OUR STORY...
"The industry bar needed to be raised - so we set out to try and do it."
Rick Collins started his career in finance at the regional brokerage firm of Boetcher & Co in 1987. There he developed a specialization in municipal financing and building municipal bond portfolios for clients. He quickly gained a trusted clientele and realized they were looking to him for more comprehensive financial advice. In 1993 he made his way to Smith Barney Shearson, a global wealth management firm that was a pioneer in fee-based investment management. There he obtained his Certified Financial Planner™ designation and quickly found he could provide tremendous value to clients by utilizing a comprehensive financial planning approach.
Jordan Collins, Rick's oldest son, graduated from Utah State University in 2006 with a major in Finance and Economics and a minor Accounting. He also graduated with an emphasis in Financial Planning. His entire life he watched his father develop deep lasting friendships with clients by providing valuable financial services for them. He knew fairly soon in his life that it was a career he wanted to seriously look into. He interned for Smith Barney in Logan, UT his senior year of college and knew almost immediately that financial planning was the field he wanted to pursue a career in. Upon graduation from USU, Jordan was hired by Smith Barney and graduated at the top of his class from their industry-recognized national training program.
Rick and Jordan formed the Collins Group at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and collaboratively worked together to enhance and refine their financial planning process. Their growth and size merited the need to bring on another highly qualified adviser that embodied the comprehensive planning approach they used for clients.
Brady Ririe, a fellow advisor in the same office, had quickly established himself at the firm as an adviser that was not only extremely qualified, but that was modeling his practice after the Collins Group's financial planning approach. In 2015, Brady Ririe officially joined the Collins Group and by the end of 2016 the Collins Group became the largest wealth management team at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in the state of Utah.
They had achieved what many advisors would have called “professional nirvana"... and by most measures this was probably true. However, over several years at Morgan Stanley, they felt effectively running their practice and efficiently serving their clients needed to evolve.
After a lot of research and planning, the Collins Group at Morgan Stanley felt a change was necessary in order to provide more tangible value to their clients using an independent and unbiased approach.
"We felt our creative system and proven processes that allowed us to give our clients a truly unique planning, advising, and investing experience could be enhanced by using a different approach."
"We knew that something needed to change. For nearly two years we researched, planned, and created the foundation of a firm that might disrupt the financial planning industry and change the way people engaged with their financial advisors."
"Divergent Wealth is the culmination of those efforts. It was inspired by the vision we developed over our careers and a company we are proud to tell the world about."
- Jordan Collins