By Mindy Diamond, WealthManagement.com – The past 12 months or so have seen some of the largest advisory teams on Wall Street move to other firms. But a number of these deals—involving teams with more than $1 billion of assets under management and in excess of $5 million in annual revenue—are in the institutional consulting space. Traditionally, these teams have been less likely to move.
By Mindy Diamond – Who are the independent firms that have the greatest enterprise value—the ultimate worth of one’s life work? They are the ones that have solved for predictability of revenue, profitability, growth, streamlined operations, have a solid return on assets, achieved scale, and probably most important, solved for succession by broadening equity ownership beyond the original founder(s).
By Mindy Diamond – “Whether bound by the fiduciary standard or not, most advisors see themselves as fiduciaries to their clients. As such, the onus is on you to be certain that you are in the best place to serve those clients.”
By Mindy Diamond – Ask any Business Development Officer from any custodian or service provider to the RIA space and they will tell you that the vast majority of their new business is coming from those in the Independent Broker Dealer (IBD) world. I was surprised to hear this too—until I realized that a large percentage of the advisors we are working with are independent with broker-dealers and looking to us to help them assess whether a move to the hybrid/RIA space makes sense.
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 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 – Last week’s MSUM14 brought together some of the biggest names and brightest minds in the independent financial advisor world – and many that you will recognize from outside of our space – to share knowledge and insights on the future. The energy was greater than I have ever seen, and – unfortunately – an energy that is rarely experienced in the broker dealer world.
By Mindy Diamond – The day began with the battle between custodians as Dynasty Financial Partners CEO, Shirl Penney, engaged Fidelity’s Mike Durbin, Pershing’s Mark Tibergien, and Schwab’s Bernie Clark.
