How Wealthstream Advisors became the best RIA to work for

When Michael Goodman hires a new employee at his firm, Wealthstream Advisors, he makes a startling confession.

"I've always recognized that Wealthstream is so important to me, but it's not the most important thing to me," said Goodman, the New York RIA's founder and president. "Obviously, my family, my health — those things are going to come first. And I say that to every person that comes aboard."

It's not the kind of message anyone expects to hear when they land a job — in fact, Goodman suspects many new hires don't believe it at first. But right off the bat, he said, it lets employees know the kind of workplace they're entering: a place where hard work is valued, but so is work-life balance.

"It's not that we don't work hard," Goodman said. "If something's going on in your life, go for it — take that time, do what you need to do, make sure you're healthy. But when you're working, there's rigor."

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Thanks to that balanced experience, Wealthstream is No. 1 on Financial Planning's list of the Best RIAs to Work For. The firm has distinguished itself not only for the high standards it sets for its employees, but for its generous benefits — copious time off, coaching and mentoring programs, company outings and support for continuing education, just to name a few.

And those perks don't just benefit the employees. They enable the staff to do their best work, Goodman said, which benefits the firm as a whole.

"The philosophy begins with the team," Wealthstream wrote in its application for FP's ranking. "If the team is happy, they will do a great job keeping clients happy."

The advisory's humble beginnings in accounting

When Goodman founded Wealthstream almost three decades ago, he was taking a major risk. At the time he was not a financial advisor, but a CPA at the accounting giant KPMG. But he found the work unsatisfying, and in 1996 he made a decision that few accountants would endorse.

"I quit my job at KPMG, where I was making a really great salary," Goodman recalled. "My wife was pregnant with our first child, and we had just bought our first home. And I started a business from scratch."

To his surprise, his wife — also a CPA — was on board.

"We talked it through for a while. She knew I wasn't really loving my job, and that I wanted to do this. And we were young and naive, so we just jumped in."

In that precarious context, Goodman started Wealthstream Advisors. He wanted to advise clients on their finances, but not as a stockbroker or insurance salesman — the dominant finance jobs of the time. Instead, he took inspiration from his experience as an accountant.

"The CPA model of being your client's partner and advocating for your client, as opposed to selling a product, was just so appealing to me," Goodman said. "And after working in public accounting for about three or four years, I really saw this concept and how this could work."

The first few years were tough. Goodman had trouble finding clients and implementing the RIA business model, which was not common at the time. Meanwhile, he and his wife balanced work with raising their two small children. It was a grueling period of learning the business, often by making mistakes.

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But three or four years in, Goodman estimates, Wealthstream started to pick up momentum.

"I would treat every client like they were the only client, and you would make fans of your clients," he said. "They knew how hard you worked, they knew how hard you cared, and you would get referrals."

Little by little, Wealthstream started to grow. Today the firm has more than 400 clients and $1.35 billion in assets under management, according to its latest SEC filing — not bad for a business with just 22 employees.

"I've been really lucky," Goodman said. "I've attracted some amazing, talented, caring, really sensitive people who love what they do. And our clients keep giving us referrals, and that's how we've grown to a practice of the size that we're at."

Swinging the door open to employee growth

From the beginning, Goodman wanted those employees to feel appreciated. Back in the 1990s, as he was designing the business, team morale was already a top priority.

"I hired one of the consulting firms to come in and help me define what it is we do," Goodman said. "What do we want it to look like? What's our plan? And at the top of the list was that it should be a great place to work."

Today Wealthstream honors that commitment with a variety of team activities. Outings have included a dinner cruise around the Statue of Liberty, visits to a virtual driving range and a two-day retreat in Rhinebeck, New York. Get-togethers include rooftop happy hours, offsite lunches and dinners and white elephant gift giving during the holidays.

The firm also invests in the staff's professional development — literally. Whether an advisor wants to study for a new certification or attend an educational event, Wealthstream foots the bill. Closer to home, the firm assigns a mentor to each new employee and brings in coaches and consultants to help with specific skills. 

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"We aggressively encourage all of our teammates to go out and learn," Goodman said. "We pay for conferences, we pay for credentials, all those kinds of things, so they're continuously learning and developing."

The result is not only a stronger team of professionals, but a different kind of corporate culture. As Goodman puts it, the "old-school" business owner shuts the door behind employees and tries to get as much work out of them as possible before they leave the office. Wealthstream pushes in the other direction.

"Our philosophy is the opposite, the sense that we swing open the door — go out, do stuff, learn stuff!" Goodman said. "We have very much a door-open policy of communication and learning, not focused on the productivity of today, but what the team will look like tomorrow."