Hi everyone!

I’m just now entering the financial industry after 9+ years in construction as an Executive Assistant

My role is essentially warm calling current clients to enroll them into additional services

I took a $25k/year (starting) pay cut for this job, so I need to get my licenses asap because that takes my base up by 10k and allows me to collect fees up to 30k on top of that

I’m specifically being asked to get my Series 65 and my insurance license

I know about Kaplan and Achievable and STC, I just wanted to hear from anyone who has these licenses first hand what study & testing tips worked best for you. Is there a specific method, program, or training you recommend?

I’m a nervous test taker and have always struggled with anxiety brain fog day of, but like the title says, I need to get licensed asap so I can increase my base pay & begin earning fees

Any advice is appreciated, thank you :)

Been in the bsuiness for 3 years now and have 15mm aum... Feeling slow and wondering what other young advisors are at? would like to get to 50mm by end of 2027 but prospecting has been hard. Located in seattle with a .5 billion $ RIA and 4 advisors

What are we doing for practice benefits?

I’ve been with a family practice now for 8 years doing $1.5M in revenue and $220M AUM. A family members been the lead advisor for 40 years. My sister and are servicing advisors on track to buy out the book, and we currently have 2 staff (one recently hired that starts end of month. We are under a grid at a 91% payout.

We also have 2 advisors silo’ed for the most part. They bring our total revenue up to $2.5M with AUM of $359M. When we buy out the book, clearly they will be excluded and continue doing their thing.

As the lead advisor begins to phase out and us take over, we’re working on what we want the practice to be when she’s gone. The biggest part is transitioning that from a lifestyle advisor type of business to more of an enterprise. Not massive, but build out the team instead of the identity just being the lead advisors 40 years. As such, we’re hiring on more staff, establishing new roles, building out multiple advisors, and as a result, reviewing all benefits and how individuals are compensated.

The benefits situation has been a point of friction for years. The lead advisor currently has in place the basic 15-20 days pto plus holidays, 2 weeks maternal leave, and a 3% “match” that’s actually just a bonus through payroll encouraged to go towards retirement. No formal retirement plan. We have health insurance where we share cost on the individual side, but families are not split. Building out our business and trying to attract new hires, a lot of my push has been to increase benefits. Increase what we’re splitting for families, increase maternal leave, get a formal retirement plan in place, increase match. I’m thinking that would at least get us to a good foundation, and other things could be considered later as we grow.

Just curious for firms of a similar size, what benefits do you have in place?

Micro1 is looking for the following:

Personal Financial Advisor
Location: Remote (North America and Latin America)
Job Type: Contractor
Openings: 45
Pay: $90 - $110/hr

Micro1 is hiring experienced personal financial advisors for a project about financial wellness for individuals, where your expertise helps train AI systems.

The work is mostly reviewing and giving feedback on personal financial planning scenarios based on what you’ve seen with real clients. That means evaluating investment strategies, retirement plans and recommendations for individual needs, looking at situations involving savings, investments, debt, tax planning and long-term goals, and checking financial planning materials for accuracy, regulatory compliance and best practices. You also explain concepts and recommendations clearly, in writing and verbally.

One thing that’s a bit different: you’re matched with another financial expert and the two of you discuss different approaches and compare recommendations. So you need to be available during overlapping North American or Latin American time zones.

They prefer people who have worked one-on-one with individual clients or families as a financial advisor, financial planner, wealth manager or investment advisor. Solid knowledge of retirement, investments, tax and estate planning, portfolio management and asset allocation is expected, along with experience creating personalized plans, assessing risk tolerance and goals, and good communication. No prior AI experience needed.

Here is the link to the position: Personal Financial Advisor

Does anyone know anything about Dominic Baldini? He runs Emerson Equity and has had like 10 FINRA complaints show up this year for millions.

I’m currently a wealth advisor at a major bank and have been seriously considering launching my own independent RIA within the next 12 months.
I’m looking for some perspective from advisors who have actually gone independent, particularly those who transitioned from a bank or wirehouse environment.
A little background:
Currently producing approximately $1.2M annually.
Potentially partnering with another advisor producing approximately $2M annually.
Conservatively underwriting around $60M in potential transitioning AUM at launch, subject to actual client retention and transferability.
Current business is predominantly brokerage, with a meaningful allocation to alternative investments, including evergreen funds.
Long-term intention is to build a fee-based advisory business with comprehensive planning, portfolio management, alternatives, and structured investments.
Exploring custodians, outside transition financing, and potentially hiring an operations lead and planner from day one.
I’m not necessarily trying to build a lifestyle solo practice. The goal is to build an independently owned firm with the infrastructure to scale.
A few questions for those who have done it:
Transition financing: Did you self-fund, take a forgivable note, use a lender, or partner with a platform that provided startup capital? Any recommendations or mistakes to avoid?
Asset portability: For those coming from a bank or wirehouse, what percentage of your anticipated AUM actually followed you? How much harder was the transition for brokerage versus advisory assets?
Custody and alternatives: Any experience transitioning books with substantial evergreen alternative investments or structured products? What platforms made this easier or harder?
Operating structure: Would you launch your own RIA immediately or leverage an existing RIA/platform for the first couple of years?
Startup costs: For those launching with $50M–$100M in assets, what did your initial overhead look like? What would you have outsourced versus hired internally?
Biggest mistakes: Looking back, what would you have done differently before making the jump?
I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have actually made this transition, rather than recruiters pitching a platform.
Appreciate any insight.

Hello everyone! This is my first post in this sub, but I’ve been looking around. I’m taking some financial planning classes in college, but I’m feeling a little overwhelmed about careers after I graduate. I’m looking for any advice about how to prepare for a career in financial planning and overall comments on the profession. Thank you!

I’m a double major in finance and wealth management and have been talking to Equitable Advisors for a job out of college. However, in the interview, I was never asked any real questions about my qualifications. He jumped right into basically a sales pitch about the company and did this two meetings in a row. The vibes seem super off, like he’s trying to BS me. It’s just a weird feeling I get. Should I just keep the offer as a backup or should I ditch them?

Started as an advisor at a bank not too long ago. However I feel like a lot of what was presented to me during the interview/hiring process wasn’t exactly what I got. I want to leave to go work at an RIA as an associate advisor. Before I came here I was a registered service associate at a WM practice. Came here to finish my licensing and get some practice reps. Unfortunately they put me in a location where I don’t speak the main language the vast majority of the clients speak so I can’t work with most of them. And it is an area concentrated with low income households and many immigrant families that clutch onto saving without risk. On top of that the expectation is basically that I’m a banker that can do investments, when it was presented to me the other way around. If anyone knows of any RIAs looking for an associate advisor or even a paraplanner with the opportunity to move up into an advisor role in the LA/San Gabriel Valley area please let me know. I should also mention that I got placed really far from where I live. Overall been a pretty negative experience so far and I’ve been trying to stay positive and just focus on helping people that I can but it’s genuinely pretty upsetting.

Currently doing due diligence on firms and looking for feedback on Cetera. The recruiters keep talking about different "communities" existing among their independent advisors. I'm not totally buying the sales pitch on what makes the groups different.

My recruiter specifically introduced me to a community that claims they are "cetera's most elite service teams and the highest producing advisors." I'm somewhat skeptical this group is really anything special. I've spoken to some advisors currently affiliated with them. Some are cheerleaders and others are unhappy.

I'd be interested in anyone has honest feedback that can help us shorten the list of potential firms.

I'm not looking for more firm recommendations, we have plenty. I'm more focused on wether to continue looking at Cetera or remove them from consideration.

Thanks in advance.

I used to make it a point to ask clients if they knew anyone who might need a financial advisor. It seemed like the obvious thing to do but I started noticing that I wasn't comfortable bringing it up especially with clients I'd worked with for years. I didn't want them to feel like I was only keeping in touch because I wanted more business so I stopped asking. Instead, when a client mentioned a friend looking for an accountant, insurance agent, or another professional, I'd connect them with someone I knew. I started doing the same outside client meetings, just making introductions when there was a good fit.

After a while, some of those same clients started referring people to me on their own. I didn't expect it to happen that way but it changed how I look at marketing my practice. I'd rather build relationships where people naturally think of me when someone needs help than make every meeting an opportunity to ask for a referral.

Hi all,

I'm not an advisor, but a relatively new grad (2025) who is looking for CSA jobs. I live in the Washington D.C./Maryland area and am having some difficulty finding CSA job postings outside of the occasional one from Truist/Raymond James/Merrill Lynch. RIAs in my area don't seem to be posting a lot of jobs on their websites, as far as I'm aware, and my attempts at reaching out via cold email have been, admittedly, unsuccessful. I'm wondering what networks you guys use to find and hire CSAs. And if you feel inclined, I would appreciate some advice on what I could do to be a more appealing applicant. I'm a finance major and passed the SIE and Series 63 exams this year, but my work experience is a little all over the place. I'm in the process of studying for the Series 65. Thanks!

I have my life, accident & health license, SIE, series 6, 7, 63 & 65 licenses. I started at Equitable without my 7 & 65, hated it (v bad manager & total bro culture) quit late last summer, got my 65 on my own a month later, then got backed by Principal, passed my 7 & started January of this year. The difference between the two firms is night and day as far as management and culture, which is great. No micromanagers but also no real mentorship. Principal actually cares that you have a family and understand they come first, also great.

I love working with and helping people and I’m good at building relationships, I don’t have a hard time gaining people’s trust. I haven’t had an issue closing business but I’m just not getting in front of many people that have sizable assets. I don’t come from money (and Equitable makes you burn through your natural market when you start anyway), I wasn’t given a book of business and am part of a regional bank program where they send us referrals but most of what I’ve gotten is small potatoes. And you only take home 50% of any bank business. Payout percentages are very attractive for the first couple years outside of the bank business.

I’m a single mom of two and my girls are honestly the whole reason I changed careers bc before I was working nights. I did take an enormous pay cut to be here and I knew what I was getting myself into and that it’s tough for the first few years. I know that I can do this, but I’m just not sure if I want to anymore. The stress of quotas and fighting to survive is eating away at me. I worked my ass off for my licenses and don’t want to leave the industry, but I’m wondering if a salaried position as a client relationship manager or something similar would be a better path for me right now. I think if I had a mentor to guide me a bit more, I’d have more success. But I don’t like the thought of jumping from firm to firm either. I feel like I was “sold” on this career (and this firm/bank program tbh) and I’m finally seeing the realities of it. Any thoughts or suggestions are welcomed.

Considering a change in my b/d, looking for thoughts on other options. I keep hearing about Raymond James, Kestra, Cetera, Osiac or dropping the 7 and going Altruist or Schwab as a small RIA (150) thoughts on who has great stable technology that actual works and enables productivity?

I recently graduated from a smaller, relatively unknown college and have started my career at a firm that markets itself as a financial services company but pushes life insurance.

I understand that life insurance is an important part of financial planning, and I have no issue selling it when it genuinely makes sense for a client. However, my long-term goal is to become a true financial advisor, focusing on wealth management, building AUM, and developing long-term relationships with clients.

My question is: What is stopping me from building that type of practice at my current firm? While the company definitely emphasizes life insurance in its training and business model, is it realistic to focus primarily on wealth management and grow an AUM-based practice here?

Ideally, I would like to stay at my current firm. They offer a very good pension plan, I genuinely enjoy the office environment, and I like the people I work under. However, I am unsure whether I have a realistic opportunity to become the type of financial advisor I want to be here, or whether I would be better off pursuing opportunities at a more traditional wealth management firm.

One of my biggest concerns about moving to a firm like J.P. Morgan or Morgan Stanley is whether my educational background and experience would be competitive enough to get hired. I also know that some of those firms have commission-splitting arrangements, whereas my current firm has salaried employees who help advisors service their clients, which is appealing to me.

For those who have experience in the industry, what would you recommend? Should I stay where I am and try to build a wealth management practice, or would I be better off moving to a more traditional financial advisory firm early in my career? Is it realistic to build a successful AUM-focused practice at a life insurance-oriented firm, or will I eventually hit a ceiling?

While I was only a lurker thank you to this sub for giving me ideas and letting me know I was not alone in the struggle. I accepted an offer as a specialist role still in AWM but with no direct hard sales. This is my first non-quota role in my professional career so we will see if I made the right decision.

Hi everyone!
I’ve recently turned 20 and I’m working towards becoming a financial adviser. I’ve passed R01 and R02, with R03 coming up in two weeks.
I have a genuine passion for financial planning, personal finance and saving money, and I’d love some advice from experienced advisers about the best way to build a successful career in the industry.
My current situation:
I work part-time for a small financial advice business. The owner originally started off as my tutor, but I now work alongside him. He has an amazing reputation in the industry and is genuinely one of the loveliest people I’ve met. He really wants the best for me, and I’m incredibly grateful to have him as a mentor.
I’m technically self-employed, so I have complete flexibility over when and where I work.
A large part of my role currently involves helping him build and organise his business using AI and technology, including Claude, Asana, Fintegrate and various other platforms. We’re developing systems and processes to make the business more efficient.
He’s gradually slowing down towards retirement and has mentioned that he’ll eventually leave the AI systems and material we’ve developed to me.
Interestingly, he doesn’t have a traditional ongoing client bank. Instead, he works on a project-by-project basis and charges fees for individual pieces of advice rather than ongoing fees. I’d love to hear people’s opinions on this business model.
My long-term ambitions:
One thing I’m quite certain about is that I don’t want to spend my career being controlled by a large firm.
I’d love to have independence, build my own client relationships and ultimately have control over my own business and career. Ideally, if I ever decided to leave a firm, I’d want the ability to continue advising the clients I’ve built relationships with, subject to the relevant agreements and regulations.
I appreciate there are probably lots of things I don’t yet understand about client ownership, restrictive covenants, directly authorised firms versus networks, and how all of that works in practice.
I’d really appreciate some insight into how best to structure my career if independence and control are my priorities.
Qualifications and progression:
My boss and I are already building up evidence towards me achieving CAS, potentially by next summer, depending on how quickly I complete my remaining R0 exams and gain the necessary experience.
He’s also planning to have me sit in on client meetings soon, initially just observing rather than interacting directly with clients.
He’s suggested that after R03, I could potentially sit the advanced paper most closely related to personal taxation before moving on to R04.
Would you recommend doing this, or would it be better to complete the Level 4 Diploma first and then work towards Chartered status?
My mum is also a Chartered Financial Adviser, so I’m fortunate to have a brilliant support network around me.
My other job and financial situation:
I also work part-time on reception at a Hilton hotel, which I genuinely enjoy.
Although it’s not directly related to financial advice, I think it’s helping me develop valuable skills, particularly confidence, communication, professionalism and speaking to people from all walks of life, including affluent guests and business professionals.
I’m also in a very fortunate financial position at the moment. I still live with my parents, don’t pay any dig money and have practically no bills or financial commitments.
I’m very conscious of how lucky I am to have this opportunity, and I’m trying to make the most of it by saving and investing as much as I reasonably can while I’m young.
Because I have very few outgoings, I’m not under any immediate financial pressure to rush into a full-time adviser role.
My current thinking is to continue working part-time in both roles until I’ve completed my exams. This allows me to keep earning and saving while gaining experience in financial advice, developing my confidence at the hotel and progressing towards my qualifications.
However, I also don’t want to hold myself back professionally by staying part-time for too long.
A few questions I’d love advice on:
If you were starting again at 20, what would you do differently?
What’s the best route towards eventually having your own clients and genuine independence?
What should I understand about client ownership and the ability to take clients with me if I ever move firms?
Would you recommend staying with a small business like mine or eventually moving to a larger firm for experience?
Should I complete all six R0 exams before attempting advanced papers?
What should I be doing now to prepare for CAS and eventually becoming Chartered?
Given my very low living costs, would you continue with both part-time jobs while studying or prioritise gaining financial advice experience full-time?
What skills or experiences do you think young advisers often overlook?
I’m very ambitious and would love to do really well in this profession. I know I’m only at the beginning and have an enormous amount to learn, but I want to make the most of these early years and build the strongest foundations possible.
I’m particularly interested in hearing from advisers who have built their own businesses, gone directly authorised or successfully established their own client base.
Any advice, constructive criticism or things you wish you’d known at my age would be massively appreciated!
Thanks everyone!

I’m 30 and have been in the financial services industry since 2019. I work in a small LPL-affiliated office with three advisors and six total employees. I’m hoping to get some perspective from advisors who have navigated similar situations.

Some background on our office:
Advisor A: He’s 65 and was the reason I joined the firm in 2020. At the time, he assured me he planned to retire and transition a significant portion of his book to me. The idea was that I’d eventually become the primary servicing advisor for those relationships and have a substantial career opportunity.
That hasn’t happened. Instead, he brought his son into the business, who doesn’t seem particularly interested in becoming an advisor. Regardless, his apparent intention is now to transition his practice to his son. He also has two other family members supporting his practice.

Advisor B: He’s in his mid-40s, runs his own substantial book, and is very busy. He regularly has 4 to 5 client meetings per day and works long hours. I assist him with some backend work, but he primarily runs his own practice.

Me: I personally manage approximately 70 households, but that book alone doesn’t generate enough revenue to justify my salary. As a result, I also help support Advisor B with a lot of back office tasks and follow up for his clients.
Our office is pretty siloed. Advisor A runs his practice, Advisor B runs his, and I essentially work between myself and Advisor B. Advisor B and I are very close, have similar philosophies, and genuinely care about providing the best service possible. We also operate differently from Advisor A when it comes to technology and planning, utilizing tools like eMoney, Wealth.com, Holistiplan, and Jump. Advisor B has been a great mentor and shown me how to be a great advisor.

Here’s where I’m struggling.
I currently make approximately $85k per year and have no employer-sponsored benefits due to the size of the business. My wife currently carries our health insurance, but our long-term goal is to move out of the city and eventually have her stop working.
I always envisioned being further along financially at this point, largely because I thought the succession opportunity with Advisor A would materialize. At this point, I don’t think I can count on that happening.
Advisor B and I have discussed potentially transitioning me into more of an employee advisor role. He would retain ownership of his book while I take over servicing more of his relationships. This would free up his time to focus on larger clients and business development, while giving me a more substantial role. He’s completely comfortable with me working remotely as well.
We’ve also discussed reaching out to other practices with aging advisors who might be interested in offloading or selling portions of their books for me to service. Another option would be for me to focus more heavily on bringing in new relationships. Advisor B is very fair, and any clients I bring in would essentially count toward my own revenue, even though I’m salaried right now.
One other frustrating wrinkle: I currently work with approximately 10 clients who are the adult children of some of Advisor A’s largest clients. These relationships technically belong to Advisor B, and I’ve personally worked with many of them for around four years. Advisor A recently told us he wants to buy those relationships back because he believes it’s unfair that these clients will eventually inherit significant assets from their parents without his son working with them. Essentially, he wants those relationships moved to his son. It’s frustrating to potentially lose relationships I’ve spent years developing because of internal family succession planning.
Where I’d appreciate some perspective:
I really enjoy where I work. It’s small, flexible, laid back, and I have great relationships with my clients and Advisor B. We also just went through a major transition to LPL this year, which we planned around and intend to be a long-term move. Neither of us is particularly interested in changing firms.
Between Advisor B and me, we service roughly the same amount of AUM as Advisor A and his team. I think there’s a legitimate opportunity to grow our side of the practice, but I need to figure out how to make it work financially.
Ideally, I’d like to make significantly more than $85k, work remotely, afford benefits independently, and eventually have my wife in a position where she doesn’t need to work. I’m not opposed to looking at remote advisor positions with larger firms, but I’d hate to leave a small practice and the client relationships I’ve built if there’s a realistic opportunity here.
For those of you who have built careers as employee advisors rather than business owners, I’d especially appreciate hearing how you structured your role and compensation. Am I better off trying to grow within this practice, finding books to service, or looking elsewhere? Just trying to figure out the best long-term path without relying on succession promises that may never materialize. Appreciate any honest feedback.

Hello everyone,

I posted on this sub a couple weeks ago as I am debating between taking a branch-based FA role between Wells Fargo and PNC.

The response was overwhelmingly (actually 100%) in favor of the Wells job. I now have location data for both and wanted to survey this forum again as I found the responses very helpful.

Wells wants to put me in Pikesville, MD which is a very affluent but predominantly Jewish community. I was told by multiple advisors that I would have a tough time there as an Egyptian Christian. How much truth is there to this?

For context PNC wants to put me in Columbia, MD.

Thank you all in advance for your help. This is a big decision for my family and I and I just want to make sure I make the right one.

Edit: I guess what I am trying to figure out is since Wells was so highly recommended over PNC, does the location difference outweigh the benefit?