Top 2 Questions Experienced Financial Advisors Need To Consider Before Switching Firms

Do you feel like you’re not fulfilling your potential in your career as a financial advisor? Like you’re stuck and can’t change your circumstances?

Well, you can. And you will.

Here at Consolidated Planning, we understand the decision to switch firms is a big one. Our custom playbooks for success focus on putting people before money, and we believe that by doing so, you can actually grow your practice even faster. 

We will help you navigate two big questions that you need to answer before making a change to your business. Depending on the answers, you might just decide to take the first step towards fulfilling your potential in your career and in life, no matter which firm you choose.

 

Are You Choosing The Right Financial Firm For Your Clients?

This is the first question you need to ask yourself. As an experienced financial advisor, you likely have more clients than you do time. Your clients are the most important part of your business and managing through any transition is a big deal. 

We’re willing to bet when weighing your options, your mind first goes to what will happen to your hard-earned clients.

Will my clients want to come with me?

What will the experience be like for them? 

What if they want to stay with my current firm?

These are very valid and real concerns.

Being confident that you’re making a move because it’s in the best interests of your clients can help make the decision a little easier. So, if you’re only thinking of changing firms for an upfront bonus or a higher payout, we might not be the right fit for your career.

In order to make the process of transitioning your clients worth the risk, you have to believe there is a better client experience waiting for you both on the other end.

Will my clients be better off? While better off is subjective, here are some examples of what that might include:

• Improved technology
• Ease of doing business
• A more robust planning process
• A staff dedicated to client service
• Increased access to investment or protection options
• A more engaging Firm culture
• More opportunities for collaboration

So, how can you know if the grass is really greener elsewhere?

 

EASE OF TRANSITIONING

Transitioning your clients can be an unpredictable area if you don’t know what they are thinking. Are they worried? Are they hesitant? Is their loyalty to you or your firm?

So many thoughts can be going through their mind and there won’t be any transitioning happening if you can’t approach this discussion the right way.

You’ve got this.

Prior to any formalities with your clients, you owe them an open and honest conversation. Your speed of communication matters here and should include the right language to adequately explain why you’re moving and how this will benefit them.

Plan to schedule a sit-down meeting to review what you have worked on up to this point and how it will tie into all that you can do with the new firm.

Now, you’re ready for the actual transition.

Advisors at Consolidated Planning, in partnership with Park Avenue Securities (PAS), will be onboarded and coached through the process of transitioning your book of clients in a few ways:

• Transition Action Plan — Your dedicated Transition Lead will create and manage a comprehensive transition plan created to help you plan and prepare for a smooth transition for you and your clients
• Book of Business Analysis — Through an analysis of your current investment solutions and product platforms, the transferability and product mapping will be determined for your clients and alternates recommended when needed.
• Client Account Re-Papering and Communication Planning — Your assigned Transition Lead will partner with you to develop a customized account re-papering plan to engage your clients and re-establish their account(s)

The ability to maintain a sense of organization as you transition your clients makes all the difference. Not only will there be less disruption as you conduct business, but your clients will have the confidence to continue moving forward with you.

 

CLIENT-FIRST MINDSET

Speaking of confidence, if your clients do switch firms with you, it’s of utmost importance that the grass is actually greener for them.

It would be a shame to transition your book of clients, only to find out that your chosen firm doesn’t prioritize them. Do your due diligence.

A client-first mindset means you’re prioritizing the best interests of your clients above all else. Prioritizing their best interest requires taking adequate time to fully understand your client’s unique situation, financial goals, and risk tolerance.

However, if the firm you’re working with doesn’t see the value in these areas, you may find it hard to do things the right way and build a successful practice.

At Consolidated Planning, advisors follow our Planning Philosophy which outlines our time-tested planning process as a guide for how you will interact with your clients. These areas include:

• Protection first: Once you’ve discussed your client’s hopes and dreams, you will assess any threats to achieving these goals. Protecting, reducing, and eliminating risks today, can help your clients progress to their goals.
• Becoming a world-class saver*: Budgeting is not savings. Investing is not savings. Savings is a habit and a mindset that must be developed over time through practice. As an advisor, one of your jobs is to coach your clients to become world-class savers using the appropriate strategy.
• Maximums, not minimums: You should want your clients to have more than just the bare minimum. By dealing in maximums, not minimums, your clients can know it’s possible to have an ideal future if all goes right.
• Don’t ask questions your clients can’t answer: Basing a strategy on these kinds of questions is unfair and counterproductive.

Focusing on these areas makes it all about the client. Not the products or your payout.

 

FIRM CULTURE

Your clients can get a sense of the firm culture through their work with you. Depending on what that culture looks and feels like, a client’s level of trust can be highly influenced.

This is why choosing the best firm for your practice matters.

As a financial advisor at a firm that prioritizes a client’s experience, your clients are likely to feel a sense of transparency and integrity, making them confident in the advice and recommendations that you give them. And it makes it easier for them to introduce you to others like them.

On the other hand, as a financial advisor at a firm that is primarily product driven, your clients are likely to feel that you’re more interested in making money than helping them.

At Consolidated Planning, the money you earn is a byproduct of helping people.

 

Are You Choosing The Right Financial Firm For Yourself?

Now that you’ve started to assess what might be important to your clients in switching firms, you need to look inward.

Why inward?

Because you are not switching firms and transitioning your book of business for a job. This is your career. Your livelihood. And you’ve worked hard to build your practice.

So, ask yourself these questions:

• Where am I in my career?
• What could I be doing better? 
• What’s important to me? 
• Do I want to be a better version of myself?

A better version of yourself. Yes, we went there. And your chosen firm should want to help you get there.

Without sounding too cliché, firm culture is important not just to your clients. Even as a financial advisor who owns their own practice, the culture of the firm you work with matters for a few reasons:

• Advisors tend to join firms, and leave firms, because of people
• The way you do business with your clients is a direct reflection of your belief system

Making sure that the values of the firm that you choose to affiliate with are in sync with your own will help you feel good about the decision to join when you let people know you’ve moved on.

After all, the reputation of your new firm will be apparent to your clients, and you need to believe in their brand reputation too.

 

A BETTER FUTURE

It’s time to be the advisor you’ve always wanted to be and we know that it is possible to build a healthy and thriving practice.

Is where you are today the right launchpad to get you there?

A better future and a more successful practice starts with the culture of support within your firm. Here are a few ways a firm can support your quest for a more successful practice:

• Developing custom roadmaps for your success, how you define it
• Have a clear vision of the future
• Believe in being the best for your clients
• Helping to take your practice to the next level
• Further developing you and your skills

As an advisor at Consolidated Planning, you can feel confident in your path to success with a custom playbook for where you are and where you want to be.

So, can you be a better advisor with Consolidated Planning? The decision is yours.

 

Can You Build A More Successful Financial Advising Practice At Consolidated Planning?

Ultimately, choosing the right firm is about far more than support services or technology. It’s about people – your clients and those who will help you take your practice to the next level. 

Where do you want to go from here? What do you want your career to look like? What is success? What’s one thing you would change about your current situation today?

With these questions in mind, how can you work backward from there to begin the process? 

If you think Consolidated Planning might be the right fit to help you get started, we want to hear from you. Reach out to our recruiting team to learn more about our planning philosophy and what differentiates us in the financial advising industry.

 

 

2023-152072 Exp. 3/2025

 

*World Class saver is a Person who saves at least 15 to 20% of gross income.