Spotlight On: Joseph Thompson, Senior Vice President & Branch Manager, Baird Pittsburgh Riverfront & Wexford
July 2025 — Joseph Thompson, senior vice president and branch manager of Baird Pittsburgh, sat down with Invest: to discuss trends in intergenerational wealth transfer, the importance of building genuine connections with the youth, and how Baird is continuing to increase their revenue year after year, while still prioritizing giving back to the community.
How has the past year been for Baird’s Pittsburgh office, and in what ways does that reflect the broader shifts across the wealth management industry?
Pittsburgh as a whole has five offices, and I am responsible for two of them. The last year for us has been phenomenal. We went from $50 million in revenue to $66 million over the course of a year. My Wexford Office is the third largest in terms of Revenue for Baird and the growth we have experienced is phenomenal. My office is located in an area that is growing rapidly, which has been a big factor in doing a lot more business. However, the other offices in South Pointe, Greensburg and Butler have equally experienced growth from new client acquisitions and an ever rising financial market.
What distinguishes the Pittsburgh offices within Baird’s broader success?
Before we became Baird, we were a small company called Hefren-Tillotson. We were acquired by Baird, and one of the attractions that preceded this merger was the similar culture that we shared. For both of us, culture was everything. As a branch manager, I am expected to recruit and bring in new Financial Advisors. Because of the importance of culture to us, such recruiting efforts are deliberate. I meet a few times with these recruits and prospects, get to know them, and do my research to ensure that they will fit in with our culture. Employees feel comfortable walking into my office, and it is very family-like. I devote my time to managing the 127 people within my offices and ensuring that we are on the right track. I have a very capable leadership team that provides me with the best support anyone can ask for. We hold team leadership meetings formally on Mondays and Wednesdays, but informally on a daily basis as needed and I have the flexibility to run my office how I best see fit. When hiring people, my litmus test is to ask myself if this individual is someone I would invite to the dinner table with my grandmother. If the answer is no, I move on. The advisors in my offices now are so culturally sound, we look for a complementary fit when hiring.
What industry trends do you believe are shaping client behavior and expectations most significantly, and how is your team adapting to stay ahead?
In terms of industry trends, wealth is shifting from older to younger generations. We are on a campaign to deepen multigenerational relationships. If we’ve had mom and dad’s accounts for the past 25 years, it is about time for us to invite the children to be a part of those meetings. This is a key part of building relationships with the next generation, thereby keeping wealth.in good hands. As aging clients pass away, in some instances, assets leave as well if we never had a relationship with the next generation. For us, especially in situations where we were the trusted advisors of such clients, and have protected their wealth for so long, we want to make sure we continue delivering on the promise of safekeeping and growing the wealth for their dependents and beneficiaries. It is imperative that we build good relationships with the next generations. Our primary goal has always been client first and so we always make sure that our clients are taken care of by providing the highest level of service.
We also have an aging financial advisor population. The average age of an advisor in the industry is over 60 years old. We have managed to keep ours at 52. I think it is important to go after Next Gen advisors because they have room for growth and development. We can coach them to be a part of who we are. Next Gen clients will be more connected to advisors that are closer in age to them, so we make an effort to have advisors of all ages that can better relate to one another.
What are some of the key challenges you’ve encountered in the past year, and how has Baird responded to turn these into strategic advantages?
A big challenge is having people be authentic and build real connections. People may not connect well because they find themselves pushing too hard to connect as opposed to letting it be organic. The older generations used to work one job for 40 years and now the younger generations are working 40 jobs in one year, which can lead to a more lackadaisical attitude when it comes to handling money from their parents. On the flip side, I have seen some younger kids that are more mature than me and are very careful not to abuse the money that is being inherited.
Would you share more about your team’s participation in Baird Gives Back Week and how community engagement fits into your company’s culture?
This started back with Hefren-Tillotson. They had a program called Hefren Cares where they took time to participate in community projects. Baird does something similar called Baird Gives Back. The company gives each associate 16 Baird Cares hours. These can be used at any time to volunteer anywhere of their choosing. Baird has been very involved in the United Way. Every year, we host a Baird Cares week and this year we had 1,900 associates volunteer for Baird Cares. We impacted over 200 charities and out of our 126 offices, associates from over 100 of those offices participated. Six thousand Baird Cares volunteer hours were used during this time. Locally in my Wexford office, we equally recognize the importance our communities play in our lives and so every Friday, our associates voluntarily wear jeans if they donate a minimum of $1. In frequent cases, our associates donate a lot more than $1 in order to increase the pot. Every quarter, we then pick a charity to donate that money to. Giving back to the community that gives so much to us is a high priority and a part of our Baird culture.
What are Baird’s key goals and priorities in Pittsburgh over the next two to three years?
We have many goals, but my main priority is to keep my people happy. Baird has a survey that goes out to employees to ask what they are looking for from us, and we do our best to meet what our associates suggest. As a privately held company, our associates are our shareholders and that is who we listen to. This translates into a happy workplace. When people are happy, you don’t have to go overboard to motivate them because they will come to you and ask what you need from them. As mentioned previously, we did over $60 million in revenue in 2024 and we are currently on pace to make $74 million in 2025. WE are working towards being the best Baird Office and creating an environment for people to thrive and making them feel appreciated is key.
For more information, please visit:
https://pittsburgh.bairdwealth.com/
