The Total Financial Picture with Scott Walton
Dec 19, 2021
Scott Walton has worked in the securities industry since 1992. He started with a training period at Dean Witter Reynolds' headquarters in New York, where he first began developing his skills in asset allocation, modern portfolio theory, and institutional money management. His experience at Prudential deepened his appreciation of the financial services industry’s role in estate planning and retirement planning. It also showed Scott the importance of understanding the total financial picture for individuals and companies he serves. In 1999, he founded Walton Financial, where he offers an individualized approach to all aspects of financial planning.
After learning about sustainable concepts, Scott was so inspired that he created The Green Resource Center—a 501(c)3 to promote social, economic, and environmental practices. The response has been overwhelming: The Center was honored with four humanitarian awards and received multiple support grants.
You might also have heard Scott’s previous DealQuest way back on Episode 13, where he sat with us on an amazing roundtable with 2 Solutions founder and managing partner Vijay Khatnani; 1-800-GOT-JUNK franchisee Judy Briggs; Morris Creative Group owner Chuck Morris; and Payton Bolin founder and Chief Marketing Officer Jane Bolin. You can listen to Scott’s latest interview here.
An Early Deal-Making Start
Scott Walton has worked in the securities industry since 1992. He started with a training period at Dean Witter Reynolds' headquarters in New York, where he first began developing his skills in asset allocation, modern portfolio theory, and institutional money management. His experience at Prudential deepened his appreciation of the financial services industry’s role in estate planning and retirement planning. It also showed Scott the importance of understanding the total financial picture for individuals and companies he serves. In 1999, he founded Walton Financial, where he offers an individualized approach to all aspects of financial planning.
After learning about sustainable concepts, Scott was so inspired that he created The Green Resource Center—a 501(c)3 to promote social, economic, and environmental practices. The response has been overwhelming: The Center was honored with four humanitarian awards and received multiple support grants.
Selling Big Versus Small
Scott explains that there are a lot of opportunities to sell. There are certainly the acquirers, aggregators, and piggyback companies that will pay top dollar. He finds that his clients who do those big deals are still doing the due diligence to make sure their clients are served. He says he only knows of a very few people in this industry who don't care significantly about their clients.
Those big firms can be great because they have the capacity to work for each type of client and practice they have. But for some, it's just not the right fit. For some, a big firm would be too much of a disconnect, the lack of the level of personal approach, maybe that they give the lack of customization, the way it's staffed, the fee structure.
There are a lot of reasons why advisors don't want to sell to big firms, even if it may mean a big check. Sometimes selling to a smaller buyer brings a different value to the table in terms of alignment of investment, philosophy and to make sure clients are well taken care of.
The point is that different buyers present different value propositions. Choosing the right deal partner is about more than being able to match the aggregators' top dollar number. You must be clear about what you offer and the relationship that you've built with these folks.
