HOT OFF THE PRESS – Two New Monument Partners
Monument recently celebrated its 13-year anniversary and we have some news to share.
I’m writing this announcement on behalf of both Dean and I…this is OUR announcement, together. Sure, I could write it in a single sentence, but that’s no fun. And if you know me at all, I’ll never pass up the opportunity to tell a story.
So, here’s a quick Monument story that includes some history, major decisions and milestones to frame this exciting news.
A Brief History
In 2008, Monument was founded by four partners. We broke away from a big, traditional Wall Street firm for a lot of reasons, but one of the major reasons was that we saw the world and opportunities in the wealth management space differently than the big firms. For me, the last straw was the day a junior manager at that firm walked into my office and asked me where my tie was.
By 2011, one partner’s vision did not align with the rest of ours, so we figured out an amicable way for both parties to pursue their own goals and the three remaining partners kept forging ahead.
Fast forward to 2014. There was another brewing divergence in philosophies. Dean and I knew the future of the business resided in giving advice that was clearly aligned to each client’s wealth plan and investments. The future was helping clients better understand obstacles through thoughtful planning while also inspiring them to make decisions guided by our unique opinions and straightforward advice.
We knew that this would require a meaningful, multi-year investment in smart people.
The remaining partner saw things differently, and by January of 2015, he chose to leave the partnership and pursue other opportunities outside of our industry.
Reinventing the Monument Team
Down to just the two of us, we embarked upon a journey to reinvent the “Monument Team.”
The Associated Press Stylebook says, “Capitalize nouns that constitute the unique identification for a specific person, place, or thing.”
We decided that the Monument Team constituted unique identification, so the first thing we did was ban the word “staff” and always capitalize the word Team.
From there, we set out to hire smart people, fill new roles on the Team, and flatten the organization so that the whole enterprise was running as one machine.
From a business perspective, we made changes that we knew would create some flat growth years. For example, we:
- Transitioned to a fee-only revenue model
- Transferred an affiliated, revenue-producing advisor and his entire client base out to another firm
- Made a careful decision to part ways with some clients who were not a good fit for our new vision
It worked, and by January of 2018, we had entered a new era.
Since then, we have grown the size of our business by 120%. That’s a 1.2x increase of the amount of client assets we manage…in just three years.
Oh, by the way, “Since then, we have grown…” doesn’t mean just Dean and me; it means, “we the Monument Team.”
It’s been an exciting three years, but with growth comes adjustments. There is still a business to run, which means people have to run it…and learning to run a business takes time.
So that brings us to the news…
Monument’s Next Generation of Leaders
Our clients have always wanted clarity into our long-term business plans. It’s more than just general curiosity. We often ask them the question, “What would happen if you were gone tomorrow?” Clients want to know our answer, too, because they hire the Monument Team for the long term and for the next generation.
They want to know who’s going to be around.
Dean and I have figured it out.
We have decided to formally announce the next generation of leaders at Monument. Effective July 1st, 2021, Jessica Gibbs, CFP® and Emily Harper, CFP® became Vice Presidents and Partners at Monument. (See the official press release with more details here.)
Jessica and Emily are now equity owners and members of the LLC, right alongside Dean and me. With this decision, we have created a succession plan instrumental to providing straightforward and unfiltered advice for many years to come.
Oh, don’t worry…Dean and I are far from riding off into the sunset. Our wives would both kill us if we didn’t have anything to do all day. That day is so far out into the future, neither of us can even envision it.
Jessica and Emily deserve this, and frankly, so do our clients. They took the initiative years ago to think and act like owners and have dedicated themselves to being Team leaders.
We want to congratulate them formally, and we hope you take a moment to do so as well.
Jessica – jessica.gibbs@monumentwm.com
Emily – emily.harper@monumentwm.com
Keep looking forward.
David B. Armstrong, CFA
President & Co-Founder
Dave got into the industry when he discovered his passion for finance in his mid-20’s. He’s a combat veteran and served as an officer in the United States Marines Corps on both active duty and in the reserves, retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. While serving on active duty, Dave was unable to spend money on deployments, so he became a self-taught investor. Along with a few bucks cash as a bouncer, his investing performance grew to be good....
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By David B. Armstrong, CFA
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