Beall Barclay Provides Patience, ?Wealth Care?

Twenty-seven months ago when Beall Barclay & Co. PLLC became the first local accounting firm to launch its own financial services division, the company pitched the expansion as a “natural progression” of its existing business. Make that “supernatural.”

Beall Barclay Wealth Management LLC has since July 2002 grown a base of more than 750 clients split between about 400 at its Fort Smith office and the remainder in Rogers. The division had to grow from two employees to 10, and Carolyn Philpot, an owner of the division and a certified financial planner, said from July 2003 to July 2004 alone BBWM’s assets under management ballooned 64 percent.

Most of that business, she said, came from clients who transferred their accounts in from other brokerages. Philpot said the firm’s team approach is particularly helpful to business owners, retirees or the pre-retiree crowd that’s about 10 years out from retirement.

“We’re out there on the curve with this and we have been able to bring some fabulous expertise to them, whether it’s from existing years of service or from professionals we’ve brought in who focus on one area,” Philpot said. “You can’t get some things done without a CPA, and from a financial advisor’s standpoint there are also things CPAs never knew about.

“Teaching each other has brought our overall expertise higher on a monthly basis. You might have five good basketball players, but when you bring them together as a team, it’s exponential the level of expertise the client gets from the synergy.”

Becoming the “Phi Slamma Jamma” of local wealth management hasn’t taken away from the firm’s core competency.

Revenue for Beall’s more mature CPA segment, which saw its client base grow 10 percent this year to approach 3,900, is also up. It expects annual revenue by year’s end to reach $6 million, a 20 percent increase from about $5 million in 2002.

Tonya Fulcher, a 15-year veteran financial advisor in BBWM’s Rogers office, said the firm’s accountants have been proactive in incorporating the wealth management team when it’s prudent.

Clients like Paul Dubbell say it is the blending of financial services, Beall’s holistic approach to what it calls “wealth care,” that creates a healthy affinity for the firm. Dubbell is president of Rogers’ Pel Industries Inc., a supplier of high school-oriented sportswear for national retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

“I feel like [Beall’s] approach is a little more client-centered than some others I’ve been involved with,” Dubbell said. “They’re so focused on finding out where the client is from a financial standpoint, but it goes deeper than that. They really listen rather than just coming up with quick answers and pushing the latest hot product.”

BBWM is aligned with First Global Inc., an independent, SEC-registered broker dealer and financial planning firm in Dallas focused on the accounting market. Arkansas Act 242 of 1997 cleared the way for such diversifications by allowing CPA firms to do commission-based work.

Philpot and cohort Pettus Kincannon both left a Fort Smith wire house branch in 2002 to join Beall. They brought about 75 percent of the existing assets they had managed with them.

Mike Eldredge, an owner of BBWM, a CPA and a financial advisor at the Rogers branch, said about 50 percent of the Northwest Arkansas clients had existing relationships with Beall’s CPA side. In both markets, the company said, “word of mouth” has been the driver.

Needs Focused

According to the Journal of Accountancy, the first wave of Baby Boomers will begin retiring in 2010, and by 2030 senior citizens will make up 20 percent of the population. The trend means more people will need help selling businesses, and doing retirement and estate planning.

Eldredge said that’s why BBWM has put a premium on the retirement segment, as well as portfolio design, risk management and other creative solutions. The firm also brought on Dale Brunk, who’s working on his certified employee benefits specialist (CEBS) designation, to spend 95 percent of his time designing custom retirement plans.

“Having adequate resources in retirement is an overwhelming concern for clients,” Eldredge said. “We find and implement retirement plans that far exceed typical 401(k)s. These are super-charged, tax-advantage plans that you’ll never hear of in the typical industry.”

Other areas of the firm’s expertise include oil and gas asset management and solutions for real estate holdings such as Section 1031 like-kind exchanges. For the growing number of new business owners in the area, Eldredge said, dealing with health coverage costs has been an issue.

“It’s a major expense to business owners, and many times that cost alone drives businesses out of the market,” Eldredge said. “We have created solutions using several strategies to give them ways to retain good employees. Usually if they can make it past the first couple of years, their business will far exceed the revenue projections they’ve made.”

Philpot said risk management or creditor protection solutions can be enhanced with both CPAs and financial planners working at the same table. She also said although BBWM “is not the best firm for a small account to play stocks with,” the division is definitely not just for people with giant portfolios.

“A lot of young business owners in their first three or four years may look like they have a negative balance sheet,” Philpot said. “They’re probably the ones who need the most work with their CPAs and financial advisors.”