Blog

  • When Looking for a Firm, Seek a Partner and Not a Clone
    One of the up-and-coming advisor service organizations told me a few days back that one of their brokerage clients is using the relationship as a recruiting tool. Or more to the point, advisors who want to provide this service are actually calling the brokerage firm to see what it would take to get it for themselves. They’re lining up as qualified leads for this firm’s recruiters to prospect at their leisure. What’s pulling all these advisors into the net? Expertise that they don’t have.
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  • A Succession Plan Should Be A Lot More Than A "Will" For Your Practice
    The good news is that about 60% of advisors now have written succession plans in place. The bad news is that these plans are rarely more than the corporate equivalent of a last will and testament. Many advisors I work with only took the effort to write a succession plan in the first place because their clients were nervous about where their accounts would go in the event of a death, disability or sudden forced retirement.
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  • New Recruiting Headlines Highlight "Glide Path" To Advisor Independence
    Fresh news from some of the biggest brokerage networks around is posing a subtle but real challenge to a lot of advisors’ assumptions about how their careers should progress.  
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  • Paying For Apples When You Really Wanted Oranges
    Your firm is unique. You want to hire unique people.
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  • Real Growth Means Building Your Capacity, Not Just Your Book
    Cannibalizing mature competitors doesn’t generate wealth -- it just consolidates the accounts that are already out there. This summer proved the power of excess capacity. The more clients advisors had, the more people they had to reassure during those hectic weeks while the markets teetered on the brink of melting down. Those who were already stretched to the limit just handling day-to-day meetings were swamped.
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