Bill Harris
CFP®'s Story
When I co-founded BIP Wealth with Mark in 2007, my goal was to create stability for clients, deliver a customized investment plan for each family, and offer them something unique with direct access to privately-held investments. This value proposition was significantly different than any other firm on the street.
Case in point, too many investment firms have a revolving door of advisors. This is a result of the transactional compensation plans that are common in the industry. Since most advisors are paid primarily on new assets, clients end up being invested in a cookie-cutter model where one size fits all. The incentives are more about sales, as opposed to taking care of existing clients.
At BIP, we made the decision early on to align the incentives of our advisors with the goals and objectives of our clients. We are building a firm where the advisors strengthen existing client relationships by delivering our service commitments of quarterly meetings, written financial plans, and personalized strategies.
This approach has served us well over the years. If you take care of your clients, they take care of you by consolidating assets and referring friends and business associates to the firm. We place a heavy emphasis on soliciting feedback and advice from our clients to understand areas of opportunity and improvement. We have also formed a client-centric advisory board to consult with us on any potential or perceived conflicts-of-interest.
Our goal is to build the most successful investment firm in the Southeast. We can accomplish this by hiring quality professionals and making every effort to always do what is in the best interest of our clients. There is no doubt in my mind that we are building a very special firm for our clients and employees.
Eric Cramer
CFP®, CFA®'s Story
I spent more than a decade working with affluent investors at one of the larger investment companies. During that time I received the two professional credentials often considered the most rigorous in the financial industry, the Certified Financial Planner and the Chartered Financial Analyst designations. With that education I realized that every investor’s situation is unique across a spectrum of factors which meant that what they really needed was the solution to an “optimization” problem. And yet there were certain universal truths about investments that were being ignored by the majority of investors and advisors, and that could prevent investors from achieving goals that should be within reach.
I came to BIP in the spring of 2011 because this firm is able to combine the customization/optimization principle that caters to complex and individual needs, yet is able to harness the value of investment principles that are applied to all portfolios. In my role as CIO I now have the great pride of overseeing a comprehensive strategy that we believe greatly improves the financial outcomes of our clients and their families.
