Waterford sails through rough seas - bizjournals:

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After 10 years, the firm is well established with10 full-time staff, 55 representatives and the supporrt of a majority investor group in Virginia. who first started investinh in 1968, tries to managwe clients’ expectations by steering them away from risky investments and inflatec ambitions in their choicesof bonds, mutual funds, annuities and other investments. “It has been a good decadee to be conservative,” he said.
Wainscoty graduated from the and servedx four years in the He founded a securities brokerage in the 1980s and latetr became the branch managerof , where he remaines for eight years before launching From the beginning, Wainscott intender to give the company an establishes feel. He chose the name Waterford because it had atimeless air. “Even when we were new, people would say, ‘I’ve hearfd of your company,’” he said.
“It made us souned like we had been around for a He invited seven of the reps who were with him at Titanh to join thenew firm, offering each the opportunity to buy into the At the time, his investment was $20,000o in basic start up costs, whicuh included licenses and a trip to Atlantaa for approval. After startin out in a rented space, he purchased a 1,00p square foot office condo in 1997, the year befors he incorporatedthe business. “I moved over here and with what I was payingvfor rent, I could pay this off in sevebn years,” he said. “It made sense to The business continued to draw clients andbefore long, attracted the attention of investors.
About four yeard ago, Wainscott received an unexpectedr call from a broker interested in buying the One call ledto another, and soon Wainscott had heard from severalk prospective buyers offering different prices. “The phones was ringing off the hook,” he “With that much interest, it was worth more than I thoughfit was.” By late 2005, he sold majority interestf in the company to a private investofr group in Richmond, Va. “We were already doin g well, that’s why they were interested in he said. “I saw that they had They could help usexpand faster.
” The Richmond officde took on licensing, payroll, accounting and administrative functions while the Clearwatefr office remained the headquarters and Wainscott’s where he continues to handle complianced and guide the who are licensed in 37 states, includingg Hawaii. “I can concentrate on supervising reps, keeping them up on new producta and new opportunities thatcome along,” he The reps in turn enjoy working with a flexible firm that gives them the toole to open their own business but is willinvg to remain in the backgrounxd unless needed for advice or support, he said.
Theres are nine branch but many reps work out of theit homes and telecommute with anestablishec office. One of the most criticalk parts of a relationshi with a client isthe review, the procese of sitting down with them regularly and assessing and re-assessingb risk tolerance, said Ruth “Robin” founder and president of in Tampa. Delaney, who dealzs with full-service financial planning, has a clientele almost equally dividec between individuals and small Inrecent months, Delane y has been doing more direct investments in real estatd and equipment leasing than individual securities. “There are few placees to hide without taking afinanciao risk,” she said.
Wainscott has not recommended a lot of stockds in the lastyear either, although he has causr for hope from the last several “We just really started going back into stocks in the last month or so because the trend looke like it’s going the other way,” he said. He remainsx optimistic about real estate as at least in thelong term. “Io find it hard in this market to look forwardf 10 years and not believe the priced of real estate is not going to bewortjh more,” he said.