From Mortgage Broker to PGA Tour Star: Facet Taps Ben Griffin as First Brand Ambassador

In a strategic move to align its brand with the narrative of financial resilience and long-term goal achievement, Facet, the $8.7 billion flat-fee registered investment advisor (RIA), has announced a brand ambassador partnership with professional golfer Ben Griffin. The deal marks a significant milestone for the Florida-based firm, as Griffin—who famously stepped away from professional golf in 2021 to work in the mortgage industry after facing severe financial strain—becomes the first athlete to represent the company.

The partnership is rooted in a shared philosophy regarding the realities of personal finance. For Facet, which operates on a subscription-fee model designed to serve the “mass affluent” population, Griffin’s personal journey serves as a powerful testament to the necessity of planning, managing debt, and making difficult trade-offs to achieve one’s long-term dreams.

A Career Defined by Resilience

Ben Griffin’s path to professional golf was far from the linear success story often seen in media portrayals of top-tier athletes. After turning professional in 2018 following his tenure at the University of North Carolina, Griffin spent several years navigating the grueling, often unforgiving landscape of developmental golf tours. PGA Tour records indicate that his early years were marked by financial instability; by the end of the 2021-22 season, he had earned just $365,240 in official tour money—a figure that, while substantial to many, barely covered the exorbitant costs of professional travel, entry fees, and training.

The economic pressure eventually reached a breaking point. In 2021, Griffin made the difficult decision to walk away from the game, burdened by $20,000 in credit card debt. He transitioned to the private sector, taking a role as a mortgage loan officer at CIMG Residential Mortgage in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. His time away from the course was not merely a professional pivot but a harsh lesson in financial management. As Griffin noted in an interview with Golf Monthly last September, the financial realities of chasing a dream on the mini-tours can be crushing.

“I wasn’t making any money. I had to step away and try something new just to pay rent,” Griffin explained. He highlighted that the costs of qualifying for the Korn Ferry Tour, including $5,000 in entry fees, high-cost travel, and the daily grind of paying for practice rounds and cart fees, create a financial environment where debt can accumulate with frightening speed. “You can get to $17,000 of debt in a month easily. It’s very common on the mini tours.”

The Comeback and the Lord Abbett Connection

Griffin’s eventual return to the professional circuit in 2022 was facilitated by a unique partnership with Doug Sieg, the managing partner and CEO of the private investment management firm Lord Abbett. Sieg, a former Penn State quarterback who has become a key figure in Griffin’s life—even officiating his wedding last year—saw potential in the young golfer that went beyond the scorecard.

“Ben eventually put his PGA Tour dreams on hold and took a job in the mortgage industry. When he was ready to give it another shot, we helped give him the flexibility to focus on one thing: his performance,” Sieg wrote in a LinkedIn post reflecting on the journey.

This support proved transformative. Since his return to the sport, Griffin has seen his fortunes reverse in dramatic fashion. He has since become a three-time PGA Tour winner and represented the United States at the 2025 Ryder Cup. According to official PGA Tour records, his career earnings have now surpassed $23 million.

For Facet, this story of professional redemption is the perfect bridge to their client base. Under the terms of the new partnership, Griffin will receive a combination of cash and equity, becoming the first athlete ambassador for the firm. His role will include appearing in company content and representing the brand with the Facet logo displayed on his right collar during professional competitions.

Serving the Underserved Mass Affluent

The decision to partner with Griffin was driven by more than just his sporting success; it was driven by the thematic overlap between his life experiences and the core mission of Facet. Anders Jones, CEO and co-founder of Facet, believes that Griffin’s experience in the mortgage industry—and his firsthand knowledge of the struggle to balance ambition with fiscal reality—will resonate deeply with the firm’s members.

“He has lived through the reality that a lot of our members live through, which is making trade-offs and money trade-offs to support a dream in sort of real time,” Jones told InvestmentNews. “He talks about his experience as a mortgage broker helping people achieve their dreams of home ownership, which is also something that we help our members with. So there’s a lot of great overlap.”

Facet was founded in 2016 with a specific focus on the approximately 40 million households in the United States that are considered “mass affluent”—those with a net worth between $100,000 and $3 million. This demographic is frequently overlooked by traditional financial advisory firms, which often rely on the Assets Under Management (AUM) fee model. Under the AUM model, clients with lower investable assets are often deemed unprofitable or are denied service, leaving a vast majority of the population without professional guidance.

“It’s a largely underserved population,” Jones noted. “About 80% of them have never worked with a financial advisor. They typically don’t have the investable asset level to be interesting to a traditional advisor that charges on the AUM fee model.”

To address this gap, Facet utilizes a subscription-based model, with annual fees ranging from $2,600 to $10,000. As of its Form ADV filed on October 2, the firm reported approximately $8.69 billion in discretionary assets under management. The company serves a total of 25,000 households and more than 31,000 individual members.

Strategic Growth and Future Outlook

The firm has seen significant growth in recent years, moving beyond basic financial planning to offer comprehensive services, including estate planning and tax preparation. Jones reported that the company’s advisor headcount currently sits in the mid-70s, with all staff serving as W-2 employees, a model that allows the firm to maintain strict control over the quality and consistency of the advice provided.

“We’ve averaged like $400 million of net flows every month so far this year,” Jones said. “We’ve grown the business about 75% this year.”

The company’s growth trajectory has been supported by significant capital infusion. Since its inception, Facet has raised roughly $210 million, including a $35 million funding round in 2024. Among its backers is the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, which has a broad footprint in the financial services sector, holding a minority stake in Edelman Financial Engines and a majority stake in the independent broker-dealer Kestra Financial.

As Facet continues to scale, the partnership with Griffin serves as a highly visible indicator of its commitment to its target demographic. Griffin’s background is uniquely suited to the brand: his mother, Erika Griffin, has served as a senior loan officer at CIMG for over 25 years, grounding the golfer’s perspective in a deep, generational understanding of the mortgage and real estate industries.

For the 30-year-old golfer, the partnership represents a full-circle moment. By moving from the pressures of debt-fueled uncertainty to the stability of a successful professional career, he embodies the exact kind of financial evolution that Facet aims to facilitate for its members. As he continues his career on the PGA Tour, Griffin will carry the Facet logo not just as an endorsement, but as a symbol of the very financial planning that he now advocates for those working to reach their own professional and personal milestones.