AssetMark attracted 24,000 investor households and nearly 740 new advisors to its platform last year, booking something like 9% organic flows and overall 21% platform growth.
For an ordinary company, that would be extraordinary. We'll see tomorrow if industry behemoth Envestnet managed to match it, but from the way the numbers stacked earlier in the year, I doubt we'll see a lot of wealth tech giants beat AssetMark's performance.
But it's clear that the company's corporate parent wanted more. CEO Charles Goldman is surrendering the top seat and two of his lieutenants are moving up to take AssetMark into the future at the rate the board demands.
It's a great team. Goldman did good things but splitting his mandate across Natalie Wolfsen and Michael Kim will liberate AssetMark to do truly great things as the wealth management community faces serious choices about the kind of future we want to reach toward.
Incoming CEO Wolfsen is currently AssetMark's chief solutions officer. She comes out of the deep backbone side of the business where technology does its job out of sight, ceaselessly and consistently: American Express, a little start-up sizzle in the dot-com era, ten years at Schwab, Pershing, First Eagle.
I think it's safe to say she's one of the rising technocrats in our industry to watch. Her career is all about building tools that advisors will actually use, systems that generate everyday efficiencies and the investment products that monetize relationships.
A lot of those words have become empty buzz constantly repeated, but here they're actually meaningful. AssetMark always wanted to create value for the advisors who use the platform and ultimately the end-level investors on the outside. With Wolfsen in charge, that mission becomes central.
“We remain committed to our mission of making a difference in the lives of advisors and investors," she says in the press release, "and intend to build on our stated strategy of supporting independent financial advisors, broker-dealer relationships and RIAs on our platform by delivering new, tailored solutions, technology and services to help them achieve their clients’ financial goals.”
And taking over Goldman's president duties, longtime readers already know Michael Kim as AssetMark's chief client officer. He's the guy in constant touch with advisors, getting them what they want and ultimately addressing any concerns that come up.
He comes out of Fidelity. Every time we talk to him, he puts advisors -- his "clients" -- first. If you win, he wins. He doesn't win unless he's helped you win.
Read between the lines, he's eager to broadcast that message to the outside world. I've spent the last couple of years mystified by how little Wall Street still understands this company.
Is it an advisory network like Raymond James? A custodian? An asset manager? A data provider? Some kind of "robot advisor?"
I've heard people who should know better offer up all of these explanations of what AssetMark does. I think they're all wrong.
Like any of our favorite "turnkey asset management programs" or TAMPs, AssetMark sits between the advisor on the front lines and the deep dynamics that run the 24-hour investment markets.
They provide as much or as little support for the client portfolio as you want. You can automate everything on the investment side and get back to work managing your human relationships. They'll do it.
Or you can retain the tasks you like doing and delegate the rest. Maybe you love to select securities in a particular niche asset class. Great. Farm out the rest of the portfolio and give your clients the best possible experience in the area that differentiates you in their eyes.
The important thing is that once the portfolio becomes portable, a company like AssetMark can build additional processes, analysis and predictive capabilities around the core investments. Trade around tax considerations. Rebalance at will. See your clients' entire financial situation at a glance.
That's really the future for all of us. I suspect that we'll hear a lot more from Michael Kim as he works out here in front of the company to educate the world on the great things they're doing.
AssetMark is a community. It's an ecosystem. He's now responsible for leading that community.
And Natalie Wolfsen is free to run the long-term technological vision that the board and other inside stakeholders see. I don't think we'll hear a lot from her, but she's always welcome to weigh in on topics that interest her.
Either way, Wall Street now has a chance to really grapple with the future AssetMark represents. If they don't get it, it doesn't really matter in the long run. All they're doing in that event is proving their stuck in the past.
There's "only" $74 billion on the platform now. This is still a young and vibrant company. But even in years of market turmoil, its growth curve points steeply to blue sky.
Reminds me of Apple 15 years ago. Only with investor accounts instead of songs. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.
