Legacy regional firm Janney has big plans in 2023 to build market share with high net worth clients, a highly competitive segment that it's been courting for years.
Its new head of wealth management, John Yackel, an industry veteran who brings experience with building tech platforms to serve clients with wealth transfer and comprehensive financial planning, is expected to accelerate that push.
The Philadelphia-based firm, a subsidiary of Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company,
Yackel, whose first day was Jan. 3, fills the role formerly headed by Kevin Reed, who
Reed said the brokerage is looking to hire 60 experienced advisors in 2023 to grow its current ranks of over 900, and will seek candidates who "have a fiduciary-first, planning-based mindset around their practice." Janney also aims to open in two to three new markets in 2023, Reed said, which would add to its current footprint of 130 markets.
Janney hired 32 experienced financial advisors with a total $4 billion of client assets in 2022, and ended the year with $121 billion in total client assets under management, a company spokesperson said in an email. The advisors came from wirehouses Wells Fargo and UBS as well as firms such as Raymond James, according to a
"Especially as our advisors continue to move upstream in the high net worth space … they're very focused on risk management and generational transfer," Reed said in an interview.
Janney's average AUM per advisor grew 40% from the end of 2018, when it was $95 million, to its current $133 million per advisor, a company spokesperson said in an email, adding that "we do have many teams with $1 billion+ in assets." Generally, high net worth individuals are
Reed added that with its shift to wealthier clients, the firm has evolved to offer "advice beyond investments." He noted that while Janney is dually registered, "about three quarters of our revenue is derived from fiduciary activities."
This is where Yackel comes in, with his technology solutions background for integrating data from different types of client services beyond portfolio management.
"The word financial planning, I think in five years, may be just be called more planning, because we're moving down this ecosystem of broader-based comprehensive planning," Yackel said.
Clients' goals are increasingly "not just financial goals" and could include broader services like medical power of attorney directives, healthcare planning, and other components of estate plans, Yackel said.
"When we continue to amplify, deliver upon that, and more efficiently than anybody else, that's where you're going to continue to recruit and retain the absolute best in the industry."
Yackel added that many advisors are also interested in capturing client assets in the ongoing intergenerational wealth transfer, which industry research firm
Reed and Yackel said they would collaborate on listening to advisors' needs and create solutions tailored for them. "This is a very flat organization," Reed said, adding that Yackel was chosen because he showed "humility and strategic thinking" in putting advisors first, as well as a credible background in platform solutions to make advisors' and clients' tech experience easier.
Yackel said the appeal of Janney lay in being able to create innovative solutions for a firm with a culture focused on advisors as the end-users. "I need to be part of a firm that obviously is going to be highly committed to financial advisors, highly committed to advancements in the delivery of the solutions in a more integrated and seamless fashion for the advisors," Yackel said.
He added that his goal was to help advisors with organic growth. "Everybody naturally sees me getting announced in this role. They go to the question of what technology or platforms are going to get changed, versus helping advisors organically grow their book of business," Yackel said.
