By Louis Diamond – While the financial advisory profession is still largely a meritocracy, your production and book of business no longer solely dictate how attractive you are to prospective employers. As wirehouses have scaled back on hiring advisors (not entirely by choice), regional firms, boutiques and independent platforms now control the recruiting market. The result? Cultural fit and likeability can make or break a deal.
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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.
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By Mindy Diamond – There’s a constant companion I’ve had by my side most of my life. I didn’t invite her, yet there are times when she is loud, seeming to undermine me, and never cheering me on. She implies that something really bad is about to happen or that I am not worthy of more than I have now. That “companion” is fear.
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By Wendy Leung – With yet another high-profile termination of a multi-billion dollar advisor (referring to last week’s dismissal of Merrill’s $3-billion Chicago superstar), it becomes clearer that Barron’s ranking, status and length of service at a firm, star power and size of business are no longer the guarantors of job security. Here are 7 things every advisor needs to know—regardless of whether you feel secure at your firm or not
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By Barbara Herman and Allie Brunwasser – If you’re one of a growing number of advisors who have come to the realization that your future is to be the owner of an independent Registered Investment Advisor (RIA) firm, you may think the biggest decision has been made. But now comes the question of how to get from here to there.
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By Mindy Diamond – We hear it from advisors all the time: “Sure, things are far from perfect, but we’re keeping our heads down and waiting it out to see what happens next.” And it’s a perfectly fine response, provided that while you have your head down, your eyes and ears are open and you stay aware of what’s going on around you.
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By Louis Diamond – The conversations around movement to the independent space often center around the “big picture”: The opportunity for an advisor to get out from under the auspices of a larger firm to build an enterprise and legacy based on his own vision and terms.
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By Mindy Diamond – “While the wirehouses have solved for succession planning by offering advisors exit strategies allowing them to monetize their life’s work, most smaller firms have yet to put something formal in place.” — An astute observation recently posted by our own Deborah Aronson on LinkedIn.
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By Howard Diamond and Mindy Diamond – It’s the time of year when we gather the team at Diamond Consultants to revisit the prior year—and few can argue that 2017 was an interesting one to review to say the least. Working together, we examine deals both large and small, dissect the headlines and hearsay, and study the players.
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By Mindy Diamond – So what will become of the restrictions and added bureaucracy that firms enacted as a result of the DoL Rule? Will firms wave a magic wand to reverse their decisions and make the added restrictions disappear? Or will another Fiduciary standard be the new norm?
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