Eight years ago today we launched Ritholtz Wealth Management. Here is what I wrote on my blog on the morning of September 16th, 2013:
Our new firm, Ritholtz Wealth Management, goes live today – we are a Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) firm located on Park Avenue in Manhattan. With this launch, we are doubling down on our clients: the new firm is entirely and exclusively focused on financial planning, wealth management and ensuring that each family and foundation we’re responsible for reaches its specific goals.
We’re making a big investment so that we can provide the very best service and expertise to the customers who entrust us with their financial wellbeing…
Our mission, then, is clear: We are here to help clients navigate the complexities of the present while preparing them for the future – with the Big Picture in mind at all times. Our job is to build successful, goal-oriented investor portfolios with an emphasis on historical context, situational awareness and common sense.The work begins now – here we go!
Thousands of new clients later, and billions in inbound assets under management, and dozens of new employees and millions of new listeners, readers, viewers and subscribers, I’d say we’ve lived and breathed this mission to the fullest extent.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of my executives and advisors and staff. This is probably one of the most exciting firms to work for considering our growth and the breadth of services we now offer – but therein also lies the challenge. Scaling up operations, client service, trading, communications, compliance has been essential, but there really isn’t a manual anywhere for how to do this. So we’re writing our own as we go. It’s a massive challenge and every day we encounter new growing pains that we hadn’t anticipated in advance. I’m grateful for the people we currently have working on this challenge and hopeful for the new hires we have coming in.
I also want to thank our wonderful clients, who have entrusted their assets and their futures to us. It’s the honor of a lifetime to receive that level of trust. We feel the weight and the responsibility of it every day. Hearing your success stories and knowing that we’re contributing to them gives us all an amazing feeling and more professional satisfaction than you can possibly imagine. Let’s keep it going!
Finally, thanks to the fans. We appreciate all of your engagement and feedback and camaraderie. Some of you will become clients. Some of you will become employees! The vast majority of you will not. But even still, you all remain a critical part of our story and a big driver of our success. We appreciate you reading and sharing our stuff, and thanks for making our videos and podcast episodes a regular part of your routine each week. We will never take the time you’ve invested in us for granted.
So here’s to an amazing eight years and all of you – clients, fans and employees – for being a part of it.
