Pinnacle: Powerful Lessons from a Difficult Year

Hightower recently held a two-day virtual event for its community of advisory firm field professionals. The discussion centered around business growth strategies to address new issues in an increasingly complicated financial services landscape. Despite obstacles raised by the COVID-19 pandemic, creativity and critical thinking have uncovered new approaches to our industry and paved an encouraging path forward.

Bob Oros, CEO of Hightower, excitedly looked forward to the long-delayed return of workers to the office, where re-engagement and cooperation will soon take place in person. Reflecting on Hightower’s growth over the last two and a half years, Oros called attention to the fact that company assets have increased from $54 billion to $120 billion. Formerly comprised of about 90 businesses, Hightower is now comprised of 115. Corporate employees, who once numbered around 550, now number just under 1,200. Although the economy is still recovering from an enormous global crisis, Hightower has succeeded in expanding and bringing more team members than ever into the fold.

Remote work has redefined the nature of team collaboration and underscored the importance of digitization. Hands-on operations will never be fully replaced, but Michelle Thetford, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Enterprise Protection at Hightower, asserts that of digitization is crucial to improving efficiency and facilitating advisor-client interactions. Even Pinnacle, virtually offered, represents a useful example of digital service offerings and the necessity of these offerings in the future.

Other speakers highlighted different transitions taking place both within Hightower and the industry. Sarah Musante, Chief Human Resource Officer at Hightower, outlined the robust internship program that has bolstered the uptake of new, young talent into the organization. Dawn Reitz, Executive Director of Client Digital Experience at Hightower, emphasized that technology has fueled the rapid growth of Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and has been crucial to marketing and branding efforts. Jenn Anderson, Managing Director of Advisor Engagement at Hightower, explained the genesis of Clear Teams, an interface that facilitates communication between advisors and allows teams to track progress on assigned tasks.

On the whole, although the pandemic reduced opportunities for hands-on partnership, the last year and a half did encourage the adoption of forward-thinking management strategies and tools.