Peak to Peak

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to this site. In part it’s because I’ve been too darned busy but also because I needed to go on hiatus while building out a new RIA and B/D from scratch. I’m proud to report that after almost 3 years from investment thesis to operational readiness, the Lion Street B/D and RIA have successfully launched effective as of last month. It was no small feat, particularly in the current regulatory environment. I learned a great deal building out a new model from scratch with involvement of PE/Venture Capital in the ever changing business environment and I'm proud of my Lion Street team who worked so hard to make it happen.

So, after having my head down grinding it out for some time, I looked up after we launched and thought to myself, “now what?”. With all the heavy lifting done and capable leadership in Austin to carry it forward, the timing seemed right at year end to go find the next mountain to climb. And with soon to be 18 year old triplets off to college within the year, I'm free to locate outside of Dallas for the first time in a while.

I’ll be back opining on the always evolving retail financial services industry through this blog while developing a thesis for the next "Tribrid" model. Lion Street has the platform to build on for insurance based ensemble firms and I look forward to watching it grow and succeed. But I remain intrigued by the potential to create a platform for branch managers seeking to break free from their product driven models as the industry finds footing with a new fiduciary standard. With pressure to finally see movement on regulations, proprietary models in decline and convergence/  harmonization taking place, the coming year is sure to bring some long anticipated change. And with change, there is always opportunity. 

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”  
-Richard Buckminster Fuller

"Man can climb to the highest summits, but he cannot dwell there long"
-George Bernard Shaw
 

"It's always further than it looks.

 It's always taller than it looks.

And it's always harder than it
looks."   
- The 3 rules of mountaineering.