I see risk before I see anything else.
Blame law school.
Since a severe head injury (more on that another time), my memory runs foggy. But two cases from first-year Torts never left me, even though the names did. Before that class, I’m fairly sure I thought a tort was something you ordered for dessert.
The first, I remember as a towing case. A barge broke loose, no one was aboard to stop it, and a judge boiled fault down to arithmetic: weigh the cost of preventing harm against how likely and how bad it would be.
The second, a railroad case. Sparks from an engine set the railroad’s own shed on fire. The fire jumped to a neighbor’s house and burned it down. The court drew a line: the railroad answered for the shed, not for everything the flames reached. Too far to foresee.
One taught me to price the downside. The other, that I only own the risks I can foresee (We know that’s not entirely true. More on that later too).
That same year, my Dad (Wayne L. Smith II) introduced me to Andy Martone. He and three partners had left a big law firm to start a boutique one; an early lesson in identifying risk and taking it anyway.
I worked under Andy, the late Marvin Lindmark, and Michael Bobroff, and learned something fast: I’d rather work and chase business than sit in class. It cost me an extra six months on my law degree. I don’t recommend the timeline. But I don’t regret the lessons.
Around 2008, I met Rob Vitale in a poker game. Rob had purchased a boutique insurance agency, rebuilt it as AHM Financial Group, and expanded it into asset management, private investments and transaction advisory; a training ground I couldn’t have designed better.
When Rob left to join Post Holdings in 2011, I took it as my cue and went all in on Greenleaf Capital Partners, LLC; chasing a similar model I’d just watched him build.
Our first investment was with Smith McGehee and his son Robby McGehee at Smith McGehee Insurance Solutions. Soon after, we all helped Timothy Danis and team stand up Risk Consulting Partners. Both were sold, and I went heads-down on ATIS for nearly a decade.
Different leaders, different chapters. Every one of them taught me the same throughline: expertise, culture, and client service above all. And enough range to see the opportunities, not just the risks.
The ATIS exit handed me a clean page. I knew exactly what belonged on it: that instinct, everything those leaders taught me, and the one thing I’d never stop believing: that the people who do the work should own a piece of what they build.
So we started Centered Partners. Expertise. Culture. Client service. A team built to see the bigger picture, where every member is an owner. Not a perk. The point.
I still see the risk first. It’s just not the only thing. And the difference now is who owns it with me.
Advisors who see your risks and opportunities and treat your outcome like they own it. Because they do.
#GetCentered #ChipChats #RiskManagement #Leadership #EmployeeOwnership