When Matthew Lampman started as an unpaid intern at International Assets Advisory in 2012, he was impressed when CEO Ed Confrancesco pulled him into his office to teach him the business’s ins and outs. Fast-forward to today, and Lampman has moved all the way up IAA’s ranks to serve alongside Confrancesco as president of the $4.8 billion Orlando-based RIA and independent broker/dealer.
This January, IAA officially made Lampman president, taking the title from Confrancesco. The two now lead the firm’s roughly 30 employees and its financial services platform used by more than 200 registered representatives.
When IAA brought on Lampman as an unpaid intern, he was working his way through the University of Central Florida by repairing air conditioners in the school’s dorm rooms during the day and taking courses at night.
“My plan was that, after I graduated in a few months, I’d look somewhere else and find a career,” Lampman said. “I ended up never leaving.”
Lampman said those early thoughts of going to a bigger firm stemmed from IAA being a small company run mostly by its owners. However, it was also a family-friendly office with a welcoming culture, which included Confrancesco giving each intern about an hour of time to discuss the industry and the business.
“I probably didn’t know half of what he was talking about at the time,” Lampman said. “But those lessons, coming from the CEO of the company who had been in the business for 30-plus years, were really invaluable.”
After six weeks of the internship, IAA hired Lampman as a temporary employee and, a few months later, a full-time staffer.
At the time, the firm was changing clearing firms—it now clears with a division of RBC Capital Markets—which Lampman said also provided him a chance to learn the business. He took roles in operations and, in 2020, was named Chief Operating Officer.
According to IAA’s promotion announcement, Confrancesco got along with Lampman in part because of their shared backgrounds. The CEO grew up in a working-class family in Brooklyn, N.Y., while Lampman had a blue-collar upbringing in Michigan, where his first career was in the heating and air conditioning industry.
Lampman’s story is not singular in the RIA space. Kay Lynn Mayhue, president of Georgia-based Merit Financial Advisors, also worked her way up from an intern to holding a leadership position at a $11.8 billion RIA. According to her company bio, she also worked as a partner, seller and buyer in the financial industry.
IAA, for its part, was founded as a b/d in 1982. In 2007, Confrancesco and partners at RIA Pecunia Management purchased it and launched a subsidiary, International Assets Investment Management.
In 2023, Cleveland-based family office and investor Brownhelm Capital took an ownership stake in Pecunia to help drive IAA growth.
According to Lampman, that stake will fuel potential acquisition growth for IAA, a change from when he began at the much smaller shop that had grown through “one advisor here, one advisor there.”
“That investment will allow us to recruit more aggressively and acquire other firms,” Lampman said. “At the same time, we can start to roll out some succession planning for our existing advisors who are approaching retirement age and may want a road map [for the future].”
As president, Lampman will help oversee that growth, but he also plans to keep the same ethos and focus that the firm has had since he joined.
“I’m going to continue doing what I have been doing,” he said. “If we bring you on as an advisor or an employee, you are one of us, both in the business relationship and as a person. We want to keep that culture.”