Wealth management firm spreads its wings into Dayton area

With its “client first” business strategy, it’s easy to see how the wealth management firm of Foster & Motley was able to grow its business in the Greater Cincinnati area. Over the last 22 years, the firm has added clients, employees and assets.

Today, it has assets approaching $2 billion and is growing its client base well beyond Cincinnati, down into Northern Kentucky and up into the Dayton area. Indeed, Foster & Motley now has clients spread across 34 different states. It is also starting to receive national recognition from investment business publications like Financial Advisor magazine, which recently ranked the company among the top 250 wealth management firms in the nation.

So what has been the prescription for Foster & Motley’s wealth health?

“We were founded on the concept of putting the client first and offering extraordinary client service,” says Zach Horn, MBA, CFP, CMFC, managing partner and president of the firm. “You hear a lot said about those two things, but quite often it is not actually put into practice. But it’s what sets us apart from other wealth management firms. And we do it in all facets of our business.”

Foster & Motley uses a two-team, collaborative approach to its services. On the financial planning side, that can include everything from retirement planning, college education planning, estate planning, retirement planning, tax planning and a host of other services.

“And then we have a separate team that is dedicated to investment management, which is a specialty that we think is best done by a dedicated team,” Horn explains. “We work with our clients by managing their money in an investment management capacity, and then managing all other aspects of their financial life through financial planning.”

It creates a comprehensive wealth management system where there is a constant and close collaboration between financial planning and investment management. And there is no cookie cutter approach to its services, Horn stresses. Each client’s services are customized to meet specific goals or desires.

“Every client has a team comprised of a lead investment manager and a lead financial planner,” says Horn. “Often there are associate financial planners and associates on the investment team as well as client service specialists, which help our clients with paperwork and money movement. And we meet with our clients regularly on a face-to-face basis. There is no go between. Our clients deal with the advisers who are doing the actual work for them.”

Investments impact the financial plan and vice versa, Horn says, and taxes touch everything.

“In fact, we have recently expanded our tax services,” Horn adds. “We have always done tax planning, but now we are doing actual returns for clients as well. And we are continuing to expand that area so we can do more for our clients moving forward.”

Offering that kind of comprehensive service and its client first business model have allowed Foster & Motley to grow mostly by referral and word of mouth from its many satisfied clients.

“But as we have grown larger, we have started to put some dedicated resources into brand awareness and marketing to help spread the word,” says Horn. “We want to make sure that when someone hears our name from one of our clients that they are able to connect it to something they have either seen or heard about us, whether it’s a sponsorship or an advertisement.”

Which should propel this wealth management firm even further in business and farther in its geographic scope in the months and years ahead.