By Mindy Diamond – You know the feeling: a local weather forecaster advises us that a disturbance is forming off the coast. Looking at several different weather models, they only know one thing for certain: the storm will hit, but we’re not exactly sure when or how strong it will be. Of course, we all react and rightfully so, as we need to protect what’s ours. We’re anxious, unsure of what’s to come, leaving many worried about their future.
By Deborah Aronson – Financial services is a people business—advisors spend years cultivating relationships, earning their clients’ trust and building their businesses. There’s a highly human element involved and many entrepreneurs are personally intertwined with their businesses. That said, thoughtful business owners recognize that there’s more at stake than themselves as they need to ensure that their clients and staff will be well taken care of, if and when the time comes that they can no longer serve as CEO.
By Mindy Diamond – Dear Protocol member firm:
Please don’t pull out of the Protocol.
By Barbara Herman – It has become very common for advisors – regardless of what firm they’re with – to believe they have one move in them; it’s only a matter of when. They often have a bucket list of what they need to accomplish or events that need to take place, and then it will be time to go. We all would like to believe that there will be this one perfect moment in time, when every aspect of life – both personal and professional – is perfectly aligned to support a change; we just need to wait for it to happen.
By Mindy Diamond – It’s an exceptionally active time for the financial services world. No headline is fully dressed without the words “merger” or “acquisition” attached to some of what once were the most exclusive names on the street. As the scale, resilience, and stability of “boutique” firms – such as what was Barclays, Credit Suisse, and now Deutsche Bank – come into question, advisors that work there are living in a world that becomes more uncertain with each day. Then a wirehouse or large regional firm swoops in – seeming to save the day – adding another layer of uncertainty and the possibility of a stay-worthy retention deal or a “free pass” to move on to something better.
By Howard Diamond – In today’s M&A rich environment, every advisory firm and financial advisor wants to get in on the action. Unfortunately, though, most would-be buyers and sellers come up empty. Why? Because of unreasonable expectations.
By Mindy Diamond – When partnerships are formed, they are always done with the best interests of clients in mind. And done right, a partnership can – and should – also provide the perfect environment for synergy, added capacity and expertise, succession and overall success for the advisors. Yet like with any business, the shared mindset the advisors started out with years ago may not be the same today.
By Wendy Leung – In this day and age of stratospheric wirehouse deals, why are so many uber-productive, high-quality teams forgoing a huge transition incentive check to make the move to independence? While we can all agree that independence offers more freedom, flexibility and control (and for those with true entrepreneurial DNA, that is something hard to put a price tag on), at the end of the day advisors need to understand the economics of independence before they can determine whether it is a viable option for their business.
By Mindy Diamond – The emotional and financial freedom that many advisors have been waiting for is set to arrive in early 2016. That’s when the notes attached to retention packages offered in the wake of the financial crisis to more than 5,000 advisors are set to expire.
By Louis Diamond – We often hear principals of independent firms speak of their desire to increase assets under management, and how they feel that doing so will help ensure their relevancy and solidify their position in the marketplace. While this singular notion may have been a focus in years past, increased competition has caused a shift in goals for many quality firms, a shift towards increasing overall enterprise value by paying attention to the things that most impact it (as discussed in my last post).
