Christopher P. Van Slyke &
Scott Leonard

Christopher P. Van Slyke, managing director of financial advisory firm Capital Financial Advisors, LLC, is building an enterprise for himself and his clients that emphasizes an educated approach to entrepreneurialism and investing. With a new partner, Van Slyke is currently in the last phases of building a new firm, Trovena, which will create a $500 million super financial services firm that he hopes will continue to grow aggressively as he adds other wealth management operations to the mix. Van Slyke has an academic business and financial background that he has used to construct an enterprise that is now beginning to reach critical mass. By focusing on financial education, Van Slyke has gained the knowledge necessary to build a much larger business than he might otherwise have done. This emphasis on laying the proper groundwork also extends to the kinds of services he provides and the clientele he serves.

Van Slyke's current firm, as well as the new and larger firm Trovena, emphasizes wealth management—an advanced approach to financial planning that positions resources to support each individual's specific values and life plan. The emphasis on wealth management includes an advanced investment approach known as asset-class investing, which involves the use of customized funds to build a portfolio that is intended to provide returns that reflect an individual's overall tolerance for risk.

In addition to Capital Financial Advisors, LLC—soon to be merged into Trovena—Van Slyke runs a firm called Oncubic, which provides clients a stripped-down investment service approach without the "bells and whistles" of wealth management. Whereas Van Slyke's wealth management services minimums start around $3 million, Oncubic clients can have $500,000 or even less.

Oncubic adheres to a passive investing model offered by Dimensional Fund Advisors and offers a selection of low-cost, tax-efficient asset-class mutual funds across three broad asset classes: U.S. stocks, foreign stocks and bonds. By matching risk tolerance to a properly allocated asset-class mutual fund or funds, Oncubic's strategy is intended to maximize returns while maintaining a preferred level of stability. The larger firm uses the same DFA model, along with the addition of wealth management services.

Both Oncubic and Trovena include the participation of experienced wealth manager Scott A. Leonard of Leonard Wealth Management. Leonard is past president and chair of the Financial Planning Association, Los Angeles Chapter, and has served on various board positions with the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors. "Usually, when you make the move to wealth management, you have to make a decision about which clients to keep," says Van Slyke. "Wealth management is ultimately for those with more assets, and not everyone is a candidate. But in this case, we made the decision to build a separate business for those clients that wanted some of our services but not all. By partnering with Scott, we were able to develop the critical mass necessary to ensure Oncubic's ongoing viability— and now to build Trovena as well."

Van Slyke's business-building plans go all the way back to a Texas childhood spent dreaming of a Wall Street career. His father was a corporate lawyer, but Van Slyke says that law seemed to him a fairly slow-paced career. Instead, the dream of Wall Street proved an enticing one as he followed the careers of such bankers as junk bond maven Michael Milken and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens. However, Wall Street dreams proved difficult in the early 1990s, when Van Slyke was ready to join the workforce after graduating with a degree in finance from The University of Texas at Austin. There was a recession under way, and Van Slyke decided that the West might prove more profitable than the East. He settled in Los Angeles, where he went to work at a talent agency.

Eventually, Van Slyke returned to school for an MBA from the University of Southern California and narrowed his focus to investment advisory work. He found opportunity by assisting an independent financial advisor for several years. In 1996, Van Slyke broke away to form his own firm. Now some 12 years, $500 million in assets and two successful businesses later, Van Slyke believes he is just starting to come into his own.

There seems no doubt that Van Slyke is ready to take his enterprise to another level. He has plans, he says, to build out Trovena into a multibillion-dollar, high-end wealth management powerhouse. "There are others now, like Scott and I, who are willing to give up control to become partners in a high-end, top-tier concern. This business is going to consolidate, and that can only benefit the clients we serve and the industry in general."

Van Slyke credits advisor coaching firm CEG Worldwide for helping him arrive at his current wealth management vision. "CEG Worldwide is absolutely fantastic," he says. "They've blazed a trail for numerous shops that may now gradually come together to form management groups that will operate on a national or even international level. They've helped people like me start a new industry. That's a pretty powerful statement and speaks well of their vision and leadership."

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