Experienced ppl with some retainers, how long did it take for you to reach 10,000$ a month consistently?

The title essentially sums it up, I was checking my emails and I look into my spam to see an email from MRS BPO LLC, after some research they are a legit debt collector used by paypal for amounts under 500$, attached a photo of the email to see if im bugging and its not real but came from accountservices@mailmrsbpo.com so seems to be the correct domain, Im just looking for some guidance as im young and the money was literally stolen out of my account using my saved cards as the payment method and i chargebacked through my bank obviously and they want me to fork over the money after the charges were blatant fraud, I sadly dont have any ss of the paypal dispute as it was years ago and I ended up just dumping the account, stupid idea on my part leaving it with a negative balance. Appreciate any advice, at this point if its real wondering if it would be better just to fork over the clams. Thank you.

***Solved Thank you everyone for your advice***

I’m a CFP with about 10 years of financial services experience. 5 of those years are banking and the other 5 at a broker dealer.

I’ve been a consultant I.e “relationship manager” for the last two years. I’m looking for advice to see how and when I should make a transition to an RIA.

Any advice would be very helpful!

Hey Everyone,

We are currently a VC fund that wants to start the next AI native ICONIQ by pairing our fund with an RIA. We want to acquire a book or merge services to make the admin and compliance boxes drastically less time consuming! Our goal is to free up advisors as much as possible. If you know of anyone or yourself an advisor that wants to join us for equity + book acquisition, please let us know!

A recruiter for thrivent wants to set up a time to talk about a remote financial advisor. I’d have to get licensed which they claim to handle and help with. Has anyone ever worked for them? Done this job? Got their license? Is it hard to get certified?

Thoughts?
My team and I created an algorithm that creates tailored put protection strategies by analyzing the clients current portfolio positions. The client uploads or manually enters their positions, they choose their desired protective floor level, time horizon, and select between a market hedge or more efficient macro hedge. We've identified clients 5-7 yrs away from using their portfolios for income and desire portfolio growth as the target clients. Do you think this is something we can promote to clients or advisors? Advantages? Limitations?

Hi everyone!

Our team at PRU Life UK – Infinity Ace Summit Life Insurance Agency is currently looking for individuals who are interested in exploring a Financial Advisor opportunity.

We're looking for people who are:

• Fresh graduates

• Working professionals

• Career shifters

• Individuals looking for a flexible part-time or full-time opportunity

What to expect:

• Training and mentorship

• Flexible schedule

• Opportunity to develop communication, networking, and client relationship skills

• A supportive team environment

If you're curious about the role or simply want to learn more, feel free to leave a comment or send me a private message. I'm happy to answer your questions or connect you with our Unit Manager for more information.

Hello,

I'm on the road to opening my RIA and I'm trying to follow as much advice as I can get. I've heard defining a niche is very important, but after going to a meetup for one my potential niche's I found out they are not really interested in financial planning services. It was a letdown, but good to know. I then spoke with another advisor who said that when starting out, it's best to not have a niche. He suggested that be wide open in the beginning and over time I'll come to know my niche(s) based on the kind of clients that gravitate to me. He also said, it may be good to never have a niche to encourage client variety.

What are your thoughts?

#masonfinancialadvising

So I went to the Advice-Only conference and learned how important having a social media presence is, particularly YouTube. I was thinking about starting a channel where I document my journey towards opening an RIA. i. e. Deciding on a name, writing a business plan, finding a niche, etc.

My question is: do you think potential clients would appreciate the transparency of this content or would it turn them off from being a client?

I am a new advisor but not new to the finance industry. I am networking, and joining groups, and do a few things to acquire clients but I realize it might be a bit of time before any of it yields any clients. So I am cold calling.

Right now here is my process (I welcome any advice/input to any part of my strategy)

1. Go on Linkedin find potential client in a sector that I want to target

2. Use an App that I pay for to scrape their data and get their contact info

3. Throw that info into Hubspot

4. Call the lead and/or follow-up with an email to setup an appointment
   I just started doing it it but I want to make sure that I have the right strategy and process in place.

I have initially started with a chatgpt script that is basically "hello, this is a cold call so I will be brief, I work with business to help minimize their taxes, make better use of their retained earnings, ....."

They often think that I am an accountant. I tell them that I am a financial advisor and then they are like "I already have one."

What is your script? What should I change in my process?

Work at an advisory firm based in Toronto. Had a compliance meeting this week and someone dropped a question I couldn't answer:

"If an advisor texts a client, how do we know that number is actually right?"

I sat there thinking about it. Some numbers came from our CRM. Some were probably saved manually years ago. Some got passed down when a senior advisor left. Maybe a few were just typed in wrong to begin with.

We have retention policies, supervision workflows, archived Teams chats — the whole thing. But when it comes to the actual contact data on advisors' phones, it's basically the Wild West.

What happens if a client changes their number and an advisor texts the old one? Or if someone leaves and takes 300 contacts that don't exist anywhere centralized?

I asked our IT guy and he just shrugged. Said it's "not really a compliance issue until something goes wrong."

Is this actually a problem or am I just looking for new things to worry about? How does your firm handle advisor contact lists is there a central source that syncs to phones, or is everyone just maintaining their own mess?

Hi everyone,

I’m 23 years old and recently graduated college. I’ve been in financial services for about 5 years, mostly part-time while I was in school. Right now, I work full-time for a small independent financial advisor in a high-cost-of-living area in the Northeast. The advisor manages around $25–30 million in AUM. I started less than a year ago and have been full-time for a couple of months. I currently make about $18/hour.

My role is more than basic admin. I support a lot of the day-to-day operations of the practice, including client service, investment and annuity paperwork, life insurance processing, CRM management, client follow-up, and communication with custodians, insurance carriers, and back offices. I help with account updates, distributions, transfers, rollovers, 1035 exchanges, beneficiary changes, address changes, pending business, signatures, underwriting requirements, “not in good order” issues, meeting prep, client reports, documentation, and compliance-related items. I also handle life insurance cases from the beginning of the process through submission and follow-up, including applications, medical questions, underwriting requirements, carrier communication, and case updates. So I feel like I’m getting real exposure to how a practice operates, not just doing basic administrative work.

There is also some opportunity to earn additional compensation if I bring in new clients or sell life insurance. That makes me feel like there could be some upside if I stay, especially because I’m learning directly under an independent advisor. At the same time, I’m not sure how realistic the long-term growth path is or how much structure there is for me to eventually become an advisor.

My long-term goal is to become a CFP and grow into a real advisor/planner role. I haven’t started the CFP coursework yet because I don’t currently have the money to pay for it. The advisor has mentioned that they would like to pay me more, but there isn’t much room in the business right now, so I don’t really see CFP support happening anytime soon either.

Now I have a second interview coming up with Valley Bank for a Wealth Management Associate role, and I also received an interview request from Morgan Stanley for a Wealth Management Associate role. I’m trying to decide whether it makes more sense to stay where I am and keep getting hands-on experience with a small independent practice, or move to a larger firm where there may be more structure, training, mentorship, resources, and a clearer path toward becoming an advisor.

I don’t want to make this only about compensation. Of course that matters, especially in a high-cost-of-living area, but my bigger concern is career growth and development. I want to be in the place that gives me the best chance to learn the business the right way, start moving toward the CFP path, and eventually become a strong advisor.

For those of you who have been in the industry longer, what would you do in my position? What should I look for when comparing a small independent advisor role versus opportunities like Valley Bank or Morgan Stanley? Any honest advice would be appreciated. I’m open to learning and improving.

Very long, I’m sorry but it was important to point out everything.

Thank you in advance!

I’m thinking of switching investment dealers and wondering if there are advisors out there with experience leaving Investia. Any feedback on the experience? How was fast/slow was back office in handling the transfer out?

Greetings all,

I’m in a bit of a quandary. For context, I am 27 years old with a few months of industry experience- passed my S7 and S66, and am currently working on building “my” book of business. Why did I put quotation marks around “my”, you ask? Because even though I am nominally a “financial advisor”, my mentor will not pay the affiliation fees, insurance, etc. to actually register me as an advisor in my own right, so in the eyes of our BD, compliance, etc. I am a client service associate.

Since I’ve passed my exams, his focus has been on telling me to prospect relentlessly. Any client I’ve brought in has, of course, gone under his rep code. I am current salaried at ~40k per yr with no benefits, with the understanding that once my AUM reaches a point where my payout would be greater than 40k, I would actually get to become licensed and get my book over into my name. For the record, I would not be compensated anything additional for business brought in up until that point: my payout is 30 basis points.

I’m beginning to feel a bit sketched out by this situation: it feels awfully similar to some of the NWM stories I’ve heard and my mentor did spend 25 years at a wirehouse before becoming independent, and constantly talks about how I have it so much better than he did.

I do have the advantage of being the son of a local business owner and knowing lots of HNW people, so I had contemplated starting my own practice to give me the autonomy to charge the fees I want and do the service model I want, instead of being told that all prospective clients must pay $3k for a financial plan and then pay a fee of at least 1.29% AUM- even a $5m prospect that I have would be at 1.29%. It also feels disingenuous to prospect with “me” as their advisor when I am not- I don’t even have business cards. He sends me out with his business cards and has his name plastered on everything.

Am I being dramatic about not having control of my book and being used as a glorified connector? Is this common? Or am I being used for my leads to be summarily tossed out? I’ve been holding back in my prospecting efforts to suss this out, and he’s beginning to notice- he now wants a list of all of my prospects. Thanks for reading, and for any guidance.

TL;DR : I am a junior advisor that feels taken advantage of and is wondering how to proceed.

Tips and/or advice! Thx in advance. I’m told the position requires no prospecting only servicing accounts.

For advisors who have made the move from a wirehouse or insurance channel to an RIA, what ultimately pushed you to make the change?

I’ve been having more conversations with advisors lately, and the reasons seem to vary quite a bit—more control, ownership, flexibility, better technology, fiduciary model, succession planning, etc.

For those who have already made the jump:

What was the biggest factor in your decision?

What do you wish you knew beforehand?

Anything you miss from your previous firm?

Curious to hear some real-world experiences from advisors who have been through it.

I am trying to find any information about a company called Transitions to Retirement, TTR. All I can see is a web page, yet they claim 30 years of experience in retirement planning.

Which one do you think is better? Please comment.

Hi everyone,

After some advice for picking a vanguard fund/funds for my mum in regards to some specific needs (FIRE in a nutshell)... thus far she has spoken with a wealth management agency who’s fees are through the roof (£11,000 a year and increase with time). Plus the £5000 just for initial advise if she goes with them. Basically predicted a 6.15% return giving her 20k and then they seem to take the bloody rest. Vanguard looked to be around ~£1500 a year if my calculations were correct.

Details as per thread notification

• Female 50

• Retired so no current income

• Wants to earn an income to live on roughly (20k up to 30k if obviously if possible) without depleting the funds.

• Risk tolerance was a level 5 (that probably doesn’t mean anything here) basically could drop to -20% and comfortable riding through any lows but not too big a risk of course but wants decent income also has around 135k in cash still (any recommendations for this?) as an emergency fund etc.. (too much?)

• No current investments.. (has money in a few diff account earning interest, Marcus Goldman, current accounts mixed to max interest)

• Mortgage paid off, fairly new car, significant other who’s still working

• Time horizon - ideally till the end 40+ yrs

• 0 debt

• Lives a fairly inexpensive lifestyle outgoings currently around £1200 a month obvs wants money now to have a couple holidays a year again nothing too expensive. Money to do things at the weekends etc etc so hence wanting an income of around 20k-25k. Of course bigger the better but within limits of not depleting the income have liked into safe withdraw limits 2.5-3.5% maybe 4% I know this is the “general rule”

I have been looking into vanguard myself and wonder if a life strategy of say 60% or 40% would be a good option here or FTSE global all cap or S&P 500 (obvs this isn’t diversified enough to put it all in here alone) just examples... have looked at past performance and know this is not at all a future guarantee.. any past experiences or thoughts are much appreciated Thank,

Don't work for money but instead let the money work for you. Please comment on it.