Mayflower Advisors.
Courtesy of Mayflower Advisors
Firm: Mayflower Advisors
Name: Lawrence Glazer
Location: Boston, MA
Team Custodied Assets: $5.1 billion
Background: Lawrence (“Larry”) Glazer grew up in the Boston area in a household where money was never a taboo subject. His father, who still works at Mayflower Advisors today, was a financial advisor for decades, and his uncle had introduced him to the business. “We’re really three generations of advisors,” Glazer says. “It allows us to see five decades of working with clients.” Glazer studied economics and political science at Duke University, where he had his first entrepreneurial experience. When popular campus bar, NAMETK, was about to shut down, he and a group of students created an employee stock ownership plan, raised money, and bought the business. After graduating in 1990, he went into banking, working in structured finance and real estate investments before joining his father as an advisor in 1999. Glazer officially launched Mayflower Advisors as an independent firm in 2002. Today, the practice has more than 30 employees, three offices and several thousand clients.
Building Relationships: Glazer notes a familiar statistic: “70% of families lose wealth by the second generation, and 90% by the third,” he says. “It’s not because of bad investments—it’s because of poor communication and a lack of a shared plan.” To address that, Mayflower has made financial literacy and education a core tenet of the firm.. Glazer chairs the Massachusetts chapter of the Jumpstart Coalition, a nonprofit promoting personal financial literacy, and the team frequently partners with colleges and schools. “Education has always been our secret sauce,” he says. “No matter how wealthy the family is, it’s difficult for them to have these conversations because they’re not equipped to do it. If we can give them some of the tools, it goes a long way.”
Competitive Edge: Glazer says one of Mayflower’s advantages is perspective. The team includes advisors who have lived through the stagflation of the 1970s, the tech bubble, and the financial crisis. “Having older wisdom in the office is incredibly valuable,” he says. “History really helps us give better advice to our clients.” The firm has also expanded its service model over the years, integrating tax and estate planning alongside investment management. “We want the stability of a firm that’s been around for generations, but also the agility to make rapid changes in an evolving financial landscape,” he adds.
Investment Philosophy & Strategy: Capital preservation is at the core of Mayflower’s approach. “At the end of the day, you have a responsibility to protect client assets,” Glazer says. The firm favors open architecture and customized portfolios rather than cookie-cutter solutions.
Equity exposure has evolved from individual stocks to mutual funds to index vehicles, and now into customized indexes that allow for more after-tax optimization. Fixed income, once reliant on treasuries and munis, has expanded into infrastructure and real assets, partly to address concerns about U.S. debt levels. On the alternatives side, Glazer says access has broadened dramatically, giving clients new ways to reduce volatility and generate income.
Investment Outlook: “Markets work in cycles, fads come in and out of favor,” says Glazer. “We can add a lot of value at inflection points—both when markets are in despair and when there’s too much euphoria.” This year, the firm added international equities and real assets to portfolios, decisions Glazer says have helped clients diversify and manage risk. “Nobody has a crystal ball,” he adds, “but risk management is core to our DNA.”
Best Advice: Glazer’s advice to families is the same lesson he learned as a child: talk about money. “The single most important thing people can do with their families is to have that dinner table conversation,” he says. “Share not only what you did right, but also what you did wrong. Bring the next generation into the conversation.”
For Glazer, those conversations are more important than last year’s performance numbers. “If we educate clients and their families, we’re going to help them build financial confidence, reduce stress and anxiety around money, and strengthen the family unit with shared values.”
