Joe Duran details his next venture at Future Proof

investmentnews.com:

Joe Duran has mixed feelings about the current state of the wealth management industry, one that he had a significant hand in shaping.

After helping to pioneer the creation of large, nationwide registered investment advisors with United Capital, which he launched in 2005, he’s now concerned about what will happen with others. After Goldman Sachs sold United Capital to Creative Planning just four years after acquiring it for $750 million in cash, Duran wonders how that will impact the expected returns of other firms that have invested in the independent advisory space.

Mostly, he’s worried about whether the industry, despite sustained growth, is maybe getting a bit stale.

“There’s so little original thought,” Duran said Monday while speaking at the Future Proof conference in Huntington Beach, California.  “When I look at the industry now, everyone is doing the exact same thing, and it’s a version of United Capital that is not as good.”

That’s why rather than talk about the past or even the present, Duran is more interested in the future. At Future Proof, he shared new details about Rise Growth, a new venture he plans to launch in 2024 with a simple mission: Grow the next generation of national firms.

Rise Growth will provide firms with capital, but it won’t look like the traditional venture capital or private equity firms that are already crowding into the independent advisor market, he said.

“We’re going to help build [these firms,]” Duran told InvestmentNews. “We’re not just money. I wouldn’t do this if it was just money.”

Instead, Rise will help provide what Duran said all firms need to become a nationwide independent advisors: their own technology ecosystem; business management practices that RIAs need to grow beyond