“I’m too old to move, let alone go independent!”
By Mindy Diamond – Certainly, none of us are getting any younger—and no one wants to make their life more challenging as they edge closer to what could be the cusp of their career.
Perspectives
Our weekly insights for advisors: Articles authored by our team designed to broaden your perspective and arm you with knowledge—because knowledge is power.
Avoiding Choice Overload: 4 Key Criteria for Evaluating Service and Platform Providers
By Allison Brunwasser – In a previous article, With Demand Comes Supply, Deborah Aronson discussed how service and platform providers have evolved to serve the needs of a growing population of prospective breakaways in the $50 to $150mm range—and advisors in this constituency who are seeking independence now have plenty of options to choose from. Yet with optionality often comes “choice overload”—that is, with all the available options, many advisors get stuck when attempting to discern one provider from another.
With Demand Comes Supply: Independent Options for Advisors in the $50 to $150 Million Range
By Deborah Aronson – A new breed of service providers has emerged, designed to cater to the needs of a growing population of financial advisors who have their sights set on independence. For a population of advisors that previously had limited options in the independent landscape, a new world awaits.
Charting your Course to Independence
By Wendy Leung – Many advisors dream of going independent for the freedom and flexibility to control their business, client service model and bottom line. What sometimes isn’t a part of this “dream” is the prospect of taking on the additional responsibilities that business ownership entails, while emptying your bank account to fund startup costs. The good news is that you don’t have to abandon your dream of independence. An evolved landscape has answered the call—with a vast ecosystem of capital, support and resources available to help you succeed in living out your dream of independence.
Choosing the right path to independence: Do you bet it all on yourself or another firm?
By Allison Brunwasser – An advisor’s choice to go independent is typically driven by a strong desire for greater freedom, flexibility and ownership. Yet with that desire comes what is for many the biggest hurdle in making the leap: Choosing between building your own firm with complete control and 100% equity, or joining an established firm with turnkey operations, infrastructure and an opportunity to gain an equity stake in a more mature business.
Independence Isn’t Just for the Most Entrepreneurial Advisors
By Mindy Diamond – While you don’t need to have Jeff Bezos’ or Mark Zuckerberg’s level of entrepreneurial spirit, there are some key characteristics that most successful independent firm owners possess. The reality is that many independent firm owners will tell you that they weren’t compelled to leave their brokerage firm by some burning desire to be entrepreneurs.
Move Once, Monetize Twice
By Mindy Diamond – While top of the food chain advisors generally don’t need the money that a transition package would pay them if they were to change firms, still no one would move without the monetary incentive. And even the wealthiest wouldn’t argue with an outsized payday. To be sure, advisors generating more than $3 million in annual revenue are thinking about much more than their own personal financial gain; they’re thinking about:
The 5 Attributes That Make a Financial Advisor a “Real” Fiduciary
By Mindy Diamond – Most wirehouse advisors consider themselves fiduciaries. That is, in practice, they make every attempt to put clients first and make all decisions with their best interests in mind. But in reality, while the advisor’s mindset and heart may be in the right place, the very nature of working for a brokerage firm makes it impossible to be a true fiduciary.
Succession Planning: A Cautionary Story for Independent Advisors
By Wendy Leung – Succession planning has become a hot topic, driven by an aging advisor population and the anticipated wave of retirements coming in the next decade. Planning for one’s next chapter is the best way to ensure the legacy an advisor has worked so hard to build can continue well into the future.
What compels breakaway advisors to go around “the wall”?
By Mindy Diamond – While the momentum towards independence seems to have increasing traction, the independent world is definitively not for everyone. To be sure, there are plenty of risks and roadblocks that would deter most advisors from leaving the security of their brokerage firms—and in many cases, far more than what might make them actually make the leap.
