The high cost of hurricanes and wildfires has prompted major insurers in recent years to jack up premiums, raise deductibles, and in some cases pull out of states like Florida, Louisiana, and California. With property and casualty premiums skyrocketing—insuring a property near the Florida coast can easily run $100,000 a year—homeowners are looking to financial advisors for help. For this week’s Barron’s Advisor Big Q, we asked advisors in affected states what they’re telling clients who are...

Scott Ford, the new president of wealth management at U.S. Bank, wants to double the business’ $439 billion of assets under management, in part by adding many more financial advisors. “U.S. Bank is the fifth-largest commercial bank in the United States, with millions of core households,” says Ford, who was tapped for his new position in May after more than two decades with the Minneapolis-based company. “There’s plenty of upside in terms of penetration of the client base.” Speaking with...

The San Francisco-based investment bank Robertson Stephens was famously a winner of the dot-com boom and a casualty of the ensuing bust. And even though it relaunched in 2018 as a wealth management firm, its name remains synonymous for many with that highflying era. “We do get a bit of, ‘Oh, wow, what happened to you guys?’” says CEO Raj Bhattacharyya. But Robertson Stephens Wealth Management, as the firm has been rebranded, is quickly forging a new identity. Speaking with Barron’s Advisor,...

The typical financial advisor wants more and more clients, but UBS advisor Franco Estrada wants fewer. Over the years, the San Juan, Puerto Rico-based advisor has pruned his book to 75 households from more than 100. And he wants to further pare that number to as low as 50 in the next decade so that he can provide the highest level of service to each client. “I see more and more need for covering very wealthy clients who need all sorts of services,” says the 42-year-old Venezuela native, whose...

Investors often seek out large brokerage firms because they like having the stability of a big company. What many people may not realize is that top advisors at marquee firms like Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Wells Fargo, and UBS typically work in teams, which come in many different flavors. “If we scripted a scenario where we walked into a big brokerage firm’s offices, we’d be likely to get substantively different solutions depending on whether we turned right and met with one team or...