By Mindy Diamond – You’ve spent a professional lifetime building a thriving business. You worked hard for your clients – many of whom are friends and family – to both protect and build their assets. Now it’s time to think about the legacy you want to leave; not only who will replace you as steward and who will go on to serve your clients, but also how you will monetize your life’s work.
By Mindy Diamond – There’s no doubt we have seen a dramatic shift in the industry – the transference of power from the firm to the advisor – yet many advisors still complain of feeling “stuck”. Their concern: facing unforgiven retention deals or recruiting packages that have not yet fully amortized. After all, many advisors jumped from one firm to another some 7 or 8 years ago when the industry was in free fall and the landscape looked very, very different.
By Barbara Herman – What happens when partners no longer share the same vision? Does a lack of consensus about the future mean the end of the relationship? Advisors are seeing more value in partnerships than ever before, acknowledging that it has become extremely challenging to be a sole practitioner and motivating many to join forces with other like-minded professionals.
By Wendy Leung – Taking the time to step back from the day-to-day demands of the business to assess personal and professional goals is a critical yet often overlooked exercise that can help financial advisors define and achieve their best business life. “But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”
By Mindy Diamond – “I am incredibly frustrated about my firm’s change in advisor compensation and the fact that it will cost me $XXX a year in take home pay.” Sound familiar? It does to us because the beginning of the year is a time when we see a significant rise in the number of conversations we have with FAs about this topic.
By Mindy Diamond – With 2014 almost in the bag – and 2015 only days away – it’s that time again to reflect on what’s behind us and project about the year that lies ahead. 2014 was a good year in a lot of ways. The markets cooperated and are up just over 7% as of this writing. The price of oil dropped significantly, and retail and housing sales are up. And, while there weren’t a great number of financial advisors that changed jerseys this year, the ones who did were paid huge premiums to do so, signaling the beginning of a real “seller’s market.”
By Mindy Diamond – Day 2 at MSUM14 proved that the momentum we are sensing around independence for financial advisors is real, sustainable and will likely accelerate based on a burgeoning number of options available and a new breed of young investors ready to fuel them.
By Mindy Diamond – The MarketCounsel Summit kicked off with the shot heard ‘round the financial advisor world. Rarely do you find such a fortune of financial wisdom gathered together in one place.
Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Dan Jamieson, Financial Advisor Magazine – Morgan Stanley said Wednesday it had landed the Brice Group, a $4.5 billion advisor team, from Merrill Lynch. They were very loyal to Merrill Lynch,” said recruiter Mindy Diamond, of Diamond Consultants LLC, who placed the team with Morgan Stanley.
\Mindy Diamond Quoted – By Suleman Din, OnWallStreet – Morgan Stanley has grabbed its second multi-billion-dollar team from Merrill Lynch in less than a month.