A Conversation with Bob Nachman, Partner at Nachman, Norwood, & Parrott

November 25, 2013
By Alan Cooper

UpstateBizSC:
What is your education and background?

Bob Nachman: 

As an undergraduate, I majored in political science and economics at Tulane University in New Orleans.  Probably as a result of spending part of my youth in Manhattan, I have always had a Wall Street itch.  I’m not sure I ever knew exactly how that would play out, but the financial services was always a field that I was interested in. When I got out of college, I went straight to work at age 22 as a full-fledged registered representative.  I have been in the industry ever since.

UpstateBizSC:
What are the origins of Nachman, Norwood & Parrott (NNP)?

Bob Nachman:
The founding partners of our firm go back together as far as 1989.  We were initially part of a regional investment firm working as traditional independent financial advisors.  When that firm sold, we formed a team and set out on our own working ten years under the umbrella of a corporation brand.  A little over six years ago, we took the company independent.

UpstateBizSC:
How is Nachman, Norwood & Parrott different from other financial services firms?

Bob Nachman:
We hang our hats on the fact that we are independently owned and can make decisions right here that, we feel, are in the best interest of our clients.  We do not have the pressure to be offering whatever a major firm is pushing at that given point in time. There are a lot of conflicts of interest on Wall Street; we feel that we have eliminated most any of those by being independently owned. 

As far as compensation packages are concerned, we are trying something that is very unique in our industry.  We are building a team environment where everybody in our firm works on behalf of the clients without regard for who gets the credit.  For example, if I am working on a case, I am happy to bring in the appropriate team members and other advisers to manage the relationship if that’s the best fit for the client.  Our compensation plan is in alignment with this team approach.

The independence, the teamwork, and the fact that we have a group of people who have worked together for a long period of time are what differentiate this company.  We enjoy who we work with, and we enjoy what we do.  People would be hard-pressed to find a group of owners, partners, advisors and staff with the experience and tenure that we have at NNP. 

UpstateBizSC:
How has the financial services industry changed since you entered the business?

Bob Nachman:
It has been an amazing evolution from when I started 27 years ago to today. Then, this business was all about selling goods and services to people that we thought had merit.  It was more of a one off approach with less regard for how that vehicle fit in with the clients long term objectives.  Today, at least at our firm, it is about how those goods and services can help people achieve their long-term goals. Once we figured out that this business is about trying to help people reach their long-term objectives (retirement, college education for their children, or vacation homes etc.), it actually became a lot more fun and a lot more meaningful. That’s what keeps everybody motivated at NNP.  Sure, we all like to make money in the process, but we also feel that we are helping to provide peace of mind to the clients that we work with. 

UpstateBizSC:
How many employees do you have at Nachman, Norwood and Parrott?

Bob Nachman:
We have 14 full-time employees and one regular intern from Furman University, which actually makes us one of the larger independent wealth management companies in the state. We currently consult to a little more than $1 billion in client assets and our goal is to triple that business over the next ten years.  We have made three hires in the past 15 months and we will be adding employees over the next couple of years.

UpstateBizSC:
Who are your customers?

Bob Nachman:
Approximately 95% plus of the assets we advise are within 10 or 20 miles of Greenville.   We have clients from two-thirds of the states in America but that is more of a one-off situation, not the result of an actual marketing effort in those areas. We believe we can grow and reach our goals staying in Greenville; there is plenty of wealth here.  We have a very strong local marketplace. 

UpstateBizSC:
What are the strategic goals of the firm over the next five years?

Bob Nachman:
We set a goal about six years ago to build a business that will endure beyond the founders.  Business continuity has been a major focus of ours for three reasons.  One, we want to be able to provide ongoing service to our clients as well as their families. Two, we want to provide a lasting and meaningful place of employment for our employees.  And three, we want to be able to provide a successful exit strategy for our partners.  Most firms have not thought about succession plans for their business. 

The only way we can build a business that endures is by finding or grooming great advisers to come up the ranks.  It’s an interesting phenomenon in our industry that the average age of financial advisors in this industry in the United States today is 58 years old!   There are very few young people in our industry.  It makes sense.  The last 10 to 12 years were amongst the worst in the history of the financial markets. That’s a huge hole for the whole industry.

We are looking to build the next-generation of financial advisors in the company.  We are focusing on people between the ages of 25 to 35 years old, not only people currently in the industry, but also the right people who we can train and mentor from outside the financial services industry. Finding talent is a challenge we are aggressively addressing. 

Bob Nachman
 

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