Andrew Crowell
Managing partner and chief executive officer
Crowell, Weedon & Co.
Years in Securities Industry: 13
, so I've always been around stockbrokers. I joke that you could pick out our family on the beach because my father was the one with a stack of prospectuses and The Wall Street Journal. At first I wasn't interested in financial services. After spending a year in France and earning a postgraduate degree in international economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1988, I wanted to stay overseas to work. But I went instead to an advertising agency in Pasadena, Calif.—it had international clients—and stayed until 1995. Then I joined Crowell, working in the back office for two years before moving into management. We're a relatively small regional firm (about 340 employees) and my time in operations gave me exposure to the trade-settlement process and money-settlement process, as well as the inventory- and risk-management elements and the systems that support the advisors. It gave me a good understanding of all the moving parts.

My grandfather cofounded Crowell Weedon and my father worked at the firm

When I was getting licensed in the mid-1990s, online brokerage firms were emerging and the stock market was starting to reach a crescendo. Investors had enjoyed double-digit gains for several years in a row and their expectations were high. It was an exciting time but online access made pricing competitive. I had to find a way to differentiate my service. If investors already knew what they wanted to buy and were just looking for the cheapest way to execute a trade, an online broker was a good way to do it. But I found a niche in helping those who were unsure and wanted to set up a financial plan for retirement or for their kids' college funds. I decided to distinguish myself by being a full-service advisor involved in comprehensive wealth management and brokerage services—and not just cheap stock trades.

One memorable call around 1999, from a popular morning drive-time disc jockey, exemplified this. He wanted to get into the stock market, which at the time was rising like a rocket. I said I'd be happy to work with him, but I first needed to sit down with him so I could understand his intentions and learn his time horizon and what other savings he had. But he just wanted 1,000 shares of a top technology stock before it rose another 10 points. He was looking for an order-taker rather than an advisor. It was a relationship that would not have been ideal for him—or for me.

The industry issue that concerns me is the amount of time we spend on compliance. For a 76-year-old firm, the pendulum swing has been extreme. My father and grandfather didn't worry about this as much, but today it's a challenge for a firm of our size not to spend ourselves out of profitability. We want an industry that regulates effectively and punishes wrongdoers, but smaller firms like ours should not be painted with the same regulatory brush. Our entire footprint is covered by one newspaper, the Los Angeles Times, which subjects us to a great deal of transparency. Also, because of our partnership structure, each owner has full liability. That naturally leads us to watch each other's backs.

I'd tell advisors new to the industry that few businesses are as fulfilling as helping families achieve financial security. There are challenges every day, but we all have timeless objectives—such as college educations and retirement—and there has been a proliferation of new tools and products to assist us. We try to help people achieve their dreams.

As told to Pat Olsen