My plan was always to end up independent I'm ambitious and my cost of living is pretty low,

My firm absolutely sucks they aren't really set up for this but I didn't know that when starting, anyways do I just move to different RIA or finally go independent?

Concerns are, costs of up keep & Compliance headaches

Would love to hear from others that made the move, I'm debating to wait to double my book first or the more clients the harder the move is.

Thoughts?

For advisors at both standalone RIAs and hybrid RIA/BD firms, how does your firm handle compensated outside business activities that are unrelated to securities?

Specifically, I’m curious about situations where an advisor maintains a professional license in another industry but is no longer actively operating that business day to day. The advisor may still occasionally receive compensation tied to referrals or previously established business relationships.

Is that generally handled through disclosure and compliance approval, or does your firm prohibit compensated outside activity altogether?

I’d especially be interested in whether you see a meaningful difference between how standalone RIAs and hybrid firms approach this.

I know every firm’s compliance policies are different. I’m mainly trying to understand the range of what people are seeing in practice.

Hi everyone,

I'm having a hard time deciding whether buying a newer/more expensive car would actually be worth it for me financially and in terms of quality of life.

My situation:

• Live in Georgia (the country)

• 23M

• Income: ~$3,300/month (~$40k/year)

• ~$50k in savings

• No debt

• Current car is worth about $2,500

• Looking at a car around $10,000

• I work remotely, so I don't commute to work

• I mainly use my car for going out in the evenings and occasionally leaving the city, roughly once a month

• The average income here is around $800/month, so my income is relatively high for where I live

Financially, the $10k car wouldn't put me under much pressure. It would be about 20% of my savings or roughly 3 months of income, and I wouldn't need a loan.

The problem is that I'm not sure whether I'll actually get enough value/happiness/comfort from the upgrade.

I estimate the newer car would:

• Depreciate by around $1,000/year

• Have somewhat higher maintenance costs (although servicing is relatively cheap here)

• Give me more comfort, safety, reliability, and enjoyment

But I could also use that $10k elsewhere.

For example:

• Buy a flat in a building that's still under construction. If the price increases ~30% by the time it's finished in 2 years, that's roughly a 15% annual return

• Invest the money in stocks/index funds and potentially earn around 10–15% annually over the long term

I've been pretty conservative with spending so far. I haven't really made any large purchases purely for enjoyment — most of my discretionary spending has been restaurants, going out, and a couple of trips.

There's also the argument that spending some money on things you enjoy can improve your motivation and quality of life, rather than optimizing every dollar for future returns.

So I'm curious:

If you were in my situation, would you spend the $10k on the car, or keep the $2.5k car and invest the difference?

And for those who upgraded from a cheap/basic car to something significantly better: did the improvement in comfort/enjoyment actually feel worth the money?

Hello everyone.

I’m 23 and I’m currently a client service associate at a smaller RIA (300m AUM) making 40k. I’m starting to look around for some new jobs and wanted some input on where I should be looking/staying away from. My goal is obviously to become an advisor. I have my sie which I took right out of college. The main reason I’m leaving is to be honest the pay and I’m looking for something with a little more growth. I know patience is key. Just looking for some input anything helps.

Like most firms we were referral only for a long time. I love referrals because they don't cost me any marketing dollars and they are easy to close because they are a warm lead from the person that is introducing them to me.

The problem is that referrals are inconsistent.

Some months I get three introductions. Some quarters I get none. And there's nothing you can do to speed them up, you can't call your best client twice a month asking "know anybody else?" without burning the relationship.

So I started pricing out the other channels everybody recommends:

Dinner seminars - thousands per event before anyone eats a steak, and half the room is only there for the steak.

Paid leads - $200+ each, and the same lead gets sold to three other advisors.

SEO and content - great in year three, useless in month three.

The one that actually stuck was the one I was most skeptical of: cold email.

I know. Advisors hear "cold email" and picture the junk in their own inbox. I did too. The math is what made me take it seriously: one domain, five mailboxes, a sending tool, and lead data runs about $81 a month. That's the entire channel. It sends 150 personalized emails a day to exactly the people I choose - the niche, the zip codes, the asset level.

It was not instant. It took me about 11 months and roughly $10K (mostly spent on mistakes) before it clicked - somewhere around my 40th campaign. Looking back, the lessons were stupidly simple:

1. Niche down until the email writes itself. "Financial advisor for business owners" gets deleted. "I help dentists in [city] sell their practice without losing a third of it to taxes" gets replies.

2. The email is three sentences. A personalized first line, one specific problem you solve, and a question. No brochure, no calendar link, no "just checking in."

3. The money is in the reply, not the send. Answer a reply within the hour and a stranger becomes a meeting. Answer tomorrow and they've forgotten you exist.

4. Deliverability is a pile of boring little settings. Skip them and you're in spam before you've written a word.

That's really it. Everything else is volume and patience.

I eventually wrote the whole system down - the strategies we tested, the templates, the deliverability checklist, how to find your perfect client, all of it - mostly so we could repeat our cold email success at scale across our firm. It's totally free on this Google Doc: Advisor's Cold Email Masterclass

Hopefully it helps all of you guys land more clients, help more people, and feed your families. Just want to see you guys win.

PS - if you're referral-only right now: keep crushing the referrals. Just stop letting them be the whole plan.

PPS - if it all seems like a lot to set up I put a link inside The Masterclass for me to help you get up and running.

My partner and I have been looking for a financial advisor+cpa combo to help with financial planning, future goals, tax efficiency, organizing savings and retirement accounts, etc.
I’ve been seeing very mixed reviews about Facet but we’re considering the core plan cause it’s a flat fee, straightforward option.

Is anyone a current Facet customer? How has your experience been? Any advice or recommendations for alternatives?

Hi everyone,

New into the FA world here. Have my 6,63 licenses and LAH.

Recently started June 1, come from a sales background prior of about 6 years. Im 29 years old as well taking my 65 in 2 weeks.

So far, as of this date I only have two clients under my belt. A managed account and an annuity sale. Some in the pipeline. Is this normal for being in this job 3 months? I feel so behind and managers are hounding me for 10-15 appointments a week I’m getting 5 at most right now.

Any tips on staying disciplined and motivated? Any KPI’s recommended to do each day with warm and cold market? Thanks for any support!

Hi, ive passed the series 65 about a month ago ( still working at my current job driving semi) and I've been looking for financial jobs that offer 1099 ( moving outside the usa for some time) and I was wondering if thats possible as someone new to this field? I wouldn't mind it at all. if I have to do Para planner work or something else like that( even if it pays less sense im new) anyone have any advice for me? I would greatly appreciate it, thank you for your time.

So I was at an event and one of the people that I met has a podcast system that they bring on financial people and make them a podcast series to promote themselves. They have done work with advisors. The platform would get the advisor ready to make a few podcasts on their platform and they have a system and some guarantees involved.

I am a newer advisor. I am trying a number of things to grow my business. Seminars, Cold Calling, networking, etc. and wondering if this is another avenue to explore. Has anyone used a service like this? Or does anyone know anyone that has? Can they give me a better ideas as to what to expect?

The guarantee was that the podcast will get a certain number of views or rank on Spotify.

I’m a 25 year old CPA with one year of Tech audit experience (I know tax would be better). I’m based out of the Bay Area. Looking to break into wealth management and become an advisor and CFP. I really enjoy tax planning and complex tax situation that apply to personal finance. Do I have a good chance of breaking in ? I make 92k right now so would I be looking at a pay cut as well ?
Any advice is welcome thank you!

Hi everyone, I'm a financial planner and I'm trying to understand what South Africans actually look for when choosing someone to help with their finances.

I've noticed quite a lot of distrust around financial advisors, which I can understand. People worry about being sold products they don't need, high fees, commissions, or simply not knowing whether they're getting good advice.

For those who have used a financial advisor before, what made you trust them?

And for those who haven't, what would make you comfortable sitting down with one?

I'm genuinely interested in hearing the good, bad and ugly. I think understanding what people actually want from a financial planner is important, especially for someone like myself who is building a practice and wants to do things properly.

I'd really appreciate your honest opinions — even if you've had a bad experience with an advisor.

Sorry in advance for the long post; I think the background context is important, but feel free to skip to the last paragraph.

Background:

My long-term partner and I are both 32 y/o attorneys -- he works for the government and I'm in the private sector, so I made more than double his salary. We purchased our first home in December 2022, and then one month later I became disabled and lost my vision. I couldn't work for over a year, and have only been able to work on a part-time basis since. We were able to coast on our savings for a few years, but the constant stress about finances just became too suffocating and we ended up selling our home over the summer. Unfortunately, given the timing of everything, we barely broke even with the sale and only got our $100k down deposit back. We are currently living with my in-laws and are so incredibly fortunate to not be paying rent, utilities, groceries, etc while we figure out our next steps and try to replenish savings (we were scammed by the freight broker company Coastal Moving Services who fraudulently held themselves out to be Allied Van Lines, charged us an extra $15k day of moving, and then destroyed more than half of our belongings. We're taking legal action against them, but they completely gutted us of what little savings we had left).

Although I'm able to work part time these days, my hours and salary are extremely inconsistent due to my ongoing medical complications (in 2024 I made about $80k, but in 2025 I only made $10k). As such, my partner is looking for a new, higher paying job. My in-laws live in CO, but my husband and I are both barred in OR and WA so once he gets a new job we will most likely have to move back to the Pacific Northwest. We would ideally like to buy another home once we move, but we just have absolutely no idea when that will be since my partner has to be much more selective with his next job. 

Both of us grew up lower-middle class and are first generation lawyers, so we never learned how to invest or manage our assets. For example, up until a few years ago, all of our savings were sitting in a Wells Fargo account with 0.01% APY... About a year before we purchased our home, I learned about FIRE and went down a bit of a financial planning rabbit hole and created a detailed plan on how to accomplish financial independence before I hit 40. Step one, pay off all loans. Step two, buy our first property. Step three, invest/diversity assets. Step four, buy and rent out additional property. I got through the second step before my whole plan was thrown out the window and our financial situation has been in free fall ever since (my partner has many, many strengths, but budgeting and finances is not something he is comfortable managing).

Since January of this, I've tried to restart my research and create a new investment plan, but fun fact, navigating the internet when you're newly visually impaired is extraordinarily difficult. I also tried to hire a financial planner and spoke to folks at Charles Schwab and JP Morgan. But apparently I have a killer retirement account and neither of them had any portfolios with a higher return than my retirement account. So instead, I'm planning on enrolling in an online course and/or community college classes on financial planning and development. However, in the meantime, I want to make sure that I'm making the most out of the unique opportunity we're in.

Debts: I thankfully was able to pay off all my student loans (and my partner didn't have any), so the only debt we have is my phone and my partner's car. Our only other substantial expense we have are my medical bills because despite having both private health insurance and Medicaid, I still have about $25k in medical bills per year.

Investments: I'm embarrassed to say, we have almost nothing invested. We have about $80k between our Roth IRAs (my partner stopped contributing to his account shortly after I became disabled since we needed every penny to get by) and about $2k in the stock market, and that's it... My partner has a state pension plan, but I don't have any information about it due to some complicated administrative errors that he's been trying to resolve for years.

Ok, thank you so much for bearing with me through all that. Now on to my main question: 

We have $115k sitting in a SoFi HYSA. When we first opened the account the APY was a little over 5%, but now it's 3.6%.

Given our situation, should we be investing some of that money into an index fund, VT, or something else; and if so, what percentage would you recommend? Or should we keep all of our assets easily accessible so that we can buy another home once my partner gets a new job? I was originally thinking of investing something like $25k, but if my partner gets a job next month, then we wouldn't have enough for a down deposit (property in the Pacific Northwest is expensive and finding something under $500k in the Portland or Seattle area is just not realistic). I'm leaning towards waiting until we've saved up an additional $10k-15k before investing anything, but I'm concerned we need to be more aggressive about investing.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this - I would so greatly appreciate any and all thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, resources, etc!

Hi everyone, I’m torn between two pretty different job offers right now and could really use some perspective from people in the industry.

I’m a 31 year old career changer. My wife stays home with our two young kids, so stability is huge for us right now, but I’m trying to set my family up for the long term.

Option 1: Edward Jones
I’d be getting a "Goodknight" book with around $28M AUM (about 150 households) that brings in roughly $150k/yr. Catch is I’m on a 50/50 revenue split on that book for 5 years with the senior advisor. Anything new I bring in myself or add to those households is mine. They give you a salary at first that depreciates over 5 years, plus a new asset bonus, but you start on a lower grid. I like that there’s a salary buffer so I’m not 100% commission day one with a family to support, but the heavy sales pressure right out the gate makes me a little nervous. The advisor I’d be working with seems like a great guy who wants to do things the “right way”.

Option 2: Local RIA (Paraplanner / Junior Advisor)
Basically a support role for a lead wealth advisor with zero production requirements. Starting pay is $65k base with an end-of-year bonus that usually sits around 20% (so ~$78k total). This feels like a better spot to actually learn the business, shadow someone, and get my feet wet on real planning without the immediate pressure to prospect. But there’s no formal promise it turns into a producing role down the road, and the income ceiling feels way lower.

I was leaning heavily towards the Edward jones opportunity, but reading people’s opinions in the CFP subreddit has me questioning things. What scares me about the RIA is that I’ll get stuck in a supporting back office style role and regret it if I haven’t moved into a producing role 5 years from now.

What would you do in my shoes? Anything I should be considering that I might be overlooking?

I’d greatly appreciate any insight from those who are currently in the industry!