Larry Heinrich

Larry Heinrich is a longtime entrepreneur with several startups under his belt. His latest venture, Integrated Wealth Partners—a Centennial, Colorado-based wealth management firm with roughly $9 million in assets under management— continues Heinrich's history of building companies from the ground up.

Heinrich started IWP in 2008 after spending several years working with an established advisor—then running his own firm—learning what to do (and what not to do) to build a successful advisory firm. The launch of IWP, says Heinrich, was the "next evolution" in his development as a wealth advisor. The concept of wealth management—whereby the advisor goes far beyond simply offering investment guidance to his clients— appealed to Heinrich. "I wanted to play a bigger role with my clients and do more for them," he says.

At the core of Heinrich's wealth management philosophy is the need to understand the client on a comprehensive level, from financial details to key life goals. At the same time, Heinrich must make sure that his clients clearly understand his wealth management approach—from how investment decisions are made to the importance of such tasks as asset allocation. "Any investment approach doesn't make sense until you really understand it," he says. "And any strategy that's tied to that is pretty worthless unless the client understands it and is on board with it."

IWP currently has just over two dozen clients, and Heinrich has been focusing his efforts on building up a specific clientele niche: entrepreneurs. "I have a lot of affinity for entrepreneurs," he says. "I've started a lot of businesses and sold a lot of businesses,so I can relate to what entrepreneurs who are considering cashing out are going through."

The ideal client in that area, he says, is a business owner who is within three years of selling his company. Heinrich applies a unique wealth management approach to these entrepreneurs. Step one involves underscoring the importance of developing an exit strategy from the business. Heinrich notes that many business owners assume they are indispensable to their businesses. As a result, they may resist formulating a succession plan or finding a buyer until it's too late. "The vast majority of business owners die before deciding what to do with their businesses," he says. "We help them to understand that if they fail to sell or transfer the business, then they've failed at being a good steward for that business. Getting them comfortable with living on investments is a key factor."

To build IWP's client roster of entrepreneurs, Heinrich has developed relationships with business brokers in Colorado. Since these brokers often work with businesses for years in advance of a sale, Heinrich sees his wealth management expertise as a natural fit during the presale process.

Heinrich also is making inroads into another client niche—specialty physicians. These doctors, says Heinrich, accumulate significant wealth during their careers but also are much more vulnerable than a typical client to threats, such as malpractice suits or other litigation. To begin drawing more of these clients to IWP, Heinrich is developing a white paper that lays out the specific wealth management needs of this group.

Meanwhile, growing IWP has meant looking for ways to tweak the firm's internal operations. Until recently Heinrich was doing double duty as a wealth advisor and the office administrator. As a result, he found himself being dragged away from his clients each quarter to tend to duties such as reconciling statements and creating reports. "I was the back-office guy. Every quarter I had to do the billing, portfolio reports, all the balancing reports," he says. "It negatively impacted my momentum, and it took me totally out of everything else."

Through his relationship with advisor coaching firm CEG Worldwide, Heinrich opted to outsource those back-office duties to Florida-based DKE Inc. Beginning in the second quarter of 2009, those administrative tasks were offloaded and Heinrich was able to devote his full attention to his clients. "Now the quarter comes and I just keep trucking on what I'm doing," he says. "My goal is now to focus on managing my client relationships."

And any extra time freed up by outsourcing his firm's back-office work can also be directed to developing and fine-tuning Heinrich's advisory firm. When Heinrich started IWP, he had no minimum asset level for clients. Now that level is $1 million, and Heinrich is aiming to raise the minimum to $5 million. What's more, Heinrich is working to develop a client base that is actively engaged in the wealth management process. In recent years, he admits the firm has lost some clients—particularly during the difficult market in 2008 and early 2009—because they did not completely embrace IWP's wealth management philosophy. And that's all right with Heinrich. "My practice is really built around serving people who understand what we're trying to do and believe in the wealth management approach," he says. "I think that makes for a lot more fun of a business, because you're not trying to convert people."

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