N e w s , V i s i o n & V o i c e f o r t h e A d v i s o r y C o m m u n i t y w w w . r i a b i z . c o m

A hockey star went from being a Merrill Lynch client to a Merrill Lynch advisor to the latest Merrill Lynch breakaway Despite misgivings for 20 years, Dave Emma stayed largely for the culture and then Bank of America came along

By Brooke Southall Mark Masterson, a Barron’s 1000 Emma’s hockey career was shortened Friday 3.25.11 advisor in 2010, who earned multiple in 2001 when he was playing a stint Brooke’s Note: When Dave Emma awards for top advisors during his more for the ’ minor league answered our pre-arranged phone call, than 14 years at Merrill Lynch, joined squad in Louisville. He got hit hard he was in a rental car on Route 93 driv- him in the breakaway from the Naples from behind, which resulted in an injury ing south from Manchester, N.H., to office of Merrill Lynch. that would eventually require surgery on Providence, R.I. He was still in the early The beginning of Emma’s Merrill a disc in his back. stages of an 11-day road trip during Lynch story came 20 years ago, when He did some playing after that, in- what New Englanders know as mud sea- he was a player in the National Hockey cluding some time in Germany, but he son. The Florida-based U.S. Olympian League, for the , New was a smaller player who could only ex- and former NHL star had stops planned Jersey Devils and Florida Panthers. He cel by being in great physical condition. next for Boston, Philadelphia, New became a client of a Boston-area Merrill He didn’t want to play at a subpar level. York and New Jersey — his old stomp- stockbroker. Emma, 42, stayed with him Another factor in leaving hockey: He ing grounds — before heading home. for a decade. was excited about becoming a financial His mission was to tell clients, face to face, about his breakaway from Merrill Lynch to Hightower Advisors. As much as I generally despise cell phones, I love Dave Emma: Athletes get taken advantage of when I get someone with an interesting and that happened to me. story to tell and nothing to compete with but a gray stretch of New Hampshire road. This article benefited from that. During that time, the Merrill Lynch advisor. Emma earned a degree in mar- David Emma knows the retail broker financial advisor acted as a stockbro- keting and finance from business of Merrill Lynch & Co. from ker – but not as the wealth manager that and he had already played an unofficial just about every side possible. Emma believes he really needed. role – and one he very much enjoyed Though the experience left a bad — mentoring younger teammates with taste in his mouth, he doesn’t blame his their finances. disappointed client broker, he says, because he was truly The former only a stock broker, and never repre- slapshots and checkbooks player was a disappointed client of the sented himself as anything but that. firm before he became a top producer. “I was helping all the rookies manage their own finances – even just helping Now, he’s an alumnus. See: Merrill self-absorbed Lynch and Bank of America cultural ten- with their checkbooks,” he says. sion may spin out a new round of break- “Athletes get taken advantage of and When he retired from hockey in aways, recruiters say. that happened to me. I don’t blame (my 2001 at the age of 32, he decided to be- As of Friday, he’s now a managing Merrill Lynch stock broker). I made the come a broker himself. He designed his director and partner with HighTower mistakes. I was self-absorbed.” practice to be a place where a client’s in Naples, Fla. The practice, under the Emma didn’t detail the issues that finances are planned and fulfilled with name Masterson, Emma, & Associates, he regrets. Merrill Lynch declined to the best investments. Emma starts out has about $400 million of assets under respond to a request for comment for with clients by educating them in the management. this article. basics of investing. w w w . r i a b i z . c o m

“My practice is like night and day “I was able to (deliver wealth man- there. See: 13 things to know about (compared with that of my own broker).” agement and educate clients) but as Bob McCann recruiting his old Merrill Emma says he never really fit in at things changed with the (decline of Mer- Lynch team to UBS. Merrill Lynch. One of his discussions rill Lynch culture) in the last two years, “That’s when HighTower came into with a friend right at the start of his ca- it became more difficult.” the mix and the dialogue was incredible. reer at the wirehouse set the tone. This is a familiar tale for Elliot Weiss- There was this instant trust.” “I was with a high-level sports agent bluth, CEO of HighTower, whose com- The added infrastructure of being part in New York and he said: you are a com- pany recruited Emma’s team of five that of a bigger company like HighTower was plete fish out of water.” includes two support staff and an emeri- also very important. tus member. “If we had to give up 15 to 20% of Super agent’s augury “The ‘Bank’ of Merrill Lynch, UBS, our time, that was too much – dealing Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley are with compliance, technology and audits,” The agent, Emma says, was aware that driving products and that’s creating ten- Emma says. he was bound and determined to reinvent the way that young athletes are treated by many financial advisors. The agent was aware that Merrill Lynch is a place where Mark Masterson, a Barron’s 1000 advisor, product sales and high production are the name of the game – and that Emma joined Emma in the breakaway. wasn’t looking to abide by that culture. This warning aside, a number of fac- tors kept Emma on the Merrill track in- sion withh financial advisors who see But the due diligence process was cluding its familiarity, training program, themselves as financial advisors.” intensive enough that the Masterson, solidity as a company, culture and the Though Emma’s client base includes Emma team “probably drove (High- excellent people he met in the Naples of- many athletes, there’s more to why the Tower) crazy,” Emma says. fice of Merrill Lynch. 42-year-old advisor can attract clients, “They did not wake up one morning He also experienced something else says the head of Hightower, which has and say: We want to join HighTower, and encouraging: overnight success. “I hit now brought aboard 20 teams with we’ll go cut a deal,” Weissbluth says wryly. the ground running – really running.” combined assets under management of Emma was able to draw on a pool around $19 billion. of players he worked with – especially Black Diamond, “He has a quiet quality that radiates ones from the , where Fidelity choices and instills confidence; that’s the hall- he played for five years. Athletes — in- mark of a fine financial advisor.” Masterson, Emma is keeping its as- cluding professional golfers and baseball The Masterson, Emma team is the sets with Fidelity Institutional Wealth players — still account for about 30% of second one in Florida. Curt Lyman, Services and it is using Black Diamond his business. a Lehman Brothers breakaway, and Performance Reporting for its portfolio “You could play with a guy for one David Weisenhaupt, a Merrill Lynch accounting system. shift and you’re a friend for life,” he says. breakaway, share a HighTower office in It is still choosing financial planning Yet, the atmosphere at Merrill Lynch Palm Beach. software. It used Financeware at Merrill became more unbearable, Emma says, Lynch and it may continue with that. But especially over the past two years under it is also giving strong consideration to Looked hard at UBS Bank of America as his determination to MoneyGuidePro. put clients first and chafed against an in- Emma and Masterson considered For Emma, who started started skat- creasingly product-centric culture. See: several options and they looked hard ing at age three, being a RIA with all the Why one Merrill Lynch advisor needed at joining UBS because they knew that technological armaments is not a wind- to break away twice to become an RIA. Bob McCann and his team had brought down from a hockey career. some of the old Merrill culture over “I don’t feel like I go to work. I enjoy Fish out of water what I do more than I did when I was “I didn’t want to continue to be a playing hockey. We’re making a differ- fish out of water. We started to look at ence in people’s lives.” other avenues.”