Leaving behind the comfort and familiarity of a traditional brokerage to build your own firm takes both courage and entrepreneurial spirit. Yet many successful breakaways have shared that it’s far less about some deep-rooted desire to build their own firm than most advisors might imagine.
The reality is that many independent firm owners made the leap to independence to fulfill a commitment to better serve their clients—something they felt they could no longer do within the captive environment due to increasing limitations and bureaucracy.
One former wirehouse advisor told me that she and her team did all that they could to address their clients’ needs and grow the business within the brokerage but found themselves continually “running into walls” when it came to being able to offer new solutions or market their services.
“It wasn’t even on our radar to start our own firm. We just knew we could no longer do our best for our clients at the wirehouse,” she told me. “Not one of us were particularly entrepreneurial, but we were good business people and grew a very successful business even with the limitations of the big firm agenda. We just knew we could go no further in the brokerage world.”
