Here, Family Wealth Report profiles Helyn Bolanis, who was an early entrant to the RIA industry, founding, as she did, her own firm Parlan Financial in the 1980s.

FWR: How and when did you get into the financial advice industry?

HB: I began my career in the financial services industry in 1977 as a life insurance agent. I became interested in the financial planning process in the early 1980s, pursuing educational credentials such as CLU, ChFC, and CFP.

However, I believed that my employment allegiance to the insurance company prohibited me from providing unbiased advice. I had to choose between fish and fowl.

FWR: How quickly did you start your own firm and what prompted you to do this?

HB: I founded Parlan Financial Corporation on April 18, 1988, to pursue my belief in both fee-only financial planning and active investment management. I now have 25 consecutive years of achievement as chief executive, chief investment officer, and majority stockholder at the firm.

Upon launching the firm, I simultaneously registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1988 as a registered investment advisory firm. During the early years, the business objective was to offer comprehensive financial planning to high net worth individuals and in doing so I was hired by Fortune 50 companies to provide counsel for their key executives. It was during this period that I was instrumental in developing the proprietary investment algorithm that is the cornerstone of the firm's trading model even today.

Beginning in 1997, I made a change in the direction for the firm and shifted my business objective from offering comprehensive financial planning to all clients to a concerted focus on the investment management element. We began utilizing what is now our flagship investment strategy in clients’ portfolios along with other strategies the firm developed. The results were stunning.

FWR: What are some of the main changes in the industry today, versus then?

HB: Goodbye to the $5,000 plan and hello to modular planning.

FWR: In what ways do you think clients are better served today? In what ways, if any, are they worse served?

HB: Just as the accounting industry was in its infancy in the 1940s, so too was the financial services industry in the 1970s. Back then, wirehouses could not sell insurance. Insurance companies could not sell investments. Accountants could not give investment advice. Today the lines are blurred. This can help as well as hurt the client. The question is “who is a financial advisor”? Is s/he your insurance agent, your broker, your accountant?

FWR: How competitive is the landscape at the moment and how are firms trying to differentiate themselves?

HB: Competitive: wirehouses and their financial advisors still have the edge with the strength of Wall Street behind them. They were slow to pick up on fee-only planning and charging a fee to “manage” assets. But once they saw the light, they went out full force and changed their paradigm.

The life insurance industry followed suit and there are few employees of insurance agencies that still refer to themselves as a life insurance agent. They are now financial advisors, still selling insurance and load mutual funds. They occupy the second largest segment of the industry.

Break-away brokers are former wirehouse brokers who have left their employment and have gone out on their own to form their own RIA firms. They, along with former insurance agents make up the majority of independent RIA firms.

CPAs/accountants. They began offering investment management services after learning how lucrative the business can be. However, after the meltdown of 2008, many decided it was too risky to lose their good tax clients and returned to offering their main services.

They differentiate themselves by:

A. By methods of compensation for providing financial planning services

1. Fee-only

2. Fee-Based

3. Commissions

And by investment philosophy for the management of the assets

1. Buy and hold

2. Passive

3. Active

FWR: What are some of your goals for your own firm and career going forward?

HB: In 2009, armed with multiple years of success, we (I and the board of directors) voted to migrate from solely providing investment management to individuals to including institutions and other registered investment advisors. In doing so, I led the firm through the process of becoming Global Investment Performance Standards-compliant, which is a prerequisite for managing institutional and RIA assets. Now the firm manages investments for registered investment advisors, individuals, businesses, and charitable trusts throughout the nation.