Episode summary
RIA Edge Podcast: How WealthCrossing Grew From an EY Spinout to a $1.5B RIA
Summary
WealthCrossing grew out of an Ernst & Young personal financial counseling practice that spun off around the time of Sarbanes-Oxley, starting with four people and about $60 million under advisement and growing organically to about $1.5 billion. Andrea Broughton said the firm’s edge has always been tax integration, with CPAs and CFPs working together so planning, investing, and tax strategy are coordinated for high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
For years, growth came almost entirely from client referrals, but the firm became more deliberate about scaling about two years ago. Andrea said WealthCrossing hired Beyond AUM, rebranded from SBK Financial to WealthCrossing, and expanded into digital marketing, blogging, and webinars. She said the new branding and website work have already produced a much larger share of leads online, while the firm still expects referrals to remain important.
Andrea also described how the firm manages tax preparation, estate planning, and talent. WealthCrossing moved most tax prep out of house about eight years ago to protect staff hours, then brought some of it back for larger clients after technology improved. On AI, she said the firm is cautious because of confidentiality, using it mainly for internal HR tasks while waiting for the technology to mature.
Key takeaways
- Andrea Broughton said WealthCrossing grew from an EY spinout with about $60 million to about $1.5 billion without acquisitions.
- The firm’s core differentiator is an integrated tax-and-wealth model, with larger clients assigned both a tax adviser and a wealth adviser.
- WealthCrossing shifted from relying only on client referrals to a more deliberate growth strategy that includes a rebrand and digital marketing.
- Andrea said about 50% of new prospects are now coming through the website after the firm went all in on marketing in January 2025.
- The firm is cautious on AI because confidentiality matters, so it is using it mostly for internal HR work for now.
Notable quotes
“So, our motto has always been it doesn't matter how much money you make. It matters how much you get to keep after the IRS takes their big chunks”
“up until about two years ago, we relied solely on client referrals. We just tried to do an amazing job for our clients and hope that they would recommend us to others”
“we changed our name to Well Crossing. So, but we've been SPK up until then”
“the main reason was for people. As we know, hiring and keeping people is probably one of the most important things we do in our industry”
“I think a lot of our technology is already starting to use it and we might not even know how they're using it”
How the episode opens
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Hi everyone, thanks for uh joining us. This is, as you know, the RA Edge podcast. My opportunity to speak to the executives who are growing RAIA firms. Uh and today I'm thrilled to be speaking with Andrea Brotten, the CEO of Wealth Crossing. Andrea, thanks very much for joining us.
Thanks for having me, David. I'm really excited. I'm excited too.
I should note that wealth crossing has been uh in the RA edge 100 list of uh we call it you know sustainably growing REA firms uh for the past two years I think 25 and 26 which is quite an achievement and we'll talk a little bit about that and how that list comes together and maybe how you guys are are you know managing to work your way onto that list. Um, I think it's great, but for the folks who don't know your firm as well, can you maybe just give us the background of uh, Wealth Crossing?
Absolutely. So, we are located in Richmond, Virginia. We started about 21 years ago as SBK Financial. Um, we actually came out of Ernstston Young. They had a personal financial counseling group in several of the offices around the country. And because of Sarbain Oxley, they decided to get out of the business and allowed the practices that had some assets under advisement to just start their own firms, which is what we did.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ria growth
- tax planning
- digital marketing
- ai integration
- wealth management strategy
Companies and tickers mentioned
- WealthCrossing
- Ernst & Young
Watch the episode
Watch “RIA Edge Podcast: How WealthCrossing Grew From an EY Spinout to a $1.5B RIA” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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