Steve Mason may live in Tennessee now, but his blood runs Kentucky blue. Having been born and raised in the Bluegrass State, he can easily give tips on the best bourbons for your buck, but his true love is horses.
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As a managing director and private client advisor with Bank of America Private Bank in
Nashville, Tennessee, Mason has turned that love into a thriving niche. He has about 70 clients in total, with 25% to 30% who have some interest in horses at many levels.
“I think you could call it anything, and every answer is correct,” Mason said. “Some people would consider them pets, although they’re very large pets that eat a lot. I’ve got clients that really have an interest in just about every subset, including thoroughbreds.”
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The niche has its challenges, since horses require ongoing resources to care for should an owner pass away. It requires significant estate planning work ahead of time.
“If you called me and said, ‘Steve, I’m going on vacation, could you watch my cat?’ I could say, ‘Sure, I’ll do that.’ But if you said, ‘Hey, I’ve got a horse,’ I have to think, ‘I don’t think that thing’s going to fit in my backyard.'” Mason said. “So it’s a whole different conversation.”
Mason sat down with Financial Planning to discuss how he built his niche, connects with clients and how handles the planning challenges they present.
This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Read more in the Know Your Niche series here.
Financial Planning: How did you get into this niche?
Steve Mason: I grew up in Kentucky, and I like to think of myself as the ambassador of the state. I love the state, love all that goes with it, and horses are one of the first things people think about when they think about Kentucky. So when I came to the private bank and was thinking about various subsets of clients to serve, that was a very natural one to think about. At the time, we owned a small horse farm, and my kids were riding horses. We were around our horses a lot.
FP: How did those interests help connect with your first clients in the equine niche?
SM: It’s where personal interest crosses with professional service. If you’re building a niche, you’re typically in that — it kind of sounds horsey when I say it — but in that arena, if you will. I would just be interacting with people. I got into this line of business at the bank because I love people.
I would see people at horse events, and we would start talking and learn about each other. When I would meet somebody, I would ask, for instance, “Who do you use as a CPA that has specialization in equine?” Or, “Who do you use as an estate planning attorney that has a specialization in equine?” If they said, “I use this person or this firm,” then I would write that down, and I would make it a point to get to know the people at that firm.
If they said, “Oh, gosh, that’s a great question. I don’t have anybody,” then I was able to draw from the people that I had met to make a connection. Then you become more valuable in that circle, whether it has anything to do with private banking or not, just helping people connect in a way that would be mutually beneficial to them.
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FP: What separates horse owners and enthusiasts from other clients you might have? How are their planning or investing needs different?
SM: When you’re talking about an animal — could be a horse, or it could be any type of animal — there’s greater complexity to that, because an animal is going to require daily care. There’s ongoing cash flow that comes with that.
Let’s parallel that with a business. Somebody’s family that owns a business, the next generation might not have an interest in that business. They might just sell it, or it might be easy to do some type of transition on it. If you inherit a living, breathing animal, then it takes a little bit longer to find some way to care for it in the interim.
Let’s say a matriarch or patriarch passes away, and they have an animal, especially a horse or a large horse operation. You’ve got to be able to have a solution in place well before that happens so that you can provide that ongoing care.
FP: What expertise do you bring to the table that helps these particular clients?
SM: When it comes to a niche like this, it is really more about transitioning from being a banker or being transactional into really knowing their family and being friends. It helps to build a relationship in a really personal way. That, to me, is the benefit of the niche.
We try to look at every client as an individual set of circumstances. The estate planning piece is one component of what we strive to provide them. We have a wealth strategist on our team who is typically an estate planning attorney that also has an LLM in tax strategy.
Think about disposition of assets, liquidity events, things like that. Certainly if you sell a large horse with high quality, that’s going to be an inflow of cash. What can we do with that? A lot of horse owners began as business owners that maybe had a liquidity event, and then they’re moving into that second stage of life where they’ve transitioned out of putting blood, sweat and tears into the business, and now they’re going to do something that they enjoy with their family.
The third thing is, if I want to buy a horse, how am I going to pay for a horse? You can pay for a horse with cash, certainly. But we offer clients things like private client lines that they can use as a line of credit. It helps them avoid having to incur tax consequences from liquidating part of their portfolio if they want to buy a really high-end thoroughbred.
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FP: Are you actively looking for new clients in this space? And if so, how are you marketing to reach them?
SM: There’s still a lot of capacity to add clients and to add next generations of clients, too. We don’t really advertise in print or anything like that. It’s usually just word of mouth and introductions that we’ve had either through a center of influence — there’s a couple of those attorneys that specialize in equine estate planning — or an accounting firm that has an equine tax and accounting practice. They’ll come to some of the events that I have. I’ll go to some of the events that they have. And inevitably, you meet somebody there, and their curiosity is piqued.
My favorite is when they say, “Hey, I’ve got a question. Do you guys do this?” And chances are we probably do, because we try to provide holistic care, and then that takes the conversation further.
FP: What’s your best advice for someone who’s building their own niche?
SM: You’ve got to be true to who you are. You’ve got to be genuine. You can’t manufacture a niche.
Think about who you are, what’s important to you. When I first came to the private bank, I was talking to someone, and they said, “Oh, I met a private client advisor that built a niche on going to high-end dog shows.” And I thought, I love dogs. I’m sure that there’s a client base for that, but that’s not my client base. I would have a really hard time trying to build a niche, or it would take much longer.
Whereas with my niche, my kids rode horses, we had a horse farm. We had three horses on the farm at the time. I was born in Kentucky, about 60 miles from Lexington, grew up driving past all those beautiful horse farms. So it’s kind of in my DNA. It’s who I am.
So just be true to yourself. If you’re true to yourself, you’ll be true to the client.
