Ferguson Wellman’s Journey From Institutional to Individual Advisory


Ferguson Wellman, a registered investment advisor based in Portland, Ore., with more than $9 billion in client assets, was founded in 1975 with a focus on working with union pension plans, businesses and foundations. Over the years, it leveraged that base of expertise and clientele to shift its asset mix more toward individuals and families than institutions.

Ferguson Wellman was founded by Joe Ferguson, Norb Wellman and Jim Rudd when they left their jobs at brokerage houses to start an advisory firm primarily for institutional clients. Today, with individual wealth management accounting for 70% of assets, the RIA looks very different from 50 years ago. However, the changes have gradually emerged from that initial base, according to Director Ralph Cole, who joined the firm in 1998.

“It doesn’t have to be a revolution every year,” Cole said. “We can evolve with our clients and the industry because we had a big base of clients and a lot of assets under management. … It would be hard to start a firm like ours from scratch today.”

Part of that shift has come from strategic moves and investments the employee-owned firm has made over the years. In 2013, it established a separate division for clients with assets of about $1 million to $4 million called West Bearing Investments. In 2020, it launched a private family office called the Octavia Group to service families with $10 million in assets or more. In 2021, the firm made its first regional expansion by opening an office in Bellevue, Wash.

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In addition to its core practice serving clients with $5 million or more, Ferguson Wellman’s mix of advisors and revenue helped it land on this year’s RIA Edge 100 list of firms that exhibit sustainable and responsible growth.

“Over the history of the firm, the institutional side of the business has grown, but it’s that individual side of the business that has really taken off,” Cole said. “We now have a dozen planners on staff and many more services for those individuals and clients than ever before. … We’ve gone where our clients have gone.”

According to Cole, another factor in the firm’s progression is an employee-ownership model that has prioritized sharing equity across the team and eschewing external capital. About 38 of the firm’s nearly 70 employees are shareholders, and no one person owns more than 16% of the firm.

In addition, about 50% of the firm’s ownership has been turned over in just the last seven years, with equity going to junior advisors at a discount.

“We think [remaining independent] is part of our secret sauce and has made us so successful and so different,” Cole said. “We enjoy controlling our own destiny … if we were to give up part of the ownership, we would have to give up part of those profits and we wouldn’t be able to invest as we see fit.”

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In terms of bringing on new team members, Cole said Ferguson Wellman focuses on advisors with experience at banks or broker/dealers.

“When we’re recruiting, we’re able to say to people, ‘We’re going to stay independent, and you have a chance to own part of this,’” Cole said. “We have 30-something-year-olds planning to retire here—that’s so different from so many other industries.”

One of those recruits was Casia Chappell, who joined Ferguson Wellman about six years ago from a wealth manager in Eugene, Ore.

“No doubt, the opportunity for ownership ranked high, particularly because I was moving to Portland to join the firm,” Chappell said. “It felt like I was making an investment in them as much as they were making an investment in me.”

Chappell, a vice president of planning, said she was unique in that her sole focus was financial planning—a role that often doesn’t lead to an equity stake as those doing investment management. Ferguson Wellman, however, told her that if she brought “enhanced value to clients,” it would be possible to acquire equity, and she ended up with her first tranche of ownership after three years.

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She said that stake helps motivate her both with clients and colleagues.

“It fosters collaboration when we face challenges and opportunities,” she said. “There’s an additional layer of motivation and accountability because while I might be responsible for working with specific clients, we think of all clients as ‘our clients.’

On the firm’s website, founder Wellman said about the RIA’s origins: “We transitioned from a commission-basis to a fee-basis, which enabled us to start working with clients right away. Starting something new was also about control, at least in my mind. I didn’t want someone from New York telling me what to pay my staff.”

Going forward, the firm’s 10 principals are charged with continuing that mission while making decisions to keep the firm growing. 

Last week, Ferguson Wellman announced it had signed an 11-year lease for office space in the Fox Tower in Portland. The firm will move down the street from its current address to the new location in 2026.

Cole sees more regional office expansion in the future through adding new advisors. He also said the firm is considering adjacent services such as trust and estate planning.

Meanwhile, he expects client retention and referrals to remain strong partly because of the multi-generational stable of advisors.

“The way we share ownership in our firm and the way we evolve as a firm is very much the same as an institution or family,” he said. “I’ve worked with people for 20 years, and I can identify someone within the firm who can work with their children—we are multi-generational, just like them.”




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