Follow Me


When professionals change jobs they must make an accurate prediction on who will follow them.  This is an important consideration and my experience is the three main players are under and overestimating a key component in the decision.  This week I’ll share my real world experiences on changing jobs.  Please follow me.

Management
When I ran a large wealth management organization I received numerous calls from office managers offering a block move of advisor teams in their office.  While the offer sounded compelling 100% of the transactions did not materialize.  While the advisor teams liked their branch manager they liked themselves, their family and their clients more.  I experienced this reality when I approached many of my ex-advisors when I started Sanctuary expecting them to follow me.  The power of the purse trumped my likeability.


Advisor
The fear factor for advisors considering changing firms is stoked by their current firm’s misguided belief that clients love the firm more than they love the advisor.  This belief is erroneous.  Facts show that 75-90% of the clients follow the advisor to their new firm.  The lower number is skewed by clients who need the balance sheet of the firm.  We can’t repeat it enough that relationship trumps brand 100% of the time! 


Business Model
The independent wealth management model has had a great run gleaning 5X the new client assets versus the larger brand name firms.  The larger firms and their conflicted solutions don’t sit well with educated clients.  It does appear that this positioning has run its course.  I was shocked to see how easy it was to transition advisors from one Protocol firm to another.  When I received a call from the compliance officer asking if my firm was a member of The Protocol my affirmative answer was all they needed.  Too easy?  It sure seemed like it to me after always trying to race the old firm to the courthouse on a Friday afternoon.


The Gorman resignation from The Protocol looks like it has hurt the independent wealth management firms much more than the advisors.  The clients are still following their trusted advisors and the clients should thank Mr. Gorman for cutting down on their email traffic.

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