WE Family Offices CEO Mel Lagomasino Speaks with Barron’s About the Bright Future of RIA Firms
October 3, 2018
After announcing its Top RIA Firms Ranking, which ranks the leading independent advisory firms, Barron’s selected a few executives from the firms listed to discuss the rapid growth among elite RIAs and how it will affect their clients.
One of the top RIA executives selected by Barron’s was Mel Lagomasino, CEO and managing partner of WE Family Offices, which ranked no. 19 on Barron’s annual list. During this interview, Lagomasino discussed the past, present, and future of WE Family Offices – as well as the bright outlook for RIA firms across the industry.
“When we started the company in 2013, we had about $1.6 billion and close to 50 families. Today we have 72 families and we’re almost at $10 billion,” explains Lagomasino. “That’s happened because we’ve been very focused on the type of family we can work with. We also look at where we can add value with these larger, more complex families. All three managing partners are involved with every family personally on a strategic basis. We’re focused on the quality of our service and the culture of our firm.”
Lagomasino then went on to describe how this thoughtful growth impacts services and pricing for WE’s clients.
“There are some things that are scalable and some things that are not,” Lagomasino states. “Our relationship with and knowledge of a family, the customization we provide to them, isn’t scalable. What is scalable are things like technology and due diligence around investment opportunities. To the extent that our clients are large and we’re a family office, to the extent that we’re talking to an investment manager about an opportunity, the larger we are the more buying power and access we have. And we can translate that into lower fees and better terms for our clients.”
