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practice profile
Execution at the Right Price
Dale Yahnke has built up $2.1 billion in AUM by focusing on low
costs and specific solutions. By Jim Grote
For a guy with $2.1 billion in assets under management, Dale Yahnke is elf-effacing about his success. The foundingpartnerand CEOofadvisory
firm Dowling & Yahnke explains: “Ours is a gen-
eral practice — no particular exotic niche. And we
have a penchant for passive investing that is defi-
nitely not sexy. I guess we just execute better.”
Better execution may be an understatement.
Yahnke says one employee told him, “I had no
idea what detail-oriented meant till I worked
for you guys!” Each of the firm’s 700 clients is
served by a financial advisor as well as the firm’s
support team, which includes three additional
CFAs who handle trading, retirement analysis
and other planning issues.
Yahnke puts a premium on hiring smart
people with impeccable educational pedigrees.
Dual designations are a sine qua non for being a
financial planner at the firm. Of the seven planners working directly with clients, six have both
the CFA and CFP designations; the seventh CFA
is studying for the CFP exam. In filling out its staff
of 28 employees, the company tends to recruit
M.B.A.’s from top schools like Harvard, the University of Chicago and the Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania.
financial planning firm, picking up his CFP certification and an M.B.A. from San Diego State in
the process. (He also coached basketball for a
year at Claremont, a job he still describes with a
touch of nostalgia.)
Then he landed a job at the biggest law firm
in San Diego, working six years as a financial
analyst for major brokerage houses. Toiling in
an industry fraught with huge conflicts of interest, Yahnke saw a clear need for independent
financial advice.
When he and Mark Dowling started their
financial advisory business in 1991, Yahnke’s old
law firm proved to be their launchpad to initial
solvency. The firm not only referred clients to
him, but gave him a safety net, he says: “They
told me, if the financial planning business didn’t
work out, to come on back.”
Yahnke never needed the cushion; the new
firm grew steadily from 1991 through 1998,
at which point he and Dowling had about
$200million in assets under management and
more business than they could handle. “I never
made one cold call in my life,” he says. “We’ve
always been 100% referral based.”
But it was actually a cold call in 1998 from a
job hunter — an M.B.A. from Wharton named
Paul Temby — that helped them address the
firm’s growing workload; Temby eventually
became a third partner in the firm.
The solution also proved to be a turning
point for Yahnke, though, who had a difficult
time letting go of direct relationships with new
Dale
Yahnke
Founding partner
& CEO, Dowling &
Yahnke,
San Diego
Credentials:
B.A. in economics,
Claremont McKenna
College;
M.B.A., San Diego
State;
CFP, CFA
AUM:
$2.1 billion
BUILDING A BUSINESS
After graduating from Claremont McKenna with
a B.A. in economics in 1979, Yahnke worked
short stints for Touche Ross (a precursor firm
to Deloitte & Touche) as well as an insurance/
How I see it:
“I look [to hire]
people who have
worked in a team
atmosphere, who
are client-centric,
have integrity and
are competitive by
nature.”
Financial-Planning.com
January 2013 Financial Planning 49
