Aiming for $100M, RIA adds 3 advisors with doctorates

A registered investment advisory firm is seeking to expand to roughly 10 times its current size after adding three planners who hold doctorates.

Wealth advisors Ajamu Loving, Philip Gibson and Mark Evers joined Green Bay, Wisconsin-based Concurrent Financial Planning, where founder Preston Cherry and his wife, Managing Partner Eiman Osseilan, shared a goal for the RIA to grow to $100 million in client assets from nearly $10 million, the company said last month. The additions came after Concurrent struck agreements to offer wealth management to members of a local institution, Shoreline Hometown Credit Union, and clients of an agency for pro athletes, AthEquity. 

The advisory practice brings an academic background: All five staff members have doctorates in planning; Cherry is a past president of the Financial Therapy Association and the director of the Charles Schwab Center for Personal Financial Planning at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay; and Loving and Evers, respectively, are an associate professor of finance at University of North Texas at Dallas and the director of the planning program at University of North Texas. Osseilan, a former finance professor, and Cherry met in graduate school, while Gibson and Cherry first connected when both were undergraduates 20 years ago.

"You have to have belief in the philosophy in order to execute on the mission," Cherry said in an interview, noting that he had been seeking professionals with "strong advanced planning backgrounds" to help the firm reach its target size.

"That gives us something unique," Cherry said. "That gives us conviction in what we're doing. We don't have to teach advanced strategies. We don't have to teach being believers in the humanity of money. We don't have to teach any of that. It's already here."

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Cherry launched the firm in 2018 after tenures with firms such as Prudential, Hornor Townsend & Kent and Salient Capital Advisors over a financial services career that began in 2003, according to the firm's Securities and Exchange Commission disclosures. A frequent conference speaker, Cherry has also been the practitioner-editor of the Financial Planning Association's "Journal of Financial Planning," a financial advisor coach with Carson Coaching and the co-founder and "chief evangelist" of Practice Intel, an advisory practice management and training startup. In addition, he was named one of the "23 people who will leave a mark on wealth management in 2023" by Financial Planning.

Current Financial Therapy Association President Ashley Agnew — the director of relationship development with Needham, Massachusetts-based Centerpoint Advisors — is "so glad to see that Preston's practice is growing." Cherry advocates for psychological topics being "not a smaller side of planning" but "the biggest side of planning," Agnew said in an interview.

"The energy that he brings into the financial therapy space is just what we need in the financial services world," Agnew said. "That type of validation from a financial planning practice is really wonderful to have out in the world. What I love about Preston is his deep appreciation for stories. He really cares about the client's story above all."

The incoming advisors came aboard at Concurrent in March, with Loving taking the added role of chief investment officer, Evers as the chief planning officer and Gibson as the chief compliance officer. Gibson had been with a Wealth Enhancement Group-owned advisory practice prior to moving to Concurrent. Each of the three new advisors is a certified financial planner, too.

"We really care and value everyone that we work with, and we want to help uplift individuals to be the best that they can be in their life," Gibson said of Concurrent's approach, referring to mental and physical well-being alongside financial success. "We're going beyond just the traditional plan."

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Concurrent offers three different service models for planning: a financial coaching program for clients with less than $250,000, an ongoing advisory relationship starting at $700 per month or a one-time engagement that begins at $7,000. For Osseilan, the company's chief coaching officer, a potential client's culture and identity are "very essential to our clients and how we serve their financial and life goals," she said, noting that some advisors may not understand a possible customer's faith and how it relates to their investing goals.

"Culture is very, very important," she said. "Approaching an advisor with the same culture, that makes them feel more comfortable."

As part of the expansion, Concurrent is seeking outside capital investment and expects to close its first infusion within the next six months, Cherry noted. After focusing on organic growth for the next year to 18 months, Concurrent will think about purchasing some practices that would be a fit with the firm, he said.

"We wanted to be diverse in not just ethnicity," Cherry said. "It's diverse in humanity, diverse in skill sets, diverse in approaches, culture and bringing that all to the table, because that's what the world's like."