Worst experience of my life - Anonymous employee Freestone Capital Management Employee Review

I've been here at Freestone for many years. My colleagues and the culture here have been fantastic. No place is perfect, but I feel truly cared for by those around me, and it has been a gift to be able to work with this group of people here. Freestone is one of the few companies where I've seen people genuinely invest in each other's success. The collaborative environment isn't performative, it actually shows up in how teams share knowledge, support one another through busy stretches, playful banter in the office, and celebrating wins together. One thing that stands out to me after being here for as long as I have is watching people continue to advance and grow into roles well beyond where they started. For example, a lot of my colleagues who came in as Client Services team members are now Client Advisors managing their own client relationships, others leading departments, and others have moved into entirely different areas of Freestone where both a need and an opportunity aligned. Other things that I've loved all these years: Great clients, great Client Service, Investments, and Wealth Planning teams, employee retreats to great places and other fun events during the year, a meaningful profit sharing program and other bonus opportunities outside of regular comp, awesome office locations, lunches 4 days a week in office, hybrid work options, and the best 401K matching I've seen at an RIA.

The pace can be demanding at times given the high level of service we provide to clients, and growth sometimes outpaces the infrastructure needed to support it, but know this is being addressed with expanded coverage.

Freestone has a strong client base and a recognizable name in the Seattle market. You’ll get exposure to complex client situations and build experience quickly due to the workload. There are also good people across the firm at the peer level who try to support each other and do quality work despite the broader challenges.

The most concerning issue is leadership—specifically how poor management is handled. A recent example involved a senior leader who was promoted into a role overseeing the client service function despite clear concerns about their management style and effectiveness. The result was a noticeable decline in team morale, increased turnover, and a breakdown in communication and support for the client service team. Rather than addressing the issue decisively, leadership allowed the situation to persist for far too long. When action was finally taken, the individual was quietly moved out of the role instead of being held accountable in a meaningful way. That decision sent a clear message internally: performance and impact on people are secondary to optics and internal politics. This kind of approach creates a lack of trust in leadership. Issues are not addressed proactively, and when they are, the resolution often feels incomplete. It reinforces the perception that management is insulated from consequences, while the rest of the organization is expected to operate at a high level regardless of the environment. Combined with heavy workloads, limited resources, and compensation that doesn’t fully align with expectations, it becomes difficult to see a long-term path here. Many strong employees ultimately leave—not because of the work itself, but because of how leadership handles (or fails to handle) situations like this.