Who would know better how to provide planning services to a multigenerational client than a multigenerational financial planning firm?
That’s part of The Kelly Group’s appeal, advisors at the firm say, as they work with their clients to accumulate and manage wealth not just for today but for decades to come.
The Florham Park, N.J., firm was founded more than 40 years ago by Brian Kelly Sr., who was eventually joined by his son, Brian Kelly, Jr., and then his daughter, Marybeth Emson, and finally by his grandson, David Emson.
“Each of these people have been recognized by their peer groups as one of the very best in the country,” said moderator Steve Gresham, CEO of The Execution Project, as he introduced them at the Next Chapter: Rockin’ Retirement conference held virtually earlier this week. The three generations of Kellys include two Forbes Top Advisors, he added. The firm currently manages about $750 million in assets.
“There’s a uniform acknowledgement that families are accumulating money, and it creates complexity. And complexity needs objective, informed, educated, experienced advisors. It needs mentoring and counseling,” Brian Kelly Sr. said. “We bring to the table a collective experience of over 100 years in financial services’ global industry.”
One of his strengths as a leader, Marybeth Emson said, is that he’s allowed his children to come to the table with their individual talents and strengths, where no two are carbon copies of the other, or of him.
“We all have a different skill, we all have a different area of focus,” she said. “And there are opportunities for each person to be in the room in front of the client and deliver their information, their guidance and specialty. So the client learns to share their trust with not just the lead advisor, but they learn that other people on the team have roles where they can share their trust. And those people have learned about them and their idiosyncrasies and who they are and what they’re trying to accomplish.”
So while Brian Kelly Sr. remains market analysis and equity investment strategies, Brian Kelly, Jr.’s focus is on estate planning and executive compensation. David Emson’s is on financial planning, account rebalancing, insurance, and impact investing. And Marybeth Emson is a CFP who focuses on family wealth.
This diverse team approach is the best way the Kellys have found to manage all their clients smoothly, efficiently, and with an eye on their own transition planning needs.
“Coming in when I was in my mid-20s, the phone would ring. One of Brian Sr.’s clients would call in for some stock advice, and I would attempt to help them with that. And I’d get the equivalent of, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, put your dad on the phone now,’” Brian Kelly Jr. said. “What we realized is we had to come from a different but equally valuable standpoint. I chose to stay in trust funds. Now I can come in to discuss a subject that was not a focus of Brian Sr.’s, and extend that relationship from an investment discussion to one of holistic financial planning, moving it toward those areas that include estate planning.”