The financial services industry is constantly evolving and the firms committed to being successful within it must be equally change resilient. There is no surer way to achieve this goal than through building an elite team of advisors through a sound recruiting and retention strategy which secures a mix of both seasoned advisors, female advisors, and new talent. Collectively, this staff dynamic insures a firm has a pool of advisors on hand of varied skill sets and industry perspectives, each able to positively influence firm culture and revenue in equal measure.
First consider the seasoned advisor. Recruiting seasoned advisors offers profound advantages to a firm. Seasoned advisors have had the client-facing experience necessary to build significant books of business. Existing clients often follow their legacy advisors when they transition to a new firm subsequently offering a much welcome revenue injection into the acquiring firm. Seasoned advisors also have the depth of industry knowledge that makes them highly intelligent problem solvers as they have likely navigated a myriad of financial industry complexities throughout their careers.
Similarly, rising new talent and female advisors prove beneficial additions to a firm. As it relates to the young advisor, their out-of-the box thinking, adaptability to new technology and other innovations, and propensity towards efficiency make them a complementary counterpoint to veteran advisor perspectives on the team. With advisors running more and more of their clients money, bringing younger advisors in early, to give them an understanding of how they handle portfolios, will ultimately give clients the reassurance that their money will be managed in the same successful manner that they have become accustom to. In terms of the female advisor, building out an inclusive team that includes a female perspective that mirrors the diversity found in the client base of the firm itself achieves a more successful and relatable approach to the advisor/client dynamic. Additionally, women advisors tend to attract and retain female clients as their understanding of what another women is going through as it relates to their personal and family financial concerns proves particularly advantageous.
Given the differences between all types of advisors, the process by which to recruit and retain seasoned, female, and young advisors is remarkably similar. These advisors are looking for corporate cultures which thrive on management transparency, independent thought, and personal accountability. They seek firms which are innovative both operationally and technologically. Additionally, each type of advisor is eager to gather new knowledge and partner with firms that offer the tools, resources, and training necessary to allow the advisor to achieve for both their clients and themselves.
Alternately, there is an important strategic point of note a firm must take into consideration when recruiting seasoned advisor talent. Many of these advisors, especially those who run their own client money, have a business model that is not necessarily easy for a new firm or successor advisor to take over. Merging these books of business into an existing firm structure requires thoughtful planning in terms of both client migration marketing and internal process management in order to execute a seamless transition when onboarding the seasoned advisor. Furthermore, many seasoned advisors, while diligent in their planning of client retirements, have spent little thought in planning their own. The thinking among seasoned advisors seems to be they will always have more time or that setting up a plan can wait until tomorrow. A firm interested in transitioning a seasoned advisor to their team needs to bring the issue of long-term planning to the forefront. The answer to the retirement question for an advisor – be it a traditional retirement or an acquisition of their book of business by a firm or individual – will have direct ramifications on the structure of any recruitment offers put in place today.
A plain vanilla financial services corporate structure of C-suite executives, middle managers, advisors, and support staff will no longer be the business model which defines the financial services industry of today. The firms where the barrier of knowledge between traditional and new blurs and where growth and achievement are fueled by an empowered advisor staff will be the ones which best exemplify where the financial services industry has been and the opportunity of where the industry is heading in the future.
