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CIRCLE WINNER S. The. In our studies of America s top advisors, one thing has. The Top-Ranked Advisor Teams in America

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n our studies of America’s top advisors, one thing has become clear: It takes a wealth management team to win. And it is the clients who are the true winners. While there are many attributes that make a team strong, one of the dynamics that separate the Winner’s Circle teams from others is constant and effective communication from every member — from the senior partners on down. This goes beyond sharing basic information like client data, or selflessly helping others to get ahead. These teams are singu-larly unified for the purpose of deepening client relation-ships, pursuing their clients’ best interests, offering the high-est levels of advice and service possible, and endlessly seek-ing the best paths to recommend to their clients.

Achieving this level of teamwork requires strong lead-ership built of like-minded individuals. Whether they have overlapping or complementary skills, they commonly share the same vision and infuse their team with their own passion for pursuing each client’s best interests. From there, they create a culture of high integrity, trust and openness among members. The best teams view them-selves more as family than simply colleagues. Each mem-ber knows he or she is free

to speak openly, whether venting frustrations with processes or arguing for the benefit of working out the best resolutions for clients.

Most of the top teams reward individuals with bonuses based on team per-formance, which also con-veys the feeling of owner-ship — and responsibility — among all. In the desire for constant improvement, one team requires each indi-vidual to complete

perfor-mance reviews for others, and must identify weaknesses in the team and among others. Then they work together to make improvements.

While team formations vary widely according to busi-ness and client types, this year we categorized teams into three structures: horizontal teams, which consist of two or more advisors who do most of their business together, with each owning significant stakes; vertical teams consist of one primary advisor; and family teams — we’ve decid-ed to eliminate the two-person parent-child team in favor of husband-wife teams and those teams with three or more closely related individuals, including cousins and in-laws. Criteria have changed somewhat since last year’s list. GALA GATHERING

In July, Franklin Templeton hosted our celebratory gala at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Typical among all Winner’s Circle advisors, each team was anxious to share their ideas on how better to serve and advise clients. One of our attendees, Franklin Templeton national sales manager Philip Bensen pointed out a true commonality among all Winner’s Circle teams: “These advisors are suc-cessful because they’ve sur-rounded themselves with world-class teams and provide superior advice and service to their clients.”

R.J. Shook,founder of The Winner’s Circle organization, has released his eighth book, The Winner’s Circle IV. His research also appears in annual cover stories in Barron’s. Franklin Templeton is proud to support the Winner’s Circle and i t s m i s s i o n o f p r o m o t i n g b e s t practices. To nominate an advisor and to find out more about the program, visit winnerscirclenet.com.

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The Top-Ranked Advisor Teams in America

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(Back row) Philip Benson of Franklin Templeton, Mark Sear of Capital Strategies Group/Merrill Lynch and Dana Jackson of the Peninsula Group/Smith Barney; (mid-dle row) David Hou of Capital Strategies, Bob Tyndall of Research and Jon Goldstein of the Peninsula Group; (front row) Charles and Lynn Zhang of Zhang &

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Jon Goldstein & Dana Jackson

The Peninsula Group

Smith Barney, Menlo Park, CA

Jon Goldstein and Dana Jackson are setting a new indus-try standard in servicing the ultra-high-net-worth client. In a heated competition with several firms, financial advisors Jon Goldstein and Dana Jackson of the Penin-sula Group at Smith Barney were

given a short amount of time to win the account of an entrepreneur who had just sold his company. The senior partners of this 17-member team treated the potential client’s issues ex-actly as they would any other client. “We took the time to really listen to his needs,” Jon says.

For three hours the two advised him on various investment strategies that would help him to offset the large tax li-ability he faced with the sale of his low-basis stock. One idea was to establish a private foundation suited to the prospect’s philanthropic activities. At the end of the pitch, the prospect put the brakes on the discussion and said, “There’s no reason to talk to anyone else. You’re hired.”

Jon and Dana joined forces in 1993 in order to boost their potential to provide comprehensive client service. They at-tribute their success to their ability to share resources and leverage the team’s different skill-sets.

Last month the team relocated to

new offices more suited to a plush, high-end wealth man-agement boutique catering to ultra-high-net-worth clients with $10 million to $100 million of investable assets.

“That is the sweet spot where we believe we have the most opportunity to add value,” Jon says. “And, frankly, that’s the most gratifying market, because those are the clients who can see and appreciate the value in what we do.”

“We’re working for one cause, the client,” Dana says.

“We’ve built a tremendous net offering them quality ser-vice and adser-vice and the ideal client experience the mo-ment they walk through the door.”

A primary relationship manager, typically Jon or Dana, plus one junior partner, either Mike Texido or David Arizini, attends to every client. For larger clients with more complex needs, Jon and Dana jointly service the ac-count. Additional team members include Karen Appleton,

a relationship manager who heads up the business development and market-ing efforts; three investment manage-ment analysts; a fixed-income portfolio manager; and eight sales assistants.

“Each client finds comfort in know-ing that we are their specialist and trust-ed advisor and can speak to nearly all their needs,” says Jon. Accordingly, they describe their jobs as being “the ulti-mate quarterbacks, building concentric circles around our clients and bringing in outside experts when needed.

“We have the ultimate Rolodex, with scale,” Dana says. “We connect clients with best-in-class solutions.”

Another hot competition came down to the Peninsula Group and another elite boutique. The competitor flew numerous philanthropic, trust and other experts from New York to court this prospect. In the end, Dana and Jon won the business because they took the time to listen and created a plan that responded to the prospect’s needs. “We created a SWAT team approach of internal and external resources,” Dana says. And they earned a client for life.

The High-End Boutique

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(Above) Michael Texido, Dana Jackson, David Arizini and Jon Goldstein of the Peninsula Group, a Smith Barney team, in Menlo Park, Calif.

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Mark Sear & David Hou

Capital Strategies Group

Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., Los Angeles

In late 1999, a client of the Capital Strategies Group sold his business to a Nasdaq 100 company and netted the same as his two partners: $50 million in stock.

After carefully taking the client through all of the vari-ous diversification alternatives, David Hou suggested the client simply just sell it all — as soon as

his prospectus was registered. Why not a more complex transaction? “Because the client wanted to simplify his life and, being fully retired, wanted to know exactly how much income he could earn,” said David. Yes, that meant taking a tax hit to the tune of about $15 million, but that left him with about $35 million in cash and, as a company executive, he was scheduled to receive plenty of stock options in the future. The client was surprised by the

recom-mendation, but agreed to do it, and shared the plan with his partners. David and team immediately sold his shares. Three years later, the company filed for bankruptcy pro-tection. The client hasn’t stopped thanking the team. (The client’s former partners did not unwind their positions on time.)

Still, David and partner Mark Sear are both quick to point out that while the timing of the transaction looks lucky in hindsight, there was no real luck involved. It was

simply a matter of them walking the client — any client — through the same process. It’s a team approach that levers five partners’ varying skills.

This is a level of customization few advisors can touch, but it’s one that ultra-high-net-worth clients need, and one that corporate CEOs — the team’s target market — demand.

When Mark and David met in 1993 at Goldman Sachs, they were each trying to capture money in motion,

prospecting the ultra-high-net-worth in Silicon Valley. They realized that this group needed very sophisticated han-dling and very specialized services, so they joined forces.

They started working closely with Alan Zafran, and each of them devel-oped their own specialization within money management. Alan became the team’s fixed-income manager and strate-gist. Mark primarily handled the con-centrated stock diversification strategies and worked closely with trading-orient-ed clients. David focustrading-orient-ed on investment management and alternative investment strategies.

In 1997, the team joined the Merrill Lynch Private Banking and Investment Group seeking an open-architecture platform utilizing outside managers. Since then, two new partners have come aboard: Robert Skinner researches and uncovers high quality outside invest-ment managers in all investinvest-ment disci-plines, including alternative

investments; and John McNamee focuses on estate plan-ning and insurance-related issues. The team recently hired Kim Ip, the team’s operating manager; the support staff reports directly to her.

Together, the team provides the unique combination of personal attention and deep specialization in every aspect of financial planning that wealthy families need. “We have the scale and resources of a large Wall Street firm, with the intimacy of a family office,” says Mark.

The Solutions-Based Team

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Mark Sear and David Hou of Capital Stategies Group, a Los Angeles-based Merrill Lynch team.

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Business Partners, Life Partners

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Charles and Lynn Zhang

Zhang & Associates, Ameriprise

Portage, Mich.

One day late last year, Charles and Lynn Zhang faced a dilemma. Both were booked in meetings, but one of them had to drive their son to piano class. They also had to fig-ure out a way for a successful business owner to defer in-come. With Lynn’s expertise in designing retirement plans and individual and corporate tax planning, she recom-mended a defined benefit

plan, which would hit his goal of deferring more than 50 per-cent of his consulting income. She also works with his plan administrator regularly on such issues as tax reporting. Charles manages the plan’s as-sets — and drove his son.

Lynn, a CPA, CFP and a Kellogg MBA, gained her ex-perience as a senior consul-tant at a Big Six accounting firm. Charles, knowing no English at the time, left Shanghai to complete his masters in economics at West-ern Michigan University (he later earned an MBA from Kellogg), and joined Ameri-can Express in 1991 with no money and no contacts. Once they were married, Charles,

now a CFP, ChFC and CLU, spent years trying to con-vince Lynn to join his practice.

She finally joined the team in 1997. Structurally, Charles has more shares of ownership, “but Lynn spends all the money,” Charles jokes. To make their arrangement work, they had to lay down some ground rules. The first rule is that they each have their own expertise, and the other doesn’t interfere. Charles’ forte is business develop-ment. Once clients are on board, Lynn works with the very top clients. She’s a direct contact for any service needs, and

she handles services like designing profit-sharing plans for small businesses or specialized tax planning. She has also built a name for herself in stock-option planning. Charles specializes in investment planning and retire-ment planning.

The most important rule is they never bring work is-sues home, and they don’t bring any isis-sues from home into the office.

Backing up the husband-and-wife team are two full-time licensed assistants, also called paraplanners, and five

administrative assistants. As a team, they are able to eval-uate every aspect of each client’s financial picture and put together a comprehen-sive plan to address every concern. Charles likens his planning processes to a doc-tor’s practice, with the para-planner playing a role analogous to that of a nurse.

“The paraplanner and I look at a person’s financial situation thoroughly, perform the necessary analysis, or surgery as I like to call it, es-tablish well thought-out rec-ommendations, or prescribe the medication, and monitor the plan as needed once it’s put in place,” he explains.

With so much personal attention going into each client’s plan, Charles doesn’t let his client list grow too large. He only works from personal referrals, and he won’t take on more than 80 new clients a year of the hun-dreds of referrals he receives. Charles will only take on clients who accept the financial-planning process and benefit from his specialties in wealth preservation, retire-ment planning or general financial planning.

The last criterion is mutual respect. He says, “I believe the most important thing to remember is to always put clients’ interest first.”

GLENN TRIEST

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horizontal teams

*Two or more advisors who do most their business together and share substantial ownership.

TEAM NAME (INCLUDING PRINCIPALS) FIRM NAME LOCATION TEAM ASSETS 1 The Curtis Group Mark Curtis, Tom McCue, Smith Barney Palo Alto, CA $12,000,000,000

Karen MacDonald, Brian Araki, Brian Penzel, Ken Astarita

2 The Cenname Team August Cenname, Mike Denti, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. Columbus, OH $5,100,000,000 Peter Motta, Charles Jarrett, David Sugar, Cindy Elmore

3 545 Group Gregory Vaughan, Robert Dixon, Morgan Stanley Menlo Park, CA $9,000,000,000 Mark Douglass, Jason Bogardus

4 Capital Strategies Group Mark Sear, David Hou, Merrill Lynch Los Angeles, CA $5,000,000,000 Alan Zafran, Robert Skinner, John McNamee

5 The Peninsula Group at Smith Barney Smith Barney Menlo Park, CA $5,000,000,000 Jon Goldstein, Dana Jackson, Mike Texido, David Arizini

6 Topeka Wealth Management Group Smith Barney New York, NY $5,000,000,000 Paul Tramontano, Lyon Polk, Sam Katzman

7 Rukeyser & Williams Peter Rukeyser, Alex Williams Morgan Stanley New York, NY $2,200,000,000 Private Wealth Management

8 The Potomac Group George Dunn, Peter Dunne Smith Barney Washington, D.C. $3,200,000,000 9 Private Asset Management Michael Klein, Gerald Robert W. Baird & Co., Inc. Milwaukee, WI $4,100,000,000

Gerndt, Philip Dallman, James Schultz, Kristin Lindblom

10 Eckerline, Bencini, Boyd Group Merrill Lynch Wayzata, MN $1,350,000,000 Peter Eckerline, Christina Boyd, Barbara Bencini

11 The Weil Cohen Group Noel Weil, Leigh Cohen, Merrill Lynch New York, NY $1,450,000,000 Brian Schiller, Michael Haskell, Joseph Waterman

12 Dewsnup / Godlewski / Sleiman Wells Fargo Salt Lake City, UT $945,000,000 Darin Dewsnup, Ed Godlewski, Sam Sleiman Investments, LLC.

13 Nelson Braun Oliger Group Robert Nelson, Smith Barney Seattle, WA $1,000,000,000 Dean Braun, Brian Oliger

14 Major & Close Wealth Management Piper Jaffray Minneapolis, MN $1,027,612,000 Charles Major, Louis Close

~ continued ~

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vertical teams

*One advisor that maintains substantial ownership in team.

TEAM NAME (INCLUDING PRINCIPALS) FIRM NAME LOCATION TEAM ASSETS 1 The Cash Management Group at Bear Stearns Bear Sterns New York, NY $7,450,000,000

Richard Saperstein, David D’Amico, Jerome Klein

2 High Net Worth Group Marvin McIntyre, AJ Fechter, Legg Mason Washington, D.C. $3,000,000,000 David Gray, Arnold Koonin, Donald Metzger, Bob Parr

3 The Erdmann Group Merrill Lynch Greenwich, CT $2,700,000,000 Jeff Erdmann, Robert Giannetti

4 The Sharma Group Raj Sharma, Merrill Lynch Boston, MA $3,650,000,000 Christian Kemp, Ken Sharma

5 The Optimal Service Group Joseph Montgomery Wachovia Securities, LLC Williamsburg, VA $6,800,000,000 6 The Halbfinger Group UBS Financial Services New York, NY $1,400,000,000

Martin Halbfinger, Clifford Stober

7 Carson Wealth Management Group Ron Carson LPL Omaha, NE $1,012,000,000 8 The Katz Team Sanford Katz, John Kang, UBS Financial Services San Francisco, CA $1,070,000,000

Stephanie Lewis

9 The Glassman Group Saly Glassman Merrill Lynch Blue Bell, PA $876,000,000 10 The Kulhavi Team John Kulhavi Merrill Lynch Farmington Hills, MI $710,000,000 11 The Deatherage Group Mary Deatherage Smith Barney Little Falls, NJ $775,000,000 12 Bartholomew & Company, Inc. Commonwealth Worcester, MA $550,000,000

Thomas Bartholomew

13 The Fox Group Stephen Fox, Keith Mahle Smith Barney Troy, MI $1,050,000,000 ~ continued ~

*

15 The Stevenson Paxton Group John Stevenson, Wachovia Securities Quincy, IL $700,000,000 Bill Paxton, John Stevenson, Jr.

16 Stavis, Margolis Advisory Services FSC Houston, TX $500,000,000 Deborah Stavis, Mary Margolis, Trey Brady

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family teams

*Classified as either husband and wife, or three or more related individuals; structures can be horizontal or vertical.

TEAM NAME (INCLUDING PRINCIPALS) FIRM NAME LOCATION TEAM ASSETS 1 Zhang & Associates Charles Zhang, Lynn Chen-Zhang Ameriprise Financial Portage, MI $800,000,000 2 Cooke Financial Group John Cooke, Chris Cooke, Wachovia Securities Indianapolis, IN $900,000,000

Brian Cooke

3 The Heck Group Robert Heck, Kenneth Heck, Smith Barney Rhinelander, WI $1,016,000,000 David Heck

4 Ciccarelli Advisory Services, Inc. Kim Ciccarelli, Raymond FSC Naples, FL $750,000,000 Ciccarelli, Paul Ciccarelli, Jill Ciccarelli, Anthony Curatolo

5 The Professional Planning Group Malcolm A. Makin, Raymond James Westerly, RI $600,000,000 Christopher Wallace, Daniel Makin, Peter Wallace

6 Sgroi Financial,LLC. Joe Sgroi, Patrick Sgroi, Jeffrey Cadaret Grant & Co. West Seneca, NY $775,000,000 Sgroi, Betsy Sgroi, John Clouden, Brian Clouden

7 The Kelly Group Brian Kelly, Brian Kelly Jr., Smith Barney Florham Park, NJ $500,000,000 Marybeth Emson

8 The Keator Group, LLC Sheila Keator, Wachovia Securities Pittsfield, MA $325,000,000 David Keator, Frederick Keator, Matthew Keator

9 The Lang Investment Group Bruce Lang, Todd Lang, Wachovia Securities Denver, CO $575,000,000 Drew Lang

10 Austin-Decher Group Wanda Austin, John Decher, Legg Mason Newport News, VA $300,000,000 Christina Austin

Ranking Criteria: The Winner's Circle® is an advocacy organization independent of the firms involved and does not receive compensation from the participating firms or its affiliates, financial advisors or the media in exchange for ranking purposes. The organization promotes its missions of best practices in the industry, and the value of advice to the public. The ranking process begins with a national survey of approximately 100 securities firms, insurance companies, banks, independent financial advisor practices and other organizations that employ series-7 registered financial advisors; each of these firms promote objective and independent advice with open-architecture access to financial products. These lists are based on qualitative criteria, including: managing partners with a minimum of 7 years financial services experience, and other weighted criteria ranging from productivity per partner, creden-tials, acceptable compliance records and wealth management focus to customer satisfaction reports and other data that firms provide. Teams are quantitatively ranked based on an algorithm that weights varying types of revenues, and custodied and non-custodied assets advised by the financial professional, with weightings associated for asset types.The ranking does not consider client portfolio performance. Please see www.winnerscirclenet.com for more information.

14 Financial Development Corp. Mutual Service Corp. Atlanta, GA $515,000,000 Kay Shirley

15 The Blumenthal Group Jeff Blumenthal, Wachovia Securities Oklahoma City, OK $575,000,000 Morris Blumenthal

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