Prior Tiburon CEO Summits (2008-2009)

Tiburon CEO Summit XVI features a Current Events Panel, with panelists including Chuck Baldiswieler (Trust Company of the West), John Cammack (T. Rowe Price Group), Steve Deschenes (Mass Mutual Financial Group), John Murphy (Oppenheimer Funds), & Steve Wallman (Foliofn)

Guest speakers include:

• Jud Bergman (Envestnet)
• Jessica Bibliowicz (National Financial Partners)
• Mark Casady (LPL Financial)
• Kip Condron (Axa Financial)
• Jeffrey Dunham (Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel)
• Ken Fisher (Fisher Investments)
• Roger Ibbotson (Yale, Zebra, & Ibbotson)
• Scott Powers (State Street Global Advisors)
• Paul Stevens (Investment Company Institute)

Other Tiburon CEO Summit XVI highlights include the Ask the Consumers, Ask the Advisors, & Ask the Gatekeepers panel discussions, as well as six break out sessions, including:

• Modern Portfolio Theory
• Break Away Brokers
• Financial Advisor Technology
• Retirement Income & the Impace of the Recent Credit Crisis
• Alternative Investments
• Distribution Insight that Works

A Closing Word: Tiburon CEO Summit XVII & Tiburon's Immediate Needs

Mr. Roame concluded his presentation with a mention of the eight guest speakers for Tiburon CEO Summit XVII, including Jon Baum (The Dreyfus Corporation), John Calamos (Calamos Asset Management), Deena Katz (Chairman, Evensky & Katz), Pete Kight (Fiserv), Steve Lockshin (Convergent Wealth Advisors), Andrew Rudd (Advisor Software & Barra), Steve Wallman (Foliofn), & Jim Weddle (Edward Jones & Company). He also mentioned immediate Tiburon needs, including hiring of principals & summer interns...

Guest Presentations

Aside from Tiburon Managing Partner Chip Roame's opening keynote presentation, nine guest presentations anchored the CEO Summit XVI agenda:

Jud Bergman (CEO, Envestnet Asset Management)

Jud Bergman has served as the CEO of Envestnet Asset Management since 1999, where he is responsible for forming & leading the Envestnet management team, guiding Envestnet's strategic alliances, and managing the implementation of Envestnet's business plan.

After a brief introduction by Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors), Mr. Bergman took some time to introduce Envestnet's TAMP structure, and followed that by discussing the various opportunities for branding that he sees in the wide-open independent channels. Mr. Bergman made the following points:

Broken Trust

• Lineup of luminaries that are now fallen is staggering

Broken Industry Reputation

• Change of players has been remarkable
• Brands will need significant re-tooling
  • Wirehouses were the Tiffany in 1999
• Too Big to Fail (stabilization of firms left standing)
  • Integration to new fee-based business model
  • Recovering credibility
  • Re-allocation of capital on infrastructure
  • New regulations
• Independent brand value not yet fully recognized on Main Street
  • Securities America & Commonwealth have done very well in pointing to the brand of the independent advisor rather than the custodians
  • E-Money & Assetmark have done good jobs on branding independent advisors

Broken Portfolios

• Risk/Reward comfort level
• Time horizon for meeting goals & objectives
• Strategic asset allocation
• Emotional frontier & current frame of mind

The Benefits of Independence

• Objectivity
• Alignment
• Flexibility

Business Impacts for Product & Platform Providers

• Platform providers will become increasingly important much in the same way as cable providers have, but branding will be more closely associated with the independent advisors themselves (cable channels) versus the platform provider (cable providers)
• As a product provider, trying to increase performance predictability is a key motivator

Jessica Bibliowicz (CEO, National Financial Partners)

Jessica Bibliowicz has served as CEO of National Financial Partners since 1999 and as chairman of the board of directors since 2003.

After a brief introduction by Chip Roame, Ms. Bibliowicz discussed the new challenges of operating as a public company, addressed the opportunities she sees for the firm after its run of acquisitions, and talked about trends across National Financial Partners' three core businesses, including large case life insurance, employee benefits, & investment advice. Ms. Bibliowicz made the following points:

Lower Employment, Compensation, & Contributions

• Lower employment affects broker side the most
• Compensation is under scrutiny

Potential Health Care Reform

• Medical cost inflation continues
  • Rate increases are passed on to employees
  • Tighter underwriting
  • Employers unbundle and price-shop benefits
• Employer-based
• Plus coverage for 47 million uninsured

Early Recovery Typical of Insurance

• People don't want to see volatility, just to see the wealth transfer
• Creative product innovation returning vibrancy to the insurance world and post-retirement investing community

Federal Regulation of Insurance

• Will allow products to come to market more quickly, rather than having to be approved across the 50 state level

Intra Wirehouse Movement

• Brokers are still moving within the wirehouses, but now clients are leaving
• There is an opportunity to improve all the wirehouses by working to improve client confidence

Winning Business from the Wirehouses

• Open architecture is here to stay

Conserving Cash

• Conserve cash by working on networking opportunities with friends in the investment management industry

Helping Firms

• Using all assets to help all businesses
• Selling all businesses on the fiduciary strengths of the greater firm

Mark Casady (CEO, LPL Financial)

Mark Casady has served as CEO of LPL Financial since 2004 and added the chairman title in 2006. He has been instrumental in leading the company to become a multi-faceted organization. He joined the firm in 2002.

After a brief introduction by Tif Joyce (President, Joyce Financial Management), Mr. Casady addressed how both growth in the independent rep market and recent market turmoil have brought about new challenges for this market, including some of the ways in which LPL Financial plans to stay ahead of trends as the nation's largest independent broker/dealer. He focused on scale, branding, & the changing regulatory environment. Mr. Casady made the following points:

Opportunity for the Independent Model Has Never Been Greater

• LPL research of today's consumers shows effects of the market decline:
  • 25% trust their full-service brokers less
  • 42% view full-service brokers more negatively
  • 50% are contacted less than monthly or not at all by their full-service brokers
  • 53% now using independent advisors are more satisfied
  • 61% claim advisor relationship is more important than brand

Different Investors Emerging from the Economic Crisis

• Scared & uncertain about the future
• Serious impact to long-term financial plans
• 42% concerned about job loss
• 31% decrease in average net-worth
• 38% will delay retirement

Importance of Scale

• Consolidation leading to greater resources will create more competitiveness, and this cycle will serve to allow certain firms to focus on scale

Changing Regulatory Landscape

• Rebuilding trust between Wall Street & Main Street
  • Single regulatory organization
  • Protection of assets custody rule
  • Greater transparency

Kip Condron (CEO, Axa Financial)

Kip Condron has served as CEO of Axa Financial and a member of the Axa Group Management Board since 2001. In addition, Mr. Condron is chairman & CEO of Axa Financial's principal insurance subsidiary, Axa Equitable Life Insurance.

After a brief introduction by John Cammack (Head, Third-Party Distribution, T. Rowe Price Group), Mr. Condron discussed how Axa Financial is addressing the challenges presented by the current state of the financial protection & wealth management markets as well as the direction of the new regulatory climate. Mr. Condron made the following points:

Disadvantage for Federal Relief

• Axa has been encouraging the implementation of a federal regulator for the insurance industry
• When TARP money became available to banks, which were regulated, insurance companies were without access to the funds unless they purchased a bank
• The regulation of the insurance industry is antiquated

Public Policy to Create Savings Incentives

• The Financial Services Roundtable, which Mr. Condron is currently chairing, is looking to make recommendations on the issue of savings incentives
  • 77 million baby boomers lost 40% of their retirement assets over the last year

In-Plan Guarantees

• Guarantees within the 401k plan
• Axa sees these as the wave of the future
  • Started a business in late 2007 to create the model product for in-plan guarantees
• Market research shows that 50% of 401k beneficiaries would buy a guarantee, especially after the recent downturn
• In a $3 trillion business, that's $1.5 trillion, but capacity is limiting the growth of the business

Life Insurers Consolidation

• Acquisitions must currently be marked on the balance sheet, and no companies are currently prepared to mark their balance sheets
• Current market capitalization does not allow consolidation
• Mr. Condron sees forced marriages by regulators, modeled similarly to the PNC Financial & National City deal
• He is concerned by the risks he sees competitors taking due to the fact that they are now operating on borrowed funds

Jeffrey Dunham (CEO, Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel)

Jeffrey Dunham has served as CEO of Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel since its founding in 1985, and also as chairman of Dunham Trust Company. He also serves as a trustee, president, & principal executive officer of Dunham Funds.

After a brief introduction by Sal Capizzi (Chief Marketing Officer, Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel), Mr. Dunham introduced his consumer oriented model, harkening back to the genesis of the concept and identifying the garnering of trust as the main driver of the building of long-term client relationships that are by definition fiduciary in nature. Mr. Dunham made the following points:

Performance (Fulcrum) Fees

• Fair value for services received
• Adjustment of fees based on performance against the index
• Paid based on results is by nature a fiduciary responsibility
• Better aligns investors' objectives with industry compensation
• Other firms offering performance fees include Vanguard, Janus, Fidelity, Riversource, & USAA, but only Dunham offers 100% performance fees on its funds

Inside Mutual Funds

• Measured on a relative basis on investment-to-investment professional relationship
• Consumers don't care about relative performance, they only care about dollars gained and/or lost
• If fund managers beat the index, the fees go up; if fund underperforms the market, the fees go to zero
• Maximum fees vary from 50 to 100 basis points, with measurement based on rolling 12-months
• Minimum fees vary from 0 to 25 basis points

Financial Advisor Fees

• Can be paid on a fixed fee basis or can be paid on a performance fee basis
• Performance fees for financial advisors are based only on absolute return basis
  • Fees based on a monthly accounting of portfolio balance, with the balance at the beginning of each month resetting the benchmark for absolute returns
• Qualified investors must be one of the following:
  • $1.5 million net worth
  • $750,000 invested with Dunham
  • $5 million in assetsa

Ken Fisher (CEO, Fisher Investments)

Ken Fisher has served as the CEO of Fisher Investments since founding the firm in 1979. His recent research, published in professional and scholarly journals, focuses on the emerging field of behavioral finance. Mr. Fisher is known for his Portfolio Strategy financial investment column featured monthly in Forbes magazine, where his 24-year tenure makes him the fourth longest-running columnist in the magazine's 92-year history. Mr. Fisher has also written five finance & business books including 1984’s best seller, Super Stocks and his 2008 New York Times best seller, The Ten Roads to Riches. Mr. Fisher holds a Berstein Fabozzi/Jacobs Levy Award for outstanding published research, has been on the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans since 2005, and is on Investment Advisor magazine’s IA-25 list of the most influential people in that industry. His firm is the largest direct marketer in asset management.

After a brief introduction by Tif Joyce (President, Joyce Financial Management), Mr. Fisher addressed ways in which Fisher Investments will win market share in the new market conditions. Mr. Fisher made the following points:

Consumer Focus

• Mr. Fisher discussed his series of consumer conferences, highlighting key metrics he uses in evaluating clients' needs; he also addressed ways that his firm builds trust by encouraging clients to speak to one another at these conferences
• Focus on the woman of the house, for she is likely to play a larger role in the family finance after this latest downturn

Core Focus

• Cut programs that cost money and focus on free or cheap programs that increase innovation

Legal Risks

• Mr. Fisher spent considerable time addressing the coming wave of lawsuits that he believes will besiege the financial services industry
  • Statute is five years
  • Most aggressive prosecutors will build up their case files against biggest firms for massive class-action suits
  • Now is the time to invite these prosecutors to upcoming CEO Summits to participate in panel discussions on the current landscape

Marketing Effects

• Stick to the core, cut costs, and boost budget
• Market share is the number one target for Fisher

Service Formalization

• Increase service standards in formalized programs for existing and new clients

Reconsider Employees

• Cut the less-talented
• Mr. Fisher shared a program he uses within Fisher Investments to utilize his human capital to increase firm-wide innovation - by paying bonuses to employees who come up with ideas that management has failed to identify

Roger Ibbotson (Professor, Yale University; Chairman, Zebra Capital Management, & Former CEO, Ibbotson Associates)

Roger Ibbotson is Professor in Practice at Yale School of Management and chairman of Zebra Capital Management, a quantitative equity hedge fund manager. He was also the founder & former Chairman of Ibbotson Associates, now a Morningstar Company, where he still serves as an advisor. Professor Ibbotson conducts research on a broad range of financial topics, including investment returns, mutual funds, international markets, portfolio management, & valuation.

After a brief introduction by Patrick Reinkemeyer (President, Morningstar Associates, Morningstar), Mr. Ibbotson addressed long-term economic growth, current unemployment, and the new U.S. administration. He compared the current economic climate to past bear markets and discussed the role hedge funds have played in the past and will continue to play in the future. Mr. Ibbotson made the following points:

Hedge Funds & Alternatives Golden Years Ended in 2007

• 2008 was second-worst stock return year in United States history (1931)
• Hedge funds down 20%
• Real estate, private equity, & hedge funds all had high returns & growth in AUM

Ten Year Returns Still Positive

• Hedge funds lost about half as much as stock markets in 2008
• Beta impacted returns, but equity market neutral has low risk
• Ten year returns still positive, with 2008 (-18.4% & -6.2%) driving 1998-2007 at 9.9% & 6.3% down to 1999-2008 at 7.5% & 4.5% for weighted composite & equity market neutral returns, respectively

Economy to Fall in 2009

• Continual job losses
• A year of negative growth

Stock Market to See High Volatility & High Returns from Lows

• Volatility as high as the 1930s
• Market will bottom at first sign of improvement
• Large positive stock returns will occur before the recession ends

Hedge Funds: More Withdrawals in 2009

• Higher return opportunities

Scott Powers (CEO, State Street Global Advisors)

Scott Powers has served as CEO of State Street Global Advisors since 2008; State Street Global Advisors is the investment management arm of State Street Corporation. He is also a member of State Street's Operating Group, the company's senior-most strategy and policy-making team.

After a brief introduction by Tony Rochte (Senior Managing Director, Intermediary Business Group, State Street Global Advisors, State Street Corporation), Mr. Powers addressed the ways in which State Street Global Advisors will continue to attract high-net-worth investors. His presentation specifically addressed the challenges of capital preservation in the current market. Mr. Powers made the following points:

Modern Portfolio Theory Questioned

• Investors today are seeing absolute negative returns, and the questions are prevalent
• But nobody knows what to do next, what the alternatives are
• Clients will pay for the floor and give up some of the upside

Liability Driven Investment Strategies Receiving Attention

• Much more of a sense of urgency in conversations surrounding this concept
• The risk of inflation must be considered
• Matching liabilities with overlay strategies with growth pockets that add value over time
• Becoming much more prevalent at the large planned sponsor level because unfunded liabilities become a balance sheet obligation

Hedge Funds-of-Funds Disappointed Badly

• Managed volatility and absolute return space has not been a shining light of returns recently
• How much is skill versus how much is beta that is leveraged?

Demand for Absolute Return Strategies Strong

• People are not giving up on hedge funds (uncorrolated sources of return)
• Focus is on predictability of return

Many Considering Hiring Fewer Managers with Larger Mandates

• Handling multiple asset classes
• Handling multiple outcome oriented strategies
• Negotiated down to an attractive fee structure
• If they can deliver alpha, they will be paid hansomely

Pension Plans Significantly Underfunded

• The -40% rate of return in the last year has caused a serious problem
• The portfolios have been de-risked as liabilities have been off-loaded, so at this point, there is a requirement for either greater risk or the injection of new capital

Value of Investment Consultants Being Questioned

• Nine style box theory (modern portfolio theory) being questioned
• Under fire due to their inability (lack of resources) to do adequate research to justify investment decisions

Paul Stevens (CEO, Investment Company Institute)

Paul Stevens has served as CEO of the Investment Company Institute since 2004. He also is a director of ICI Mutual Insurance.

After a brief introduction by Tif Joyce (President, Joyce Financial Management), Mr. Stevens addressed the state of the mutual funds market, including a review of the historical success of mutual funds’ role in 401K plans since their introduction in 1981. He specifically addressed the relationship between government & business, and how the current economic landscape presents new & unprecedented challenges in retirement planning. Mr. Stevens made the following points:

Systemic Risk

• Washington will implement some kind of device to measure this; the Fed lost credibility as it fell asleep in dealing with the early stages of the subprime crisis
• Congress will most likely opt to assemble a coucil of regulators, perhaps led by the Secretary of the Treasury, with a statutory mandate and an independent staff of its own, working outside of the system, but addressing identified risks through operating regulating agencies

Regulatory Gaps

• Unregistered pools
  • Hedge funds & private equity will have to live with new forms of regulation, with perhaps non-public visibility to the regulators, but there seems to be an appetite to go beyond that even
• OTC derivatives
  • Credit default swaps will incur public action, by making the market more standardized through regular clearing mechanisms subject to oversight
• Broker/dealer & investment advisor regulations
  • In Washington, issues with fiduciary responsibility are never resolved to a lesser extent
  • Brokers want fee-based business model without having the fiduciary responsibility, but the ICI believes there should be increased harmony between fees & responsibility
  • Suitability has been defined as not completely unsuitable, and that is likely to change

Municipal securities

• A very substantial market that ought to have a better regulatory framework to improve disclosure, although this issue is highly political

Capital Markets Regulation

• SEC must be re-invigorated, with a staff reorganization, relationships with industry revamped, and active management without a requirement for lawyers

Desire to Increase Coverage of 401k Plans

• Continued congressional scrutiny
  • Adequacy
  • Disclosure
  • Targe-date funds
  • Retirement income
• Auto IRA
• ICI response
  • Highlight success of 401k system & support ways to improve it
  • Work with Congress and Department of Labor to implement better disclosure
  • Fix social security

Liquidity Standards

• Daily & weekly minimum (5% & 20%, respectively)

Portfolio Maturity Limits

• Adopt a second WAM calculation

Enhanced Credit Analysis

• Prohibit money market funds from investing in second-tier securities

Client Procedures

• Understand client requirements
  • Liquidity & redemption needs with respect to concentrated client base

Board Suspension of Redemptions

• Recommend the SEC authorize fund boards to suspend redemptions under certain circumstances
  

General Session Panel Discussions

One of the key themes of every Tiburon CEO Summit is the need to more closely listen to clients. In open acknowledgment of the truly unique market conditions created by the 2008 credit crisis, Tiburon CEO Summit XVI included a special general session current events panel in addition to its usual Tiburon CEO Summits' general session panel discussions (Ask the Consumers, Ask the Advisors, & Ask the Gatekeepers). All allowed Tiburon CEO-level clients to hear directly from their constituents in an unvarnished way. This is in sharp contrast to most CEOs' daily activities, where they are forced to rely on interpreting marketing data or listening to anecdotal stories from their sales forces. Addressing these constituents first-hand through questions & answers helps Tiburon clients further consider innovative ideas for serving these different client groups.

Current Events Panel

Tiburon CEO Summit XVI included a special general session panel discussion on the credit crisis. The panel participants included Chuck Baldiswieler (Group Managing Director, Trust Company of the West (TCW)), John Cammack (Head, Third-Party Distribution, T. Rowe Price Group), Steve Deschenes (Chief Marketing Officer, Retirement Income Group, Mass Mutual Financial Group), John Murphy (Chairman, Oppenheimer Funds), & Steve Wallman (CEO, Foliofn), with Chip Roame leading a discussion that focused on current events.

• Chip Roame opened the discussion by introducing the two objectives of the panel: firstly, to identify the causes & culprits of the credit crisis and secondly, to address how the world will change moving forward (government regulations, products, channels, and mergers & acquisitions activity moving forward):
  
  • Chuck Baldiswieler addressed on & off balance sheet leverage, derivatives, & lack of oversight as the main culprits driving the crisis, speaking of the 30 to 1 leverage common practices
  • John Cammack addressed ample credit, unbridled securitization, lax regulations, disingenuous rating agencies, and misperception of magnitude & globalization of systematic risk. Mr. Cammack blamed the belief system, and said that the entire financial services industry is at fault for allowing the culture to exist
  • Steve Deschenes pointed to the separation of loan underwriting from financial impact through securitization, speaking specifically to the lack of accountability that occurred with debt packaging
  • John Murphy spoke of freely available credit, government encouragement of Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae, living large (excess ownership & excess speculation), easy securitizations with AAA ratings, & lack of full collateralization
  • Steve Wallman addressed regulatory structures, compensation failures (rewarding returns, ignoring risk), regulatory implementation (when the hundred year flood happens everyone is wiped out), poor governmental responses to the initial housing, & then a broader credit crisis
• Chip Roame thanked the panelists for answering the first question, then moved on to addressing how the world will change moving forward given the new regulatory environment
  
  • Chuck Baldiswieler talked about the mergers activity that he sees coming, which will involve more active management than blind investing. He addressed the potential for different types of investments that take advantage of the good assets that remain in the markets. He spoke of the equity promise having been broken, corporate pensions, public pensions, endowments & foundations dealing with liquidity issues, saying that RIAs and family offices will win, with long time horizons and self-regulation
    
  • John Cammack spoke to increased regulation to control risk, consolidation & better synchronization of oversight, suitability versus fiduciary standard resolution, and higher industry operating costs a byproduct of these steps. He spoke of a large share of US wealth moves into post work mode, fee-based pricing & open architecture trends to continue, ETFs & indexing growing share, and hedge fund industry consolidation. He also spoke of active management broadening to include absolute returns & overlays, and outcome based products eclipsing the role of standalone funds. He talked of a handful of mega distributors dominating, saying that an X factor is more open-access to consumers and financial advisors via the web
  • Steve Deschenes addressed increased regulation, higher taxes, and attempts to reduce the too big to fail issue. He mentioned that existing investment theory (modern portfolio theory) faces pressures with focus on absolute returns, diversification beyond equities, fixed income, & cash, guarantees being more valuable, and tax deferral being more valuable. He spoke of increased focus on transparency, lower fees, & independence. Finally, he mentioned that mergers & acquisitions activity will be based on new regulatory & financial rules
  • John Murphy first encouraged all the attendees in the audience to go to Washington DC to prevent adverse legislation to the industry, saying that government officials really want help in understanding what to do. He spoke of a systemic risk regulator with potentially excess 401K regulation. He spoke of a clearinghouse for credit & derivative instruments (with capital requirements, transparency, & real time reporting), and the implementation of money market working group recommendations. He said that financial advisor focus should be on rebuilding confidence with clients with more financial advisors choosing the independent route to move away from the damaged brands. He said that boutiques will continue to emerge as people leave larger firms and private equity will become major players
  • Steve Wallman talked about the unprecedented spending by government, saying that by saving the big brokerages and propping up the big banks, the government is ensuring that the behaviors that have dominated will likely continue. He talked of the tax burden and debt burden sure to hang over the country for years to come, and said that for all the spending that has occurred not much is actually happening (citing the AIG compensation blow-up that is now buried somewhere in the Senate)
    

The panel was extremely frank and the net impression was that regulations are sure to affect the industry in ways that are yet to be determined. There was a common understanding that the culture that has dominated is absurd, and a unanimous opinion that trust between the consumers and the industry should be the main focus of each player in the industry.

Ask the Consumers Panel

As has become the tradition at Tiburon CEO Summits, four real and unscripted consumers (Josh, Sonja, Maureen, Keith) were interviewed by facilitator Tif Joyce (President, Joyce Financial Management) for the Ask the Consumers panel. While each provided a unique point of view, a number of common views were shared.

• Josh works for Cisco Systems and has been investing with his wife for years. He started his first financial advisor relationship based on a personal relationship he had out of high school. He is an active investor who values trust in his advisor more than anything else. He speaks to communications following mistakes, and says he will always go back to the expectations that were laid down in the beginning. He stopped investing his new assets with his first advisor because the management fees were too high, but fees are not the determining factor in how he values the people who invest for him. Part of the reason Josh moved along was because he couldn't be sure that his advisors could do much better than he could. Josh had a very bad experience with a leading national advisory firm where he had asked for a transfer of funds that was not executed, followed by a dip in the market where he lost money. The firm held several different positions as he pursued resolution, and as the decision was levvied against him, he decided not to ever work with that firm again. Josh then talked about what his ultimate goals are, and said they have nothing to do with how well his advisor is doing compared to his advisor's advisor buddy. Josh then addressed a question out of the audience inquiring how he made decisions to move from advisor to advisor, saying that he typically followed advice of his wife, his brother-in-law, his friends
• Sonja started by saying that she emigrated from Sweden in 1973 with no financial experience at all. Her husband had five businesses that he ran in the United States, and as they traveled she began reading the New York Times financials section, becoming interested in stocks. After a sale of one of her family's companies, she researched the stocks she thought were worthwhile, and chose her investments in 1995. In 2001, her portfolio crashed with the stock market, and then her husband died in 2002. She had been responsible for many of the family's original trading practices, but as the complexity of her portfolio increased with trusts and new investment devices, Sonja decided it would be a good idea to seek professional help. She followed an advisor from Merrill Lynch to Morgan Stanley in 2007, and then, in 2008, when the markets collapsed, she stayed with him. She felt that her advisor was paralyzed as he continued to tell her not to sell, that she should buy Freddie Mac & Fannie Mae, and when she did that and her assets plummeted, she decided to move on. Sonja was asked by an audience member how she made her decision to switch advisors, and she too said that she listed to friends. Her decision was based on her desire to have a more diversified portfolio under the management of an advisor who had a broad view of investments
  
• Keith is a financial services industry reporter who has invested for many years, and has chosen to delegate investment responsibilities to advisors based on his desire to maintain a little distance between his own professional interests and his personal financial interests. Keith has invested with several different advisors over time, and began to invest in alternative investments, specifically funds-of-funds and structured notes. Keith is very familiar with financial products and began questioning the wisdom of his financial advisors, and shared his concerns about structured notes with his advisor, specifically about Lehmans structured notes. He continued to question his advisor as the markets worsened. Two weeks before the Lehman bankruptcy, Keith agressively pursued getting out of the structured products notes again. Two major factors were not disclosed to Keith by his advisor: first, he was not told that the structured notes were basically unsecured corporate bonds; second, his advisor never told him that incentives were being provided to sell these structured products. Keith didn't even find out this information from his advisor, but from a lawyer who contacted him looking to sue the large firms. Keith felt wronged by his advisor, but attributes the behavior on a larger scale to the industry on the whole. Keith's trust was broken, and now Keith is looking for a new advisor. He is looking for trust and is therefore seeking referrals from his trusted friends. One of these referrals took him to a new prospect, who in the initial meeting, when hearing about the incentivized structured products sales, asked him - Well, how else are we supposed to make money? Keith has to laugh...
  
• Maureen is a retiree with a 401k, with the kids gone & graduated from university. Suddenly, financial conditions changed for her husband's family, as her father- and mother-in-law both started to behave oddly with their investments. Both in their 90s, and living in an assisted living facility, the elderly couple became convinced that they had no more money left. As it turned out ... the elders were not correct about having no money, but their concern speaks to the future nightmare scenarios surrounding increasing healthcare costs that come with the onset of dementia that is becoming increasingly frequent as age expectancy rises
  

The panel was extremely frank and the net impression was the most important quality an advisor can have is honesty and clarity of communication. A consumer in today's environment must question the motives and directives of the advisors available, and in response, it is vital that advisors respect their responsibilities to serve their clients' needs above all else.

Ask the Advisors Panel

With a similar goal to the Ask the Consumers panel, four leading financial advisors participated on the Ask the Advisors panel to allow attendees to better understand the businesses and decision-making criteria of financial advisors. Facilitated by Jenn Connelly (CEO, JCPR), the panelists included Tom Lydon (President, ETF Trends), Mark Penske (CEO, United Advisors), Adam Sheer (President, The Roosevelt Group), & Bill Walsh (President, Hennion & Walsh). The financial advisors were selected from different backgrounds and approaches to the industry, providing a wide range of perspectives. Amongst the key points made by the panelists were.

• Tom Lydon, of Global Trends, maintains 90 client relationships with high-net-worth individuals and maintains asset management responsibilities with tactical allocation via ETFs, all-the-while maintaining a blog called ETFTrends.Com that has begun to take up much of his time. His average clients size is $800,000. Tom spoke about the importance of client management and sang the praises of his blog, which he says makes his clients happy on a day-to-day basis. He told a story about asking his friend, a recent retiree, to perform a jovial & unstructured survey of his clients, which proved to him that he was in good shape. Tom's clients are almost all in equityETFtrends.com
  
• Mark Penske, of United Advisors, maintains 1,500 client relationships with mass affluent advisors who maintain $500,000 to $2 million in revenues. His firm offers back-office support & compliance to advisors in the asset management, financial planning, & individual insurance space. His average client size is $500,000. Mark, like Tom, also recognizes the importance of personal touch, and by showing facts to his clients about prior market downturns, Mark's firm is able to maintain trust with his clients. He is attempting to pick up wirehouse advisors, and in so doing is trying to focus on the first impression coming from a primary referral call. Mark's value proposition is on providing support & compliance. Mark spoke of the ever-evolving role of business development departments within financial advisory firms
• Adam Sheer, of The Roosevelt Investment Group, maintains 10,000 client relationships with high-net-worth individuals, corporations, endowments, foundations, & Taft Hartley plans, and maintains asset management responsibilities. His average client size is $500,000. Adam spoke about maintaining clean lines of communication with custodians, so that that line of communication can be relayed to the end consumers in a way that maintains confidence all the way up & down the supply chain. Responsiveness and flexibility were specifically identified as valuable qualities in custodians. Like Mark, Adam believes very strongly that there are huge numbers of opportunities for idea generation in business development
• Bill Walsh, of Hennion & Walsh, maintains 15,000 client relationships with mass affluent, unaware high-net-worth individuals, with responsibilities that include fixed income portfolios, asset management, & mutual funds. His average client size is $500,000. Bill's firm has always managed downside risk very well, with a great sales force and good relative performance, doubling assets over the last year from $1.5 billion to $3.0 billion, and is looking for a great liftout opportunity that include cultural & investment synergies$500,000has shared ownership of his own company since entering into the financial services industry as a former engineer. Since 2000, his business has changed its name seven times as a result of being bought and sold several times over. This has given Mr. Pollock a significant perspective on client retention and on building relationships that last. He manages individual customized portfolios including stocks, with a special attention paid to estate and tax planning. With a 98.5% client retention rate, Mr. Pollock also says that constant communication with the client is the only way to go, and that by using trustworthy products and services, clients are empowered to stay with him. Mr. Pollock also added that by always doing the right thing an advisor will always have good clients

Tiburon CEO Summit attendees valued the opportunity to listen to these advisors candidly discuss some of the strategies they've employed in trying to maintain client relationships and assets under management in these trying times.

Ask the Gatekeepers Panel

In keeping with the Tiburon CEO Summit tradition of emphasizing the need to listen carefully to one's clients and prospective clients, the Tiburon CEO Summit Ask the Gatekeepers panel is the third part of this series. For many Tiburon clients (e.g., investment, insurance, & technology firms), understanding the workings of distribution firms is crucial to their firm's success in gaining access to an organization's network of financial advisors. Wirehouses such as Merrill Lynch, independent broker/dealers such as LPL Financial, and custodians such as The Charles Schwab Corporation can account for 50% or more of financial product companies' sales. Tiburon's Ask the Gatekeepers panel, facilitated by Bill Salus (Chief Business Development Officer, PNC Global Investment Servicing), allowed these types of distribution organizations to discuss their needs from investment management firms and other product providers through questions & answers. Four major distribution firms provided insights on how they serve financial advisors. Panelists included Bill Crager (President, Envestnet Asset Management), Steve Dunlap (Chief Operating Officer, Pershing Managed Account Solutions), AJ Harper (President, Advisor Port, PNC Global Investment Servicing, PNC Financial), & Brian O'Toole (CEO, Genworth Financial Management Wealth Management, Genworth Financial). Amongst their key points were:

• Bill Crager, of Envestnet Asset Management, runs a turnkey asset management platform supporting a financial advisor force of 14,000 advisors with $60.0 billion in assets under management. Product listing philosophy includes open architecture across a broad range of investment product categories. Needs from products companies include extension of service model for advisors. Bill elaborated by expanding on Jud Bergman's earlier general session presentation description of being analagous to a cable platform that allows many different cable channel to run into a houseExtension of service model for advisorsr
• Steve Dunlap, of Pershing Managed Account Solutions, runs an open-architecture platform & turnkey asset management provider supporting a financial advisor force of 100,000 advisors with $80.2 billion in assets under management. Product listing philosophy includes comprehensive suite of fee-based and advisory solutions, ranging from firm-directed to fully outsourced. Needs from products companies include transparency, competitive fees, value-added, and consultative sales support. Steve elaborated by indicating that Pershing, being such a ubiquitous firm with so many capabilities, seeks to be involved in gatekeeping across all aspects of the marketplace, specializing on every aspectConsultative sales supportp
• AJ Harper, of Advisor Port, runs a customizable or turnkey asset management platform and advisory services business, with a financial advisor force of 20,000 advisors with $81.0 billion in assets under management. Product listing philosophy includes designing and implementing custom, open-architecture managed account solutions including award-winning flexible UMA, SMAs, and Fund/ETF wraps. Needs from products companies include integrated service model for advisor development. AJ elaborated by speaking to opportunities that exist in asset re-allocation through advancing technologies, speaking to his firm's responsibility of getting such technologies to market
• Brian O'Toole, of Genworth Financial Wealth Management, runs a turnkey asset management platform and business consulting business supporting a financial advisor force of 6,500 advisors with $15.0 billion in assets under management. Product listing philosophy includes open architecture platforms including Best of Class Investment Managers as determined by Callan and Rocaton. Needs from products companies include accessibility, proven track record, and disciplined philosophy & processes. Brian elaborated by asking - Who is taking care of people like Joe Wurzelbacher? - as in, what is being done to take care of all those directed funds accounts for the non mass affluent & high-net-worth individual investor markets. Gatekeeping in a nimble way is the question

The panel added perfectly to the Tiburon CEO Summit's agenda of focusing the CEO-level attendees on client needs. Across the board, the panelists concluded that the current conditions are shaping an environment in which nimble and open-minded gatekeeping will allow recovery for the marketplace and open up new markets for each firm.

Attendees

Tiburon CEO Summit XVI had 128 Tiburon client attendees, including:

Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors) Chris Alpaugh (Senior Managing Director, Global Business Development, Alliance Bernstein, Axa Group) John Alshefski (Head, Business Development, Investment Manager Services, SEI Investments) David Bailin (President, Alternative Investment Solutions, Global Wealth & Investment Management, Bank of America Corporation) Chuck Baldiswieler (Group Managing Director, TCW Advisor Group, Private Client Services, & Retirement Services Group, Trust Company of the West (TCW), Societe Generale, Asset Management, Societe Generale) Tony Batman (CEO, 1st Global Capital Corporation) Jon Baum (CEO, The Dreyfus Corporation, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation) Michael Bell (CEO, Curian Capital, Jackson National Life Insurance Company, The Prudential) Jud Bergman (CEO, Envestnet Asset Management) Jessica Bibliowicz (CEO, National Financial Partners) Donna Blank (Chief Financial Officer, National Financial Partners) Stephanie Bogan (CEO, Quantuvis Consulting, Genworth Financial Wealth Management, Genworth Financial) John Cammack (Head, Third-Party Distribution, T. Rowe Price Group) Frank Campanale (CEO, Advanced Equities Wealth Management, Advanced Equities Financial Corporation) Rich Cancro (Managing Director, Product Development, Broker/Dealer & Investment Advisor Services, JP Morgan Chase) Sal Capizzi (Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel) Mitch Caplan (Executive Advisor, Acquiline Capital Partners, Aquiline Holdings) Mark Casady (CEO, LPL Financial) Jerry Chafkin (President, Alpha Simplex Group, Natixis Global Asset Management Alternatives Group, Natixis Global Asset Management, Natixis) Amit Choudhury (Managing Partner, Pinnacle Partners) Randy Ciccati (President, ING Financial Solutions Group, ING Group) Dennis Clark (President, Bellatore Financial, Bellatore) Frank Coates (CEO, Coates Analytics, PNC Global Investment Servicing, PNC Financial) Steve Cohen (Chief Strategy Officer, Pro Funds Group) Kip Condron (CEO, Axa Financial, Axa Group) Jenn Connelly (CEO, JCPR) Chris Cordaro (CEO, Regent Atlantic Capital, Fiduciary Network) Ron Cordes (Co-Chairman, Genworth Financial Wealth Management, Genworth Financial) Bill Crager (President, Envestnet Asset Management) Ben Cukier (Partner, FTV Capital) Wayne Cutler (Managing Director, Brokerage, Novantas) Jim Dario (Chief Growth Officer, Pershing Advisor Solutions, Pershing, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation) Pete D'Arrigo (Chief Financial Officer, Envestnet Asset Management) Dick Davies (Senior Managing Director, Defined Contribution, Alliance Bernstein Institutional Investments, Alliance Bernstein, Axa Group) Scott Davis (CEO, Essex National Securities, Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union) Joe Deitch (Chairman, Commonwealth Financial Network) Stuart DePina (CEO, Tamarac) Steve Deschenes (Chief Marketing Officer, Retirement Income Group, Mass Mutual Financial Group) Steve Dowden (CEO, CUNA Brokerage Services, CUNA Mutual Group) Jeffrey Dunham (CEO, Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel) Steve Dunlap (Chief Operating Officer, Pershing Managed Account Solutions, Pershing, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation) Randy Epright (Chief Operating Officer, AIG Advisor Group, American International Group, (AIG)) Wayne Ferbert (CEO, Tenbagger, TD Ameritrade, TD Bank Financial Group) Ken Fisher (CEO, Fisher Investments) Ron Fiske (Executive Vice President, Product Development & Management, Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, Fidelity Investments) Bill Franca (Executive Vice President, Distribution, Direxion Funds, Rafferty Holdings) George Gatch (CEO, JP Morgan Funds Management, JP Morgan Asset Management, JP Morgan Chase) Mike Gianoni (President, Fiserv Investment Services, Fiserv) Al Girod (President, Convergent Wealth Advisors, Convergent Capital Management, City National Corporation) Bill Glavin (CEO, Oppenheimer Funds, Mass Mutual Financial Group) Rich Goldman (CEO, Security Global Investors, Security Benefit Group) Jeffrey Goldstein (Managing Director, Hellman & Friedman) Jennifer Grancio (Head, Distribution, iShares Americas, Intermediary Investor Business, Barclays Global Investors, Barclays) Larry Greenberg (CEO, Jefferson National Financial) Matt Grove (Executive Vice President, Business Development, Jefferson National Financial) Jim Hale (Founding Partner, FTV Capital) Scott Hanson (Co-CEO, Hanson McClain) AJ Harper (President, Advisor Port, PNC Global Investment Servicing, PNC Financial) Jim Hays (President, Private Client Group, Wachovia Securities, Wachovia Corporation, Wells Fargo Corporation) JoNell Hermanson (President, M Financial Wealth Management, M Financial Group) Tom Hexner (Executive Vice President, Bernstein Global Wealth Management, Axa Group) Rich Hughes (Group Co-President, Portfolio Management Consultants, Envestnet Asset Management) Robert Hussey (Executive Vice President, Wealth Solutions & Global Relationships, Natixis Global Associates, Natixis Global Asset Management, Natixis) Roger Ibbotson (Professor, Yale University; Chairman, Zebra Capital Management; & Former CEO, Ibbotson & Associates)

Dwight Jacobsen (Executive Vice President, Intermediary Distribution, MSBC Securities Corporation, The Dreyfus Corporation, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation) Alistair Jessiman (Managing Director, Wealth Management, Novantas) David Jobson (Executive Vice President, Product Development, US Retail, Allianz Global Investors, Allianz) Henry Johnson (Co-CEO, Fiduciary Trust Company International, Franklin Templeton Investments, Franklin Resources) Tom Johnson (Head, Strategic Institutional Business Development, Mass Mutual Financial Group) Tif Joyce (President, Joyce Financial Management) Geoff Kalish (Co-Founder, Aquiline Capital Partners, Aquiline Holdings) Atul Kamra (President, First Clearing Correspondent Services, Wachovia Securities, Wachovia Corporation, Wells Fargo Corporation) Dan Kreuter (CEO, DAK Associates) Peter Kris (Partner, Brazos Capital Management, American International Group, (AIG)) Stephen Langlois (Executive Vice President, Strategic Development, LPL Financial) Charles Lowrey (CEO, Prudential Investment Management, Prudential Financial) Tom Lydon (President, Global Trends Investments) Doug Mangini (Chief Operating Officer, Retail & Intermediary Business, Morgan Stanley Investment Management,Morgan Stanley, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group) Pete Martin (President, Institutional Services, Natixis Global Asset Management, Natixis) Bill McDermott (Executive Vice President, Corporate Markets, Axa Equitable Life Insurance Company, Axa Group) Jim Minnick (President, Lovell Minnick Partners) Sanjiv Mirchandani (President, National Financial Services, Fidelity Investments) Ed Morrison (Chief Operating Officer, Albridge Solutions, PNC Global Investment Servicing, PNC Financial) Mike Mulcahy (President, Bridgeway Funds, Bridgeway Capital Management) Patrick Mulvey (Head, Global Sales & Marketing, Rogers Casey) John Murphy (Chairman, Oppenheimer Funds, Mass Mutual Financial Group) Nicole Newlin (Chief Operating Officer, Loring Ward Group) Karen Novak (Chief Operating Officer, Pershing Advisor Solutions, Pershing, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation) Harry O'Mealia (CEO, Legg Mason Investment Counsel, Legg Mason) Andy O'Rourke (Head, Marketing, Direxion Funds, Rafferty Holdings) Brian O'Toole (CEO, Genworth Financial Management Wealth Management, Genworth Financial) Tim Ouimet (President, MyWorld Investing) Patrick Pagni (Executive Vice President, Trust Company of the West (TCW), Societe Generale Asset Management, Societe Generale) Mark Penske (CEO, United Advisors) James Poer (CEO, NFP Securities, National Financial Partners) Alex Potts (CEO, Loring Ward Group) Scott Powers (CEO, State Street Global Advisors, State Street Corporation) Andy Putterman (CEO, Fortigent, Lydian Trust Company) Matt Raynor (Executive Vice President, Sales, Natixis Global Associates, Natixis Global Asset Management, Natixis) Patrick Reinkemeyer (President, Morningstar Associates, Morningstar) Neal Ringquist (President, Advisor Software) Tony Rochte (Senior Managing Director, Intermediary Business Group, State Street Global Advisors, State Street Corporation) Jake Rohn (Executive Vice President, Corporate Development, Albridge Solutions, PNC Financial) Jim Ross (President, SSGA Funds Management, State Street Global Advisors, State Street Corporation) Bill Salus (Chief Business Development Officer, PNC Global Investment Servicing, PNC Financial) Michael Sapir (CEO, Pro Funds Group) Peter Schaffer (Chief Operating Officer, Zebra Capital Management) Ken Schapiro (President, Condor Capital Management, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company) Bill Schreiner (Executive Vice President, Foliofn) Skip Schweiss (President, TD Ameritrade Trust Company, TD Ameritrade, TD Bank Financial Group) Sandeep Sharma (Executive Vice President, Product Strategy, MyWorld Investing) Adam Sheer (President, The Roosevelt Group) Jamie Shepherdson (Executive Vice President, Wholesale Distribution, Axa Equitable, Axa Group) Tom Sholes (Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning & Global Product Management, PNC Global Investment Servicing, PNC Financial) David Smith (Group Publisher, Financial Advisor & Private Wealth Magazines, Charter Financial Publishing Network) Anne Steer (Executive Vice President, Relationship Management, National Financial Services Corporation, Fidelity Investments) Paul Stevens (CEO, Investment Company Institute) Allen Thorpe (Managing Director, Hellman & Friedman) Frank Trotter (President, Ever Bank Direct, Ever Bank Financial) John Tyers (President, Broadcourt, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of America Corporation) Enrique Vasquez (CEO, Genworth Financial Investment Services, Genworth Financial) Greg Vigrass (President, Foliofn Institutional, Foliofn) Craig Walling (CEO, Private Banking, Wealth Management US, UBS) Steve Wallman (CEO, Foliofn) Bill Walsh (Chief Investment Strategist, Hennion & Walsh) Elliot Weissbluth (CEO, High Tower) Scott Welch (Senior Managing Director, Investment Research & Strategy, Fortigent, Lydian Trust Company) Janine Wertheim (President, Securities America Advisors, Securities America, Ameriprise Financial)

Media Representatives

Tiburon CEO Summit XVI also welcomed six Tiburon select media attendees, including:

Marion Asnes (Editor-in-Chief, Financial Planning Magazine, Source Media) Pam Black (Editor-in-Chief, Bank Investment Consultant, Source Media) Kristen French (Managing Editor, Registered Rep, Penton Business Media, Penton Media)

David Geracioti (Editor-in-Chief, Registered Rep, Penton Business Media, Penton Media) Keith Girard (Reporter, The Improper) John Morgan (Senior Editor, Money Management Executive & Annuity Market News, Source Media)

Also in attendance for Tiburon CEO Summit XVI was Tiburon employee Tudor Jones (Director, Business & Marketing).

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Tiburon CEO Summit XV: October 14-15, 2008

Tiburon CEO Summit XV was held October 14-15, 2008 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, CA. Tiburon CEO Summit XV started at 7:45am on Tuesday, October 14, included a networking dinner that evening in Tiburon, and concluded at 4:15pm on Wednesday, October 15. Over 100 senior industry executives took two days out of their busy schedules to participate. Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors), Bruce Bond (CEO, Power Shares), Bill Hambrecht (CEO, WR Hambrecht + Company & Former CEO, Hambrecht & Quist), Norm Malo (CEO, National Financial Services Corporation), Joe Mansueto (CEO, Morningstar), & Andrew Rudd (CEO, Advisor Software & Former CEO, Barra) made general session presentations. Four general session panel discussions included a consumers panel, an advisors panel, a manufacturers panel, & a special general session panel discussion addressing the credit crisis.

Tiburon's CEO Summit XV was held October 14-15, 2008 in San Francisco, CA

Opening Keynote Presentation:
Chip Roame (Managing Principal, Tiburon Strategic Advisors)

Tiburon & the Tiburon CEO Summits Vision & History

Mr. Roame outlined Tiburon's core businesses, offered a brief overview of the vision behind the Tiburon CEO Summits, & thanked the Tiburon CEO Summit XV sponsors:

• Tiburon's CEO Summits were created in 2001 after Mr. Roame noted the lack of CEO-level interaction across traditional industry lines, and yet saw the consistency of issues being addressed by these same executives
  
• Tiburon's CEO Summits have evolved from a just a handful of industry colleagues meeting in Tiburon to 125+ CEO-level Tiburon clients (and 25 additional media representatives) attending two day conferences at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in San Francisco, CA and New York, NY
  
• Mr. Roame reiterated the two themes of all Tiburon CEO Summits - Challenging Conventional Wisdom and Maintaining a Consumer Orientation
  
• Mr. Roame thanked the CEO Summit planning committee members (Tim Armour, Dennis Clark, Tif Joyce, Tom Lydon, Scott MacKillop, Kevin Malone, Kirk Michie, Skip Schweiss, and Gib Watson) for their support in securing guest speakers, securing sponsors, nominating attendees, and acting as facilitators
  
• Mr. Roame then thanked the nine terrific guest speakers, including Walt Bettinger (President, The Charles Schwab Corporation), Mike Byrum (President, Rydex Investments), Joe Deitch (CEO, Commonwealth Financial Network), John Hailer (CEO, Natixis Global Advisors), Joe Moglia (CEO, TD Ameritrade), John Murphy (CEO, Oppenheimer Funds), Bob Pozen (Chairman, MFS Investment Management), Ron Ryan (CEO, Ryan ALM), & Michael Steinhardt (Chairman, Wisdom Tree Investments)
  
• Mr. Roame also thanked the Tiburon CEO Summit XIV sponsors, including Advanced Equities Financial Corporation, Dunham & Associates, Envestnet Asset Management, Fidelity Investments (National Financial), Fiserv (Check Free), Forward Management (ReFlow), Genworth Financial (Asset Mark), Global Bridge, Jefferson National, LPL Financial Services, State Street Corporation (State Street Global Advisors), Sun Star, TD Ameritrade, The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (Pershing), & The Charles Schwab Corporation whose financial support allow the CEO Summits to be held at the Ritz Carlton Hotel and attendance to be open to 125 CEOs
  

State of the Financial Services Industry

Mr. Roame then laid out a synopsis of the past six months' most newsworthy events and most insightful Tiburon research findings, outlining his expectations for the state of the financial services industry over the coming years, as consumers liquefy their assets but the competitive playing field gets more heated. He focused his comments on the key issues that would likely be addressed by the general session guest speakers, the topics that he hoped would be addressed by the general session panel discussions, and the questions that he suggested be debated in the break-out sessions:

Recap of the Semi-Annual News: Six Months of Amazing Industry News Stories

Mr. Roame started with a review of dozens of recent financial news stories, presenting related quotes from industry leaders and supporting Tiburon research for several key points:

• The most recent industry headache of sub-prime mortgages seems to be self-created, with Mr. Roame saying that "the basic premise is that the investment banks create CDOs to buy risky paper, pool those risks, and then sell those CDOs so that they can go buy more risky paper... And we are surprised when this business ultimately blows up?"
  
• The write-offs have been staggering, led by those at UBS, Merrill Lynch, & Citigroup, $37.1 billion, $25.1 billion, & $23.9 billion respectfully
  
• The sovereign wealth funds stepped in to solve many capital issues, with Singapore leading the way, taking stakes in UBS, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, & Barclays
  
• Mr. Roame questioned the US government’s involvement in bailing out these companies in a capitalist system, quoting Ben Bernanke, who said that, "the damage caused by a default by Bear Stearns could have been extremely difficult to contain. We did what we did because we felt that it was necessary to sustain the viability of the American financial system"
  
• Individuals are also turning to others to bail them out, with Mr. Roame quoting a Bear Stearns Senior Managing Director's question to JP Morgan Chase's Jaime Dimon, "how will you make us whole?"
  
• Mr. Roame also quoted a Wall Street Journal reporter who brought some perspective to the size of the write-offs, questioning, "when is a good time to write off $4 billion (Deutsche Bank)? The same day that your European neighbor (UBS) writes off $19 billion!"
  
• While addressing the employment status of the heads of these financial service companies, Mr. Roame said, “there seemed to be a clear outcome involving CEO heads rolling until we got to HSBC and Morgan Stanley”
• Unfortunately, Tiburon's belief is that huge industry write-offs are going to continue to happen. Mr. Roame asked, what is unclear about the outcomes that will result from the compensation system? We have a system that incents us to take huge risks!
  
• Stepping back, Mr. Roame argued that the bigger public policy issue here is the threat to baby boomers' ability to retire; lost real estate equity, over 10% since 2006, will challenge the pending liquefaction and baby boomers' ability to retire
  
• And on the regulatory front, the skeptics are not so sure that the power should go to the Federal Reserve, Mr. Roame quoted Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, who said that, "it is like giving a bigger shovel to the guy who dug the hole"
  

Fundamental Industry Trends: Reinforcing Tiburon Research Findings

Mr. Roame then brought the attention of the audience away from the short-term news noise and back to the long-term fundamental industry trends, presenting some high-level Tiburon research findings:

Key Driving Factors

• US households control almost three-quarters of all investable assets, more than half invested via financial advisors
  
• Three-quarters of baby boomers over the age of 55 have less than $100,000 in investable assets and the consumer households' savings rate continues to hit new all time lows
  
• Baby boomers have not saved in the traditional way, with many assuming they would liquefy the equity in their houses, but declining house values may now challenge this strategy
  
• The median value of baby boomers' inheritance is only $48,000; very few receive more than $100,000
  
• The savings crisis is further driven by the risk of baby boomers living too long, with estimates that more than half of 65 year olds will reach age 85 and over one-third will reach 90; amongst 65 year old couples, there is a 50% chance that one (or both) will live another twenty-five years
  
• Consumer households have almost $23 trillion of investable assets, $35 trillion of financial assets, and $70 trillion of total assets, with an important distinction between the high dollar average and the much lower median amounts
  
• Hence, the solution to the perceived savings crisis will be baby boomers' liquefaction of their retirement plan assets, personal assets, and other illiquid assets, such as the rollover of 401k plan balances, the sale of houses, and the sale of private businesses
  

Products & Services

• Mutual funds are the dominant investment product ($10.8 trillion assets) and are used heavily by both the fast growing independent rep and fee-only financial advisor markets (39% & 61% of assets respectively) suggesting that mutual funds aren't going away, even if much of the reporting and media focus is on other products, including exchange traded funds, separately managed accounts, and hedge funds. Mr. Roame called attention to the facts ($10.8 trillion in mutual funds versus ETFs at $608 billion & separately managed accounts at $720 billion (collectively $1.3 trillion)), encouraging the group to maintain perspective
  
• There is some trend to packaged solutions; for instance, target date mutual funds have quickly gathered over $150 billion (although Mr. Roame cautioned that it appears that consumers are misusing these funds, mixing them into portfolios containing other funds, hence altering their overall asset allocation)
  
• Packaged fee-account assets have grown substantially over the past eight years to over $1.5 trillion
  
• More broadly, the investment process is being polarized with twin growth patterns in both market-linked products and alternative investments. Mr. Roame argued that exchange traded funds may be the fundamentally most important product invention since the mutual fund in 1940, and hypothesized that they may ultimately shift many financial advisors' role to that of managing a series of index products and focusing excess time on delivering a broader set of wealth management services. US hedge funds assets under management have grown significantly to almost $2 trillion but have remained steady since 2006
  
• Mr. Roame argued that investments may matter less than wealth management services as baby boomers move from the liquefaction & retirement income challenge years into either their health care & retirement income challenge years (for the less affluent) or their estate planning & charitable giving distribution years (for the more affluent)
  

Markets & Distribution Channels

• Close to 400,000 financial advisors are in the market, including about equal numbers of wirehouse & other employee brokers (92,000), life & property & casualty insurance agents (87,000), bank brokers & trust officers (82,000), and independent reps (also 82,000)
  
• Wirehouse and retail banks continue to dominate control of consumer investable assets (31% and 27% respectfully) but independent advisors continue to outgrow the competition (18% assets growth rate for fee-only financial advisors and 14% for independent reps)
  
• Fidelity Investments recently surpassed Merrill Lynch as the largest financial services firm when ranked by client assets, and Schwab will also surpass Merrill Lynch at current growth rates in the next year, further evidencing the growth in new channels (discount brokerage, fee-only financial advisors, and independent reps)
  
• Mr. Roame also pointed to an important international trend for product companies, noting that non-US mutual funds assets under management have surpassed those of US mutual funds
  

Financial Advisor Tactical Issues

• On a more tactical level, Mr. Roame noted it is worth understanding the model of the largest independent financial advisor, Fisher Investments, with over $43 billion assets under management: nearly everything that Fisher Investments does (eg, marketing, staffing, compensation, etc) is outside of the norm
  
• As competition heats up, Mr. Roame said that the game will increasingly be won through marketing. Mr. Roame argued that client retention and consolidation is now more critical as baby boomers liquefy their wealth
• Returning to his case example, Mr. Roame noted that Fisher Investments is not only the largest but also the fastest growing independent financial advisor, utilizing a well refined direct mail machine as well as other substantial marketing efforts to gather assets and spending over $50 million per year on advertising, but with a 97% retention rate Fisher Investments also doesn't lose the assets collected
  

Strategic Conclusions

• Institutional level mergers & acquisitions were booming but have slowed dramatically in 2008 due to the credit crisis
  
• There is also a substantial bifurcation happening in all businesses (e.g., banking, brokerage, mutual funds), with Mr. Roame utilizing the asset management business as an example, where a handful of firms (e.g. American Funds, Vanguard, Fidelity Investments) exceed $1 trillion assets under management, but 84% of all mutual fund companies manage less than $10 billion
  
• Mr. Roame noted that several companies have utilized target marketing to successfully grow their companies, including Hanson McClain Retirement Network, CMS Companies, & Clearly Gull at a financial advisor level, and both Rydex and DFA at the institutional level
  
• Finally Mr. Roame cautioned all of the CEO attendees that in order to keep a proper perspective it is important to not confuse high growth percentages with dollar growth rates. The fastest growing products and channels may get the most news but it is all relative to the dollar amount from which they are starting. For instance he pointed out that in dollar terms full-service brokers are outgrowing fee-based financial advisors and mutual funds are outgrowing separately managed accounts
  

Tiburon Strategic Advisors

After concluding his opening remarks on the State of the Industry, Mr. Roame took a few minutes to discuss Tiburon. In updating the group of clients on Tiburon's activities, Mr. Roame noted that:

• Tiburon has positioned itself uniquely as a research based strategy consulting firm for financial services firms
  
  • Tiburon manages its research in terms of Power Point pages created and added to it's expanding library of knowledge, including mutual funds distribution, separately managed account programs, alternative investments, wealth management services, insurance products, banking services, the fee-only financial advisor market, the CPA firm market, the family office market, and various international markets
    
• Mr. Roame suggested that all clients buy its Research Report RetainerTiburon's core business market research & strategy consulting services. The firm executes projects from a top down perspective, working closely with its clients top executives
  
  • While only serving financial services clients, Tiburon's clients also include technology companies that serve financial services companies, other consulting firms in need of financial services industry research, venture capital & private equity firms investing in financial services companies, and governments, trade groups, & conference companies. Mr. Roame presents at dozens of board meetings each year
    
  • Tiburon delivers its research & strategy consulting services in three primary ways, including its popular research reports & research report retainer program, one day market seminars & conference speeches, and its core service in customized market research & strategy consulting projects
    

Tiburon CEO Summit XIV - Schedule & Tactics

After offering up that broad synopsis and introduction to Tiburon's client services, Mr. Roame introduced the nine guest speakers grouped into three sections, including Public Policy, Products, & Management. Mr. Roame then gave a brief overview of what he expected each speaker would address:

Public Policy

• Walt Bettinger (President, The Charles Schwab Corporation) will address the dramatic evolution around the responsibility of making financial decisions transferring from large institutions to individuals and the implications for the industry. More specifically, what the responsibilities are within the industry to help individuals, especially in the second through fourth quartile
  
• John Murphy (CEO, Oppenheimer Funds) will address how traditional mutual fund companies compete in an increasingly global market
  
• Bob Pozen (Chairman, MFS Investment Management) will address several issues surrounding sovereign wealth funds, including the source & size of sovereign wealth funds, their impact on capital markets, security & political concerns, disclosure & stability concerns, and protectionism & reciprocity
  
• Ron Ryan (CEO, Ryan ALM) will address the pension crisis and the need to align assets to specific liabilities. Mr. Ryan will also discuss portable alpha and the proper LDI strategy and cover liability beta & liability alpha
  

Products

• Mike Byrum (President, Rydex Investments), will address the evolution of Rydex and the collective competencies with Security Benefit Group. Mr. Byrum will also address Rydex's forward looking perspective and solving the retirement income challenge
  
• Michael Steinhardt (Chairman, Wisdom Tree Investments) will address both the history and current state of the hedge fund industry. He will also discuss his career and why he closed his firm in 1995 and why he later accepted the chairman position at Wisdom Tree Investments
  

Management

• Joe Deitch (CEO, Commonwealth Financial Network) will address keys to successful management, specifically theory versus practice
  
• John Hailer (CEO, Natixis Global Associates) will address global opportunities through deeper partnerships and innovative products. He will also review the rethinking of business models with a look at organizing towards innovation
  
• Joe Moglia (CEO, TD Ameritrade) will address the impact of several key industry trends, including the growth of discount brokerage, the emergence of independent financial advisors, and the importance of capturing IRA rollovers. Mr. Moglia will also address TD Ameritrade's commitment to improving technology and operations and enhancing customer service
  

Guest Presentations

Aside from Mr. Roame's opening keynote presentation, nine guest presentations anchored the CEO Summit agenda:

Walt Bettinger
(President, The Charles Schwab Corporation)

Walt Bettinger is President of The Charles Schwab Corporation and oversees the strategy, development, & delivery of a full range of brokerage, investment, & banking services to Schwab's primary business units, including Schwab Investor Services, Schwab Institutional, Schwab Corporate & Retirement Services, and Schwab Investor Development. He leads the company's domestic and international field branch network with primary offices in more than 300 locations and also has ultimate responsibility for client service centers in Orlando, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Denver, Phoenix, Austin, Reno, & San Francisco. He also has responsibility for support services, including all operations and technology capabilities within the firm, supporting 7.0 million client brokerage accounts, 5,000 independent financial advisors, and thousands of corporate retirement plans, representing $1.5 trillion in client assets.

After an introduction by Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors), Mr. Bettinger addressed the dramatic evolution around the transfer of financial decision making responsibility from large institutions to individuals, and the implications for the industry. Mr. Bettinger made the following points:

• Mr. Bettinger outlined several financial challenges, including evaporating traditional pensions, projected social security & medicare bankruptcies, rising health care costs, decreasing personal savings rates, & expanding retirement years, all leading to a retirement income challenge especially for the lower quartiles of the population
  
• Mr. Bettinger next addressed potential for improving financial fitness. Mr. Bettinger started by dismissing some potential answers, including the internet, annuities, and government intervention. Mr. Bettinger stated that, “technology will play a role as tool, not as a solution; we still need counsel and have people-to-people interactions”
  
• John Cammack (Head, Third-Party Distribution, T. Rowe Price Group) asked how he envisioned getting a low cost 401k plan to retail. Mr. Bettinger responded that the government could boost participation a little but answer needs to come from this room as businesses need to develop new creative models to server all quartiles
  
• Mr. Bettinger talked about how The Charles Schwab Corporation has succeeded with its client focus saying that, “if your business isn’t about people, you won’t succeed in business. We run for-profit companies but we have to do it with people as a priority. Asking how much money can I make is not what has made me successful and that’s not why I got into the business.” The Charles Schwab Corporation goes further down stream than many companies but they need to find ways to go even further
  
• Mr. Bettinger then led a discussion on financial literacy. Steve Deschenes (Chief Marketing Officer, Retirement Income Group, Mass Mutual Financial Group) stated that, “financial literacy is low, with the average household having more debt than assets and these households are not going to become clients.” Mr. Bettinger responded that financial literacy needs to be part of the core curriculum at a young age to help future clients stay out of debt
  
• Mr. Bettinger ended by answering a question from Viggy Mokkarala (Executive Vice President, Envestnet Asset Management), who asked about tangible steps that the industry should take, saying that, “initial steps are being taken right now in talking about it at the Tiburon CEO Summit instead of discussing other topics”
  

Mike Byrum (President, Rydex Investments)

Mike Byrum is President of Rydex Investments and oversees the firm's portfolio management, research, and trading. Mr. Byrum is also the chairman of the Rydex Investment Strategy Committee, which determines investment policy for all Rydex products. Mr. Byrum oversees all Rydex business lines, including mutual funds, exchange traded funds, and the firm's broker/dealer, Rydex Financial Services. In addition, he is instrumental in product development and management across the firm. Mr. Byrum leads the alternatives strategies development team at Rydex, which seeks to conceptualize and shape new alternative strategy products to maintain Rydex’s position as an industry innovator.

After an introduction by Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors), Mr. Byrum addressed the evolution of Rydex and the collective competencies within its parent Security Benefit Group. Mr. Byrum also addressed Rydex's forward looking perspective. He made the following points:

• Mr. Byrum started by offering a background of Rydex, saying that, “Rydex was built on the need by fee-only investment advisors who had tactical allocation models and were not welcome by conventional mutual funds." It created index based mutual funds that offered and encouraged daily liquidity. Mr. Byrum also outlined Rydex’s value proposition of, “providing institutional-style investment strategies to individual investors by marrying the investment characteristics of institutional portfolios with the structural benefits of registered products”
  
• He then addressed Rydex’ recent focus on alternative investment strategies, discussing how education on this area and getting investors to understand the benefits are the biggest challenges. Mr. Byrum then added that, “Rydex is on the front-end of this new movement. Traditional asset allocation is no longer acceptable. Lower correlated asset strategies need to be added to help increase returns and lower risk; conventional markets may not be offering as much opportunity in the coming years as they have in the past”
  
• Mr. Byrum discussed that alternative investments are perceived to be risky but the fact is they really are intended to balance risk in individuals' portfolios. Part of misconception is that the benefit of including alternative investments in a portfolio was masked in the 1990s but has become more apparent in recent years
  
• Mr. Byrum concluded his remarks by saying that, “yesterday we talked about financial literacy at the level of balancing a check book & managing credit card debt and we’re here now talking about alternative investments, so there is a significant mismatch there”
  

Joe Deitch (CEO, Commonwealth Financial Network)

Joe Deitch is the CEO of Commonwealth Financial Network, which he founded in 1979 to create an open and supportive environment where professionals could be true to themselves (and to their clients), follow their dreams, and grow to their hearts' content. Mr. Deitch has strived to maintain the original vision of providing indispensable service and cultivating a supportive environment where all affiliated professionals can thrive.

After an introduction by Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors), Mr. Deitch addressed keys to successful management, specifically theory versus practice. He made the following points:

• Mr. Deitch focused his remarks on success: theory versus practice and bringing that success to all aspects of your life. He asked the attendees, “how many of you have mission statements in your marriage?” Mr. Deitch emphasized the importance of a consistent approach and passion to both your business and personal life
  
• Mr. Deitch then discussed how to fully utilize the resources we have, including our brains. He stated that a computer operates at 27,000 MIPS and the human brain operates at 100 million MIPS adding that, “our brain is constantly on – take control!”
  
• Mr. Deitch next addressed recruiting strategies and the importance on hiring the right people and realizing how detrimental a bad team member can be to the overall company’s goals. Mr. Deitch said that, “Commonwealth’s hiring strategy is to have clear job descriptions by profiling both the job and the department first then profiling the candidates to find the right match”
  
• Mr. Deitch next addressed learning from the masters and seeking expert advice, saying that “professional athletes all have coaches – many having multiple coaches to improve performance, and that business executives should also seek out coaches as business can be the greatest sport of all.” Mr. Deitch also shared a Deitch family secret of, “celebrating bad service – as it makes you look great by comparison”
  
• Anne Steer (Executive Vice President, Relationship Management, National Financial Services Corporation) asked, “how has your strategy evolved over the years?” Mr. Deitch responded that, “Commonwealth has maintained the same vision and that now it is easier for him to let people go as the fit needs to be right for the employer and the employee and they would be a star at a different company”
  
  

John Hailer (CEO, Natixis Global Associates)

Mr. Hailer is the CEO of Natixis Global Associates and is responsible for the overall strategic development of the firm’s investment management and distribution businesses. Mr. Hailer works to create and leverage synergies, between the investment management and distribution arms of the organization. Mr. Hailer has been recognized for his leadership within the company. He manages the company’s assets and assists in building distribution architecture that provides access to the investment capabilities of the firm's affiliated managers across a range of investment platforms.

After an introduction by Tif Joyce (President, Joyce Financial Management), Mr. Hailer addressed global opportunities through deeper partnerships and innovative products. He also reviewed the rethinking of business models with a look at organizing towards innovation. He made the following points:

• Mr. Hailer started his presentation by discussing the opportunities and growth rates of international markets identifying the US, UK, France, & Japan as the more mature markets saying that, “we will participate in mature markets and innovate and participate in new markets”
  
• Mr. Hailer said that clients still look to the US saying that, “our clients in the middle east look to the US as the top flight asset manager” but cautioned that you can’t go into new markets with an American centric attitude and that you need local people to be successful
  
• Mr. Hailer next discussed how Natixis plans to stay relevant in the industry through innovation, saying that through their, “multi-manager structure, they stay innovative and nimble to stay relevant in all market places." Mr. Hailer emphasized the Tiburon CEO Summit theme of consumer orientation saying that, "our asset management ideas come from our clients and talking to them about solutions, not products”
  
• Mr. Hailer next discussed the difference between multi-national companies and global companies, and how Natixis has been able to leverage its global advantage, citing an example of delivering innovative solutions from Oakland to Taipei through Singapore
  
• Mr. Hailer summarized Natixis’ acquisition strategy by saying that, “we want to have partners; you can't be all things to all people but we make sure there's a personal fit; we don't acquire just for the assets; our goal to go deeper with existing relationships"
  

Joe Moglia (CEO, TD Ameritrade)

Joe Moglia is CEO of TD Ameritrade, a role which he assumed in 2001. He subsequently has acquired numerous other discount brokerage firms and fought off a hostile takeover attempt by E*Trade, choosing instead to merge with TD Waterhouse in 2006. Mr. Moglia is responsible for TD Ameritrade's 150 branches, 6.3 million client accounts, over 300,000 daily trades, and $300 billion in client assets.

After an introduction by Skip Schweiss (Chief Operating Officer, TD Ameritrade Trust Company, TD Ameritrade), Mr. Moglia addressed the impact of several key industry trends, TD Ameritrade's acquisition strategy, three key priorities, and keys to leadership. He made the following points:

• Mr. Moglia started with an overview of the TD Ameritrade’s business, telling the story of how when he took over as CEO of TD Ameritrade in 2001, he asked the management team about the firm’s core competencies. They decided they were good at equity trading and that this should lead them into the active trader space
  
• At the same time (post-9/11) there was significant excess capacity in the brokerage industry. TD Ameritrade subsequently did nine acquisitions to absorb some of that capacity. The firm is now focused on becoming an asset gatherer rather than a trader. Bolstering this strategy is the recent acquisition of Fiserv’s custody division which gives the firm greater scale in the RIA market and a foothold in the 401(k) market
  
• Mr. Moglia offered the following comparisons from 2001 to 2007 he said that TD Ameritrades trades per day in 2001 were 113,000 and in 2007 reached 322,000, its client assets under management grew from $24 billion in 2001 to $300 billion in 2007, its market cap grew from $700 million in 2001 to $12 billion in 2007, and from a negative ROE in 2001 to 40% in 2007
  
• Mr. Moglia next identified TD Ameritrade’s three key priorities: clients, shareholders, and associates (employees). He said that the firm builds everything around these three key constituencies, saying that, “I believe we have a moral and in effect a fiduciary obligation to help our clients reach their financial goals,” reflecting on the Tiburon CEO Summits’ consumer orientation theme. In the RIA market, TD Ameritrade supports financial advisors' growth; if the RIA grows his/her business, then TD Ameritrade will be successful as well
  
• Mr. Moglia then addressed what he identified as key leadership attributes:
  • Know yourself – “know what you’re good at, what you’re not; your strengths and weaknesses, what makes you tick:
    
  • Passion - “do what you love, love what you do; do what you really care about, where you know you can make a difference - otherwise all you have is a job”
    
  • Courage – “having the guts to do what you really believe is right, regardless of short-term consequences to yourself”
    
  • Stress – “this is where the cream rises to the top; your employees will look to you for strength and guidance during times of stress”
    
  • Ego – “leave it at the door; make decisions in the best interest of the firm, not just implementing your great ideas”
    
• He ended by saying that, “leadership is about caring for others around you and the real job of a leader is to always have their best interests at heart”
  

John Murphy (CEO, Oppenheimer Funds)

John Murphy is the CEO of Oppenheimer Funds, a role he assumed in 2000, overseeing more than $260 billion across multiple investment strategies. Mr. Murphy is responsible for overseeing the growth of the company beyond traditional mutual funds, and expanding the company’s product & service offerings with the acquisitions provided by Tremont Capital Management. In addition, Mr. Murphy oversees the company’s attempt to bring hedge funds to retail investors.

After an introduction by Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors), Mr. Murphy addressed how traditional mutual fund companies compete in an increasingly global market. He made the following points:

• Mr. Murphy started with a brief overview of Oppenheimer funds and its $250 billion in assets under management focused in retail mutual funds, separately managed account, hedge funds-of-funds, 529 plan accounts, qualified retirement plans, institutional investment management and sub-advisory services, serviced by approximately 2,600 employees
  
• Mr. Murphy next gave an update on the US mutual fund industry, quoting data from the Investment Company Institute showing the US mutual fund industry at $13 trillion - growing almost 100% since 2002 and representing about 25% of US consumer wealth
  
• Mr. Murphy then addressed the US mutual fund industry’s need to compete on the global stage. US market penetration seems to have leveled off with about 43% of US households (or 51 million) owning mutual funds with about 91 million individual shareholders. Even with this US penetration, US mutual fund companies hold less than half of global mutual fund assets and growth rates of mutual fund assets in Luxembourg and Ireland (domiciles for UCITS) have outpaced US growth in recent years. Further, mutual funds are owned by only 6%-8% of households in Asia and assets there could expand from $3.5 billion as of Q3 2007 to $6-$8 billion over the next five years
  
• US mutual fund companies face barriers to selling US mutual funds outside the US due to unfavorable tax treatment relative to UCITS. That is, US funds are required to distribute income and capital gains annually while UCITS have no similar distribution requirement. Further, US funds are required to be organized as complex corporations that separate the investment advisor from the mutual fund company, while UCITS have a choice as to their organizational structure
  
• Mr. Murphy concluded by saying that, "the time is right now to strike and we should make our congressmen and senators aware of the situation." Skip Schweiss (Chief Operating Officer, TD Ameritrade Trust Company, TD Ameritrade) cautioned that, “the Growth Act may be politically difficult given that we have a lame duck president in an election year and a Democratic controlled House of Representatives and Senate that favor taxation, protectionism, & more regulation. Given politicians’ focus on the size of the US deficit, and Democrats’ inclination to repeal the Bush tax cuts and to further raise taxes, and in light of the fact that mutual funds raise significant tax revenue with the current tax laws, improving the tax treatment on US mutual funds appears unlikely”
  

Bob Pozen (Chairman, MFS Investment Management)

Bob Pozen is the chairman of MFS Investment Management which established the first mutual fund in the US in 1924. Today, MFS Investment Management, a subsidiary of Sun Life Financial of Canada, has more than $169 billion in assets under management, offering a wide range of products and services to investors, including more than 70 mutual funds, fixed & variable annuities, separately managed accounts, & retirement plans to retail customers, institutional investors, & insurance offerings. The firm has 15 offices worldwide, 2,400 employees, and more than five million shareholders.

After an introduction by Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors), Mr. Pozen addressed several issues surrounding sovereign wealth funds, including the source & size of sovereign wealth funds, their impact on capital markets, security & political concerns, disclosure & stability concerns, and protectionism & reciprocity. He made the following points:

• Mr. Pozen started his presentation with some background information on size & source of sovereign wealth funds, sharing from a McKinsey report that two-thirds of sovereign wealth funds assets are built on petrodollar or oil wealth with these nations seeking to diversify their assets away from the concentration on oil (primarily Middle East). Two other sources of sovereign wealth funds assets are trade surpluses (primarily Asia) and pension contributions (Asia & Australia)
  
• Mr. Pozen addressed the flow of sovereign wealth funds showing Asia - excluding China- as the leading source with 55% followed by the Middle East with 32% and China with 13%. The US at 37% is the leading destination of sovereign wealth funds followed closely by Europe at 35%, China at 21%, and Asia at 7%
  
• Mr. Pozen then addressed the impact of sovereign wealth funds in the US and international financial markets. He noted that Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and UBS have all recently been capitalized by sovereign wealth funds
  
• Mr. Pozen then addressed security and political concerns with public opinion on sovereign wealth funds in the US decidedly negative - even among those who profess to know little about them. Mr. Pozen countered that sovereign wealth funds' investments tend not to be subject to many of the prevailing concerns about them stating that there are already many restrictions on foreign ownership of US companies, particularly in the crucial transportation, banking, and communications & broadcasting industries
  
• Mr. Pozen also challenged concerns about stability & disclosure with sovereign wealth funds, stating that sovereign wealth funds usually have long term investment horizons so they are not under liquidity pressure and that and there are US reporting mandates on all investors (e.g., 5% owners) regardless of source
  

Ron Ryan (CEO, Ryan ALM)

Mr. Ryan is the CEO and founder of Ryan ALM, which is focused on solving asset/liability problems through a disciplined structured systems, including custom liability indexes, liability beta portfolio, & portable alpha (liability hedge fund). Mr. Ryan is responsible for overseeing and analyzing the Treasury’s and developing indexes specific to them. Mr. Ryan is the creator of the first daily fixed-income indexes; the Lehman US Treasury indexes.

After an introduction by Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors), Ron addressed the pension crisis and the need to align assets to specific liabilities. Mr. Ryan also discussed portable alpha and the proper LDI strategy and cover liability beta & liability alpha. He made the following points:

• Mr. Ryan started by defining the correct pension plans' objectives as “a game of costs not a game of returns” and that the main problem is that pensions need to be liability driven
  
• Mr. Ryan stated that the real reason we have a pension crisis is that interest rates have been declining since 1982 and liabilities have been rising. The US simply cannot afford a healthcare and a pension crisis simultaneously. Over 4,000 corporations have gone bankrupt due to pensions, and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation funds the obligations with the expense born by the US taxpayers. According to the Pension Protection Act of 2006, corporations have seven years to make up their liabilities or face a big problem. Thus the name of the game is for pensions to beat their liabilities by 1-2-3% per year – not to earn a 6% or a 9% alpha
  
• Other problems relate to inaccurate liability valuations and the use of generic indices. For performance measurement purposes, there can be no generic index that behaves like an institution’s specific liabilities. Given the wrong index, you get the wrong risk-reward characteristics of the portfolio
  
• Mr. Ryan went on to say that, “a much better measure of risk (better than the Sharpe Ratio which is based on the 3-month T-Bill for example) is to use the information ratio which is a measure of how the assets behave versus the objective which is usually a liability for most institutions”
  
• Thus it is critical that the asset allocations for pension plans be liability driven and/or more tactical in nature. That is, as the funded ratio improves, the pension plans may adjust the asset allocations to become more conservative and “take some chips off the table.” Similarly, as funded ratios decline, asset allocations should adjusted to become more aggressive to improve the rate of return and the ability to meet the plan’s liabilities
  
• Mr. Ryan also pointed out that if you ask any corporation to define their biggest asset, they will inevitably reply that it’s their pension plan. If you ask any corporation to define their biggest liability, they will inevitably reply that it’s their pension plan. And yet, the pension plan director is typically missing from the corporation’s board of directors
  

Michael Steinhardt (Chairman, Wisdom Tree Investments)

Mr. Steinhardt is the Chairman of Wisdom Tree Investments, which offers dividend and earnings-based index funds rather than traditional index funds based on market capitalization. Prior to joining Wisdom Tree Investments, Mr. Steinhardt founded Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz, & Company in 1967. Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Company achieved a performance track record that still stands out on Wall Street: 24% compound average annual returns – more than double the S&P 500 – over a 28 year period, accomplished through short-term strategic trading, including stocks, bonds, long & short options, currencies, all with time horizons ranging from 30 minutes to 30 days.

After an introduction by Kevin Malone (President, Greenrock Research), Mr. Steinhardt addressed his views on the state of the hedge funds industry as well as how and why he started his hedge fund and how and why he eventually closed it. Mr. Steinhardt also discussed his involvement with Wisdom Tree Investments. He made the following points:

• Mr. Steinhardt started by giving a history of how and why he started his hedge fund saying that, “the hedge fund industry is the best paid industry bar none, better than star athletes, better than entertainers.” Mr. Steinhardt also addressed why he decided to close his firm in 1995 stating that, “he found the lows lower and the highs less exciting and he was not able to separate self from performance returns." He added that, “you don’t remember the good trades – you only remember the bad ones”
  
• Mr. Steinhardt next addressed the current economic state - suggesting the country, economy, the financial industry and most individuals are too highly leveraged. He suggested that we are likely in a recession, but we should think about the possibility that we could be in for something worse as the country as a whole has never before been this leveraged, magnifying results both positive and negative. Mr. Steinhardt looked at the ratings agencies as one area of improvement saying that, “a good loan is a good loan until it becomes a bad loan”
  
• Mr. Steinhardt went on to discuss changes in the hedge funds industry. He started by saying that, in the 1980s the hedge funds industry was, “smaller counter culture that offered nirvana for people who wanted to be entrepreneurs” and that they were measured only in performance. In answering a question about the lost art of stock picking by Bryce James (CEO, Smart Portfolios), Mr. Steinhardt answered that, “there is still an army of stock pickers but they are being drowned by huge companies as they need mobility so it isn’t working with where the stock pickers are going”
  
• Steve Deschenes (Chief Marketing Officer, Retirement Income Group, Mass Mutual Financial Group) asked about moral hazard and if the hedge fund industry compensation plan encourages hedge fund managers to swing for the fences. Mr. Steinhardt replied that, “with 2 and 20 you should make enough to not swing for the fences and that when people had nothing to lose they usually lost. Mr. Steinhardt also noted that the industry has changed with much bigger hedge funds and that 1% of $8 billion is a good revenue line. He also noted that there has been a shift to larger institutional clients who are more accepting of moderate returns and a stable market while previously hedge fund managers wanted market volatility because, “you were smarter than the other guy”
  
• John Rooney (Managing Partner, Commonwealth Financial Network) asked if the hedge fund industry needed more regulation, to which Mr. Steinhardt replied that, “the market operates with extraordinary liquidity so current regulation seems sufficient”
  
• Mr. Steinhardt concluded by describing his efforts at Wisdom Tree, a fundamental ETF firm with $4.5 billion in assets. While describing the difference between his hedge fund and Wisdom Tree he said that, “the hedge fund started with $7 million and was profitable on day one. But with Wisdom Tree he has been here for three years and is not yet profitable” Mr. Steinhardt went on to say that, “believes the low cost annual dividend or earnings weightings of the Wisdom Tree ETFs will get about average rates of return” and that he is excited about this relatively new way to participate in the market allowing retail investors to manage money for themselves
  

General Session Panel Discussions

One of the key themes of every Tiburon CEO Summit is the need to more closely listen to clients. Tiburon CEO Summits' general session panel discussions (Ask the Consumers, Ask the Advisors, & Ask the Distributors) all allow Tiburon CEO-level clients to hear directly from their constituents in an unvarnished way. This is in sharp contrast to most CEOs' daily activities, where they are forced to rely on interpreting marketing data or listening to anecdotal stories from their sales forces. Addressing these clients first-hand through questions & answers helps Tiburon clients further consider innovative ideas for serving these different client groups.

Ask the Consumers

As has become the tradition at Tiburon CEO Summits, four real and unscripted consumers (Kevin, Joe, Jen, & Larry) were interviewed by facilitator Tif Joyce (President, Joyce Financial Management) for the Ask the Consumers panel. The panel included 3 panelists in their 30s- 40s and one retiree. Kevin is a soon to be married fundraiser for a major Ivy league university. Joe is in his 40s and heads a small manufacturing business. Jen, is in her 30s and mother of two, heads up her own successful public relations firm. Larry is a semi-retired professional in his 50s who has worn many hats in his life and is a quintessential do-it-yourselfer looking for more help. While each provided a unique point of view, a number of common views were shared:

• They were uniformly unimpressed with the amount and quality of service provided. Key weaknesses were, lack of proactive contact, poor communication, & lack of follow-up. For the younger professional group, a common complaint was that they felt their advisors were not paying attention to them despite having relationship balances of $100,000 to $250,000
  
• common feeling related to value provided was expecting a fairly customized approach from their financial advisors, tailored to their individual circumstances. Kevin said that, "I felt that I instead experienced a cookie-cutter approach from my financial advisor who was always pushing the currently featured product"
  
• Jen had a similarly poor experience with a Met Life representative who sold her several load funds but would not answer her questions about the strategy. She said that, "everything they said to me was a big product push"
  
• The consumers selected their current financial advisors in several ways; Kevin sought referrals from friends who are with several firms but none felt comfortable enough to recommend their specific financial advisors; so he went with UBS because no one he spoke to utilized them and they had won some awards discovered in a google search. Jen selected a financial advisor whom she worked with over the years as a client of her public relations firm. The trust and comfort she felt outweighed her hesitation to open her books completely to a client and his/her judgment, "if she wanted to buy a pair of $600 shoes"
  
• After years of handling his own investments and a recent losing streak, one panelist was looking for a financial advisor who had the time to do the needed research but was wary of financial advisors not aligning their actions with his goals & objectives
  
• None felt that they have the time for proper due diligence to seek out the appropriate financial advisor and were still with their current financial advisors out of inertia rather than satisfaction. Joe said that, "unfortunately, it takes a financial catastrophe to switch providers"
  
• Expectations from the group were clear and high. Jen described her desire for a dream team approach in which her accountant, advisor/broker, lawyer, and insurance agent were integrated in their efforts and communications
  
• All panelists felt that contact was reactionary rather than proactive. This was especially salient for the panelists because they are heavy technology users who use and expect email and phone outreach in their own businesses but do not see it from their financial advisors. Jen commented that, "if I treated my clients the way my financial advisor does, I would be out of business!"
  
• The younger panelists admitted to watching investments with daily frequency given the ready access to pricing information provided by highspeed internet and wireless technology
  
• Looking to the future, panelists will build retirements with someone they trust. That does not seem to include their current providers. Even Larry, the do-it-yourselfer, admitted that as he faces retirement, he needs helpful investment advice. But he cautioned that, "he has the time and interest to look closely over his financial advisor's shoulder to make sure things are being done correctly"
  
• Jen said that financial advisors need to pay attention to young business owners now stating, "pay attention to me now and maybe we'll go some place together"
  
• All panelists felt that they are willing to pay more for outsized performance for at least a part of their portfolios. Accordingly, fee sensitivity was not an issue for any of the panelists as long as returns were competitive
  
• The last item addressed by panelists was children and it was agreed across the board that, "kids are really expensive!" and even with timely planning, miscalculations are made. Joe complimented Ameriprise Financial for its goal defining tools, solid checklists, but projected his college tuition needs at $37,000 - significantly less than the $52,000 per year he is now paying
  

The panel was extremely frank and the net impression was that no provider is doing an impressive job serving such clients satisfactorily. There appears to be a huge opportunity for financial service providers to capture new relationships by providing the kind of service and experience that the panelists are seeking but have not found. The firm that does so will have an opportunity for significant disruption in the category. The attendees enjoyed the opportunity to hear direct from consumers on the Ask the Consumers panel; Tif Joyce said that, “we all need to look to the end users to direct what we do.” Tiburon's Managing Partner Chip Roame agreed, saying that, "unlike consumer goods, the financial services industry has never had a productive consumer research orientation. The objective here is to remind us all that these are our clients and they have real life needs."

Ask the Advisors

With a similar goal to the Ask the Consumers panel, three leading financial advisors participated on the Ask the Advisors panel to allow attendees to better understand the businesses and decision-making criteria of financial advisors. Facilitated by Dennis Clark (CEO, Advisor Partners), the panelists included Kristin Doe (the leader of a Smith Barney team), Jeffrey Dunham (CEO, Dunham & Associates), & Mitch Eichen (CEO, The MDE Group). The financial advisors were selected from different backgrounds and approaches to the industry, providing wide range of perspectives. However, there was complete agreement that the investment advisory business is truly an exciting cottage industry (as noted often by Tiburon research, unlike many sectors of the economy, there is no one firm or group of companies with significant market share). Amongst the key points made by the panelists were:

• The three panelists all serve mostly individuals and have similar assets under management ranging from $0.6 billion (Smith Barney team) to $1.6 billion (The MDE Group)
  
• The panelists all had large average relationship sizes ranging from $0.7 million (Dunham & Associates) to $9.0 million (The MDE Group). The firms also ranged in size of operations from 4 employees (Smith Barney team) to 50 (Dunham & Associates)
  
• Two of the three (Dunham & Associates & The MDE Group) primarily rely on mutual funds and exchange traded funds (70% and 50% respectfully), while Kristin Doe from Smith Barney utilizes mostly individual stocks & bonds (65%)
  
• All three panelists’ careers and companies evolved steadily as they identified and adapted to changes in the industry and client needs
  
• Jeffrey Dunham started in 1983 with a love for the industry but hated the compensation structure. When he approached his boss regarding performance fees he was told, "noble idea - now get back to cold calling." He started his own RIA and hired money managers on a performance fee basis, morphing into a turnkey asset management program
  
• Prior to forming The MDE Group in 1987, Mitch Eichen was a senior financial counselor for The Bank of New York, providing full-service personal financial counseling, including tax and investment advice, to senior corporate executives and high net worth individuals. When he left he took 16 clients and gave himself two years to make it, joking that, "the office was only on the second floor so I could not kill myself.” He later changed his strategy and got into the assets under management business as, "1% was more than the $5,000 - $10,000 financial planning fees"
  
• Kristin Doe worked her way up at the wirehouses starting as a sales assistant at Merrill Lynch and is now a wealth manager at Smith Barney. As the industry evolved so did the services she offered saying that, "the business changed from having to know this much (hands a few inches apart) to having to know this much (arms wide apart)." Answering how and why she expanded her services, Kristin Doe said, "necessity - you have a large client that needs something"
  
• All three panelists agreed that building trust with clients was how to grow their businesses
  
• Dunham & Associates utilizes performance fees to differentiate itself but said that, "at the end of the day it's not about fees with most clients- it's the one they trust. Once clients trust you, they become evangelists - on the golf course, at cocktails parties, and elsewhere"
  
• Kristin Doe agreed and said that, “we all offer the same products so it’s all about relationships; the that is only difference is me." To maintain that trusting relationship she said that, “the best way to keep trust is to keep in contact." Specifically she is constantly emailing clients throughout the day and outside of regular business hours
  
• The MDE Group builds trust with its clients by separating itself from traditional Wall Street firms and potential conflicts of interest
  
• The panelists also addressed a number of challenges regarding performance
  
• Christina Doe noted that some clients can not handle risks as much as they think
  
• Jeffrey Dunham said that, "the client's focus is not on relative returns; clients care about the bottom line and their trigger points with their real money. They first look at the bottom right corner of their statements." Mitch Eichen added that, "we believe that benchmarks are largely oversold- if you beat the benchmark and you're down, you're still a moron"
  
• Finally, the panelists addressed industry trends
  
• On independent business models, Christina Doe said that, "it's scary to go independent because you do not have a compliance department behind you and you become a target out there"
  
• On vendor needs, Mitch Eichen said that, "performance has to match the story. Not just innovation - they have to deliver"
  
• On fees, Jeffrey Dunham identified an industry trend where managers' fees have eroded from approximately 100 to 30 basis points for some products and said that, "as an industry we have beaten the snot out of each other over fees" and concluded by saying that, “the one who wins isn't the one who lowers their margin the most”
  

Tiburon CEO Summit attendees valued the opportunity to listen to these successful financial advisors discuss their businesses. Tiburon's Managing Partner Chip Roame concluded that, "there is an inaccurate message going around that small financial advisors' existing client bases are under threat; this simply is not supported. They may not grow as fast as others but I am not sure that their client bases are under any threat."

Ask the Distributors

In keeping with the Tiburon CEO Summit tradition of emphasizing the need to listen carefully to one's clients and prospective clients, the Tiburon CEO Summit Ask the Distributors panel is the third part of this series. For many Tiburon clients (e.g., investment, insurance, & technology firms), understanding the workings of distribution firms is crucial to their firm's success in gaining access to an organization's network of financial advisors. Wirehouses such as Merrill Lynch, independent broker/dealers such as LPL Financial Services, and custodians such as The Charles Schwab Corporation can account for 50% or more of financial product companies' sales. Tiburon's Ask the Distributors panel, facilitated by Tim Armour (Board Member, Janus Capital Group), allowed these distribution organizations to discuss their needs from investment management firms and other product providers through questions & answers. Four major distribution firms provided insights on how they serve financial advisors. Panelists included Tom Bradley (President, TD Ameritrade Institutional Services), Derek Bruton (CEO, LPL Affiliated Broker/Dealers), Charles Goldman (Executive Vice President, Schwab Institutional) & Mark Tibergien (CEO, Pershing Advisor Solutions). Amongst their key points were:

• Charles Goldman described how The Charles Schwab Corporation adds value, including technology, practice management and succession planning. Specifically, he addressed its recent acquisition of Etelligent Consulting saying that, “removing back office challenges is especially critical as more financial advisors leave established firms and strike out on their own. By providing opportunities to outsource administrative tasks, we can help new and established financial advisors focus on their clients and accelerate the growth of their businesses”
  
• Derek Bruton described LPL’s four pillars of success, including, "service, research, non-proprietary products, and world class technology,” saying that, "LPL’s job is to manage the complexity of the financial advisors' business"
  
• Tom Bradley made the observation that financial advisors are looking for solutions for their business practices. All of the panelist agreed that, as platforms and custodians, they are in a unique position to offer these solutions because they have the capital and collective clientele to make such solutions available. Tom Bradley said that, “we need to look at financial advisors as a small business and help them become better business people. They don't want to be told what to do, but we need to help them leverage the resources of larger businesses and empower them to both lower expenses and increase assets"
  
• Pershing’s Mark Tibergien agreed saying that, "the right perspective to approach this business is to focus on the financial advisor's client satisfaction"
  
• Tim Armour then asked the group to define the biggest issues their clients face
  
• On offerings, Charles Goldman responded by saying that, “Schwab needs to deliver useful information including regulatory changes derived from massive data to financial advisors”
  
• On rollover acquisition, Derek Bruton said that, “LPL is offering marketing assistance to help financial advisors compete against the better known wirehouses for rollover assets”
  
• On expansion, Mark Tibergien said that, "Pershing has a fast growing segment of financial advisors working with clients in international markets that Pershing needs to serve"
  
• And finally on retirement, Derek Bruton said that, "the root of the retirement issue is to get the advisor in a position to spend more time with their clients”
  

The panel added perfectly to the Tiburon CEO Summit's agenda of focusing the CEO-level attendees on client needs. Tim Armour (Board Member, Janus Capital Group) summarized the panel saying that, "these guys know what financial advisors want; the product manufacturers need to see them as their clients too." Tiburon's Managing Partner Chip Roame agreed saying that, "the Ask the Distributors panel adds perfectly to the goal of getting all Tiburon CEO-level clients to see that this industry has three levels of clients - the end clients themselves, their financial advisors, and the firms with which these financial advisors affiliate."

Attendees

Tiburon CEO Summit XIV had 123 Tiburon client attendees, including:

Chip Roame (Managing Partner, Tiburon Strategic Advisors) Tim Armour (CEO, Janus Capital Group) Chris Armstrong (CEO, Life’s Next Steps) Marion Asnes (President, Idea Refinery) Chuck Baldiswieler (President, Angel Oak Capital Advisors) Bob Beriault (Chairman, Lincoln Trust Company & Trust Industrial Bank) Walt Bettinger (CEO, The Charles Schwab Corporation) Steve Bodurtha (Partner, Inflexion Point Partners) Tom Bradley (President, Retail Distribution, TD Ameritrade) Derek Bruton (Managing Director, Oppenheimer & Company) Mike Byrum (Senior Managing Director, Quantitative Strategies, Guggenheim Partners) John Cammack (Managing Partner, Cammack Associates) Frank Campanale (Managing Director, Wells Fargo Advisors) Sal Capizzi (Chief Marketing Officer, Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel) Amit Choudhury (Managing Principal, Pinnacle Partners Systems) Dennis Clark (Managing Director, Distribution, Advisory Group, Shelton Capital Management) Steve Cohen (Chief Strategy Officer, Pro Funds Group) Ron Cordes (Co-Founder, Cordes Foundation) Kelly Coughlin (CEO, The Budget Boss) Trish Cox (Senior Vice President, Service Operations, Anthem) Ben Cukier (Managing Partner, Centana Growth Partners) Wayne Cutler (Managing Director, Brokerage & Wealth Management, Novantas) Cliff D’Amato (CEO, Matrix Financial Solutions) Chris Davis (President, Money Management Institute) Joe Deitch (Chairman, Commonwealth Financial Network) Steve Deschenes (Director, Product Management & Analytics, American Funds) Mike DiGirolamo (Owner, LaCucina Sabina) Bob Drake (CEO, Drake Financial Services) Jeffrey Dunham (CEO, Dunham & Associates) Mitch Eichen (CEO, The MDE Group) Marty Ferdous (Chief Operating Officer, CyberActive) Rob Foregger (Executive Vice President, NextCapital Group) Charles Goldman (CEO, AssetMark) Craig Gordon (Chief of Strategic Development, RBC Correspondent & Advisor Services, RBC Capital Markets) Mike Gianoni (CEO, Blackbaud) David Giunta (CEO, Natixis Global Asset Management) Eric Godes (President, Daintree Advisors) Chris Grady (Executive Vice President, Retail Sales, Athene Annuity & Life Assurance Company) Steven Graubart (CEO, Off-Site ED Strategies) Larry Greenberg (President, Jefferson National Financial) Keith Gregg (CEO, Innovation Equity Partners) Doug Grip (CEO, Continuum Capital Managers) Matt Grove (Senior Managing Director, Retail Annuities, New York Life Insurance Company) Eve Guernsey (CEO, Americas, Investment Management, JP Morgan Asset Management) John Hailer (CEO, North America & Asia, Natixis Global Asset Management) Keith Hartstein (CEO, John Hancock Funds) JoNell Hermanson (President, M Financial Wealth Management) Bob Huebscher (CEO, Advisor Perspectives) Rich Hughes (President, Merion Wealth Management) Bob Huret (Founding Partner Emeritus, FTV Capital) Denise Iverson (Chief Financial Officer, Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel) Diya Iyer (Associate, Standard & Poor’s) Bryce James (CEO, Smart Portfolios) Alistair Jessiman (Executive Vice President, Strategy, PNC Asset Management Group) David Johnson (CEO, Cedar Point Capital) Jim Johnson (Partner, Apex Venture Partners) Tif Joyce (Partner, Sonoma County Wealth Advisors) Stephen Langlois (Chief Business Development Officer, eMoneyAdvisor) David Lau (CEO, DPL Financial Partners) Greg Leekley (CEO, Vertigo Media) Chuck Lewis (Co-Founder, MyVest Corporation)

Tom Lydon (President, Global Trends Investments) Scott MacKillop (CEO, First Ascent Asset Management) Larry Maffia (President, ICI Mutual Insurance Company) Norm Malo (Partner, Wealth Investment Partners) Kevin Malone (President, Greenrock Research) Billy McCarter (Business Head, Insurance Solutions Group) Jim McCool (Executive Vice President, Corporate Initiatives, The Charles Schwab Corporation) Bill McGovern (Executive Vice President, Raymond James Financial) Sanjiv Mirchandani (President, Fidelity Clearing & Custody) Joe Moglia (Coach, Football, Coastal Carolina University) Viggy Mokkarala (Executive Vice President, Strategic Business Development, Envestnet) John Moody (CEO, JHM Enterprises) Kathryn Morrison (CEO, Sun Star Strategic) John Murphy (Managing Director, Asset & Wealth Management Sector, Korn Ferry International) Jim Nagengast (CEO, Securities America, Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services) Raj Neervannan (Chief Technology Officer, Alpha Sense) Greg Pacholski (CEO, Heureka Software) Patrick Pagni (Board Member, Amundi Smith Breeden) John Peluso (President, First Clearing Correspondent Services, Wells Fargo Advisors) Don Phillips (Managing Director, Morningstar) Bob Pozen (Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School) Andy Putterman (CEO, 1812 Park) Alan Reid (CEO, Forward Management, Salient Partners) Brian Reid (Chief Economist, Investment Company Institute (ICI)) Neal Ringquist (Executive Vice President, Retirement Clearinghouse) Chuck Robinson (Managing Director, Strategic Growth, Sensible Money) Tony Rochte (Executive Vice President, FundsNetwork, Fidelity Management & Research Company) John Rooney (Managing Principal, San Diego, Commonwealth Financial Network) Ron Ryan (CEO, Ryan ALM) Neeraj Sahai (President, Ratings Services, Standard & Poor’s) Chris Sandlund (Director, Editiorial, NYSE Euronext) Michael Sapir (CEO, Pro Funds Group) Ray Sclafani (President, ClientWise) Ken Schapiro (President, Condor Capital Management) Beth Segers (Partner, Empirical Research Partners) Alan Seigerman (Chief Financial Officer, Forward Management, Salient Partners) Christina Schatz (Senior Portfolio Manager, Wealth Management, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management) Bob Schulman (CEO, ForeDestine) Skip Schweiss (President, TD Ameritrade Trust Company) Jamie Shepherdson (Managing Partner, Crossroads Capital Group) Dave Short (Chairman, John Carroll University) David Smilow (Managing Partner, D. Aaron Asset Management) David Smith (Founding Publisher, Financial Advisor & Private Wealth Magazines) Al Steele (CEO, Trilogy Athletes) Anne Steer (Chief Strategy Officer, TrustFort) Michael Steinhardt (CEO, Steinhardt Partners) Larry Sylvester (CEO, Ram Technologies Group) Allen Thorpe (Managing Director, Hellman & Friedman) Mark Tibergien (CEO, Pershing Advisor Solutions) Frank Trotter (Chairman, Creating the Void) John Tyers (Executive Vice President, Private Wealth Management, Citizens Financial Group) Carl Verboncoeur (CEO, Euro Currency Trust) Gib Watson (Vice Chairman, EnvestnetPMC) John Watts (Chairman, Sequel Energy Solutions) Scott Welch (Chief Investment Officer, Dynasty Financial Partners) Leo Wells (CEO, Wells Real Estate Funds) Jim Wiandt (CEO, ETF.Com) George Wilbanks (CEO, Wilbanks Partners) Mike Wilson (CEO, Mike Wilson) Wayne Withrow (Executive Vice President, SEI Advisor Network) Kurt Wolfgruber (President, Oppenheimer Funds) Neil Wolfson (President, SF Capital Group)

Media Representatives

Tiburon CEO Summit XIV had 26 Tiburon select media attendees, including:

Marion Asnes (Editor-in-Chief, Financial Planning Magazine, Source Media) Pam Black (Editor-in-Chief, Bank Investment, Source Media) Susan Craig (Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, News Corporation) Carol Curtis (Special Reports Editor, Securities Industry News, Source Media) Jacob Daniels (Reporter, Fund Action, Institutional Investor) Kristen French (Managing Editor, Registered Rep, Penton Business Media) Diya Gullapalli (Reporter, Money & Investing Section, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, New Corporation) Bob Huebscher (CEO, Advisor Perspectives) Stacy-Marie Ishmael (Reporter, Financial Times Group) Jane Kim (Reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, News Corporation) Richard Koreto (Editor-in-Chief, Wealth Manager & Advising Boomers, Highline Media, Summit Business Media, Wind Point Partners) Janet Levaux (Managing Editor, Research, Highline Media, Summit Business Media, Wind Point Partners) Nancy Mandell (Managing Editor, Wealth Manager, Highline Media, Summit Business Media, Wind Point Partners)

Fran McMorris (Editor-in-Chief, On Wall Street, Source Media) Kristen McNamara (Reporter, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones & Company, New Corporation) Leslie Norton (Asia Editor, Barron’s, Dow Jones & Company, News Corporation) Lori Pizzani (Editor, Lori’s Stories) Eric Rasmussen (Senior Editor, Financial Advisor Magazine, Charter Financial Publishing Network) Chris Sandlund (Executive Editor, FundFire & Ignites, Money-Media, Financial Times Group) Leslie Scism (News Editor, Journal Reports, The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, News Corporation) Julie Segal (Senior Writer, Institutional Investor) Evan Simonoff (Editorial Director, Financial Advisor Magazine, Charter Financial Publishing Network) Tom Stabile (Senior Reporter, Fund Fire, Money-Media , Financial Times Group) Bob Veres (Editor, Inside Information) John Wasik (Columnist, Personal Finance, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg) Jim Wiandt (CEO, Index Publications, Charter Financial Publishing Network)

Also in attendance for Tiburon CEO Summit XIV were Tiburon employees Travis Biziorek (Research Manager), Brian Cotter (Marketing Manager), Jason Davis (Research Manager), Eric Patterson (Research Manager), Pablo Perez (Senior Research Manager), & Will Stockton (Research Manager).

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Prior Tiburon CEO Summits

As noted above, details on prior Tiburon CEO Summits are also available here:
Most Recent, 2024-2025, 2022-2023, 2020-2021, 2018-2019, 2016-2017, 2014-2015, 2012-2013, 2010-2011, (2008-2009), 2006-2007, 2004-2005, & 2001-2003.