On Screen Text: Our story of independence. Berkeley Capital Partners
On Screen Text: Chris Eddy, CFP®, Partner, Investment Officer, Berkeley Capital
Chris Eddy: Berkeley Capital Partners is a registered investment advisor in Atlanta, Georgia.
On Screen Text: Tony Palazzo, CFA, Partner, Investment Officer, Berkeley Capital
Tony Palazzo: We manage all of the assets of our firm in-house.
On Screen Text: Dan Newberg, CFP®, Chief Compliance Officer, Berkeley Capital
Dan Newberg: We have grown our business through family, friends, and their referrals, and we treat everyone as such.
Chris Eddy: Choosing to go independent was a conscious decision to get away from having managers manage us.
Tony Palazzo: The day we actually all agreed that this was the path we wanted to pursue, the major pro was the client, and you're able to do what's in the best interest of the client, and there's nothing that prevents you from doing your job.
On Screen Text: Berkeley Capital Partners is a client of Schwab and was not compensated for their comments. The experience described may not be the experience of all clients and is not a guarantee of further performance or success.
Dan Newberg: Schwab is agnostic as to how you manage assets. They really leave it up to you to do what you think is best for your clients.
Tony Palazzo: Schwab provided a significant amount of resources and had an integral part of our successful transition.
Dan Newberg: Transitioning a business is never easy. It's never without stress. One of our fears was us being responsible for our own compliance. When we moved to Schwab, they had a team that came in, they helped us identify those issues, and it turned out to be very helpful.
Tony Palazzo: Communication with the clients relative to the move ended up being significantly easier than any of us expected. They said, "Well, do you really think it's the right thing for me?" And we could say, "Unequivocally, yes."
Dan Newberg: I have the ability to manage money any way that I see fit.
Tony Palazzo: Clients can sense our passion and our excitement about being able to do things we couldn't do before.
Dan Newberg: The clients that were our clients that were entrepreneurs really started referring us more business than they normally had. Business owners respond to other business owners.
Tony Palazzo: Our firm's experienced the best growth rate in our history. I consider this more than just a business. We consider it like a large extended family.
Chris Eddy: It's more of a team feel and less of a competitive feel.
Dan Newberg: The ultimate goal is just serving the client and everybody will do fine if we do that.
Chris Eddy: There's tons of freedom being independent. With the technology you have access to, you can work from anywhere and still get great results.
Tony Palazzo: So the fact that I can do my job wherever I need to be has allowed us to travel more, spend more time. I try to work from home one to two days, maybe three days a month.
Dan Newberg: Because I now run my own business, I have that freedom now to do what I think is best for me and for my family.
Tony Palazzo: Don't focus so much on the fear of the move and the fear of the front end, but focus on what you can do on the back end in the long term, the trajectory it will put you on for your customers and for yourself personally.
Dan Newberg: We don't know how it's going to all shake out, but we do think that we're in a better position to be agile.
Chris Eddy: Being independent isn't for everybody. You have to have the right business mix. But if you do, I think with the way the industry's changing, you should look into it and you should probably look into it as soon as possible.
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