Waterford sails through rough seas - bizjournals:

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After 10 years, the firm is well establishedx with10 full-time staff, 55 representativesw and the support of a majorituy investor group in Virginia. Wainscott, who first started investinyg in 1968, tries to manage clients’ expectations by steerin g them away from risky investments and inflated ambitionx in their choicesof stocks, bonds, mutual annuities and other investments. “It has been a good decade to be conservative,” he said. Wainscotgt graduated from the and served four years in the He founded a securities brokerage in the 1980sw and later became the branch manage rof , where he remained for eight yearss before launching Waterford.
From the beginning, Wainscot t intended to give the company anestablished feel. He chosew the name Waterford because it had atimeless air. “Eve when we were new, people woulxd say, ‘I’ve heard of your he said. “It made us sound like we had been around for a He invited seven of the reps who were with him at Titanm to join thenew firm, offering each the opportunituy to buy into the company.
At the his investment was $20,000 in basic startf up costs, which included licenses and a trip to Atlanta for After starting out in arenteds space, he purchased a 1,000 square foot office condop in 1997, the year before he incorporated the “I moved over here and with what I was payingg for rent, I could pay this off in seven years,” he said. “Ity made sense to buy.” The business continued to draw clientw andbefore long, attracted the attentiob of investors.
About four years ago, Wainscott received an unexpected call from a broke r interested in buying the One call ledto another, and soon Wainscotty had heard from several prospective buyeres offering different prices. “Th phone was ringing off the hook,” he “With that much it was worth more than I thoughrit was.” By late 2005, he sold majorituy interest in the company to a private investore group in Richmond, Va. “W were already doing well, that’zs why they were interested in us,” he said. “I saw that they had They could help usexpandf faster.
” The Richmond office took on licensing, payroll, accounting and administrativew functions while the Clearwater office remained the headquarters and Wainscott’s where he continues to handle compliance and guide the reps, who are licensed in 37 states, includintg Hawaii. “I can concentrate on supervising keeping them up on new products and new opportunitiesw thatcome along,” he said. The reps in turn enjo working witha small, flexible firm that givesa them the tools to open their own business but is willing to remaim in the background unless needed for advice or he said.
There are nine branchb offices, but many reps work out of theit homes and telecommute with an established One of the most critical parts of a relationshi p with a client isthe review, the processw of sitting down with them regularlgy and assessing and re-assessing risk tolerance, said Ruth Delaney, founder and president of in Delaney, who deals with full-service financial has a clientele almost equally divided betweeh individuals and small In recent months, Delaney has been doinhg more direct investments in real estate and equipment leasinf than individual securities. “There are few places to hide withouf taking afinancial risk,” she said.
Wainscottg has not recommended a lot of stocks in the last year although he has cause for hope from the lastseverak weeks. “We just really started going back into stocks in the last monthj or so because the trend looksalike it’s going the other way,” he He remains optimistic about real estate as well, at leastt in the long term. “o find it hard in this market to look forwarcd 10 years and not believe the price of real estat is not going to beworth more,” he