BKD Wealth Advisors names chief investment officer

The man tapped for the post is Jeffrey A. Layman, who joined BKD Wealth Advisors as a senior portfolio manager in March 2000, roughly the same time the wealth management firm opened its Springfield office. Layman has been a principal with BKD Wealth Advisors since June 2007.

BKD Wealth Advisors also has offices in Little Rock, Indianapolis, Denver, Kansas City and St. Louis.

Layman has nearly 20 years of portfolio and investment management experience. He is chairman of the firm’s investment committee, which develops, implements and oversees investment management for high-net-worth families and institutions.

“The vast majority of our client base has assets under management in the $1 (million) to $5 million range,” Layman said. “We’ve got clients beneath that and above that, but what we’ve seen in the last couple of years … (is) a lot of entrepreneurs … and as folks in the baby boomer group who work their way toward retirement age, there’s lots of business sales and opportunity for us to continue the relationship with BKD in terms of managing the resulting wealth.”

Layman said his new title is more reflective of the scope of his work beyond BKD Wealth Advisors’ Springfield office.

“My firmwide responsibilities have considerably grown in the last several years, kind of along with our firm’s growth,” Layman said. “We (had) under $500 million under management in 2003, and we’re at about $1.5 billion today, so we’ve tripled in size over the last five years and … created more responsibilities at the firmwide level.”

BKD Wealth Advisors President Jack E. Thurman said in a news release that Layman’s promotion is a milestone in the company’s strategic development, positioning it for growth.

The nine employees in the firm’s southern Missouri office manage more than $350 million, Layman said, noting there are about 45 employees firmwide.

Layman, a chartered financial analyst, earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Missouri State University. He said he still manages some portfolios as chief investment officer, but he also travels quite a bit to the other wealth management offices. He also continues to represent the firm through regular appearances on CNBC, Bloomberg Financial News network and Bloomberg radio to give the firm’s perspective on market conditions.

“The economy is clearly slowing across the country, and if you look at the recent employment statistics, it would imply … that we may have entered a shallow recession in the first part of this year. That’s not necessarily a scary word. It’s something that happens fairly regularly over business cycles,” Layman said regarding current economic and market conditions.

Layman said the diverse local economy has proven through time that it’s less cyclical than the national economy, and he expects that trend to continue.

“We do feel that what the Fed’s been doing in terms of providing stimulus, lowering interest rates and improving the availability of funds to banks and other financial institutions will ultimately be a positive, but there is a lag between those actions and improvement in the economy,” he said. “Conditions will get better, but we probably have a little bit more to churn through here.”

As Layman settles in as chief investment officer, he’s already got several goals, including adding clients who have portfolios of $10 million or more. He’s also working on strategic planning, particularly looking at ways to sustain growth.