Osbon Capital turned 10 years old last Saturday, May 2nd. An exciting milestone, this anniversary marks the latest phase in my continuous desire throughout my career to improve the investment experience for individuals. We’ve come a long way, and there’s always room to improve. Here’s a look at where we’ve been and where we’re going.
Swimming upstream
By the early 2000s I’d been in the Wall Street machine for 20 years, first with Morgan Stanley and then with Atlantic Trust and Credit Suisse. While I look back on those years with pride for the steps I took to advance the interests of my clients, ultimately I knew the truth that clients were not the priority for these big financial brands.
Shareholders came first, then top leadership, then investment banking clients, then institutional investors. Individual retail clients were necessary to the business, but were never top of mind in any of the decisions made about how we operated. They consistently got less attention, transparency and choice than they deserved.
Ultimately, the farther I tried to advance my ideal of lowering the costs of investing for individuals and bringing the right style of investments to each circumstance, the more it stalled out. So I left.
Partners Lunch during trip to Seattle to implement the new Osbon Portal on Osboncapital.com
Osbon Capital 2005
Knowing that it was possible, and right, to create a better experience for investors, I put up seven figures of my own capital to build Osbon Capital for myself and for others. I worked through the details to pass regulatory muster and began operations on May 2, 2005 as a registered investment advisor. What a relief! I was back on track to pursue investment management the way I thought it should be done – by implementing customized, cost conscious diversified portfolios for individual owners of money.
Independence was crucial to this crusade. No shareholders or debt holders could object to our client-first approach, since the Osbon family owned 100% of the firm, debt-free, and still does! And there are no layers of management to satisfy, no sales quotas to meet, and no proprietary products to push.
The result is a true private firm for private clients. I am happy to report we have a great group of truly interesting and diverse individual clients. Osbon Capital’s profit has been continuously re-invested at substantial levels to improve the firm. After ten years I’m delighted with our progress and thrilled to see our approach working for clients.
Osbon Capital’s Future
We will always have cost control, tax efficiency, and personal design and service in our firm DNA. What’s propelling us forward now is the promise of better execution through technology, particularly the newly announced Osbon Portal. Further, we have a built-to-last owner-operator structure with next generation Max Osbon leading the way.
We will always be custom by design no matter how big in assets we might become. Clients will always talk directly to an Osbon. With time on our side through investment compounding and an ownership structure that reinforces client continuity, the future for Osbon Capital looks bright indeed. The sun rises here every day.
John Osbon – josbon@osboncapital.com
Weekly Articles by Osbon Capital Management:
"*" indicates required fields