clients are confident when they sit down with us that we know what we’re talking about and that we’re giving good advice in that regard,” Hord said.
This consistency for clients is thanks partly to the multi-generational team, but it is also thanks to the unique size of Koss Olinger. Although the firm has been around for 47 years, it maintains the same integrity and level of service with which it began.
Based in Gainesville, Koss Olinger has clients in over 30 states.
“With technology, it’s very easy to have a client in California and there’s really no drop-off in the level of service that we can provide to them,” Roark said.
Thanks to the fact that the firm is privately owned, the team is able to set the bar high for the services they offer.
Kirk Klein, a second generation managing partner, pointed out: “The owners and partners of the firm are involved in the decision-making for our clients, so there isn’t some large company behind us telling us what we have to do or what needs to be done for clients. We are a small boutique firm, yet we have access to all the information that any of the large firms have access to.”
As a boutique firm, Koss Olinger is also set apart by its needs-based structure. “What we do is different for every situation,” Klein explained. “It’s a process that we take [the clients] through that we’ve developed through the years, built around their goals and objectives — we make sure we put them on a path to continually reach those.”
“Once we understand what their goals and objectives are, what they’re trying to avoid, what they’re excited about or trying to take advantage of, we help them build a game plan to reach those goals,” Klein said.
Despite all of these advantages, one must still ask the question, “Why does it matter?” To many, a wealth management firm is just a beneficial tool. However, the effect Koss Olinger has on its clients goes far beyond just managing money.
“When people think about the most important things in their life, number 1 is probably their health,” Roark said. “But, number 2 is probably their family and their finances, and to be able to provide for and take care of their family, their finances have to be in order. So, we can help out in that area. We’re not doctors; we’re not saving lives as you would with number 1.
But if we can help with your family and your finances, it can make a tremendous difference in somebody’s life. That’s really our goal.”
It’s about providing a peace of mind for clients, said Hord.
“Finances are a very personal thing,” she said. “For clients to feel that everything is set up for when they’re living and for when they’re gone — that everything will be taken care of, including their family — is extremely important.”
ALEXIS FISHER is an advertising student in her third year at the University of Florida. She is hoping to use her love of words to become a copy writer at an advertising agency. Alexis is also specializing in political science with the goal of someday working in political campaigning.