Blazing Guns Bring Clients Closer

Wall Street can sometimes seem like the Wild West, a place where outcomes are hard to predict and havens even harder to find. All an investor can do is dodge those bullets.

Lee Munson with AR-15 sniper rifle

The same might be said for financial adviser Lee Munson’s annual client gatherings.

Munson, chief investment officer of Portfolio LLC in Albuquerque, N.M., has turned a passion for marksmanship into an unlikely way to promote his firm. He brings a dozen or so current and prospective clients together at a local shooting range and lets them fire away.

To add a little more excitement, Munson makes sure to have on hand some very special firearms, from a Prohibition era-style Thompson submachine gun–”It makes you feel like a gangster,” Munson says–to an “elephant gun” that’s suitable for a big-game safari hunt.

The idea for the annual firearm fest was “real simple,” Munson explains: “I like to shoot guns and if I’m going to do a client event, I want to have fun.”

Plus, to go on the shooting range with a prospect and “drop some brass” together is to get to know them on a deeper level, Munson insists. “You can go to dinner, you can play golf, but when you start shooting guns with a client, those are lifetime clients,” he says.

New Mexico is, of course, far from Wall Street and many New Mexicans are outspoken when it comes to their embrace of firearms. Munson says his clients come from all walks of life and both sides of the political aisle–and none appear to be put off by his company outings.

Jim Pelner with black powder buffalo gun

“We’re serious, wealthy people who grew up in America and we want to exercise our rights to blow things up,” adds Munson, whose interest in guns goes all the way back to when he received his first rifle at age 8.

Besides, organizing a client shootout really isn’t any more complicated than a dinner or a picnic, says Munson, whose firm manages around $125 million in assets spread among 100-plus clients. He just needs to reserve a spot at the shooting range and bring along the guns [and have clients bring theirs, too]. Expenses are minimal: About $80 for usage of the range, another $50 to $100 for snacks and drinks [no alcohol, naturally] and $250 for ammunition, including those five-bucks-a-pop shells for the “elephant gun.”

And, yes, there’s a payoff: Munson says he’s managed to land one new client as a result of each of the past two annual shootouts. But he doesn’t really think about these events as anything more than an excuse to, well, shoot.

“When I’m back in the office, we can talk about the stock market all day long,” Munson concludes.

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