Westchester County Business Journal ‘Not just investment guys’
‘Not just investment guys’
Rye Brook partners take ‘holistic’ approach to financial planning
At Siller & Cohen, an independent family wealth advisory firm in Rye Brook, the founding principals and their nine-member staff follow this golden rule: “Serve the client’s needs first, last and always.”
“It’s a mantra for us,” said Randy P. Siller, a nonpracticing CPA and certified investment management analyst who founded the firm with Jeffrey S. Cohen, a certified financial planner, in 1988. “Do that and everything will take care of itself.”
That service-first approach seems to have worked in financial earnings for both the firm at 800 Westchester Ave. and its clients. Siller & Cohen in 2004 was ranked among the top 30 adviser teams in America by Research Magazine. More prestigiously, Cohen recently was named by Barron’s to its first Top 100 list of the nation’s independent financial advisers. The inaugural list by the well-respected financial publication reflects the “increased stature” of the independent financial advising field, Barron’s noted.
Rankings were based on each adviser’s assets under management, revenues and profits generated and quality of service. Although investment performance was not a criterion in the rankings, clients won’t be drawn to or stay with a poorly performing adviser, as Barron’s noted in its report.
Independent advisers
Cohen, who ranked 34th, was the only independent financial adviser in the lower Hudson Valley named to the list.
“Everybody and their brother wants to be on the list from a marketing perspective,” said Cohen, whose soft Southern accent traces back to Murfreesboro, Tenn., where his business schooling began in the family’s home furniture store started by his grandfather.
Cohen previously was listed among Barron’s annual ranking of Top 100 brokers. But as he noted, he is not a commission-earning broker but a fee-based adviser whose firm offers clients not only investment advice but a range of financial planning services.
“We’re not just investment guys,” Cohen said. At Siller & Cohen, those additional services include estate planning; retirement or financial independence planning and business succession and business exit planning.
According to Tiburon Strategic Advisors, the independents’ business model has paid off : their assets under management have increased by an annualized 18 percent over the past 11 years to $2.1 trillion. Brokerage houses increasingly have borrowed from that successful business model.
Meanwhile, the number of fee-only financial advisory firms, which typically charge clients about 1 percent a year, has grown to nearly 20,000 firms, according to Tiburon, six times more than their number 20 years ago, when Siller and Cohen launched their business.
“The accumulation of wealth is really what it’s all about,” Cohen said of the growth of their financial field.
“There’s a lot more wealth around now and people feel the need to protect it,” said Siller.
“Very wealthy clients like independent advisers” and the coordinated planning they provide, Cohen said.
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