Alan B. Tedford and his father, Bill, partnered with Witt Stephens Jr. and Elizabeth Campbell in October 2017 to form Stephens Group Asset Management. Tedford began his investment career in the capital management division at Stephens Inc. of Little Rock. There he managed portfolios of high-wealth people, endowments, corporations and retirement plans, earning the titles of vice president and then senior vice president. A lifelong resident of Little Rock, Tedford is married and has three daughters.
A University of Arkansas graduate, Tedford holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration in finance. He holds Financial Industry Regulatory Authority series 7, 63 and 65 licenses. He also holds the series 3 license, completing the National Commodity Futures Exam.
Arkansas Business readers tend to be affluent. What financial mistakes are most common among your clients and how do you guide them?
Our clients are well-read and politically astute. This can lead to the risk of letting concerns about current headlines override their long-term financial objectives. We continually emphasize that short-term swings in the market are not predictable and trying to trade around them usually results in disappointing performance.
How has technology helped or hurt the wealth management industry?
Technology has had an enormous impact on the field of wealth management. At SGAM for instance, technology allows us to make changes in multiple securities in hundreds of portfolios in mere seconds that used to take hours, even days, to complete. This is a huge savings for us in terms of time and resources, which enables us to keep our fees low and ultimately results in improved client outcomes.
Has your investment strategy changed to meet the demands of a post-pandemic economy?
In our opinion, the tried and true fundamentals of investing have not changed. If anything, it has strengthened our core beliefs that maintaining a long-term view toward the markets while keeping costs to a minimum is the best way to help our clients achieve their financial goals.
Has it been difficult to maintain a personal touch with clients amid the pandemic? How have you done that?
Like everybody, initially we had to learn how to use Microsoft Teams/Zoom to help provide that face-to-face connection. For those clients and prospects who are comfortable with it, we have been meeting in person for months, which has been refreshing.
Are you seeing generational differences in how people invest or think about retirement? How does that affect your business?
I don’t think it has really changed. In my experience, younger people have always tended to view investing as a sprint instead of a marathon.
You’re coming up on the four-year anniversary of SGAM. What have you learned in the last four years? Have you accomplished what you wanted to do? What are your goals for the next four years?
The first lesson I learned was that starting up a new business is always more difficult than it first appears. But the second lesson was that the satisfaction from being a business owner is greater than I ever imagined. Our assets and account totals have continued to increase year after year, with our assets under management now in excess of $1.14 billion.
While I’m pleased with what we have been able to accomplish, I am prouder still of the team we have been able to assemble. They are all exceptional.
Over the next four years, it is our intention to continue adding to our team as we broaden our reach in advising retirement plans while continuing to grow our traditional asset management platform.
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