Dear Valued Clients and Friends,
On this special Wednesday Dividend Cafe, just one day before Thanksgiving and sixty years to the day after John F. Kennedy was assassinated and C.S. Lewis passed into glory, it is my sincere pleasure to bring you the annual Thanksgiving Day edition of the Dividend Cafe!
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I used to worry about whether or not this annual Thanksgiving Dividend Cafe would be redundant, until I reflected on the fact that the entire point is a redundant and repetitive gratitude for all those things we have to be thankful for. So many of the things that come to mind in the context of my gratitude of things related to The Bahnsen Group are year-by-year repetitions, and rightfully so. They are worth expressing gratitude for much more than just once a year, but here we go …
I have always been very grateful for my team, but that means a lot more than when it was nine people (2015) or twenty people (2019) or forty people (2021). Now at sixty people, there are just a lot more people to be thankful for, no doubt. But part of my gratitude is for the fact that we have sixty people. That our firm has grown as it has is a testimony to the fact that the team has worked so hard, that our devotion to principles we believe in has been so rewarded, and that our clients have been so loyal. The growth of our firm is something I do not take for granted, and that we have sixty people across seven offices so incredibly dedicated to this craft, to our clients, and to the mission of this business is something I am beyond thankful for.
Within that team of sixty people are an extremely loyal and devoted group of operations professionals who serve clients, who serve their advisors, and who are often the “field goal kickers” of the team (people only pay attention when something goes wrong). I pay attention all the time, because I know what Alexis, Beth, Abigail, Laura, Megan, Jill, Tammie, Carly, Camille, and Darren do. They are the best Operations team I have ever been around.
The launch of our Tax Department for 2023 was one of the most successful things we have ever done. People warned us about all sorts of complexity and challenges and all I can say is whatever complexity and challenges came, Jay, Menka, and Vanessa have tackled with talent, precision, care, and skill. I am thankful to a point of disbelief for our tax group and what 2024 will bring here.
Managing nearly $5 billion (may be there now but I don’t like to jinx things mid-quarter) does not happen without a lot of trading, a lot of research, a lot of analytics, and a lot of investment activity. All of these functions under the capable hands of Kenny, Manuel, Liping, Teddy, Gale, and Eddie are one of the smoothest parts of our operation, despite the never-ending chaos they are up against. I am thankful.
The Planning group is perhaps one of the biggest success stories we have ever had. Unable for a long time to find the right leadership, infrastructure, and vision, the Planning Group is now one of the most important parts of our business and will be so for years to come. No longer an “investment-first, planning-second” firm, we have developed the caliber of estate planning expertise, financial planning DNA, and peripheral services I have always dreamed of. Initially stood up by now COO Joe Klein, the addition of Eric Dreyer to lead this department has been a Godsend, and the team of planners that Matt, Nick, Jeremy, Mat, and Mark represent is such a huge addition to the value proposition we offer clients.
We had virtually no insurance or risk management operation for years, and after our transaction with Phil and Michele Barnhill of Story Capital nearly three years ago they helped develop a first-class Risk Management department now led by Sarah Leitzke. I can’t say enough about Sarah and her leadership, and the bench we are building in the Risk department out of Minnesota will continue to be a source of growth and client service for years to come. The real reason I am so thankful? It has been done 1,000% as a benefit to clients, where the best advice is often to do something that pays “nobody, nothing.” We do that with joy!
The Content department is the behind-the-scenes engine that makes the articles happen, the website populated, the email commentaries appear, the videos produced, and the content curated. Glen and Brian have been friends and allies for so many years now. Lukas has become a vital part of the team. A huge secret sauce of our company is this department, and is a source of never-ending Thanksgiving.
Our Experience department is a special source of joy for me, not only because the director is my wife of over 22 years, Joleen, who pours her heart into this work and this firm and this team every single day, but because I am so sure no other firm has anything quite like this. The care we take in our Design effort (thank you, Mina and Joleen), but also client events, client gifts, and team camaraderie is not something others could replicate if they wanted to. I hope we all are thankful!
Our Newport office manager, Ericca, our company Treasurer, Rayna, our bookkeeper and finance support, Ryan, and experience support, Sierra, are often out of client optics, but vital players behind the scenes in how we roll. I am thankful across the board.
And then there is our Private Wealth Advisor Group, from long-time partners, Brian Szytel, Kimberlee Davis, Don Saulic, Trevor Cummings, and Sean Latimer, to our significant bench of advisory talent covering offices all over the country – Drew Dill, John Swanson, Robert Graham, Stoddard Barnhill, James Andrews, Blaine Carver, Sean Ullrich, Brian Miller, Steve Tresnan, Geoff Gregory, Nathan Straw, and Brendan Porter – I believe from the bottom of my heart that every one of these people is trustworthy, competent, and skilled – and that every one of our clients is blessed to have one of them as their wealth advisor. I can’t thank Trevor and Sean enough for their leadership in developing this group, and I can’t thank the advisor group enough for their belief in our core philosophy and ability to deliver the client experience they deliver.
Last but certainly not least is our Management Committee (all the department directors), and then my Leadership Team (Joe Klein as COO, who has been a God-send, along with long-time partner and right-hand man, Brian Szytel, as well as Trevor who directs the PWA Group and Joleen who oversees team and client experience). They are themselves the leaders that help drive this company, and across the Management Committee and Leadership Team, they all motivate me to be a better leader myself.
The sixty people who make up the TBG team do so on behalf of clients Some have been clients for over twenty years; some joined this last year; and many, many in between. But that clients entrust us with their financial goals is the great blessing and mandate of our lives – and we never take it lightly (ever). We ask our clients to trust us, and we promise complete, unwavering trustworthiness in exchange. It has proven to be a good deal so far, and I am so, so thankful for all of you who are clients of our firm. We care deeply for you, and we love the chance to work for you and your families. Your flourishing is our flourishing.
So, Happy Thanksgiving to all. Whether you are mad at the Fed or the White House or the Congress or the media or the Presidential candidates or the Ivy League or all of the above, just know that we are thankful for you, we believe we all have a lot to be thankful for, and we believe that no amount of societal angst or emotion can ever justify the forgetting of why we are thankful.
God is good. Be safe. Be free. Be thankful.
Quote of the Week
“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God … No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
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Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Back at you Monday in the DC Today.
With regards,
David L. Bahnsen
Chief Investment Officer, Managing Partner
dbahnsen@thebahnsengroup.com
The Bahnsen Group
thebahnsengroup.com
This week’s Dividend Cafe features research from S&P, Baird, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, and the IRN research platform of FactSet
