The new year can be an exciting time for financial advisors. New opportunities are abundant as advisors make moves, and as an advisor, it’s a great time to make some resolutions that will carry you forward in your career. For advisors considering independence in 2023, January is a great time to step back, take stock, and think about the ways in which you can make 2023 your year for independence!
Are you ready to think about independence in 2023? Here are six New Years’ resolutions to make now to ensure that independence works for you this year.
Become Essential To Your Clients
The biggest challenge in pursuing a career path as an independent advisor is ensuring that your clients are ready to move when you are. Most advisors can expect up to 85% of their clients will follow them as they leave the wirehouse model for an independent path, but great advisors can shoot for an even higher level of client retention.
But ensuring that your clients see you as a trusted counselor and confidant isn’t just about client retention on moving day — creating client loyalty has other benefits. Clients who value the expertise, guidance, and advice you offer are more likely to recommend your services to their friends and colleagues, expanding your book of business and career opportunities. And that loyalty doesn’t just come from great advice — it’s the result of consistent communication, regular contact, and adding value in every client interaction.
Planning now to make sure your clients see you as an individual advisor and not simply an employee of the wirehouse can pay dividends when it comes time to make a move. Make sure that you resolve to make regular, personalized contact with each of your clients throughout the year.
Revisit Your Business Plan
Most advisors considering a move to independence have taken the time to create a business plan outlining their career goals, targets, and objectives. However, for many advisors, that business plan becomes a one-time document, stuck in a drawer or saved to the cloud, rarely to be seen again as the day-to-day demands of an advisory practice take precedence over long-term planning.
However, the start of a new year can be a great time to dust off your business plan and ensure that it becomes a living document that grows and changes with your changing career and practice goals. Updating your business plan can be a great way to evaluate where you’ve exceeded even your own expectations, and where you might want to devote extra effort as you move through the year. As the new year begins, take a moment to revisit your long-term career planning, and make a resolution to keep your long term goals in mind as you consider your career development options both within and outside the wirehouse.
Understand What’s Important To You As You Move Forward In Your Career
Unlike the one-size-fits-all model of the wirehouse, a career as an independent advisor doesn’t have to follow just one path. As you think about the best move for you — whether that is a truly independent practice, an established RIA or broker-dealer, or a hybrid practice, consider how to find a firm that has the right cultural fit for your interests, practice preferences, client service standards, and investment strategy.
Evaluating your cultural needs can help to ensure that your move away from the wirehouse is successful and helps you to achieve both your short- and long-term career goals.
Get Acquainted With Your Strengths — And Your Weaknesses
Chances are, you have a pretty good sense of your general strengths and areas for improvement as an advisor. Perhaps you excel at retirement planning, or are a whiz with technological tools for investment and analysis. As you evaluate your opportunities, the new year is a great time to understand how your strengths will fit into your desired career path, and to resolve to shore up any areas for improvement. As an independent advisor, you’ll have the opportunity to choose technological, marketing, compliance, and communications platforms that help you to manage your practice in a way that works for you. Understanding where your needs are, and where you have the opportunity to exploit your particular strengths, can ensure your continued success and growth.
Evaluate Your Opportunities
Even if you’re just starting out on the road to independence, understanding your options is a critical first step on your journey. Partnering with experts in the marketplace can help you to understand both your current opportunities and what might be possible as you expand your practice. Knowing the market can help you to set goals, get the tools you’ll need, and take your practice in a direction that will ultimately support your long-term goals for your practice. The experts at Terrana Group can help you to get a sense of the full range of opportunities available, even if you’re not prepared to make the leap just yet.
Get The Right Partnerships In Place
Even the most independent of independent advisors can’t go it alone when it comes to carving out an independent path. Ensuring that you have the right team standing behind you can ease the transition, ensuring that everything from compliance to transition to technology is handled in a way that allows you to hit the ground running when you eventually make your transition. Working with experienced professionals in advisor transition can ensure that when you do make a move, your client experience is seamless and you’re able to focus your attention where it belongs — on helping your clients meet their goals.
At Terrana Group, we have over three decades of experience ensuring that advisors find the right fit for their practice — now and in the future. We’ll make sure you make the transition that’s right for you, whether that’s to a turn-key RIA model, a regional firm that fits your clients’ investment goals, or a truly independent new business.
Want to Keep the Conversation Going?
Going independent is more complicated than ever, and the right partner can make all the difference. At Terrana Group, our experienced and knowledgeable professionals welcome the opportunity to consult with you to determine the right platform for you going forward — one that satisfies your long term objectives and is also best for your clients!
Over the course of three decades, we have helped facilitate thousands of professional placements for advisors, with client assets transferred exceeding $67 billion dollars. We have completed placements in most every major city throughout the United States, while building deep relationships with the advisory world’s most sophisticated and notable firms — including major Wall Street brokerages, most Regionals, Boutiques, Banks, Independent Broker Dealers, RIAs and Custodians. We have a broad knowledge of the deals that are currently being offered and will ensure that you are being presented with the offer which will be best for you.
Confidentiality, professionalism, and respect are essential to our practices and beliefs; we handle each and every step of the placement process with complete communication, keeping you informed while making the process smoother from beginning to end.
We are proud to always be considered as a great asset by our clients because of our proven expertise, many years of knowledge, and acute attention to detail. Financial Advisor Recruiting Services are not all created equal; we guarantee that the TG experience for clients and candidates is always world class.
We are based in Chicago, with a nationwide reach. Let us know you are interested by contacting us today. To get the conversation started, email info@terranagroup.com or give us a call at 312.655.8380 today.
