Thousands of advisors are working from home due to Covid-19. Christian D’Urso took the unusual step of giving up the office for the open water.
Since June, D'Urso has been running his $110 million advisory practice from a sailboat off the East Coast. He had long wanted to work remotely, but the pandemic and the lease expiring on his Portland, Oregon, apartment were the catalysts for D’Urso and his wife, Bridge, to pack up their belongings — and their two cats — and drive across the country to live on their boat.
“It's all a little bit new,” says D’Urso, as he takes a video call from the office of his 45x26 foot catamaran, named Mystic.
The coronavirus has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, and it’s uprooted the way many financial services companies do everyday business. But in some cases, it’s provided an unexpected opportunity for advisors to rethink the way they operate, and where they want to do it.
“The pandemic triggered a return home,” says D’Urso, who grew up and learned to sail on the East Coast before moving to Portland for 15 years.
Now D’Urso, chief investment officer of the two-advisor practice Trade Winds Wealth Management, often spends his mornings hiking, kayaking or biking with Bridge, who is a strategic partner at the firm. His afternoons are typically on Zoom, running the business.
Trade Winds Wealth Management services approximately 230 clients, focusing on government employees and members of the military who have fewer than $2 million in assets. The practice keeps its brokerage business with LPL Financial and works with the Olympia, Washington-based OSJ Financial Advocates.
While his long-term plan was to manage his clients’ money remotely, D’Urso hadn’t thought he’d be able to do it so quickly, largely because he figured clients would balk at virtual meetings and learning new technology.
"The game changed in 2020 and there’s a lot we have learned that can potentially skyrocket our success through 2021," writes Chip Munn.
“I think if we were the ones driving the change in their life, there might have been some resistance,” D’Urso says. Coronavirus had already forced clients to incorporate remote technology into the rest of their lives, he says, and virtual admin tools from Financial Advocates simplified the process.
Handling an advisory business off a boat has demanded some modifications to both the boat and the business.
D’Urso is based on a dock in Beaufort, North Carolina, although he and Bridge will sail to new spots and stay there for a week or two, he says. They installed WiFi extenders and cellular antennas to boost signals and a special router that allows multiple SIM cards. They have several cell phones to use for hot spots.
While the internet is fast, it’s the lack of community D’Urso has found to be challenging. His team, which includes another advisor and administrative staff, is actively hiring, he says.
“The hardest part is just making sure that my team is really well-supported,” D’Urso says.
To help, D’Urso purchased his team virtual reality headsets in December, so they could play mini golf or other group activities together about two or three times a month.
“It really creates an element of closeness that we’ve found you can't get with Zoom or GoToMeetings,” he says.
D’Urso isn’t sure what his business will look like post-pandemic — and anticipates using his physical office in a hybrid capacity. But as for now, he’s enjoying the time on his boat.
