Back in the early days of my career in this industry, it was difficult to start out. You really only had two choices, work in a wire house or go to work for an established financial planner. I started in a wire house selling penny stocks, I did not know anything; it was all smiling and dialing. I was selling penny stocks over long hours while studying for my series 7.

As soon as I reached the chapter in my book that told me I had to have a license to sell stocks I left the firm. I realized they were breaking the law by having me cold call and sell stocks. I landed a back-office job with a large financial advisory firm in the area and started to grow that way. Within no time I was licensed (first this time) giving seminars and landing clients. Life was good.

However, there was no real growth path, I was doing all I ever would. I had quite a few clients in my book when I sort of realized this. Either, I would have to strike it out on my own or accept my fate and live with it. Due to a strong no-compete, I left the sales side of the industry and entered the software side. I find it odd that our industry has not changed much. In this article, Jeff Schlegel writes about how young advisors are still making this same decision.

The accounting and lawyer professional model has had this for years. It works, they attract young talent cultivate them, teach them corporate values and eventually turn the firm over to them. I only know of a few firms that implement this model in our industry. Mostly, they are larger firms with multiple partners. I don’t think smaller firms realize the value of this model to the firm or to the young planner.