- Will your salesperson/financial advisor analyze investments they do not bring to you where they cannot earn fees or commissions?
- Has your salesperson/financial advisor ever thought your investment idea was a great idea if it meant you would be pulling the money from their control and fee structure?
- Has your investment advisor ever analyzed a company’s financial statements, real estate, or business finance decision? Are they qualified to do so?
Wealthy families and small-medium-sized business owners are often presented with compelling investment opportunities outside of publicly traded stocks and bonds. There are some high integrity salespeople/financial advisors but unfortunately, they are limited by factors that hamper their effectiveness in serving their clients’ needs.
Wall Street firms that offer financial advisory services typically do not allow their employees to comment on investment options that are outside their control. Why do they do this? They will tell you it’s because of compliance but that’s deceiving. Essential Partners has rigid compliance, but we are free to analyze any type of investment a client partner brings to us.
The truth is that if Wall Street or the salesperson cannot make a fee or commission on the investment, why bother? This is the core reason they will not help their clients. Further, imagine the horror if a client took money from the Wall Street firm to fund the investment…they would make less money! For this reason, they actively discourage these investments regardless of merit.
Incentives aside, these client facing salespeople lack the investment and finance experience to provide rigorous analysis whereas our founder spent two decades directly analyzing global businesses, real estate companies and corporate finance decisions. We are happy to help our client partners with any investment and we consider incentives to ensure the partnership is effective.
Nick Bartolo Bio
Nick Bartolo is the Founder, Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Essential Partners. Mr. Bartolo has nearly two decades of investment experience, most recently as a Managing Director at International Value Advisers (IVA) where he directly invested in global equities and fixed income. Mr. Bartolo was previously a Senior Vice President at Trust Company of the West (TCW) where he invested in domestic equities. Prior to TCW, Mr. Bartolo was in a management development program at the Capital Group, who owns and manages the American Funds. Collectively, IVA, TCW and the Capital Group invest over $2.5 trillion on behalf of individuals, financial advisors and some of the largest institutions globally including pension and endowment funds. Mr. Bartolo is also a managing member of Rational Capital, an early-stage venture capital partnership.
Mr. Bartolo received his Master of Business Administration (MBA), with Beta Gamma Sigma Honors and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Southern California (USC). He was supported with academic scholarships for both degrees. Mr. Bartolo is a Chartered Financial Analyst Charterholder (CFA) and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He is an annual guest lecturer at the Marshall School of Business at USC for undergraduate and MBA courses, including the MBA Student Investment Fund. Mr. Bartolo is a Board Member of the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation. He is married with three daughters and when he is not working, he can be found hiking and enjoying the outdoors with his family.
Investment advisory services offered through Essential Partners, a registered investment advisor.
This document contains general information that is not suitable for everyone. The information contained herein should not be construed as personalized investment advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. There is no guarantee that the views and opinions expressed will come to pass. Investing in financial markets involves gains and losses and may not be suitable for all investors. Information presented herein is subject to change without notice and should not be considered as a solicitation to buy or sell any security.