As our team looks back on the last three decades of dedicated wealth management, we can’t help but reflect on where we started, with the daring dream of our founder, Robert J. Graham, to build a financial services company on the principles he learned during his 25 years in the U.S. Air Force.
He wanted to build a different type of firm–one that strived to deliver an investment experience similar to that of his days in the Air Force where you took care of the members of your squadron and their families. Where you applied your training to achieve your mission and you delivered your team safely home.
Our Founder
Before he joined the Air Force and embarked on four combat tours in Vietnam, Robert tinkered with the markets, and even during his time of service, he always assumed he’d wind up in the financial industry.
Nearly 500 combat missions as a fighter pilot taught him invaluable lessons, like how to forget worrying about survival, instead how to channel his attention toward being the best.
“There are a lot of reasons why you can’t be the biggest, but there are fewer reasons why you can’t be the best,” Robert said.
In his mid-40s, he left the Air Force a decorated colonel in pursuit of something new. Airlines dangled offers to work for them. He shrugged them off. He wanted to build something on his own.
In 1990, after studying the industry’s inner workings, Robert started Riggs Asset Management. He didn’t want to attach his own name to the company, to show his commitment to including capable outsiders.
Our Future
Every day for a few minutes, Robert turns off his phone and disconnects.
He doesn’t dwell on the 30 years it took to build an established wealth management company. They’re in the past. He can’t change them. He thinks about the future.
“I like to try to step out and anticipate what the industry is going to look like, three years from now, five years from now. As far as I can roll it forward,” he said.
Artificial intelligence will integrate deeper into the industry, but savvy investors will still seek out smart investment strategy advice from real people.
Riggs invests heavily in technology, which now drives so much of financial markets and will only become more integrated, but also supplies the strategic, human knowhow when technology falls short.
Robert expects that by Riggs’ 40th anniversary, the investment consulting firm will be expanding toward a national footprint and offering clients financial tools from a much bigger toolbox.
Community Impact
The benefit of any good business doesn’t stop at commitment to clients. At Riggs, we’re dedicated to seeing our community grow.