INVESTING IN CLIENTS, NOT WALL STREET
Local Tampa investment advisor celebrates firm’s successful one year anniversary with over $95 million dollars of assets under management, and total freedom from commissions and corporate hidden agendas.
South Tampa, FL—Bob Garey, CEO of Tampa Asset Management, LLC, has twenty-five years of experience providing investment advice to families and individuals, most of it spent under the auspices of big name firms like Shearson/American Express, Smith Barney and Wachovia Securities. In December 2008, after the near collapse of several of the biggest banks and brokerages fueled increasing turmoil in the minds of investors, Bob took the financial bull by the horns and went independent, founding the fee-only registered investment advisor firm of Tampa Asset Management, LLC.
“Founding a new registered investment advisor (RIA) firm at a time when trust in the market was at an all time low was a big leap,” says Bob, “but if I had no confidence in the current system, how could I expect my clients to? It made sense to go independent, and take my clients with me. They weren’t just faceless, numbered accounts—they were people, many of whom have become personal friends.”
A January 2009 article in The Wall Street Journal1 supports Bob’s strategy, citing how financial turmoil and tarnished reputations have resulted in a major shift in the financial industry as assets are transferred away from big name brokerages and into low cost custodial accounts at neutral firms like Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade, to be managed by registered investment advisors like Tampa Asset Management.Most of Bob’s original clients opted to follow his lead, transferring their accounts from his former brokerage firm into low cost custodial accounts, which he manages on a fee-only basis. One year later, he’s certain everyone involved made the right decision.
“What people may not realize is that RIAs like Tampa Asset Management have a fiduciary responsibility to act in each client’s best interest,” Bob says. “Brokers and insurance agents, who charge commissions for the products they sell, do not. Simply put, our registration with the SEC holds us to a higher standard, and our clients are the ones who benefit. My clients receive all the benefits of the personalized financial guidance and management I was giving them before, with lower costs, no hidden fees, commissions or corporate agendas,” Bob states. “It’s a win-win scenario for everyone involved, except the big banks and brokerages.”
(1)E.S. Browning, “More Brokers Flee Big Firms, Taking Investors With Them”, Wall Street Journal, 1/4/2009
Bob Garey has a B.S. in mathematics and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from the University of South Carolina. Prior to his graduate studies, Bob was a pilot and captain in the U.S. Marine Corps. After receiving his doctorate, he was a research associate at Oak Ridge Associated Universities in Tennessee. He and his wife, Terri, have three children, are active in the South Tampa community, and are members of Logos Dei Community Church.
Visit Tampa Asset Management on the web at http://www.tampaasset.com/.
Contact info:
Bob Garey at Tampa Asset Management, LLC
4221 W. El Prado Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33629
813-675-8011 (office)
813-390-2577 (cell)
bob.garey@tampaasset.com
