Greetings Oxford Friends,
It has been a while since I last reached out and shared some JT morsels, so I thought now was the time to connect with you, our important clients, advisor friends and perhaps even a few potential clients that enjoy hearing from me from time to time.
As many of you know, I travel to our various market offices and client states almost every week from Tuesday morning to Thursday evening pretty much 45 weeks a year, and I absolutely love it – getting out and visiting with centers of influence, meeting with our client families, visiting with some of my 25 Partners and having the opportunity to meet with prospective clients that are looking for something different. Weekly I am asked the question, “What do you like best about what you do at Oxford?” and the overwhelmingly easy answer is meeting with our different constituents 20-25 times a week, week in and week out. It creates so much energy for me, and any rumors of my imminent retirement are completely false (this is what our competitors say about me; UGH!). I am planning on another 15 years or so of quality fun at this great organization that currently serves around 700 significant families and institutions across 36 states.*
The second most frequent question I receive is, “How’s your business (Oxford’s)?” The answer is that we have continued this year to be VERY blessed. For the most part, our clients are doing very well, which is good for everyone. We are very proud to see the positive results of many of our client investment portfolios, including the private equity solutions and the long-only equity positions. Lastly, our new business has been extremely strong this year and it has reinforced that our Brand is working well in a financial service space that is clouded by an endless number of retail financial service platforms that we have worked studiously to stay as far away from as possible. Thankfully, our advisor friends get this and refer their clients and friends, and our prospective clients understand our unique value proposition.
As most of you know, there is barely a week that goes by that a registered investment advisor in a local market or a national investment advisor firm is fraught with a Ponzi scheme or some other unethical behavior. Or, a financial advisor is caught stealing money from a client account, committing fraud, is guilty of non-disclosure of finder’s fees or sponsor fees or selling inappropriate proprietary products. These bad actors in the various geographic markets we serve are horrible for the industry but have been very good for Oxford. Prospective clients and referral sources appropriately trust us and look at our 43-year history and reputation.
The third most frequent question I receive is, “What keeps you up at night?” Again, an easy answer. Our biggest challenge as a firm (like many organizations nationally) is finding quality, talented professionals that want to work hard and be a part of our organization. This issue is not unique to Oxford, but it is endless. We are constantly searching for the best Managing Directors and the best people in every other part of our organization to fill gaps and to grow with us. That being said, I must tell you that I am so impressed with our entire current team – the best of the best in the industry. They own their positions and are proud of their roles at the firm. Thirty years ago, I began purchasing expensive Cartier watches for colleagues once they reached the tenure of 10, 20, 25, 30 and 35 years, and proudly to date, I believe we have given away around 180 watches. For the most part, our team members do not leave, but searching for these wonderful current and future employees continues to be a challenge.
Weekly, Oxford friends ask me, “What do you think about the economy and everything that is going on in the world?” Well, to be somewhat succinct, I never thought inflation was going to be transitory. Never. Everything economic regresses to the mean, or in other words, rare or extreme events are likely to be followed by more typical ones. The equity markets trade on the expectations of the economy and my sense is that they see a more and more robust economic climate in the coming quarters. Of course, many of the market indexes are weighted by a short list of stocks, but my view is that the others will catch up soon and it will catapult the market to yet further highs. I believe interest rates are going to drop, but it is going to be modest, so we should all get used to these kinds of interest rates for the coming decade or so. Again, these current interest rates are yet another example that everything economic regresses to the mean. We all must simply get used to them and adjust our expectations and perform our financial transactions under the new paradigm. You get it. Yes, China is in a financial mess economically and they will likely have a massive economic correction in the next 10 years. They may not recover in our lifetimes due to their fake governmental stimulation programs, their stealing of our technology, their cybercrimes, the purchasing of massive pieces of land in the U.S. and the like. It is not sustainable, but it is going to require the toughest and meanest of leadership. They want to control our world. Ukraine is going to win against the Russian’s aggression, but it is going to take much longer than any of us would care to admit. Large city crime, illegal immigration and college protests are all going to continue to occur, much to our dismay, until there is the right kind of leadership that has said enough is enough.
The good news to all of these remarks above is that everyone reading this JT message has seen this “movie” before and it does have a happy ending. Whether it was the Civil War, World War I, World War II, other unfortunate wars, the riots of the 1960’s, the ridiculous inflation we had in the 80’s, Watergate, 9/11, the Great Financial Crisis and on and on, we worked our way through these previous “once in a lifetime” events that were no different then what we are dealing with today. The solutions to these events of today simply require leadership (like all of our client businesses) and it starts at the top! Then, as we see these fixes begin to occur, the equity markets are going to be even happier than they are today.
The one single item that troubles me the most is our national debt and the math associated with the composition of the national debt and its percentage of our gross domestic product. I am going to resist the temptation to make any political comments, but this single item is going to need immediate attention given the annual interest on the national debt, the military, the postal service and entitlements. Don’t Google how the national debt is composed as you may be equally depressed. It is going to take some tough bipartisan congressional leadership to conquer this mathematical and economic quagmire.
“What are you most proud of?” I am really proud of our Oxford Brand and how it continues to attract some of the best Managing Directors in the entire industry. Special shout outs to our newer Managing Directors Andrew Filauro and Bart Francis (Palm Beach/Southeast Florida), Grayson Miller, Parker Mitchell and Bo Wilkins (Atlanta), Kevin Coquillette (Minneapolis) and Tyler Rosser, Julie Weaver and Jarret Blum (Indianapolis). They are truly moving the needle for the firm and we are delighted to have them on the Oxford team.
“Why do prospective clients continue to hire Oxford?” The answer that I hear from my Partners and the clients/prospective clients that I have the luxury of visiting is that it is their pleasure to have the opportunity to invest into our Private Equity Solutions. These clients want something other than a 60% stock and 40% bond portfolio. They want the possibility for greater returns as they find a 60/40 portfolio somewhat boring – they even get emotional occasionally watching the equity/stock values just “go up and down” (their views, not mine). Thankfully, private equity investments (the Oxford Way) has accommodated their appetite in a very user-friendly manner. We get it. Special kudos to Bo Ramsey, our Chief Investment Officer and Co-Managing Partner, and his team of 25 investment professionals, many of whom are CFA’s!
Our Family Office Services Technical teammates are as busy as we have seen in the history of the firm. With the lifetime exemptions scheduled to sunset at the end of next year and estate taxes not going away, our sophisticated families are continually focused on best-in-class best practices as it relates to multigenerational estate planning. Most of our clients appreciate and understand that saving/reducing the 40% estate planning expenses is “found dollars” for their legacy! Gratefully, we have moved a significant amount of money down various generations recently and over the years, including hundreds of trust reformations, decantings and sale transactions with clients’ generational trusts (most of the time at significant discounts) that continue down for generations.
“What are you excited about, Jeff?” As we speak, we are on the verge of beginning Oxford’s new 3-year Strategic Plan with several of our key leaders and our Board of Directors. We have done this 3-year Strategic Plan routinely for over 20 years and every time we do so, we spend a couple days at an offsite and we dig, we dig and we dig about how we can enhance our constant and consistent desire to have a culture of creativity and serve our clients better – more thoughtfully, more seamlessly and with the ultimate in white glove service. Of course, we also spend a lot of time discussing how we can continue to grow the firm. For the record, we do not grow the firm for the sake of growth. We grow the firm for the obvious (hopefully) reason that any firm that is not trying to grow is actually dying. If that happens it’s hard to attract quality new colleagues, clients do not want to be members of Club Oxford, services drop in quality and advisors do not want to refer their clients or friends. Our acute focus during this Strategic Planning exercise is to conquer better than we did the last three years and make our clients happier with their service and their investment performance and their estate planning/Family Office needs. I might add, if any of you would like to reach out to me personally and ask me to put something into our Strategic Plan to make our firm better, we will do it!
Another question I get routinely is, “Did you think Oxford would eventually become what it is today?” Easy answer, yes! I wanted 110% from the Oxford Vision I had back in 1981 and encouraged the tribe of colleagues that created this organization to be properly focused and motivated to meet and exceed our client goals – I wanted the best of the best! This has continued over the years with Oxford, and thankfully with our current 25 Partners,** who have an average age of about 40 years old. I have every expectation that the firm is on the verge of making Club Oxford even more special for our clients and our colleagues. Further, given that we cannot be sold due to our contractual arrangements of our Partner agreements, we must “eat our own cooking” indefinitely and we are excited for the indefinite bonding with our important clients by continuing to sharpen our pencils.
The last question that comes to me frequently is, “What one single thing happened early in your Oxford career that shaped the organization in a very positive manner?” Again, easy peasy answer! One of my very first clients in the early 1980’s was a man named Joe (the family is still a very significant client of ours). I was introduced to Joe by his CPA at his place of business. In an uncharacteristic manner at the end of our initial meeting, he looked at me and said he was going to hire me because he thought he could trust me and could work with me. Of course, at the age of 23, with only five clients at the firm and dying to get new significant clients, I was absolutely elated! Then came the news that had a life-changing impact on Oxford forever – Joe informed me that a condition to work with him, his business and his family was that at the end of every year he wanted a copy of my complete personal financial statement and a copy of my personal 1040 tax return. He wanted both of the documents in double-sealed double envelopes so his secretary couldn’t accidentally open one of the envelopes and see this information. I stared at him and could not speak. Joe then asked if I knew why he had made this requirement of me. I shuddered. I paused. I contemplated. Then, before I could get an answer out to my brand-new client, he shared that the reason he required this was because he wanted to be 100% sure that every single thing I recommend to him I followed myself in my personal portfolio! This acute awareness of Joe and his finances (and my finances) had an acute impact on me, and you can be sure that I did absolutely every single thing personally that I recommended to him and to every other client, and this same behavior continues to this day, for me and for my Partners. We eat our own cooking. We share our personal finances, in an appropriate manner. We give specific examples of our personal financial decisions to all of our clients. Yes, we get it. Further, when you stop and think about Joe and his requirement to allow me to serve his family, who in today’s financial services world would require their financial advisor to provide them with their own personal financial statement and personal 1040 tax return?! A life-changing culture at Oxford began that day and has morphed into many more additional examples that I hope to share with you in future musings!
Well, that’s probably enough of JT for today. I hope you enjoyed some personal and professional thoughts as we strive to continue to be the best Oxford that we can be. We appreciate each of you and thank you for introducing us to your family and friends. We do not take the confidence that you place in us lightly! We know that this confidence must be earned and it must be maintained. Indefinitely.
Enjoy the rest of 2024 and I will look forward to greeting you in our January 2025 Annual Report. If there is anything I can do for you in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to me personally. However I may be of help to you or someone else, I am here to serve.
Warm Regards,
Jeffrey H. Thomasson, MBA, CFP®
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
***
*As of 01.01.2024
**As of 07.22.2024
The information in this presentation is for educational and illustrative purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal or investment advice. Tax and legal counsel should be engaged before taking any action. The information in this presentation is for educational and illustrative purposes only and does not constitute tax, legal or investment advice. Tax and legal counsel should be engaged before taking any action. Oxford Financial Group, Ltd. is an investment advisor registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. More information about Oxford Financial Group’s investment advisory services can be found in its Form ADV Part 2, which is available upon request. The above commentary represents the opinions of the author as of 07.22.24 and are subject to change at any time due to market or economic conditions or other factors. The information above is for educational and illustrative purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax or legal advice. No offers to sell, nor solicitation of offers to buy any securities are made hereby. Solicitations of investments and any offers to sell securities, if any, will be made only through an offering document clearly identified as such. Certain of the statements in this document are forward‐looking which cannot be guaranteed. These statements are based on current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or future performance to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements.
