December 31, 2022
Louis Diamond Quoted
by John Manganaro
As the wealth management industry prepares to tackle a new and potentially very challenging year, more advisors than ever before are seeking counsel and clarity on the next phase in their careers.
At the same time, many wealth management professionals are craving greater independence and flexibility, and the aging of the industry is putting a spotlight on the closely linked issues of succession planning and attracting the next generation of diverse and dynamic talent.
This was the conclusion of a recent presentation put on by Fidelity featuring three advisor industry recruiting pros, including Jodie Papike, the president of Cross-Search; Ryan Shanks, the co-founder and CEO of FA Match; and Louis Diamond, president of Diamond Consulting.
The trio urged all advisory industry leaders to review their talent recruiting and retention strategies in 2023 — or risk being left behind in a rapidly evolving and increasingly competitive industry.
As Diamond emphasized, “options are everything to advisors right now.”
“We hear advisors coming in all the time saying they have always been in one model, but now they are hearing about all these new potential business models out there with more autonomy and flexibility, and they are intrigued,” Diamond said. “Many advisors want to find a home where they have more than one option in terms of how to run their business, so they can have room to evolve and change with their clients’ expectations.”
Asked if there is a standout model that seems to be getting the most attention, Diamond said yes, but there is also a lot of diversity in what advisors are seeking in a transition.
“The approach that is getting the most attention at this moment is what I call the ‘supported independence’ model,” Diamond said. “It’s a model where the advisory professional can achieve independence without having to tackle all the things that a small or midsize business in America has to do to get off the ground running.”
As Diamond noted, most advisory professionals who have worked in a larger firm might be great at their core job, but they don’t know the first thing about procuring real estate, building and operating a website, setting up a 401(k) plan for their own staff and so on. And they also want help with the actual transition of their book of business.
“So, we are seeing real recruiting success at firms that can provide a turnkey, white-glove transition offering,” Diamond said. “The firms that are successful in bringing in top talent are the ones that can tell this transition story really well.”
