Why Jamie Hopkins Left Carson Group, and What's Next

Now that Jamie Hopkins has started a new job, he needs to drive only a mile and a half to get to his office. 

That was a big drawing point for the former managing partner at Carson Group, who traveled extensively for work and was immensely attracted to the idea of working closer to home and family in Pennsylvania.

At the national Carson Group, “my life was, kind of: Go to a partner firm, go to a conference, go to Omaha [Carson headquarters]. Repeat.

“[Now] I’m lead[ing] a team and [can also] be home to carry my kids up to bed every night,” he tells ThinkAdvisor in an interview.

After nearly five years at Carson, Hopkins, 39, was recently recruited to lead and grow the private wealth management business of Bryn Mawr Trust.

He started this week.

BMT is a subsidiary of WSFS Financial Group, the main entity of which is WSFS Bank.

Hopkins’ goal is to make retirement and financial planning “more available and secure” for mass affluent folks in the region, he says in the interview.

In fact, BMT’s goal — and now Hopkins’ too — is “to be the best regional wealth [firm] in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and maybe the Maryland area,” he notes.

In the interview, Hopkins lays out some of his plans for leading wealth management at BMT and comments on his relationships with Ron Carson, founder and CEO of Carson Group, and Burt White, its chief strategy officer.

When Hopkins joined Carson in 2019 as director of retirement research, “I didn’t even have a job description,” he recalls, adding that “most of my work” has been to “help build up offerings; joint ventures; M&A; and build out teams.”

By 2020, Hopkins had added the responsibilities of managing director of Carson Coaching; and in 2021, he advanced to managing partner of wealth solutions.

Before joining Carson, he was professor of retirement planning at The American College of Financial Services.

He began his career as an attorney after earning a law degree at Villanova University but worked only briefly in the profession before focusing on financial services.

ThinkAdvisor interviewed Hopkins by phone on Sept. 29, shortly after he presented at the Financial Planning Association’s annual conference in Phoenix. His talk was on how to deepen client relationships.

In the interview, the co-author, with Ron Carson, of “Find Your Freedom: Financial Planning for a Life on Purpose” (2022), notes: “Thirty-three percent of consumers will drop a brand they’re very loyal to if they have one bad client experience.

“So even if a [financial advisor] can do eight or nine things well, if you do one thing really poorly, you can lose a third of your clients.”

Here are excerpts from our conversation:

THINKADVISOR: Why are you leaving Carson Group?

JAMIE HOPKINS: A recruiter in my area came to me. I said, “Here’s another person you should talk to.” But the recruiter came back: “We really want to talk to you.”

So I met the CEO and the CFO [of Bryn Mawr Trust] and really connected. They had a great vision for what they wanted [the company] to be: the premier wealth firm in our area. 

That was really appealing. I thought, “I want to lead that and make it the best wealth offering around.” 

So I said yes and then figured out the plan to get there.

When I interviewed you in 2021 at the ThinkAdvisor LUMINARIES awards event and asked where you saw yourself in 10 years, you said, “Running something meaningful that has a larger scale than I’m impacting today.” So now you’ll be doing that. Right?

Yes, I’ll be running the wealth team from top to bottom. My goal is to make retirement and financial planning more available and secure for people like my parents and in-laws, who live in our area.

A big reason for leaving Carson is because you want to be closer to home and spend more time with your family, you’ve said. How far do you live from your new office?

A mile and a half. 

At Carson you did a great deal of traveling. Correct?

I’ve only not traveled one week this year.

I have an office in my house, but I went to Omaha [Carson headquarters] every two to three weeks for a week at a time and to a lot of our partner offices, of which there are 155.

My life was, kind of: Go to a partner firm, go to a conference, go to Omaha. Repeat.

So [working] near my family [Villanova, in the Philadelphia area] was a big driver. I have three kids, 7, 5, and 4; and I want to be around for them. 

I love the Carson community, but it’s national and hard for me to balance my family life. So with this opportunity, I get the best of both worlds: lead a team and be home to carry my kids up to bed every night.

Sounds like the new job certainly will be less chaotic logistics-wise. Won’t it?

Yes, Bryn Mawr Trust is regional, and the goal is to be the best regional wealth [firm] in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and maybe the Maryland area. 

The goal is not buying companies in California. We’re focusing on our area. 

What was Ron Carson’s reaction when you resigned?

He understands, but he’s sad to see me go.

Ron and I are really close and will remain close. If I call him on Tuesday and say, “Hey, Ron. I’m coming back,” he’d bring me back. 

We have a deeper relationship than a business relationship. Ron will be important in my life for as long as I’m alive.

Is it a coincidence that two other top Carson executives, Nimesh Patell, chief technology officer, and Mary Kate Gulick, VP of advisor marketing, left Carson Group at about the same time you resigned?

Both of them had their own reasons for leaving, and mine is very different — as much unrelated to them as is humanly possible.