Carson Names New Hire to Lead W-2 Advisor Channel
Carson Group’s new head for its integrated W-2 channel is Matt Humphrey, a Goldman Sachs and United Bank alum who is joining the $65 billion RIA aggregator as a divisional president.
Humphrey’s hiring follows Carson Group’s move this summer to split the home office teams for its W-2 and independent RIA channels, allowing each team to commit solely to its channel’s needs.
Humphrey’s career began in the U.S. Army with eight years as an Aviation Officer, before becoming a private wealth advisor with Goldman Sachs. As the head of Wealth & Investment Management at United Bank (and CE of United Brokerage Services), he oversaw more than 100 advisors supervising over $12 billion in client assets.
While Carson has become one of the most active RIA acquirers (often attracting teams as 1099 affiliates), the RIA also offers its own fully integrated channel. In June, Carson CEO Burt White told employees that they would split the labor for overseeing the integrated channels, and appointed former head of business consulting Scott Conroy to lead the independent channel.
At the time, he told Wealth Management White wanted “someone with some experience and outside thinking” to oversee the integrated W-2 channel. White seemingly found that person in Humphrey, saying in a statement that he “brings the combination of leadership, operating experience and advisor perspective we were looking for” in the hire.
“He understands what it takes to lead and grow a complex wealth management business, but just as importantly, he understands this business from the advisor and client perspective,” White said.
Under the new design, each team will continue focusing on the necessary back-office support for advisors, including business development, onboarding and business consulting.
In discussing the bifurcated support plan, White said existing Carson 1099 advisors have increasingly shown interest in moving on board, citing firm valuations and higher interest rates, which can make it more difficult to buy out founders (as well as the general desire to spend less time on business operations and more time with clients).
“We see the trend of independent advisors considering W-2 as only accelerating over the years ahead,” White said. “It has been accelerating in the industry, accelerating here, and we think it’s only going to go further.”
Additionally, White said the dual model strategy allows firms to “date” Carson for several years via the 1099 channel before committing to a W-2 partnership, while incoming capital from the 1099 channel can fund the firm’s M&A, technology and infrastructure investments (allowing Carson to avoid taking on debt to fund acquisitions).
