Every firm talks about culture. And usually, somewhere along the way, “culture” starts to mean conformity.
A certain way to run your practice. A certain way to invest. A certain technology stack. A certain way to market yourself. Sometimes even a certain way to think.
That’s never been what we wanted to build at Perennial.
We don’t ask advisors to fit our mold. They help shape it.
That idea is at the heart of what we callCulture Without the Cult™.
22 years of building differently
Perennial Financial Services has been independent and advisor-focused since 2004. We started with a simple idea: surround ourselves with great people, give them the resources to succeed, and don't get in their way.
Twenty-two years later, that philosophy hasn't changed. But the firm certainly has.
Today, Perennial has grown to more than $4.5 billion in client advisory and brokerage assets under care, more than 50 advisors, 17 office locations and a presence in 10 states and growing. Along the way, we've been recognized as LPL Financials fastest-growing firm by net new assets in 2021, 2022 and 2024.
We're proud of those numbers and recognition, but one number probably says more about our culture than all of them- our impeccableadvisor retention.
Because growth tells you people are joining. Retention tells you they actually want to stay.
Great advisors don't need another boss
One of the strange things about our industry is that firms spend enormous amounts of time recruiting successful independent advisors, only to immediately start telling them how they should run the businesses that made them successful in the first place.
We've always found that a little backwards.
If you've built a great practice, developed deep client relationships and figured out what works for you, our job isn't to reinvent you. Our job is to make you better at being you.
That means giving advisors access to the scale, technology, compliance, marketing, investment resources and operational support of a much larger organization without asking them to surrender the independence that got them here.
It also means recognizing that different advisors need different things.
Some operate through LPL. Some utilize our hybrid RIA. Some are RIA-only. Across the firm, we support multiple custodians, including LPL Financial, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.
That's intentional. We don't recruit advisors to fit our culture. We recruit advisors who shape it.
When someone joins Perennial with a better idea, a better technology, a better process or simply a different way of doing something, our first instinct isn't to tell them, “That's not how we do it here.”
It's to ask, “Should it be?”
And if the answer is yes, maybe the rest of us can benefit from it too.
That's how culture should evolve.
Independence shouldn't mean doing everything yourself
There's another misconception we've never bought into: that independence means being alone.
You can own your business, maintain your identity, control your client relationships and make your own decisions without also having to become your own compliance department, marketing department, technology department and operations team.
That's where Perennial comes in.
Our job is to build the infrastructure around our advisors so they can spend more time doing what made them successful in the first place: taking care of clients and growing their businesses.
Our leadership and support teams aren't here to dictate how advisors operate. They're here to help remove the obstacles that keep advisors from operating at their best.
There's a big difference.
And clients ultimately benefit
This philosophy isn't just about making advisors happier. We believe it makes them better advisors.
Give talented people autonomy, surround them with other talented people, provide them with real resources and let good ideas travel freely across an organization, and clients ultimately benefit.
Advisors spend less time dealing with administrative distractions and more time thinking about their clients. They can learn from one another without having to become one another.
That's the kind of culture we've tried to create.
Why Culture Without the Cult™
We didn't trademarkCulture Without the Cult™because we needed another marketing slogan.
We did it because after 22 years, we finally found the words that captured something we'd been building all along.
We're selective about who joins Perennial. Culture matters tremendously to us, but cultural fit shouldn't mean conformity.
We want independent thinkers. Entrepreneurs. Advisors who have built something they're proud of and aren't looking to surrender their identity just to gain access to a larger platform.
Built around great advisors. Not the other way around.
That'sCulture Without the Cult™.
And as Perennial continues to grow, the goal isn't to protect our culture from changing.
It's to keep finding the kind of people who make it better.