Month: October 2021

12. Christopher King on Advising Advisors About Cryptocurrency

12. Christopher King on Advising Advisors About Cryptocurrency

As more RIAs become interested in managing cryptocurrency portfolios for their clients, several tech providers are trying to build easy access that fits into advisors’ existing workflows. 

In this episode, David Armstrong is joined by Christopher King, founder and CEO of Eaglebrook Advisors, on why advisors should consider crypto, why separately managed accounts are the best way to get access, early financial backers of Eaglebrook—including many well-known names in wealth management—and which companies he considers his biggest competitors (it’s not who you think, and it’s not an ETF.) Eaglebrook has made significant inroads, being adopted as the crypto platform by large RIA firms, including Mariner Wealth and Dynasty Financial. 

Christopher discusses:

  • Why advisors should bring cryptocurrency options to clients
  • What percentage of portfolios most advisors are dedicating to crypto on the platform. 
  • How he found big-name wealth management backers in the advice space, including Marty Bicknell of Mariner Wealth Advisors and Mark Casady, former CEO of LPL. 
  • How advisors are thinking about bitcoin as both a gold substitute and an appreciating asset class.

Connect With Christopher King:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Christopher is the founder and CEO of Eaglebrook Advisors, the largest separately managed account (SMA) platform in the crypto market, managing over $90 million in assets. Although he originally got involved in Bitcoin and digital assets in 2014, Christopher moved into the industry full time in early 2018 as a venture capital investor at Morgan Creek Capital. During his tenure, he executed deals into 16 crypto companies (e.g., Coinbase, BlockFi, Bitwise), four digital asset investment funds, and liquid digital assets such as bitcoin and ether. 

 

11. Brian Hamburger on The Advisor Transition Game

11. Brian Hamburger on The Advisor Transition Game

Brian Hamburger is the founder of Hamburger Law Firm and Marketcounsel, providing legal and regulatory support to financial advisory firms.

In this episode, David Armstrong talks to Brian about the pioneering work his firm did helping wirehouse brokers “break away” and establish their own RIAs, and how his firm’s services have evolved alongside the growth of the RIA industry. 

David and Brian discusses:

  • The newest regulatory challenges to RIAs
  • How advisor transitions have changed from the early days of the “breakaway broker.”
  • What the erosion of the broker protocol means for advisors moving firms
  • The potential troubles brewing as asset managers and outside investors buy their way into the RIA channel
  • How Brian learned about the industry from his father, a financial advisor, and why he chose not to be an advisor himself. 

Connect With Brian Hamburger:

Connect With David Armstrong:

About Our Guest:

Brian is the Founder, President and CEO of MarketCounsel Consulting, the leading business and regulatory compliance consulting firm to the country’s preeminent entrepreneurial independent investment advisers. He is also the founder and managing member of the Hamburger Law Firm, a boutique law firm with its practice in virtually all areas related to the investment and securities industry, entrepreneurial and employment matters. MarketCounsel Consulting and the Hamburger Law Firm are the result of an incessant entrepreneurial spirit and genuine desire to provide an unexpected level of value and service. Together, the consulting and law firms represent an unparalleled combination of preeminent counsel and uncompromising service to participants in the retail securities industry.

Brian is an entrepreneur, attorney, columnist, and outspoken industry advocate for independent investment advisers.  For the past 19 years, he has served at the helm of the MarketCounsel companies and the Hamburger Law Firm. Brian was named an Innovator in InvestmentNews’ 2020 class of Icons & Innovators and included in “The IA25: Investment Advisor Magazine’s Annual List of the Top Influential People in the Industry” in 2020.  In 2015, Wealth Management named Brian as one of the top thought leaders in wealth management saying, “Over the past decade, Hamburger has been the architect behind almost all of the highest-profile breakaway deals in the industry, helping advisors navigate the legal thicket of transitioning away from brokerages and into independent business models. As such he’s been a central, but often unheralded, force in the evolution of the RIA industry.” In 2014, REP. Magazine featured Brian on its cover as “The Engineer” of the RIA evolution.

Brian is often called upon to speak at regional and national conferences, not to mention his own annual gathering of the industry’s top advisers and thought leaders. While he has delivered the keynote address to the country’s state securities regulators and met with members of Congress on proposed legislation, he is more comfortable addressing school-age children. He is currently a regular contributor for CNBC and has been quoted by The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Dow Jones, and Reuters as well as every investment industry publication.