$30 Billion and Counting: Growth, Strategy, and Talent with Jason Ozur

[00:00:29] Doug Heikkinen: Let's go back to where you started your career as a CPA. Let's talk about that and how do you think that experience shaped your leadership style in the wealth management world?

[00:00:39] Jason Ozur: Yeah, when you start as a CPA, and specifically when I started, I was able to obtain valuable insight into complex investments because my specialty was in audits and tax returns of hedge funds.

And so being able to see complex investments so early in my career, was really additive when I made the switch from being a CPA into the wealth management business.

[00:01:03] Doug Heikkinen: So your background in accounting, did it influence the way you manage and have grown Lido?

[00:01:09] Jason Ozur: 100%. I mean, as a CPA, number one, you learn early on in your career the value of a fiduciary relationship, and understanding to always put the client first is something you learn as a CPA. And the same is true in the wealth management business in that the client always has to come first. And that truly is the definition of a fiduciary relationship.

[00:01:34] Doug Heikkinen: Before Lido, you spent some time in a family office.

What are some of the key lessons you took from that experience that you've applied to your work at Lido?

[00:01:43] Jason Ozur: Well, when you've seen one family office, you've seen one family office and the same is true. Every client is going to have their own special, unique, bespoke family dynamics. And you have to approach each client without any preconceived notions on what they're looking for within the family, what they're looking for for their investments, what they're looking for as far as their financial planning.

You got to approach it with a clean slate, no different than what you'd see in the family office community.

[00:02:18] Doug Heikkinen: As I mentioned, you've grown so much in the recent years. What's been the biggest shift in how the firm operates and what's been the most rewarding part of that growth?

[00:02:29] Jason Ozur: Yeah, originally Lido was formed as a multifamily office. And over time, we've been able to take our family office services, and utilize the platform for clients that might not have, you know, 50 60 70 100 200 million dollars. And so over time, we've brought in clients that, you know, we'll call it in the one to 500 million range.

And, the most gratifying thing for all of us is seeing our clients achieve their financial goals, first and foremost. And secondarily, as the CEO of the company, we have brought many individuals into the company who maybe this was their first job or second job. They started with us in their mid twenties and to see them also achieve financial success, get married, buy their house has been super gratifying for us.

[00:03:23] Doug Heikkinen: Does Lido have its own distinct vibe?

[00:03:26] Jason Ozur: It does. One of the things that we are hyper focused on is our culture. We screen our employees vigorously. We do personality tests. And when you talk about Lido's growth from $19 billion to what now is over $30 billion today, the most important thing when your companies experience growth is maintaining the right culture within the firm.

And sometimes with M&A, it's hard to maintain the culture, but, our M&A strategy is very simple. It's talent first and geography second. And it's that talent that you have to recruit and make sure that talent is going to foster the culture that the firm currently has, and it doesn't change on a go forward basis.

[00:04:16] Doug Heikkinen: So what are your goals for the Lido's growth in the next few years, especially in terms of team, offices, assets?

[00:04:24] Jason Ozur: Our five to seven year financial plan is to take our company from the $30 billion today to somewhere between $150 and $200 billion. And in order to do so, we're gonna have to attract, again, the right talent, maintain our culture, but there's certain geographical areas of the country that we are trying to expand in. Seattle, Minnesota, Detroit, Cincinnati, and a few other areas that I feel like we are light on and it's that geography and that talent that's really going to increase Lido's growth exponentially.

[00:05:01] Doug Heikkinen: As you look at the M&A landscape, how do you approach valuations in acquisition in today's market?

[00:05:08] Jason Ozur: Well, very carefully. And as a CPA, obviously a lot of the initial due diligence is very quantitatively based before it becomes qualitative. And coming out of a very low interest rate environment, we saw a lot of firms spending a lot of money, perhaps that they didn't have, on credit lines. And that worked until it didn't. And when we saw interest rates run up over 500 basis points, it's a much different risk profile to borrow money when you're all in costs are 10, 11, 12 percent versus when it might've been 7 or 8%.

So, when looking at these companies, you really got to understand their finances. You got to understand the growth rate and the integration of that company into the Lido ecosystem. How will it grow post transaction?

[00:05:58] Doug Heikkinen: AI is a hot topic right now. How do you think it will play a role at Lido while still keeping that personal hands on approach that your clients value so much?

[00:06:08] Jason Ozur: Yeah, I don't believe AI is ever going to replace the advisor. People want to have human interaction. They want to have human relationships. But I think AI is going to materially affect the industry, but more from an operational efficiency perspective. And if you can train the AI bots to do some of the more repetitive, mundane tasks that people are doing, I think what you'll see is, obviously higher operational efficiency, but it should increase margins for RIAs over time.

[00:06:41] Doug Heikkinen: What would you say is the most challenging part about being the CEO at Lido? You have to manage the growth. You got to worry about the culture. What's your biggest focus?

[00:06:53] Jason Ozur: Yeah. I mean, look, the toughest part is, maintaining our unique culture and the high standards of client service while still growing rapidly.

We're constantly expanding our team and capabilities to serve our clients better, but it's critical that we never compromise on the quality of our people, and the commitment to our clients. So you have to find the right balance between growth and preserving what makes Lido special, requires constant attention and careful decision making.

[00:07:23] Doug Heikkinen: I got to imagine there's a lot of fulfilling parts to your role. What's the most fulfilling part and what keeps you motivated every day as CEO?

[00:07:32] Jason Ozur: Yeah, I what I love most is again seeing my clients achieve their personal financial goals. But, also while simultaneously seeing the growth of my co workers. There are people been with us one year, five years, 10 years, 20 years, and just seeing them grow as people, mature, and seeing their careers grow in a material way is extremely motivating, motivating and gratifying.

[00:07:58] Doug Heikkinen: When you step outside of the office, how do your personal experiences and interests shape your role as a leader? Does life outside work have an impact on how you approach your day to day work at Lido?

[00:08:10] Jason Ozur: When you look at the outside life, just treat people fairly. And if you treat people fairly, everything else is going to work out. Understand that people have personal lives. They can't dedicate 12 hours a day to their job.

Personal issues come up, but if you treat people kindly, everything's going to work out in the long run.

[00:08:29] Doug Heikkinen: Last one for you. As you look at our industry in a whole, are we doing the right things for investors to be successful?

[00:08:37] Jason Ozur: I mean, some are and some aren't. If you always do the right thing and you truly create an ecosystem, where you are a fiduciary to your clients, choosing the lowest cost products, putting the client ahead of yourself, then the answer would be yes.

But, you know, you got to be careful. You got to do the right due diligence. And, at the end of the day, always do the right thing is how you're going to best serve your clients in this industry.

[00:09:05] Doug Heikkinen: Jason, thank you so much for joining us. It's been a pleasure.

[00:09:09] Jason Ozur: Thanks for having me, Doug.

[00:09:11] Doug Heikkinen: To learn more about Lido, please visit lidoadvisors.com, L I D O advisors. com. Please follow us for timely updates on X, LinkedIn and Facebook, all @Advisorpedia. For everyone at Advisorpedia, our engineer, Tory Miller and the Power Your Advice podcast team. This is Doug Heikkinen.