I am pleased to share Greenspring Advisors’ 2024 Annual Letter with you. I’m immensely proud of the progress we’ve made toward our goal of helping every person live their ideal life, and I am eternally grateful to have you with us on this journey.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please feel free to share any thoughts directly with me here.
Our Values
Greenspring was founded 20 years ago on the now non-revolutionary idea that for our clients to have the best outcomes, we had to put their interests first. Sometimes, we call it our “burn the boats” moment. In 1519, Hernan Cortes took a small army from Spain to the shores of what is now Mexico. His first act was to order all the boats to be burned. He didn’t want to give his men the option of returning to Spain when times inevitably got hard. At the onset of Greenspring, we had a similar moment. We decided not to renew any of our securities licenses that would allow us to sell products for a commission. We never wanted to have the chance of going back to a world of product sales and conflicts of interest.
While that set the stage for how we would work with clients, about 10 years ago, we decided to take it a step further and codify our purpose and values. I have to admit, I was reluctant. Too often, I had seen corporations with generic core values or, worse yet, values that look great on a wall but are not at all how people behave in real life. Ten years later, I can confess that I couldn’t have been more wrong. I think one of the keys to our success was instead of focusing on aspirational values, we looked inward and articulated who we actually were and what was important to us. We settled on five Core Values that have become part of the vernacular, decision-making, and long-term strategy at Greenspring:
- Love Your Neighbor: We put others’ needs ahead of our own.
- Own Your Stuff: We take responsibility for our actions and do what we say we are going to do.
- Have A Bias Towards Action: We are willing to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations for personal and professional growth.
- Trust The Evidence: We rely on data, not gut instincts, to make decisions.
- Master Your Craft: We are intellectually curious.
These core values outline how we expect our team to behave and treat others. We recognize team members who display these values, hire based on them, and coach our team with these values in mind. If I had to point to the most important aspect of our success, it is defining and staying true to these core values.
Walt Disney famously said, “When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” That has certainly been the case for us. One of the other important elements of Greenspring is our Core Purpose, or to put it more simply, WHY we exist. Greenspring’s core purpose is to help every person live their ideal life. This simple statement guides our decision-making both now and in the future. We intentionally highlighted our desire to help every person, not just our clients. This is a goal we will never achieve but will always strive for. Here are just some of the groups we are focused on when we are considering every person:
Our Wealth Management Clients
Greenspring works with over 1,100 families in 25 different states. In 2024, we welcomed 95 new families to our firm. In addition, throughout the year, we have helped our clients with all sorts of complexities related to their finances. We are in one of the most privileged positions anyone can be in: the intersection of our clients’ money and their dreams. Here are a few examples of how we’ve helped clients live their ideal life this year:
- Buying a second home: We had clients buy second homes at the beach, in the mountains, and near grandchildren. We are always so excited to see our clients branch out to new areas and enjoy the fruits of all their hard work.
- Sending a child to college: From Ivy Leagues to local universities, we had front-row seats to our clients’ children and grandchildren being accepted to college. In addition to planning financially, we also have been involved in helping to educate some of the students on budgeting, debt management, and the importance of investing. We take tremendous pride in being a small part of preparing the next generation for adulthood.
- Walking with someone through the death of a loved one: Dealing with clients when they are at their most vulnerable and raw is both humbling and tragic. Helping our clients make decisions through some of the most devastating times in their lives is something we will never take lightly.
- Helping a client retire: The number one reason clients come to Greenspring is planning for an eventual retirement. The fear and excitement our clients feel as their retirement approaches is contagious. One client described the meeting with Greenspring when they finally made the decision to retire as “the most important meeting of their lives.”
Our Corporate Clients
Greenspring manages over $5 billion of assets across 175 organizations in areas such as retirement plan consulting, endowment management, and corporate investment management. This area of our business has a multiplier effect when it comes to impact. For example, helping a company reduce their fees with their 401(k) plan or increase retirement deferrals into the plan has an impact on hundreds or thousands of those employees. Helping these employees successfully retire is what motivates our team.
In 2024, we laid the groundwork for a transformational solution for our 401(k) plan sponsors and participants. On January 1, 2025, we went live as the lead sponsor of The (k)larity Plan™, alongside three of our clients. This new type of 401(k) plan pools employers together to attain economies of scale on pricing and more attentive service from the recordkeeper. For small businesses between 80 and 500 employees, it also significantly reduces administration costs on HR and Finance teams already spread too thin by shifting the burden of 401(k) audits away from you and onto us. These audits couldn’t come at a worse time — during year-end and benefits enrollment season. By doing more, we hope to help businesses focus on what they do best, benefiting all.
Our Participants
Several years ago, we recognized a need within our Institutional Team. We had over 50,000 participants in 401(k) plans who had questions they weren’t getting answers to. Many of them did not have the assets or means to hire an advisor like Greenspring. But they still needed advice in areas like buying their first home, navigating their company benefits, or paying for their child’s college. Using our Core Purpose as our guide, we built out an entire Financial Planning team to advise these participants. This year, we’ll conduct over 1,500 meetings for this cohort, and while this was meant as an added benefit for our 401(k) clients, it has now become a standalone service that companies are hiring for. Much of corporate America has woken up to the fact that more financially secure employees are more productive employees.
Our Community
I’ve mentioned that we were purposeful in saying we wanted to help every person live their ideal life. Nowhere else is this more evident than in our radio show and philanthropy. When we merged with ISI Financial in 2022, we also inherited a radio show that had been on the air for over 35 years. Every Saturday morning, thousands of people tune in to listen to us discuss investing and financial planning, and, more importantly, listeners who call in can ask us their specific questions. I’m incredibly proud of the impact we have on both those who listen live and those who listen via our podcast.
Finally, 2024 was a milestone year, with Greenspring surpassing $2 million in charitable donations. We have focused our giving entirely on three core areas: entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and workforce development. In addition, when we give, it is exclusively in the communities in which we live and work. From the inception of Greenspring, we desired to give 5% of our profits to charity, and I’m proud to say we haven’t wavered. This commitment creates a symbiotic relationship between Greenspring and our local community. As we succeed, we pour more back into the community to help them succeed. To read more about our charitable programs or if you know of worthy organizations we should consider supporting, please feel free to review our charitable giving strategy.
Our Team
What does it mean to help your team live their ideal life? While everyone’s detailed description of an ideal life is different, there are elements we believe must exist for us to accomplish this lofty goal. First, to live an ideal life, you need to feel secure. For us, that starts with competitive compensation and benefits. But it must go further. To feel secure, you need to feel like you have a future, have a clear career path, and be rewarded for your efforts. Greenspring has worked hard to develop career paths for every position and communicate that with our team. In addition, we have developed GREEN Units (which stands for Growth Equity for Everyone) that are granted to every team member (after 2 years) in order to participate in the future growth at Greenspring. Our hope is that it creates a sense of ownership across every team member.
The second aspect of an ideal life is a sense of belonging. Human beings have a deep need to belong. We see it in every phase of life: through sports teams, friend groups, fraternities and sororities, alumni associations, club memberships, and religious affiliations. We want to make sure every team member at Greenspring has that feeling. It starts with onboarding, but we intentionally foster it through team lunches, employee off-sites, and a general culture of teamwork.
Finally, to live an ideal life, you need to have a purpose. You can have all the money in the world, with tons of friends and family, but if you have no purpose, eventually you’ll feel empty. One of my favorite videos that illustrates this is when Tom Brady, after winning three Super Bowl rings, exclaimed, “There’s got to be more than this.” We know that a team member at Greenspring with a purpose in life is one who is much closer to living their ideal life. And we are lucky enough to work in a profession that, when at our best, is all about helping people achieve their dreams. I know of no greater purpose.
Join Us
To all our clients, thank you for being a part of this journey with us. We all feel incredibly privileged to serve you. If you are a prospective client, team member, or member of the non-profit community and hearing our purpose of helping others live their ideal life resonates with you, we’d love to hear from you.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to us to stay updated on what is happening at Greenspring.
