A former advisor affiliated with Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network is breaking away his firm, JET Wealth Advisors, a La Jolla, Calif.-based registered investment advisor with nearly $600 million in assets under management.
Founder and Partner John Toman moved to FiNet from Morgan Stanley over 10 years ago to gain greater independence in working with clients. As he reached his mid-50s, however, he wanted to gain even more control over his client offerings, technology stack, earnings and operations, he said.
“We were looking for a more interactive experience and to have more control,” Toman said. “We looked at other options, including affiliated models or joining one of the larger RIAs, and decided that to have control of the technology and the client experience, the full RIA route was the way to go.”
Toman’s team includes partner Jeff Walters and financial advisors Gabriela Ribas and Michael Hession. But he credits the decision to business consultant T. Scott Edwards, whom JET Wealth worked with for about 9 months to vet options, create a plan and help them through to launch.
Edwards said his job was to conduct due diligence to ensure JET Wealth had the capabilities it needed to operate and grow, along with the finances working out for Toman and the team. From there, he handed the matter over to them for a final decision.
“I eliminated the two variables that I could,” Edwards said. “Ultimately, it came down to a cultural decision for John, who is entrepreneurial by heart, and how he could best run and grow his company.”
For its 25th anniversary this March, Wells’ FiNet division touted recent recruiting success to offering advisors independence while providing enterprise-scale resources. In April, the channel added former UBS advisors with their Touchstone Wealth Partners, a Toledo, Ohio-based firm overseeing $2.1 billion in AUM. That was just one month after another UBS team managing $1.7 billion joined FiNet as Snow Pine Private Wealth in Wayzata, Minn.
Wells is also launching a newly designed fee-only RIA custody platform later this year to be seeded by a few of its Financial Advisor Network firms, an executive told Wealth Management in January.
Toman of JET Wealth said he and his team had a good experience with Wells Fargo, but that being part of the larger organization came with a few hold-ups for his ultimate vision.
That included controlling software licenses and related data for technology such as financial planning in a way that would allow for more flexibility in managing client portfolios. It also meant being freer to pursue thought-leadership work, such as speaking at events, and incorporating new technology as the firm chooses—especially artificial intelligence-driven tools.
“AI is going to take over the world in the next three to five years,” Toman said. “I feel that the RIA space will adapt much quicker than wirehouse models. By the time they introduce technology after it’s vetted and introduce it to their FAs, we’ll have already adapted it with our clients on the RIA side.”
JET Wealth uses Fidelity for its custody services and eMoney Advisors, a Fidelity-owned financial planning firm. It also uses Wealthbox as its customer relationship management system, which Toman sees as a “game-changer” for managing client relationships.
Toman said that the name JET came partly from the three initials held by all three of his sons. He hopes that, someday, one or more will join the family business.
For now, he expects to grow the firm’s assets by double digits over the next decade through a combination of organic growth and, potentially, bringing on other advisors, without any external capital or additional shareholders.
“I feel like right now we have the right people,” he said. “We treat our staff more like family.”
Consultant Edwards also said the new structure will give Toman more time for his family and his own pursuits.
“The technology will help with productivity and more human capital,” Edwards said. “The firm will keep growing, but it won’t be a success unless John gets some of his time back, too.”
Toman, in the meantime, said his clients had taken his breakaway well.
“Clients got the message about what we were trying to do,” Toman said. “I would say candidly to anyone who is considering going to a full RIA: run, don’t walk. But definitely do your preparation ahead of time.”
