Earlier in 2024, after agonizing over it for the better part of three years, Brandon Lockwood finally did what he knew was right all along—for himself, for his family, and for his clients. He broke away from a larger firm to form his own RIA.
Raised by a single mother and largely on his own from the age of seventeen, Lockwood was the first in his family to both attend, and graduate from, college. After university, he entered the financial industry as an auditor. He then worked fifteen years at a Texas-based RIA, the last three of which he spent weighing the pros and cons of breaking away. When he finally launched Lockwood Wealth Strategies, he brought 63 households—and a book of $63 million in assets—with him.
Today, Lockwood is his firm’s only advisor—his wife shoulders some of the administrative burden—but at its current trajectory, Lockwood Wealth Strategies is poised to continue growing without adding any new staff. He partners with Altruist to scale his business without losing the personal touch that has helped him build such enduring client relationships.
Keeping It Simple — What Makes Lockwood Wealth Strategies Tick
Lockwood’s strength has always been keeping things simple.
In his first job out of college, he traveled the country as an auditor, calling on diverse businesses and learning finance on the job. Self-taught, he learned by necessity how to make complex things understandable, a skill that helped him advance quickly. (In audits of independent financial firms, Lockwood also found he could ask any question about any topic and get an immediate answer—a fantastic crash course into how to run a top-notch firm.)
Keeping things simple also helped Lockwood develop a network and, once he joined the Texas-based independent hybrid firm, bring in more clients. In meetings, he made wealth management and financial well-being easy to grasp through a repeatable, step-by-step process. This brought him closer to his clients, which in turn made it easy for him to ask those clients for referrals. Keeping things simple was the flywheel that brought in new clients and helped Lockwood build meaningful relationships.
“If you’re opening a restaurant, you don’t need fancy chandeliers or tablecloths,” Lockwood says. “Make fantastic food. People will eat it—and they’ll tell their friends about it.”
Years later, Lockwood would finally reap the reward of the connections he’d made with his clients. When the time came to break away and form his own RIA, he heard a resounding chorus of clients ready to go with him. “When my clients found out I was going out on my own, they were so supportive. Those relationships were even stronger than I imagined, and gave me the confidence that I’d made the right choice.”
Simple and Fast — How Lockwood Wealth Strategies Chose Altruist
In the three years it took Lockwood to decide to break away and form his own firm, he went back and forth about the decision countless times.
“I wanted to make sure I was doing it for the right reasons,” Lockwood notes. “My wife and I were concerned, though. We needed to support our three children. We knew I had over $60M in potential AUM. If I moved $20M, my wife would have to go back to work. If I moved $30M, things would be about the same. $40M, and that would be a huge win. Anything over that, and it would be a life-altering event. Finally, we felt the risk was right for us and we pulled the trigger.”
Lockwood ended up moving $63M of his book of business.
Of course, to move his clients, he needed a new custodian. Fortunately, through his old firm, Lockwood already had experience working with many of them. Still, he wanted to be thorough. As part of his deliberation, Lockwood came across a timely Michael Kitces article that compared custodians beyond Schwab and Fidelity. He did diligence on every custodian listed. When he finally came to Altruist, the search was over.
Lockwood wanted a single, clean interface from his custodian—one that matched his simple and clear communication style. He also needed a partner who would help him save time, time better spent connecting with his clients. “Deciding to leave my old firm was hard,” Lockwood says. “Choosing Altruist wasn’t. When I brought people over, I had accounts open, transfers up, banking connected, and online access established in less than ninety minutes. The same thing would have taken five days at Schwab.”
Scaling Up — The Future With Altruist
Today, Lockwood Wealth Strategies relies on Altruist to help him manage 63 households and $63M in assets.
In addition to the seamless interface, Lockwood takes advantage of Altruist’s data and model marketplace. “Altruist is such a valuable partner. The tools are so effective that, even though I have over 60 households, I could take on more,” Lockwood said. “I’m only one person, but I could handle 100. I’m looking forward to growing into that.”
Having only recently broken away from his old RIA, Lockwood hasn’t mapped out what’s next, but his partnership with Altruist gives him the time and capacity to double down on client relationships and continue growing his business.
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