The Past, Present, and Future of The Bahnsen Group

Today's Post - https://bahnsen.co/4iVv0QW David Bahnsen announces a temporary shift from the usual Dividend Cafe format: a normal episode on Monday, a future deep dive on long-term bond yields, and a later recap of the firm’s annual New York meetings with money managers. He marks the closing (September 30) of The Bahnsen Group becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Hightower Advisors, explaining what changes and what does not—especially continued autonomy, culture, and client service while leveraging Hightower’s technology, compliance, cybersecurity, and client portal resources. Bahnsen recounts his path into finance from managing musical bands, early career at PaineWebber/UBS, adoption of dividend growth, move to Morgan Stanley, thriving through the financial crisis, key partnerships with Brian Szytel, Kimberly Davis, and Robert Graham, and the 2014 move to independence. He notes current scale (14 offices, 13 cities, $10.5B, ~110 employees) and reiterates he is not leaving the firm. 00:00 Welcome and Housekeeping 01:50 Why This Episode Matters 03:15 Early Life Before Finance 05:31 Entering Wall Street 07:02 UBS to Morgan Stanley 09:02 Building the Core Team 10:36 Going Independent 13:13 Choosing Hightower Partner 14:20 Growth and Evolution 16:58 Acquisition and Autonomy 20:04 What Changes for Clients 22:23 Personal Motivation Story 25:54 Closing and Next Week Preview Links mentioned in this episode: DividendCafe.com TheBahnsenGroup.com