Former Hightower advisor launches RIA with anti-growth goals

Financial advisor Michael Policar launched an RIA with a heretical approach toward the gospel of growth that’s often dogma in wealth management.

After three years with Hightower — one of the largest and fastest-expanding wealth managers — Policar dropped his FINRA registration as well as the firm’s broker-dealer and RIA on his 37th birthday this past January to create his own firm, NGP Financial Planning. The Seattle-area practice has about 30 clients, and he plans to restrict the size to no more than 60.

Private equity-backed Hightower has emerged as one of the most active RIA acquirers. With a January agreement to buy an RIA that has $8 billion in assets under management in the first quarter, it completed its largest ever deal. While Policar praises Hightower and says that leaving his former colleagues has been the most difficult part, his views on the practice’s trajectory “fly in the face of a growth business” like Hightower and other large firms, he says.

“I have a specific vision for what I want and that was not necessarily in alignment with the group I was with before,” says Policar. “This will make me sound lazy: I like the idea of a smaller practice and being hyper-focused on the clients, as opposed to being focused on the growth.”

Representatives for Hightower — a Thomas H. Lee Partners-backed firm with more than 110 practices and $80 billion in assets under administration — confirmed Policar had left “to pursue other career interests,” spokeswoman Patty Buchanan said in an email.

“Hightower thinks very highly of him and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors,” she said.

Despite the competitive fight among wealth managers that are profit-making ventures and the acclaim of industry lists such as Financial Planning’s annual RIA Leaders rankings of the largest firms, most practices are very small businesses. Roughly 70% of SEC-registered RIAs have less than $1 billion in AUM and 57% have 10 or fewer non-clerical employees, according to the Investment Adviser Association and National Regulatory Services. At the state level, more than 80% of state-registered RIAs have no more than 2 employees, regulators’ data shows.

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Operating near the headquarters of Microsoft and Amazon, Policar’s Sammamish, Washington-based practice serves primarily tech and retail professionals. The letters “NGP” in its name stand for “needs, goals and priorities.” Policar had earlier tenures with Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo Advisors before going to Hightower in 2019, according to FINRA BrokerCheck. He worked with compliance consultant RIA Registrar on the launch of his independent firm, and chose Interactive Brokers as the practice’s custodian.

Policar compares his move to treading water over the past three months. The administrative tasks of running the RIA as its sole employee take up much more of his time than with Hightower. He likes the autonomy of carrying out his vision for the practice, though, he says.

“I wasn't running away from anything, I was running towards something,” Policar says. “To me, it's not really about the dollars, it's about how much I can do for the clients that I onboard...The better I know somebody, the more valuable my advice can be.”