Can You Be a Captive Advisor and a Fiduciary with Sean Polley

Welcome, everyone, to another edition of the RIA Collective. Today I'm excited to introduce you to my guest, this gentleman I've known for some months at this point, so we don't have a real long relationship, but I'll tell you what, he's got something different going on than most advisors. Our guest today is Sean Polly of Poly Wealth Management in Orlando, Florida. Sean recently started his RAA a couple of years ago, and he comes out of the Bank Channel. Right. So for a lot of the advisers that listen to our show that are coming out of more traditional channels, maybe the Merrill Lynch and the Morgan Stanley and the UBS seeking that independent space, sean is going to be able to speak to people who come, maybe more the JPMorgan as part of your experience, Sun Trust. 



Anyway, I don't want to spoil all this, so before we go any further, let me welcome Sean Polly to our collective. Sean, welcome. Thanks for joining me today. 



Hey, Charlie, thank you very much. I'm excited to be with you. 



Yeah. Awesome, man. So listen, Sean, we talked about this since we've gotten to know each other a little bit. Really what we're trying to do here is build a resource for the audience of listeners that are thinking about going into that independent space, whether that's independent broker dealer or even making a bigger jump from independent broker dealer into the RAA space. And so my guess, typically, really, we're here to let them know it's not so scary in spite of what the firm they're with might say, and give them advice on how to make that happen. And I thought with your background in Bank Channel, you're a great guest, Sean. You're going to be able to shut a lot of light on this move for a lot of people. 



Sure, absolutely. I'd love to help and provide any sort of feedback that I can for people. 



Awesome. First off, let's talk about you. I mean, you're a dad. I know that you're not only a dad, but you're, like, Little League coach extraordinaire, right? 



I don't know about that. I try. 



Is it one son, or do you have more than one side? I know we talk about the one son who plays a lot of baseball quite a bit. 



Yes, just one. He just turned ten. 



All right, man. All right. Well, mine are going to be 13 next week. 13 and 14. So I've been through that age, but, wow, it's quite an adventure. And he just made it to, like, the traveling Little League team, right? 



He did well, he just made All Stars, which is pretty exciting. So he's preparing they've got a tournament that they'll play in a district tournament, and if they win that and move on to a regional tournament, and then if they win that, move onto a state tournament. So pretty exciting stuff. 



And now the big Little League World Series. Is that in Cooperstown? Is that right? Am I saying that correctly? 



So the Little League World Series? He doesn't qualify for that yet. He is a ten year old, so that's actually what's called twelve year. The farthest his group can go is to the state championship this year. 



Okay, awesome. So a couple of years away, man. Good training ground. Well, very cool. I know you're really proud of that. And of course, you're the coach that brought him to this level of success too. 



Well, I do my best. I wouldn't say it's all on him. 



Very cool. But that coaching. We talk about your interaction with youth sports. Now, the financial world is very different, but you also act very much as a coach for your clients through Poly wealth management. 



Absolutely. I think it's an important aspect of what we do. It's something that's really near and dear to my heart because I think it's important we can help them, but we really need to be a partner with our clients and be able to coach them along and help to make sure that they're doing good financial behaviors as well. 



Yeah, well, I'll tell you what, even on the marketing side, right, what I've been doing for a living for 20 years, it's the same thing. Right. We've got clients that come in and see this as a vendor providing service, relationship, and certainly that's true, but our successful clients recognize that it's a partnership and they have a role in this as we do as well. Absolutely. So that's important. Now, you coaching Little League, you got family at home, you've got a base of clients, man. How do you find time for all of that? Is work life balance? I mean, that's a big topic that we talk about. Wellness, right? Financial wellness, overall life wellness. How do you balance all that stuff? Sean, are there any tips for our listeners out there? 



Honestly, it's always a challenge, right? So I think we set our priorities and what's important to us, and certainly being able to spend that time with my family and with my son, and that's one of the reasons I get out there and coach. I'll never get another chance to be with him at nine years old and at ten years old. So this is my opportunity to get out there and spend time with him. 



It happens so quickly. 



So quickly, absolutely. 



Great. Everybody tells you that, right? But until you experience, you don't really know it. I want to talk a little bit about the culture at the banks that you were a part of, and correct me if I'm wrong, I did some research, just making sure that I had the details down. But you started with Fidelity, is that right? And then worked into a position with JP Morgan and further on into Sun Trust? 



I did. I worked with Fidelity for a while, then I spent some time with JPMorgan. And then my last position before going independent was with SunTrust. 



Okay, cool. How long were you with SunTrust? They just went through a recent merger with BB and T. It affected me. I do some of my banking now. The truest. 



Yeah. So I wasn't there very long. Probably two and a half years. 



Okay. 



So, yeah, it was a move that I made and then once I made it, I had wished I had gone to independent route at that point. 



I hear that so often. In fact, I've got a good friend that started as an Edward Jones adviser. Her partner started with Meryl and then went to Edward Jones. And they both collectively were like they had entrepreneurial mindset and wanted to get into that independent space. Took a payout with LPL to make that move, battle Jones along the way, as tends to happen. Right. That's not a commentary on Jones in any way, but the firms are going to fight for those assets and then landed with LPL. And wait a second, I thought we'd made this leap to independence. And of course they did to some degree, but they very quickly paid all that money back to LPL after they already spent a good portion of it and started their RIA. So that story the same thing, right. 



Is, God, I wish we'd have done it sooner. 



Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. I've been in the wealth management business for 25 years, so I'm probably someone that made the transition later than most people do. But looking back, that's one thing that I probably should have done a lot sooner. 



Yeah. And I don't know. As I look across the landscape, you and I are talking to different people. I talked to a lot of Ras, a lot of independent property. I do a lot of coaching of Morgan Stanley Merrill Lynch advisors as well. And I don't know that you're late in your career in doing that. I think having that foundation of 25 years brings you a lot of organized experience that now better translates into you setting up the organization. I want to talk a little bit about that. One of the things I love about those big firms is the training. Is the training that's provided there. Right. You take a firm like Morgan Stanley, to my best knowledge, that's 8000 509,000 advisors might be bigger than that. Now people come through that type of firm. 



I think it's a great place to cut your teeth in the industry and go through some top notch training that they put a lot of resources into. Was that your experience with Fidelity and JP. Morgan as well as Younger in your career? 



Absolutely. Actually, earlier in my career I was with Schwab. Those are actually excellent training grounds. So I wouldn't change that about certainly about what I did, because there's so much that you learn from those organizations, really about everything investing, financial planning, really helping people, working with people. So they're definitely excellent training grounds for earlier in your career. 



Yeah, I love that. We run some recruiting campaigns for companies as well. And it seems like the sweet spot that most people are looking for in recruiting to a more independent broker dealer is five to seven. Maybe seven to ten years at one of those firms to cut your teeth in the industry. Get your feet under you. Start to build some business. Start to build some confidence in what you're doing. Would that echo your sentiment as well as maybe close to a decade would be the best kind of time frame there? 



I would absolutely. The more knowledge that you can soak up from those firms, certainly the better off you're going to be to serve your clients. I think depending on where you start can be a big difference for me. I think starting in those areas, I didn't have the same pressure to sell, so I was really able to take the time to really learn about the business. Right. Really learn about investing, learn about financial planning so that I have that solid foundation before there was any pressure to try and grow my own business. 



And that's great. You're right. Not all firms are cut of the same cloth. Right. Some are. Some you've got quotas immediately, and certainly that can be difficult for a young person who maybe doesn't have a natural market built out. Even from the beginning of your career, Sean, was independent something that you knew you wanted to do? 



It was definitely something before I started my career that I wanted to eventually do. Okay, so, yes, it was something that I had in mind early in my career. I really wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing right so that I got that training, that I understood what I needed to know to be able to help other people. 



So you knew that was coming, but still, 25 years, and I don't want to don't say anything you're not comfortable with here. Okay. Was there a catalyst moment? Was there something that happened? You were like, okay, now's the time? 



Well, for me, I guess I wouldn't say there was a specific catalyst moment. It was something as I had changed firms in the past that I had considered, is now the right time to do that? But one of those things sometimes starting a family, having a young family, it's something you have to have a lot of confidence and make sure that it's something that you can kind of work through and make it work. And early in that transition, it's going to be a challenge. So you need to make sure that you kind of got everything in order and you have the confidence to be able to make that transition. 



I think timing in life is really important. Your point about starting family, cvanderven Social Advisors is really aligned kind of in the same time. So we'll be nine years old. This October started in 2013, which made my kids like three and four years old. At the time, life was increasing in expense and it's like, if I don't do it now, when do It? Not that I necessarily had a catalyst moment either, but it aligned with the right time in life, I believe was I asked my wife, I said, Give me 60 days. If I can't make something happen in 60 days, I promise I'll go get another job. And she was like, all right, you got 60 days. So luckily I worked my tail off to prove concept and start to create some revenue within that 60 day time period. 



Same thing, right? It wasn't necessarily a catalyst that drove that, but certainly it was a timing in life, I suppose, right? 



Absolutely. 



Was it a scary leap? 



Absolutely it was. I was going from the I'd say comfort is probably not the right word, but I was comfortable, right. So kind of venturing out and saying, hey, this is all going to be on me from this point forward. Wasn't it scary? Sure. 



Yeah. Agreed. I always figured I could fall back on something, right. I've got other skills and certainly I've been successful in job roles before, but absolutely it was a scary leap because it was diving into whatever savings we'd accumulated to make it all happen. So it was going to hurt us a little bit financially if we didn't make it work. But whatever, life short. Got to take chances, right? 



Absolutely. 



I don't know if Compliance wants to hear that at all. 



Smart chances. 



Smart chances. Calculated risk. Right? 



Right. 



We talked about it before I hit the record button, right? Is that for ten years, twelve years, 15 years, whatever it is, I could do the research on exactly what it is. The numbers at FINRA continue to decrease. Now, there's reasons for that, I'm sure. From my understanding, there's less people coming into the industry than are retiring. Right. But it would speak to something bigger. Having made that transition to that RAA space, what do you think is behind those numbers as everybody looking to go to independent? I think technology is a part of it. The commoditization of technology. Anything else you can think of that really points to that migration to a more independent industry? 



I think there's quite a few reasons. Personally, for me, technology was part of it. I came from the bank where technology wasn't great, and I was kind of seeing all these opportunities in technology in our industry with Fintech and really ways that I thought I could better serve my clients. So that was a part of it. Part of it was having that pressure to sell. So as much as you try to be a fiduciary, at the end of the day, I mean, you do have quotas at the big institutions and you do have proprietary products, which is also another big pain point for me as an advisor over the years really. And by going independent I was able to put all that behind me. 



So I think part of the misconception many times is that when you go independent you may not have access to the same investment products or investment vehicles that you had. I know with SunTrust and JPMorgan but the reality is I have access to more now and I have access to really a lot of information that I didn't have access to there. Because you still have all the big investment companies, the big investment managers, they're competing for my business now. Right? So they're sharing their information. They're sharing their strategist information. They're sharing their economist information that I didn't have as much of when I was with A-J-P. Morgan I had access to all of their information but I didn't have as much access to Goldman Sachs. I didn't have as much access to BlackRock. 



To some of the other big investment managers to dimensional that I have now. And like I said they're eager to share that information with me to make sure that they're competing for me. And like I said, when I do something now for my clients it's not because I've got that name on the door, it's because it's the right thing for my clients. So when it comes to building an investment portfolio I've got an opportunity to build a truly all star investment portfolio. If JP. Morgan is the best money manager for that client or fits the best part of their investment portfolio, we're going to use J. P. Morgan. If Goldman Sachs is the best money manager or fits the best part of their portfolio, we're going to use them. 



So we may have, like I said, a truly all star investment portfolio where you don't have as much as that access when you're at one of those big firms. 



Yeah fiduciary, I mean you said it all in one word, right? The industry, our compensation models in the industry have changed pretty greatly in the last three, four decades right from that transactional broker kind of picture to that fiduciary fee based evolution in the way it's priced. I don't think that's done. I think there's some inherent issues with the fee based pricing as well where I see a lot of people gravitating to something a little more subscription based, which I know is something that you've rolled out especially for those young professionals who are maybe coming out of school with some debt who need help but don't necessarily have the assets to go get world class help. The quarter million dollars of investable assets as the minimum for many people. 



Talk a little bit about that subscription based sean, that's something that makes you fairly unique and the benefit of that type of pricing for those young professionals in and around Orlando and anywhere else that you do business. 



Sure, absolutely. So because of my experience in the business I worked at firms where we had 250,000, 500,000 million dollar minimum investable asset requirements just to be able to meet with people, to help people. So part of the thing that I wanted to do really with my firm is I wanted to be able to reach people earlier in their career or be able to reach people who maybe have been working in their career, maybe they've got most of their assets accumulated in a 401K. For a lot of investment firms out there, because those assets aren't able to move or they don't have big assets that they can move to them to manage. There's really no opportunity there for social advisors, so that advisor isn't able to help them. 



So with the subscription model, what it does is it allows us to work with all of those investors and it's an ongoing, you're really paying for our advice and our coaching. So that we're looking at not just your investment assets, we're looking at how are you managing your money across the board and being able to partner with you and help you to make sure that you're making good financial decisions with everything that you do with your money. 



And that's so important because there's such a big part of this industry that simply isn't going touch those people because there's not the back end financial benefit for doing that. So I think that's wonderful. And of course gives you an opportunity to grow with those people, opens the door early in the career, helps them make good decisions to get the right start. And timing is everything. I think that's awesome and I see more and more of it, but it is still fairly unique having that subscription ability so that somebody who's in their late twentys, early 30s can afford to get the same world class advice that someone who's accumulated half a million dollars in their portfolio. 



Absolutely. And I think another important part of that is when we talk about being a Fiduciary, I think that there's no better way to be a true Fiduciary than in that model. 



Right? 



So we're not requiring them to move assets. As a matter of fact, if they like keeping their assets wherever they have now and they like placing the trades on those assets, that's okay, they can do that. But they've got somebody here who can provide advice to them that can help them to make sure that they're making good decisions. 



I love that man. I love that. Think about the year prior to you making that change from Sun Trust to opening Fully Wealth Management. What did you do well during that time to position yourself for this move to the full independence with your RIAA? And is there anything during that time that you wish you'd have done better? Again, for our listeners, as you know, you're going to make this change. What are those important things to do prior to that? The twelve months, six months, three months prior to making that big change in your career that help you maybe move more assets, whatever the case may be. 



So if you're looking to create your own RIAA, certainly there's a lot of work involved in doing that with the registration and everything that you have to go through as much as they tell you, hey, this might take 30 days, it never finishes that quick. That kind of dictates a little bit of your time frame once you get the ball rolling. But I think well before that you really have to sit down and go through your numbers and kind of understand what's it going to cost you to make this happen, what's it going to cost you to make AI transcription, and then what sort of resources do you have to be able to help you get through that transition. 



So starting by maybe looking at your client base to see if there's an opportunity there to be able to move some of your clients with you and kind of going through that and getting really detailed about what that looks like. If that's even possible. Depending on what type of non compete or whatever that you might have with the firm that you're at and really understanding what ability you might have to kind of have some of that foundation to help get you started as far as the client base that may be able to move with you and then understanding what the costs are going to be involved. From your registration cost to your technology that you're going to have to put together to office space and everything that's involved in kind of starting your own business. 



Yeah, all that back office stuff goes away right now. All of a sudden you need a compliance resource, financial planning resource. Right. CRM something dabbling quite a bit. I mean, all of a sudden all these things stack up, right? So I think that's great. When I ask that question of others, they talk about client relationship and that's important, right. You got to make sure that you're solidifying relationships in that 6912 months prior to that move. Who are the key people you got to get close to, closer to maybe so that you help yourself retain those assets. But I think more important than that is what you just said about understanding what your costs are. I worked with a young advisor once. I won't go into any firms or anything else. I don't want to use any Identifiers. Right. 



He was extremely hung up on his compliance restrictions, wanted to be able to use instagram and young man probably today I would think is still south to 35 years old. Right. He made the move based on that one thing. Really wanted to get out of under the thumb of FINRA compliance or FINRA related compliance and focus. Now, I don't think SCC necessarily makes it easier. Maybe the archiving is a little bit three years instead of seven years. If I'm understanding it correctly, have you found that I mean, in that move from a FINRA environment to an SEC environment, have you found the compliance has gotten easier for you? Because that's a major concern I see, with a lot of people in those more captive firms. Yes. 



So it definitely has gotten easier in general. However, if you're starting your own RAA, that compliance is on you, right? 



Yeah. 



So yes, it is easier. I think if you're joining an RIAA, you definitely have a lot more flexibility that you didn't have before. So it really depends. If you're starting your own firm, you have to realize that you're going to have to wear that compliance hat. But like I said, you definitely are getting more flexibility than what you had with your BD and with your larger firms. 



Well, if you're in charge of compliance, the turnaround time is on you now instead of somebody else. 



That's right. It doesn't take a month to get anything approved anymore. Yeah, that's right. 



A little more nimble, I suppose. 



Right. 



So in addition to compliance, one of the unique things about our industry and there's a lot of them successful advisors eventually many of them eventually become business owners like yourself. Right. The skill set that creates a successful adviser is not the same skill set that creates a successful CEO and leader of your own firm. At this point, we talk about compliance is one of those changes. Now you've got to add this responsibility. What else from a leadership perspective? You've got advisors that are, in addition to you, part of polywealth management. Talk about leadership, Sean, and your evolution as a professional as your roles evolved. 



Sure. Absolutely. So it's definitely different skill sets. I think what helps me is having some management roles in the firms before I went independent because working with your end clients is one skill set. Working with advisors to help them to grow, to guide them, that's definitely a whole other skill set. And then being able to manage the business and make sure that it's a successful business that involves even another greater skill set. 



Yeah. Again, I can run some parallels here. Going from wearing a marketing and business development hat with firms prior to starting social advisors to being, oh, my gosh, this is everything. Yeah. Certainly a learning curve. There are resources out there. Right. Let's talk a little bit about your RA, about polywolf management. We learned some. The subscription model is one of the things that makes you unique. It allows people who may not have access to world class advice and coaching. It makes that hurdle easier for them. For young professionals, who else do you like to work with? Is there a certain type of person that you enjoy working with? I'll shut up and let you talk. 



I mean, personally, for me, I really enjoy working with different age groups. I think for me that's been very exciting, I think because I've been slaughtered really into such a certain age group where it was retirees, mostly here in Florida, just because of the asset minimums that we had. Generally you were working with older people that have done a great job of accumulating assets, and they've kind of reached that stage. So certainly I do enjoy working with them. I've worked with them most of my career. But what's been exciting with my firm and with this retainer model is it's really allowed me the opportunity to work with younger people, to move that age group younger, whether it's people in their fifty s, forty s, thirty s, twenty s, even, that are just really getting started in their careers. 



And they've got that first job out of college or first job where they're starting to make some money and they want to make sure that they do all the right things from the beginning. And that's exciting because you don't have to change bad behaviors that they've kind of learned over life. Right. So they're fresh and they don't know what they don't know. So you're really able to help them to do everything right from the very beginning and really get that head start. 



Yeah. I'm going to comment on some things personally. I went into college and they put these loans in front of you, right. And as an 18 year old kid, you're like, wow, I can get $12,000 for this year, and you're not even thinking about your need to pay that back ever. Right. I took student loans. Now I think I walked out of school with 22, 23,000. It wasn't like I blew it up so much that I couldn't recover from that. But for a lot of people, higher education puts you in a debt cycle. Right. You kind of get stuck in a debt cycle where now, okay, we got these student loans, but I graduate, I need a car, right. I'm not making a lot of money yet, I'm going to finance that car. 



All of a sudden you've got this debt cycle that starts the ability, and I love that's part of your mission is the ability to stop that before it starts. Because all of a sudden you're in your mid thirty s and you're staring at this debt where it's difficult to start an accumulation stage when you're refilling that hole that you built for the prior decade. Right. So such a valuable resource you are in that regard. 



So true. Absolutely. I even remember it's not even just those things. I remember in college, the credit card companies, right, they would offer you the free T shirts or whatever for a college student to sign up for a credit card, whatever they could. And really it was getting you off on the wrong track. 



Yeah. And putting you in this cycle where for a lot of people, it's difficult to escape. And I think that affects listen, again, maybe too personal, but I watched that. Affect my parents for way too long. Right. Anyway, so we won't go down that road. Right. We all have personal story around that. But certainly I think you create a wonderful resource for young people who are just looking to do the right things. But in the consumer society we live in, it's so easy to do the wrong things right. 



Absolutely. 



Sean, are you growing the team at Polywolts Management? Is that part of the mission is to bring others in under your umbrella and sharing your mission and values? 



Absolutely. That's definitely the plan here. I think with my experience, 25 years in this and I've worked for some of the largest investment firms and banks out there, I've learned a lot about what I think they do right and what I think they could do better. And I've really taken that knowledge into what I'm trying to build here at Poly Wealth Management. So I'm definitely looking to recruit and bring advisors in that are aligned with that want to do the right thing for their clients. They want to have access to really everything that's possible. I mean, we really, truly have access to when we talk about investment vehicles, investment managers, investment products, we really have access to everything that's possible out there, but we do it in a fiduciary way. Right. 



So our clients are paying us for our advice and to do the right thing for them and we truly have the ability to be able to do that. 



That's awesome. How about our listeners, Sean, that aren't ready to make a leap now? Don't want to talk to you necessarily about joining your team, but recognize that you are a wonderful resource for people who are thinking about it. I think the stat I heard, I can't back this up, but so it's here, say it's like 55% of advisors are considering independence at any one given time. So I mean, it's a tremendous stat. If we've got listeners who just want to kind of tap into your knowledge and your experience, you open to having those conversations. 



Absolutely. Certainly. Going through what I went through and making that transition, I know I had a lot of questions, a lot of concerns, so deciding if that was the right thing for me to do. So I'm certainly open to be able to help anybody that's got questions, that wants to kind of talk through that and see if it makes sense for them. 



Awesome. And also, I think you call it polywealth management. I called it polywealth management. So my apologies, that's your last name and I don't want to do that. For those looking it up. It's P-O-L-L-E-Y. Wealth Management. What's the best way, Sean, for people to get a hold of you? Whether they're looking for a new soft landing spot or just they're young in their career and want to do the right things or even maybe forgot? Some listeners who are looking for wealth management services. What's the best way to reach out to you? 



Sure. So you can always find us by going to our website. It's polywealth.com. We're also out there on all the social media channels facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and then also they can also reach out to me directly here at the office. 



Okay, awesome. What's that phone number? 



Phone number is 407-337-1085. 



Awesome. Sean, you've got such great experience, man. I want to thank you, first off, for being with us, sharing your two and a half decades of industry experience with those big firms. Right. The two things we talked about and actually, it's one thing that we talked about that I love the most is the fiduciary. That translates right into that retainer subscription type model pricing, where you guys are bringing resources to people who I mean, sure, that retiree that's got a million dollars in their portfolio or more, they need help, too, but they've gotten there. Right? Right. Helping young people get off on the right foot. And there's so much value in doing that. So thank you for doing that. 



For people walking out of college, getting started in a career, we don't want to see them get buried because that creates a lot of stress for the following decades. So you got a pure heart. You're serving people in that way. Shaun, I appreciate it, and thank you for sharing that with our audience. 



Thank you, Charlie. My pleasure. I appreciate you having me. 



You got it. And thank you, everybody, for tuning into Racollective. Your time is valuable, and we appreciate you sharing it with us.