By Steve Garmhausen
At a time when many wealth managers are standardizing their investment approach, Jamie Williams stands out for doing his own research and buying individual stocks and bonds. He credits his approach for helping to attract very wealthy households to his Portage, Mich.--based business. "They want to know what they own and why they own it," says Williams, whose Raymond James practice manages $1.4 billion of assets. "Especially in down markets, if you can explain why you continue to own something, that's the value they're looking for."
In an interview with Barron's, Williams discusses his investing approach, and argues that the big artificial-intelligence names have further to run despite their recent pullback. He explains why he often accepts new clients with smaller accounts. And he reveals that the most basic organizing tool -- a checklist -- is largely to thank for his career success.
Barron's: Where are you from, and how did you end up getting into this field?
Jamie Williams: I'm originally from Winchester, Ind. The summer before heading to law school, I did an internship at a brokerage firm and liked it enough to defer law school. I never looked back. The company was called Raffensperger, Hughes and Co., Indiana's oldest brokerage firm, founded in 1937. I was hooked up with their money management division, which would become a registered investment advisor. Greg Donaldson, a branch manager, took me under his wing and taught me money management. His current firm, Donaldson Capital Management, out of Evansville, Ind., is still ranked as one of the top registered investment advisors in the nation.
Every night Donaldson would give me stacks of portfolios and say, "Go home and tell me what we need to do." I'd come in the next day, and he would agree or disagree. He taught me money management better than any book possibly could. He also got me in front of an enormous number of people to hone my skills.
About five years later, National City Bank acquired Raffensperger. They had also merged with a bank in Michigan, and they needed advisors who understood individual stocks and stock options. That's what I had been trained to do. So in 1999, my wife and I moved to Kalamazoo, a city I didn't know at all, and it ended up being a great fit. The bank had switched from a discount platform to a full-service brokerage, yet no one was calling any of these clients and no one was offering them any services. I was able to show that I could add some value there.
Donaldson's group was known for being heavy on fundamental analysis. Over time I've coupled that base with technical analysis -- looking at charts, momentum, support levels, breakout patterns, and that type of thing. Combining them creates a buy discipline, but more importantly a sell discipline, which is what a lot of people don't have.
So, my business is old school in that regard. I do all my own research. It's a lot more work. But the reason we continue to grow is that the cookie-cutter approach doesn't work for some of the ultrahigh-net-worth individuals. They want to know what they own and why they own it. Especially in down markets, if you can explain why you continue to own something, that's the value they're looking for.
It sounds like you pick individual stocks, maybe with some private-market opportunities here and there.
Absolutely. I will occasionally use exchange-traded funds to fill in attractive areas like emerging markets or small-cap stocks. Raffensperger was known as the lead underwriter for tax-free bonds, so I grew up knowing that area extremely well. So, I'll often couple equities with a tax-free bond portfolio, typically using individual names. That's another part of our background that is a little unique.
Who are your typical clients?
The majority of our households have more than $25 million with us. Almost $900 million of our $1.4 billion is in that camp. We've set minimum asset requirements. The exception is that we'll take whomever our key families think we should work with. We've found that over time, it's in our best interest -- you know, when all of a sudden that $5,000 account becomes one of your largest clients [through an inheritance or liquidity event]. So, we try to expand the families as much as we can.
Since you're investment-focused, how do you provide your clients with estate planning and the other services that really wealthy people tend to require?
We created a family-office concept years ago. We work with and refer to a number of certified public accountants, who also refer clients back to us. We've got a number of attorneys we work with from an estate-planning standpoint. Even property sales and other things, we try to help facilitate that as well.
You've spent quite a bit of time contributing to the community, for instance, serving on the board of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Has it been worthwhile?
I've made giving back a focus. At one time I was way overexposed, serving on three different boards at once. That was a bit of a juggling act. I have tried not only to be on these committees, but also to have leading roles, whether I'm the chair of the board or the finance chair or treasurer or whatever. I've tried to push that to the next level. It has gotten me incredible exposure to the community, and without a doubt it has helped create a wider spread of business for us over time.
What do you see when you look at markets right now?
I see markets that lack leadership at the moment. The AI trade has worked incredibly well for several years; now there are some doubts. I find it fascinating how quickly the market turned on software companies. That has been a big eye-opener to me. The market loves to go to extremes, where news is either all good or all bad. It feels like we've gone through an "all news is bad" scenario for a little bit. I don't feel that it's as bad as the market has priced in. I still feel the AI trade is very much valid, and that there's room for it to expand.
What are you telling clients about how the war in the Middle East might impact the economy or their investments or finances?
It reaffirms the need for cybersecurity, inflation-hedged securities, and a diversified portfolio.
Amid all the dislocation, what opportunities do you see?
I'm intrigued by Meta Platforms. I think Google [ Alphabet] and Nvidia have more room to run. As far as the pullback Netflix has had, the market priced it making a really bad decision and overpaying for Warner Bros.; my confidence in management was reaffirmed by their decision to walk away from that deal. Software names like Palo Alto Networks and CrowdStrike have pulled back here, but I see the need for cybersecurity as greater than ever, and I don't see AI replacing that. The one thing I've steered clear of has been Bitcoin and things like that. It's hard to put value underneath some of those things.
What's your tax-free bond approach, and what kinds of yields are you finding?
I'm trying to get the yield to worst in the 3% range. [Yield to worst is the lowest possible yield an investor can receive on a bond investment if the issuer redeems the bond before maturity. This doesn't consider the possibility of default.] That's doable going out somewhere in the 12-year range. I tend to be conservative with tax-free bonds; return of principal is my No. 1 factor.
A 3% tax-free equivalent for ultrahigh-net-worth families is around what?
Five percent -- it looks pretty good.
What would you say have been the keys to your career success?
I've seen a lot of people come and go from the industry who get distracted by the noise of the day. The success or failure of your day is based on staying on track. I'm extremely disciplined that way.
Greg Donaldson taught me a way to run my day that I continue to use: In the evening, I write a list of everyone I'm going to contact and what I'm going to contact them about, and then I stick to that the next day. We all have distractions. But I have to continue to go back to my game plan: Who do I need to contact? What do I need to do? Do I need to contact this person or that person about rebalancing a portfolio? Do we have tax-free bonds getting called or redeemed?
I don't judge the success or failure of my day based on commissions or anything like that. If you stay on task, then everything else will fall into place quickly. I'm a firm believer in that. My son, a sophomore at the University of Michigan, will soon spend his fourth summer interning with us, and these are the types of things I'm trying to teach him. There's a good chance that he will come into the industry and end up being my successor.
What's your best advice for ambitious young people entering the industry?
Consider teaming up with a seasoned advisor; firms run out of patience quickly [with young advisors who are trying to build books of business], and you need time to properly build the practice. Second, find time to give back to your community and get involved.
Thanks, Jamie.
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March 20, 2026 09:30 ET (13:30 GMT)
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