Firm: Transcend Capital Advisors
Name: Brian Gorczynski
Location: Madison, NJ
Team Custodied Assets: $2.9 billion
Forbes Rankings: America’s Top RIA Firms
Background: A native of upstate New York, Brian Gorczynski studied finance at Boston College then got masters in business from Harvard in 1999. Before working in wealth management, he spent over 25 years as a private equity investor, with stints as a partner at Veritas Capital and as co-head of BAML Capital Partners, which was owned by Bank of America. He joined Transcend in 2021, two years after it was founded by a group of partners including Duncan Niederauer, the former CEO of the New York Stock Exchange. Serving just over 1,000 clients in total, Transcend has over 40 employees with offices in New Jersey, Michigan and Florida.
Building Relationships: One way that Transcend has gone the extra mile with clients is through its sponsorship of top junior and amateur golfers under the age of 20. Several years ago, a friend called up and said he was struggling to pay for his son’s golf tournaments, with lodging and travel fees costing up to $5,000 per week, recalls Gorczynski. The firm stepped in to help out, and what started as a philanthropic initiative has now become a bigger operation—not to mention a big hit with clients, who love to cheer on the kids, he says. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s 2021 decision to allow student-athletes to sell rights to their name, image and likeness (NIL) for marketing purposes, Transcend is able to throw its financial support behind these athletes; In return, the players will wear the firm’s logo at official events and can be used in its marketing materials. So far, Transcend has sponsored seven different top-ranked junior and amateur golfers, one of whom has already turned professional.
Competitive Edge: Gorczynski cites the breadth and depth of the investment backgrounds of Transcend’s partners as a big differentiator, as it allows the firm to bring clients uniquely sourced opportunities (mainly private and alternative investments) from their existing networks. “In most of the private investments we have sourced, we are either the only ‘retail’ wealth management firm in the world, or one of a select few, with access to the investment opportunity,” adds Gorczynski. “Oftentimes, we are able to negotiate enhanced economics or significant fee discounts on behalf of our clients.”
Investment Philosophy/Strategy: Many clients have significant exposure to alternative investments: “It’s non-correlated to equity markets and adding returns for clients,” says Jacob Grossman, who had stints at Citadel and Glenview Capital before his current role of chairing the firm’s investment committee. Beyond private credit, private equity and real estate, one such area within alternatives where the team is able to leverage their network is in reinsurance, especially in catastrophic weather insurance. “We try to skate more quickly to where the puck is than others and because we are early we are usually able to negotiate advantageous terms for our clients that add to returns,” says Grossman.
Investment Outlook: “We would guess we are probably due for some below average return years,” says Grossman, adding that current S&P 500 valuations—at 23x forward earnings—are not attractive. “With so many different asset classes today, anyone who just relies on public markets is really doing themselves a disservice,” says Gorczynski. “Most companies in this country are private, so why would you limit yourself?”
Best Advice: “So many clients are allocated to 60/40 portfolios, yet the most sophisticated family offices, endowments and foundations in the world have 20-30%, sometimes more, of their portfolios allocated to alternative investments,” says Gorczynski. “These investors don’t settle for 60/40 portfolios, so why should individual investors?”