Firm: Mariner Wealth Advisors
Name: Marty Bicknell
Location: Overland Park, KS
Team Custodied Assets: $86 billion
Forbes Rankings: America’s Top RIA Firms
Background: Marty Bicknell grew up in a small town in southeastern Kansas called Pittsburg. Though he was at first studying pre-law while attending nearby Pittsburg State University, Bicknell landed an internship at a small, single practitioner Edward Jones location, where he fell in love with the business. After graduating in 1991, he moved to Kansas City and got a job with wirehouse A.G. Edwards, where he worked for more than 15 years. He founded Mariner in 2006 with seven other partners on the idea that operate according to the fiduciary standard, which stipulates that advisors must work in a clients best interest, rather than the “suitability” standard used by many wirehouse brokers, which requires products must be suitable even if they are high cost. Bicknell says that during the financial crisis his team was able to triple in size by recruiting high-quality people who were leaving bigger firms. Mariner has also been active with M&A deals, buying about 50 small RIA practices since 2012 alone. Today, the firm has grown to 1,800 advisors and 120 locations across more than 30 states, serving roughly 45,000 clients from all over the country.
Building Relationships: “One of the most overused words in our industry is holistic planning,” says Bicknell. “In order for us to truly be holistic the service and talent has to be in-house, so culture, client experience and deliverables are cohesive and not spliced together.” He points to Mariner’s long list of in-house offerings including such things as owning their own trust and insurance companies, a boutique investment bank for closely held business owners and dedicated institutional offerings for retirement plans. “At this size, we have the ability to serve all client segments,” he adds.
Investment Philosophy/Strategy: “Our philosophy is to create access—so if there’s a unique or exclusive strategy we want to utilize our size and skill to get access to those for clients,” says Bicknell. From an equity and fixed income standpoint, his firm likes to allocate mass affluent client portfolios into ETFs in order to bring down expenses and allow for easy access. Once a client portfolio has more than a couple million dollars, however, Mariner likes to use in-house equity and fixed income strategies primarily geared towards limiting client expenses. A majority of the firm’s client base are also invested in alternatives such as private equity or real estate, making up anywhere between 10% and 30% of portfolios.
Investment Outlook: “In general, even with the market near all-time highs, we’re still very constructive with our investments,” says Bicknell. He remains optimistic going into 2025, adding that the market and the economy are in a good place. “We always think there could be some short term volatility, which may present short-lived buying opportunities,” he adds. “With a Federal Reserve that is reducing rates, the over-talked about recession has never come: All of those things bode well for companies in general and therefore the economy.”
Best Advice: The key to success is bringing in and training young talent, says Bicknell. He points out that for every acquisition Mariner makes, he and his partners may talk to a dozen or more firms in the process. In what is a hugely fragmented space, learning about your peers can be a big advantage: “The leading firms in the industry are the ones who understand the need to invest in next-gen, rather than being cost-conscious,” says Bicknell.