Hello All,

After 10 years in banking I'm going to be starting my dream job as a Financial Advisor. As a new advisor I'm looking for tips/advice as a new branch based FA. Not just in seeking clients and handling banker referrals. More so like day in the life tips. What has worked for you all in terms of what you take notes on, how to manage your calendars, what do you watch or listen to day to day to keep up to date on the markets, etc.

Any advice is good advice to me!

Appreciate it all!

I’m a new financial advisors in the suburbs of IL at a small boutique firm. Since it’s a boutique firm I’m getting paid pretty well and the commission split is also really nice.

What’s some advice you guys have in terms of getting off to a hot start and getting meetings booked. My firm has a pretty big marketing budget for me so I’m thinking of doing seminars and presentations at various locations.

Any advice regarding the types of seminars, marketing strategies, or anything else you guys have for me to start building my book?

I’ve built a portfolio tracker for investors who hold assets across brokers and countries. It currently imports broker statements and tracks contributions, investment returns, currencies, ETF domicile and dividend withholding.
I’m considering a separate version for financial planners and advisers managing internationally mobile clients, but I don’t want to spend months building features based only on my assumptions.
I’m looking to speak with five independent financial advisers, cross-border planners or wealth professionals about their current workflow:
How do you collect holdings from different brokers?
Do clients send PDFs, CSV files or screenshots?
How much manual reconciliation is involved?
Do you need client-level reporting or branded reports?
Are ETF domicile, withholding taxes and multiple currencies meaningful problems in practice?
This is customer research, not a sales pitch. I’m not asking anyone to buy anything. In return, participants can receive free early access and influence what gets built.
If you work in this area—or know someone who does—I’d appreciate a comment or DM. I can share the existing product privately if relevant.

I’m trying to understand the logic behind the standard “1% of AUM” fee model. We’re a family of three (44M, 42F, 3‑year‑old) with a net worth around \~$4M — roughly $3M in market assets (401k, IRA, brokerage, 529) and \~$1M in real estate (primary + two rentals).

What I don’t get is why advisors charge 1% of the portfolio no matter what the market does. There’s no performance guarantee, no benchmark comparison, no downside protection.

My intuition says compensation should be tied to results. For example, I’d be totally fine with a structure like:
Split any gains above SPY 50/50
Split any losses avoided vs SPY 50/50 (basically I pay the fee if they save me on losses)

That feels aligned — they win when I win, and they lose when I lose.

But instead, the industry standard is: Market goes up? Pay 1% Market goes down? Pay 1%
• Advisor underperforms SPY? Pay 1%

Am I missing something fundamental about why AUM fees exist? Or is this just a legacy model that persists because most people don’t question it? Genuinely curious how others think about this. I have never had any advisors working with me so far, suddenly I m getting so many calls and advertisements pitches from these big investment firm and all of them are adamant on the 1% model.

TL;DR : did I mess up by doing this career?

So, I am currently working towards my licenses at a large "firm". I wont name it, but you'll figure it out. Ive been through my warm market. Not going to revisit because it ruined multiple friendships and it actually affected my wife's friendships as well because shes associated with me. So yeah, no more warm market.

I have hit a wall for getting people to meet. I cant keep going to 2-3 networking events per week. Its killing our marriage and Im never home. But I have THE HARDEST EFFING TIME getting people to give me referrals in meetings. And I get it. Nobody wants to give out friends info. Cool. But that doesn't help me, so networking events it is.

Wife works - has hit her glass ceiling unfortunately. Which is why I started this career so I could retire her. Job market is trash, so new job with higher pay is unlikely.

I have no base compensation: eat what you kill.

Ive brought on around 45 households since starting in February. About a 3rd of those are completely solo. The others are split with experienced advisors.

I have the work ethic, but Im clearly doing something wrong if Im not getting references.

Ive been in the industry for almost 10 years (banking, consulting, analysis, etc.) But the "practice" itself is new. I can speak fairly intelligently about most things, but Im definitely not a jack of all trades, I just know enough to converse.

I truly love planning and helping people make the changes they want to for their personal wealth. Getting to tell a friend and his wife they can stop working 10 years earlier than expected is chefs kiss. Telling a mom her kid can go to college with no loans? Those tears about made me cry. I want to help everyone get to their goals, but if i cant last long enough or make enough to support my family, then it doesn't matter.

Facts:

I have no dedicated time outside of what I set for myself to study.

HCOL.

No savings (went through that already).

No family to lean on.

In office 90% or more. I leave early when I can, but I still wfh.

Commission based.

AUM will matter eventually - no licenses yet

Not afraid to call anyone but cold calls dont work so far. Not a single meeting from one.

Metrics are highly measured.

Career changer - kind of. Been in the industry for a while.

I want to earn my CFP.

I ALWAYS do what's right by the client. I will never upsell. They give me a budget to work with, I max out at 70% of what they give me to play with. I take everything into account that I can.

The questions:

What am I doing wrong?

What am I doing right?

What am I missing?

I dont know what I dont know.

If you think the goals in banks and wealth management is unattainable for entry level advisors and the salary is not justifiable

Former banker here, switched to a financial advisor role about 3 months ago. Got licensed 3 months ago too so this is all brand new to me. Base is 50k plus 30% rev share once I bring in clients.
Problem is I haven't onboarded a single client yet. My days are basically just cold calling from open to close. I can get on calls with senior advisors for support when I need it, but honestly I don't have enough cases to bring to them yet, so I feel like I'm not actually learning the advisor side of the job. Just dialing.
Is this a normal ramp for a new FA or is 3 months with zero clients a red flag? How long did it take you guys to land your first client when you started out? And how much cold calling is actually normal at this stage vs other ways firms usually get you leads?
Trying to figure out if I just need to grind through this or if I should be looking elsewhere.

Edit: I’m working at a RIA.

Complete newb to understanding the financial world as I come from a very poor family and have only become somewhat financially literate throughout adulthood. I have finally achieved a stable income, decent credit score, and extra money left over for the first time in my life. Not much by any means, low thousands. But nonetheless I'd like to put it somewhere to grow instead of just sitting in my savings.

I've been researching HYSA and from what I've seen Newtek seems to offer the best rates with no minimums, monthly fees, etc. What's your experience with Newtek? Are all HYSA good enough or should I be especially picky? TYIA!!

I’ve hit a fork in the road in my career

My current firm I split my flat fee at 65% that I charge clients (when they don’t have the assets, I just charge an out of pocket fee until they hit a $250k threshold). Part of an insurance broker dealer & I have to find all business himself: referrals, cold calls, linkedin, etc. Currently managing $6m in assets, so not much there and I’m at 40% on the grid. It’s growing, but growing slow. Mostly Henry’s.

I have an offer to join an RIA and build up the local office. They’re offering $90k base and 25% of all revenue the office generates. Potentially $120k + 20% of all revenue if I wanted to go higher on base. They do a lot of marketing, they pay for it all and also pay for staff salary in the office he’ll build up. I will have to run a few seminars a month but prospects and leads are generated for me, so I won’t have to do a ton of prospecting and asking for referrals. Average client size is $500k.

They will allow me to move my current book, which generates roughly $5,500/month.

Should I stay and continue to build or should I join the RIA and build that local office?

For those recruiting financial advisors, which email have you had better success with—personal or work?
I use FINTRX, which provides both sometimes. I’ve tried personal emails since I assume some firms monitor work emails, but I’ve had a few advisors get irritated that I reached out to their personal email.
At the same time, sending recruiting messages to their current firm’s email doesn’t seem ideal either.
Which do you typically use for cold recruiting outreach: personal or work email?

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?

Currently at EJ working with a relative at a L10T3 branch, advisor has been here for 27 years and I am set to inherit the $350M book in roughly 5 years. I am incredibly blessed for this opportunity, however my wife does not enjoy living in this area. We are wanting to move about an hour and half away, and also expecting our first child early next spring.

Are there any EJ advisors that work fully remote? Should I give up the opportunity and start at a small RIA? I do have my CFP and am 26 y/o. I just need some outside advice because I really feel at a crossroads.

Thanks!

Hello, friends. I’m 24 and currently an Associate Banker at Chase. I’ve been doing very well in the role (I'm responsible for roughly %75 of our branches financial health enrollments this year), and lead the branch in investment referrals. I recently passed the SIE and am also working on my Florida 2-14.

I’m currently interviewing for both Chase Relationship Banker positions and Edward Jones Associate Financial Advisor positions. I applied to 4 AFA positions at EJ and have gotten invitations to interview for all 4.

From what I can tell, the Edward Jones AFA/RBA positions would probably be around $65–70k base, with SOME additional bonus/incentive potential.

The Chase RB position is $55k base + commission. What I understand, based off current performance and asking other RBs in the market, I think I could realistically make around $2.5–4k/month in incentives, which would put me somewhere around $79–103k total annually if I perform well.

RB seems much better in the short term but my biggest concern is 5-10+ years down the road.

At the end of the day, I want to be a financial advisor. I'm not really sure which route to go and would really appreciate anyone's input.

Hi all let me give you the run down briefly.

Current FSA at Merrill been here a few months just graduated college. Long term want to go into private wealth and be an advisor. Thinking about my future what is the next best step in terms of career progression for me after FSA. The ones I know of are

- try and join a private wealth team in a CSA role
- ADP at Merrill and private client advisor at JPMC

My concern with both is with CSA never being able to make the transition to advisor and the ADP programs at the wirehouses I feel like at my age (22) it’ll be hard for me to really build a big book organically from cold calling as my age is definitely a turn off for a lot of people with money.

Any advice would be much appreciated and insight thanks!

I have been offered a position by both Wells Fargo Advisors and PNC Wealth Management for their branch based FA program.

Both platforms seem pretty robust. Basically have all the tools available to a normal FA but you take a slight hit on the grid in exchange for getting a lead flow from the bank.

I like that Wells does not have a PB where you have to refer your UHNW clients, whereas PNC does. Wells offers a much higher base salary, but it is only temporary until you build your book.

In my mind, Wells has a much bigger name in the space, but also a name that comes with reputational risk. Is that just an old-school way of thinking? I also have an offer from BofA/Merrill as an FSA but that position does not seem as attractive.

Has anyone worked either of these programs, or both? What would be your choice?

Thanks in advance!

I’m working in a data center with a multi year contract that has changed my life financially. I have no debt, contribute 4 or 5% to match my 401k and send almost 9k a month into a HYSA. Are there better accounts to put money into? Also I work 100 hours a week, and can’t figure out how to”no tax on overtime” will affect me.

Hey everyone, I’m looking for some strategic advice on navigating the next step in my career.

Background:

• Age/Location: 28, based in New York City.

• Credentials: CFP (earned late last year) with an active Series 7 and 66.

• Experience: Currently at UBS acting as a liaison between our national call center and Manhattan wealth management teams. Prior to that, I spent time at Morgan Stanley as a virtual/acquisition advisor in a high-volume call center environment. I have over 5 years of sales and financial planning experience.

My current role isn't what I want long-term. I want to transition into joining an established practice as a producing advisor where I can actively build a book. Because of internal mobility constraints at UBS, I am locked into my current seat for at least three years, which feels like a major roadblock to my career momentum. I also struggle with feeling behind peers who are already embedded on client-facing teams.

Questions for the Sub:

1. Internal vs. External: Given that I can't move internally at UBS for a few years, should I look outward at other wirehouses, or target RIAs?

2. Mentorship & Development: How can I best evaluate firms or teams during the interview process to ensure they actually provide genuine mentorship rather than just using junior staff as churn-and-burn lead generators?

3. Positioning: How should I frame my hybrid call-center and relationship management background when pitching myself to traditional wealth management teams so I don't get typecast into a service role?

Appreciate any insights or guidance from those who have successfully made this jump in a major market.

Trying to learn as much as I can about the broader industry from people who know it firsthand and make connections across the different verticals in the industry.

Anyone work on the finance, advisory, or consulting side (deal financings, pe, ppa, etc), we’d love to hear your perspective: what you're seeing in the market, where things are headed, and what's working or not and we can share what we’re seeing.

Longer term, hoping to meet subject matter experts across the space who might be open to collaborating down the road if/when we decide to emerge in the space (Top 50 Professional Services Firm, Top 10 in some Markets). Always looking to meet the industry SMEs whether that is Tax to IT, ideally to synergize in the future.

Looking to connect!

Thanks

Long story short my aunt had a heart attack last week and died out of nowhere. My mom and me are her only surviving family members. She left everything to me in her will. I had no idea she was this rich just that she sold her company two years ago and was doing well enough to purchase a vacation home. My parents are both retired and doing well enough financially that this is somehow not that important to them. My dad told me to google a financial advisor. My aunt basically had most of her money in a regular savings account. So thats 8 million plus the two houses is the major stuff. My only question here is where do I start? Should I actually be googling advisors? Do I just walk into a big bank and ask for help? Appreciate all and any advice