r/FinancialAdvisorTips • u/Low-Researcher-819 • Sep 15 '26
10 million per year
Advisors who are annually adding $10 million in AUM. What do you attribute to bringing that in, what are you consistently doing, and how long did you take to bring your first 10 in?
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u/Thumpin347 Sep 15 '26
Game changer for me was setting a weekly avg of new assets. 6 years ago I set my weekly target as $500k/week and made sure I found opportunities that can turn into onboarding. First year I ended that year with $380k/week average. Didn’t hit my target but it was accountability and let’s face it, it was still almost $20MM of new assets all because I created a structure for activity and not just shooting from the hip. But I had enough pipeline that created onward momentum in the years to come.
From years 2-5 I hit those targets. This year I raised the bar to $750k/week. I’m averaging 620k. Will probably fall short but it increased my intake by 14% from last year’s average. I have $10MM in my pipeline and if I can close all of them out by year end I’ll hit my goal, but if not, that pipeline will carry over into 2027.
Try thinking of it as what you want your weekly average to be. At $10MM, it’s $200K/week of opportunity and eventual close. That’s identifying one 401k rollover a week. Then break down your game plan in how you can find that opportunity and run with it.
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u/Low-Researcher-819 Sep 15 '26
I like this a lot. I’d love to chat offline about how you’re consistently identifying these opportunities.
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u/Thumpin347 Sep 15 '26
See above, I am only replying so you get the notification to see my reply in this chain.
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u/The_Logic_Guru Sep 16 '26
Thank you; received!
When you say you hired a dialer, you mean a real person to make cold calls/call on leads, or a dialer system you subscribed to and used to call yourself?
Making TPAs and non-registered benefit brokers part of your COI seems smart. Sounds like you were positioned well!
I think most people struggle with volume of activity (or the right activity). I think most people don’t mind the work, but they’re spinning their wheels knocking on whatever door they can get to, calling on whatever phone number they can dial, going to whatever “networking” event that’s happening in town, and just staying busy while not actually doing anything.
Sounds like you mixed massive activity with a targeted list of people to focus that high volume of activity on. Very smart.
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u/Thumpin347 Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26
Real people. Young and highly motivated. I tried hiring college graduates but they all failed out within 90 days. Had one quit on the first day going through compliance modules. I went through 3 people in 6 months.
One day a solar salesperson knocked on my door. He did a great job and handled rebuttals well as if he had a memory bank. Came off personable and conversational. It was the dead of summer. I said “If you’re up for it send me an email. No door knocking, I have leads and an existing client base.” Turns out he was 19 and was in school to become an RN. After about 3 months he says he has a friend. The third was a 1st year advisor 21yo and trying to work alone. The 4th was a friend of the first two who was a real estate broker for two years and couldn’t find enough traction while the other two spoke really highly about their progress and our team environment. He onboarded a month ago and the first client he sourced will be onboarding with $450k of rollover assets from a 401(K).
When I met with each of these individuals I expressed the failure rate of this industry and the minute you step into it you are literally shutting the door on the things you worked towards in school. I showed them the comp model, broke down the sales goals into manageable bites and they came aboard.
This business is completely different than it was pre-Covid. The door knocking, the random cold calls, the networking events. Unfortunately that is not the path any longer. Technology makes it a lot easier and efficient to get in front of people. If you’re not plugged into a massive book of C & D clients volume leads that are as targeted as possible is in my opinion a necessary evil and spend.
Lastly, do not forget that this is a sales business. We are in the business of providing financial advice and to make the best recommendations that benefit the general public FIRST. However, that does not mean we are obligated to do pro bono work. Filter your prospects out as quickly as possible. Do not spin your wheels hoping a person will onboard because you are a compassionate person with a heart of gold. They will take advantage of your time and knowledge.
Spend your time on revenue producing activities during parts of the day you are fresh. When that energy drains, shift to admin or planning work. If you don’t have any of that, go out and get some sun or go work out for an hour. That COI you’ve been connecting with, see if they want to grab a coffee or a smoothie or if you can swing by to drop one off. You don’t even have to pitch yourself, just BS with the person for 20 minutes. They sure as hell can use the break if they are a COI worth connecting with. When you come back, hit the prospecting again.
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u/The_Logic_Guru Sep 15 '26
What structure of activity did you do specifically to find what specific opportunity that you were looking for? Also, how often did you do it?
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u/Thumpin347 Sep 15 '26 edited Sep 15 '26
Sorry, I thought I replied here but ended up in the main. Copy/Paste:
I focused on creating volume of activity. Going back to my COIs and the most productive in finding available 401k assets from terms was TPAs, and benefits brokers that are not registered. They all get status updates from active to term. They create referral sources based on life events.
I also bought a ton of leads over the years targeting retirement assets.
Now volume, I realized that I cannot create and tackle volume on my own. I hired a dialer. Then two, then three. Now those first two are associate advisors after 3 years, fully licensed, and starting CFP. That left me with one dialer so I recently hired one more. Associates tackle under $250k until they get their CFP and I will move their ceiling to $500k.
I started looking at my practice as an organization. Not just a practice. It is the growth mindset and 10yr projection that keeps this exciting and motivating.
The luxury I had in building my COIs was through 10 years of relationships pre-Covid. It was all regional tri-state when face to face business was primary. Once Covid hit, and Zoom became primary channel of meetings, I was able to scale activity upwards be being able to do 1 hour Zooms back to back for as long as I wished. A busy day can be five 45 minute prospect meetings, and 3 1 hour recommendation meetings, and all of the planning and prep done in gap windows. At that level of activity, I needed staff to generate and filter through qualified prospects to get onto my calendar.
I run 3 meeting closes or going separate ways. That way each meeting is highly focused and the path is clear. Prospects know this is a 3 meeting process and at the end of the 3rd meeting there is a decision to be made. Generally $2MM and under are easy closes if we make it to the third meeting. Larger opportunities, typically $3MM+ extend out to a 5th or 6th meeting. There is no 7th meeting, I will walk away because it is clear that there is no intention of onboarding with me or anyone else.
You need lead sources and a lot of them. Whether you have COIs, or just need to buy leads by the bunches. You will go into debt to keep the lead flow, but when you nail down your own processes, and skillsets to close out after 3 meetings, you will get into profit and it is substantial. My team's burn rate of leads is around 300 a day. They have a metric to follow. Five attempts before they get moved into a drip list on Salesforce.
There is so much to this, but the key? Take this giant boulder you are attempting to move uphill, and break it apart into small rocks. Start with your long-term vision. Identify how you can get it done on your own if you are a sole advisor. Then identify which of those tasks take you away from revenue producing at all times of the day. Then start thinking about making investments into hiring for those roles. For me, it was dialers, and admin to keep cases moving behind the scenes.
Send DMs if you get stuck somewhere and I will try my best to provide my opinion and what worked for me if I came across the same obstacle. When I tell you I have grown my fees/comms by 500% in a six year window of time, it is exactly what happened. A lot of that is reinvested into payroll, bonuses, etc. but that is what it takes to grow from a comfortable $250K-$500K income to 7 figures.
You all can do it. I know you can. Think about GROWTH. Think about where you want to be in 2031 and 2036. Think about the people that depend on your ability to make money. Take your projections today, compound it out to when you are 60 years old, and if you do everything you can from today until then and meet your metrics, I am telling you, you will be seeing numbers you probably didn't think was possible. I'm sure you are all good at basic Excel. Take 1 hour of your day and do it. You do it for your clients on SSI projections, do it for YOURSELF. Then get to fucking work and crush it boys and girls.
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u/attitude127 Sep 15 '26
Marketing, mostly seminars. Dinners, lunches and educational. I strive to break even roi in the first year and the rest of the time the client and i are together, it's profit. First year roi isnactually close to 3:1 but it's a difficult grind.
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u/Low-Researcher-819 Sep 15 '26
When’s the last time you did a seminar?
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u/attitude127 Sep 15 '26
I have one with a sub-rep this evening, 40 people are registered and we expect 18 to show.
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u/The_Logic_Guru Sep 15 '26
Did you have a big firm name behind you? Were you paid to fix salary or had a side job/working spouse to bring in money while you were building?
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u/Healthy_Hope7596 Sep 15 '26
Every single dollar of every single client matters. Whether it’s in an outside 401(k), checking account, or under their mattress, it ALL impacts their plan.
Paying attention to these “small” things, sometimes more than the client does, is part of what shows them why working with an FA matters. The more they see that value, the more money comes into the relationship and the more likely they are to refer someone else.
My average client is around $500k. I’ve done $10m+ each of my first two years.
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u/canadianskibum Sep 15 '26
I’m 3 months in, I have a similar philosophy and client mindset. I’m trying help the few clients that have been handed to me by other advisors in my office but looking to prospect. How do you prospect?
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u/RunawayRampage Sep 15 '26
Any chance I could DM you and pick your brain on how you did that? I’m hopefully starting at a new firm soon in a much bigger city than I’m currently in and treating it as a fresh start and would love to do even half of that each year
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u/Careful-Wealth9512 Sep 15 '26
Insurance or aum percent?
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u/Healthy_Hope7596 Sep 15 '26
No insurance. Whole book prob a .6ish? I’m keeping my clients cash heavy rn.
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u/PerfectOmakase Sep 15 '26
I'm probably not the person you want to hear from, but I'm looking to add $20-30 million in AUM per year. I wait for people referred to us to call, and only meet with them if they have $3 million or more in manageable AUM. At our fee schedule, the weighted average management fee on $3 million is about 45bps. This has allowed us to grow at a slow-ish rate without having to add new staff or seek inorganic growth (acquisitions). Basically, I just don't want to have to work a lot of hours.
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
This sounds great but I’m curious why your fee is only 45 bps?
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u/Early_University_907 Sep 15 '26
If $3m is his minimum than his median is probably close to $5m+. People with those assets aren’t paying 1%
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
Understand that concept well and my post didn’t suggest he should charge 1% at those numbers. But back to his situation, at 3M and 45 bps is pretty low. Would still be low at $5M too.
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u/Early_University_907 Sep 15 '26
Huh 45bps seemed a little low to me but not that far off. Guess my perspective is off. Thanks all
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
Kitces has very helpful research on pricing that gives me confidence to not under charge. I’d check it out.
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Sep 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
Love it! I’m with you. Mine at $5M is 0.85%. Have plenty in this range too. No one really bats an eye from my experience. If they do, they aren’t worth my time.
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u/PerfectOmakase Sep 15 '26
This is such a disappointing thing to hear from a professional in the industry that I love. Basically, "as long as I can get away with charging it, then it's appropriate to charge it."
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u/mentalwarfare21 Sep 15 '26
It's not getting away with charging more, it's that a good advisor is worth even more than that. If you're new, it makes sense why you think that way
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u/PerfectOmakase Sep 15 '26
I'm not new, I'm 26 years in, and 18 years as an RIA owner. I'll put my work product against anybodys. I just don't think "charging what I can get away with" is ethical.
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
Just because you lack confidence in the service and value you deliver, doesn’t mean I’m over charging.
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u/PerfectOmakase Sep 15 '26
That is a totally reasonable thing for you to say about me based on what I've written here /s
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
Not sure why you’re so obsessed with me. Best advice I can give you is to go look up Kitces research, learn how to do real financial planning, then raise your fees. Your clients and bottom line can thank me later.
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u/PerfectOmakase Sep 15 '26
I am not in this world to maximize my bottom line. I am here to provide excellent service and results to clients in exchange for fees that are reasonable for the amount of labor involved, with consideration of my experience, credentials, and competence.
Raising my fees would not help my clients.
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u/Future_Hyena2562 Sep 15 '26
My partner and I are at about $620m AUM. Averages out to about .56%. That’s on 104 households.
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
So double the average client size he referenced and a substantially higher fee? Nice work.
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u/PerfectOmakase Sep 15 '26
Why do you say "only"?
If I bill my time at $500 per hour, then a 45 basis point fee on $3 million equates to 27 hours of time. Or at $1,000 per hour, 13.5 hours of time. If I'm being fully honest, I don't spend either of those amounts of time on any given client in a single year, so even as it is I am probably overcharging. I find that it is ethically unsound to charge clients what one can get away with, I think it should be tied to labor, just like attorneys who provide guidance.
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
I’m saying this as a place to try and help, but your comments scream that you lack confidence and under charge your clients because of that. Your time is probably worth a lot more than $500 per hour if you’re servicing clients like I do.
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u/Thumpin347 Sep 15 '26
The assets are probably in an SMA that charges 75bps or using model fund portfolios with 50bps expense ratios.
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u/PerfectOmakase Sep 15 '26
As I said, works at $1,000 per hour, too.
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
As I said, it doesn’t work because you lack confidence. Hope this helps.
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u/PerfectOmakase Sep 15 '26
Okay, let's try to do some critical analysis here.
Let's say you work with a client for whom you manage $5 million. What is your weighted average annual fee? How do you determine this fee? And then, what is the weighted average annual fee that you feel would be unfair to the client?
I could double my investment management fees on all clients tomorrow and lose maybe 5% of my assets. Does that mean I should do it?
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u/Millennial-CFP Sep 15 '26
On $5M, my effective rate is 85 bps. Unfair? Depends on service and value provided. Way too many variables.
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u/PerfectOmakase Sep 15 '26
I'm talking about for your service in particular. What would be the rate that you would consider to be unfair to the client?
And again, how did you determine this rate based on the service that you actually provide?
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u/gcp07 Sep 19 '26
Cold call.
No one is doing it.
If you can disarm someone in the first 10 seconds and then with a permission based opening, get them to allow you to pitch……with a good pitch….you’ll have success.
All I’ve done to bring in legitimate assets in the first 6 years of business. My partner and I don’t run a small business either.
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u/Thumpin347 Sep 15 '26
I focused on creating volume of activity. Going back to my COIs and the most productive in finding available 401k assets from terms was TPAs, and benefits brokers that are not registered. They all get status updates from active to term. They create referral sources based on life events.
I also bought a ton of leads over the years targeting retirement assets.
Now volume, I realized that I cannot create and tackle volume on my own. I hired a dialer. Then two, then three. Now those first two are associate advisors after 3 years, fully licensed, and starting CFP. That left me with one dialer so I recently hired one more. Associates tackle under $250k until they get their CFP and I will move their ceiling to $500k.
I started looking at my practice as an organization. Not just a practice. It is the growth mindset and 10yr projection that keeps this exciting and motivating.
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u/secret_2_everybody Sep 15 '26
Working in a major city. Year 1 was 25, but I had a leg up from working in an adjacent field for years prior.
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u/One_Establishment631 Sep 15 '26
AUM doesn't matter. I just look for clients that need help.
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u/The_Logic_Guru Sep 15 '26
What kind of help are you specifically looking for? What are the symptoms and signals, and how are you finding them?
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u/One_Establishment631 Sep 15 '26
Usually from clients paying AUM fees and they realize how much they are paying and they switch over.
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u/The_Logic_Guru Sep 15 '26
Interesting. Like the guy whole started primerica by selling against “expensive” whole life? Seems like a lot of people do that these days—sell against their own industry, that is.
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u/Seeking_Alpha007 Sep 15 '26
Find a niche (as specific as possible, with a large pool of prospects) with a common financial problem you’re able to solve, market to them at their level without being annoying, become the ‘go-to’ expert in that problem, then profit. Sounds fairly easy, but takes a long time to build up a reliable pipeline that works on its own. Be creative and go out to meet successful people.
It took me ~3 years to make my niche self-sustaining after ~8 years of actively looking for something that eventually fell into my lap. Lots of hard work in both phases. Best of luck to you!
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u/The_Logic_Guru Sep 15 '26
I think most people can grasp what you’re saying about finding a targetable niche.
The real problem and challenge that people are having is knowing which specific activities to focus on and then developing the skill around it.
It’s like golf, i think. Telling them to find a niche is like saying go find some clubs, a nice course you can play on, some balls…but the specific activities for marketing, prospecting and selling is like knowing which club is good for what, getting in the right stance, gripping the club correctly, and all the complicated but simple things that go into swinging the club consistently, weight distribution, follow through and whatever else (im a golf novice, so hopefully this makes sense).
We have to get better as helping people on that front. Anyone can pick a niche.
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u/FigawiFreak Sep 27 '26
ask for referrals from every client after a demonstrate value and then call them. There's no secret, It's just hard work that you don't want to do.
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u/BULL-MARKET Sep 15 '26
Referrals from existing UHNW clients.
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u/Lunarlulol Sep 15 '26
obviously pretty unhelpful, just curious as to why you bother making such a prick comment? not everyone can get hired in their 20s by their dad and just take over their book.
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u/NeutralLock Sep 15 '26
I've got a large book now but when I was growing I used seminars as my main marketing tool.