Nerd's Eye View blog

Kitces & Carl Ep 136: Should Internal Succession Plans Provide A G2 Discount For Lack Of Affordability?

April 18, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

For over a decade, the financial advice industry has been bracing for an "any-minute-now" tsunami of advisor retirements and concomitant sales of financial planning practices. Although that wave has yet to materialize (as many advisors may find that they'd prefer to stay engaged and earn well past the 'traditional' retirement age), the fact remains that, at some point, many aging advisors will have the opportunity to capture the enterprise value that they've spent their careers building. For many firm owners, an internal succession plan can be an attractive strategy to sell their practice, as it provides both continuity of service for clients and opportunities for the next generation of advisors to become firm owners themselves. However, younger advisors don't typically have the same deep pockets as large 'serial acquirer' firms, making affordability a hurdle that both buyer and seller must navigate. Which begs the question, to what extent should an advisory firm owner discount the sale price of their firm for a next-gen successor?

In our 136th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards explore the extent to which a firm owner might consider selling their practice at below-market value to an internal successor, why both buyer and seller might reconsider the valuation metrics that have been common in the industry, and ways to structure an internal succession deal that can make sense for both parties.

The primary risks when selling an advisory firm are that the deal may fall through, and existing clients may choose to leave the firm. Firm owners can maximize the value from a sale by ensuring that the buyer is a "good fit", which, if they aren't, can have real financial consequences. In the case of an internal successor, some risk is mitigated as the next-gen advisor has likely developed a relationship with clients already and is doing a good job servicing them. And maintaining pre-existing client relationships not only lowers the overall risk of the deal, it also makes the transaction a whole lot smoother. However, while that may be worth a modest discount (say, 5% or so), offering 20%–30% below fair-market value may be unrealistic. In other words, while an owner might have preferences beyond 'just' getting the highest dollar amount possible, there shouldn't be an expectation (or obligation) for the owner to offer a steep discount because the next-gen advisor can't afford it.

On the other hand, there are times when the seller's or buyer's price expectations don't align with the reality of how the firm operates. Traditionally, a standard benchmark for advisory-firm sales has been 2X annual revenue; with many firms running at an average 25%–30% profit margin, this results in 7X–8X earnings valuations. However, firms with margins outside a traditional range might result in unrealistically high earnings multiples for the buyer.

Ultimately, the key point is that advisory firm owners interested in selling their firms to next-gen advisors within their practice don't always have to structure a deal as a high-stakes, all-or-nothing transaction. Instead, the owner can facilitate a gradual sale over multiple years, allowing the buyer to adjust to the logistics of note payments and the firm's cash flows on a much more manageable scale, while the seller can continue to benefit from the ongoing growth in their firm's enterprise value. And while shifting ownership in tranches over time might not feel like the optimal deal for either seller or buyer, the end result is a deal that's fair and beneficial for both sides!

3 Question Types To Go From (Just) Retained To Highly Engaged And Happier Clients

April 17, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Client Trust & Communication

After advisors do all of the work of bringing on a new client (Marketing! Prospecting! Onboarding! Compliance!), it can sometimes feel natural to let the relationship go into "maintenance mode". And while all may appear well on the surface – the client rarely contacts the advisor with problems but they show up for every annual meeting – they may actually be feeling quite disengaged with the financial planning services being provided. This can result in fewer referrals and even the loss of the client, who might eventually opt to move their accounts to another (more appealing) advisory firm.

Some types of client disengagement can be difficult to detect until it's too late, as client disengagement manifests, by definition, as a lack of action, up until the client decides to leave the advisor altogether. Given how difficult it can be to detect forms of disengagement, it may be helpful to think of different levels of client engagement as part of a spectrum, where the most engaged client recognizes their advisor as a partner and guide; they are open to exploring new ideas proposed by their advisor, ask questions, and are willing to develop and maintain good habits. Clients on the lower levels of client engagement may tend to disregard their advisor's instructions or have a limited understanding of what their advisor can do, simply viewing them as problem-solvers for pain points and not as sources of guidance to plan for – and reach! – important goals.

One particular key attribute of many disengaged clients is that they tend not to reach out when issues arise, which can create a vicious cycle precluding an advisor from providing deeper value (because they didn't know there was an opportunity to do so in the first place) and resulting in the client's failure to recognize the advisor as someone who could have provided guidance and value, reinforcing their decision not to reach out for help… and so on.

However, advisors can address client disengagement by using questions that encourage client participation and invite them to engage more actively in the financial planning process. Questions such as "What is different from the last time we met?" and "What changes are coming up soon?" can help to reveal relevant talking points and planning opportunities at the beginning of the meeting that the disengaged client may not have thought about mentioning on their own. Additionally, checking in with clients deeper into the meeting to monitor any potential financial anxiety can facilitate a more open and honest discussion if there are issues that a client has, but have not yet surfaced. For example, advisors might ask how confident the client feels with their financial plan or what worries them most (or least) about their finances. Finally, asking for feedback at the end of the meeting can help the client recognize that the advisor values their engagement and input; it also helps them recognize the progress they've made and the advisor's role in achieving that progress. Facilitating another opportunity for honesty and discussion provides another way to build trust and encourage client engagement.

Ultimately, the key point is that highly engaged clients not only provide more referrals and recognize their advisors' value, but they also tend to be more enjoyable to work with. And by carefully choosing the right questions to ask, advisors can recognize their clients' engagement levels and ensure that more of them are (and stay!) fully engaged!

#FA Success Ep 381: Helping Clients Go Beyond The Plan To Actually Implement As A Fractional Financial Behavior Officer, With Ashley Quamme

April 16, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome back to the 381st episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Ashley Quamme. Ashley is the Founder of Beyond The Plan, a consulting firm based in Evans, Georgia, that offers a Fractional Financial Behavioral Officer service including consulting and training to advisory firms and even direct meeting support for new or existing clients.

What's unique about Ashley, though, is how her background in psychology and couples therapy allows her not only to be able to help clients navigate their relationships with money but also to help advisors get their clients unblocked so they can actually move forward and implement the advisor's financial planning recommendations to achieve their financial goals.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how Ashley helps advisory firms figure out why their clients are getting stuck in their financial journey and, through an offering of advisor training and even supporting directly in client meetings, guides clients through the necessary changes in behavior to achieve their desired outcomes, how Ashley assists advisors with the "Self-Work" of better knowing and understanding their own behaviors, biases, and potential blind spots that could otherwise result in certain types of clients being more challenging to work with, and how Ashley developed an Office Hours format for advisors to talk through particularly challenging client situations and receive structured feedback on how they might improve their approach with their most difficult clients.

We also talk about how Ashley built on her experience as a couples therapist, after hearing 20-25 clients/week come in for couples therapy that often ended up tying into a discussion of financial issues, to pursue and learn how certain therapy tools and techniques could effectively translate to the world of financial advice, how Ashley uses the Klontz Money Script Inventory and Datapoints' Building Wealth Assessment to help advisors' planning clients gain a better understanding of themselves through an analysis of their relationship and mindset as it relates to money, and the way that Ashley introduces herself into advisors' client meetings to reduce any perceived awkwardness when joining the meeting and ensure that clients themselves feel supported.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Ashley shares the surprises and challenges she went through when she decided to launch her own consulting practice as an independent business owner to serve financial advisors (which unfortunately came right in the midst of the COVID pandemic), how surprised Ashley was when she realized how much of a demand and support there is for financial behavioral services within the financial advisory industry, and the way Ashley's focus and success shifted when she stopped trying to find her compass and figure out what was next after the first decade of her career, and instead simply looked internally to figure out what she enjoyed doing… and let that become her compass instead.

So, whether you're interested in learning about how to get clients unstuck on their financial journey, how the principles of couples therapy can be applied in the financial planning context, or tools that can help clients better understand their relationship and mindsets with regard to money, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Ashley Quamme.

Repurposing Your Content To Enhance Growth: How 1 Piece Of Content Can Cover 6 Different Marketing Tactics

April 15, 2024 07:01 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Marketing

Growing an advisory firm is no easy task – and advisors who start firms often have few resources to spare (beyond their own knowledge and time), face huge to-do lists, and are required to wear a number of hats. Foremost among their responsibilities is business development, which compels them to seek out prospects who will eventually become clients (so that they can grow their firms, allocate resources accordingly, and do even more financial planning!). That being said, the latest Kitces Research on Advisor Marketing suggests that the more marketing techniques (which can range from referrals to drip marketing to webinars) that advisors can implement, the faster their firms grow – advisory firms who cover at least 5 marketing techniques consistently land in the top third of growth for firms, regardless of their size. But with limited resources to invest in elaborate marketing campaigns, how can newer advisors leverage a multi-tactic approach to attract new clients and grow their firms?

In this article, Managing Editor Sydney Squires explains how 1 piece of video content can be reused to cover 6 different marketing techniques: the video itself, podcasting, social media, blogging, newsletter drip marketing campaigns, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) boosts. This approach allows advisors to get their name and brand spread across more areas, increasing the breadth of their marketing with just 1 piece of content.

The first step of this process is to record a video, being mindful to verbally describe any visual elements (so that the video can work in an audio and transcript format). Small video snippets can then be selected from the video as highlights to share; additionally, 1–2 sentence summaries, bullet-point lists, and overviews of individual video segments can also be impactful supplements. Thankfully, not all of this has to be done manually by the advisor – there are many software tools that can help advisors reformat most of their content relatively quickly without needing much technical knowledge.

With all of this "supporting material" taken from the original video, an advisor can make the most out of 1 recorded video. For example, a video with a transcript can be published as a blog post, and a summarizing sentence can be paired with a snippet and released on social media channels. As an added bonus, many of these techniques also impact the SEO score of the site, meaning that search engines may find the website more trustworthy – and thus, make it more visible in internet searches.

Ultimately, the key point is that by investing time upfront and using a bit of creativity to develop a repeatable process, advisors can get 1 piece of relevant content to cover a wide breadth of channels and mediums, both appealing to a variety of learning styles (e.g., podcasts for auditory learners, videos for visual learners, and transcripts for learners who prefer to read) and increasing the likelihood of finding prospects where they are. And as advisors gain more experience and their firms' needs change and evolve over time, advisors can observe both what they enjoy and what clients respond to, which can offer valuable clarity on where to focus future marketing dollars and efforts!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (April 13-14)

April 12, 2024 02:00 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that a recent study has found that many small- and mid-sized advisory firms that use "supported independence" platforms for their technology and back-office needs, have the potential to see greater growth in the years ahead given the efficiencies gained (and potential cost savings compared to creating a tech stack and hiring their own staff 'a la carte'), and give aspiring firm owners a platform to get their firms up and running quickly (whether breaking away or starting anew). Implying that part of the potential appeal to such support platforms is not simply about whether it's more cost-effective to use their tech and services to replace the advisor's own overhead costs, but that it's easier to scale up quickly as a fast-grower by leveraging incrementally more of the support platform's capabilities than needing to take the time to manage their own hiring and technology additions.

Also in industry news this week:

A recent study indicates that advisors charging clients on a monthly subscription basis hiked their fees by an average of 6% in 2023, raising the salience of how advisors can most effectively communicate fee increases to clients
A survey suggests that while financial advisors are increasingly aware of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered software tools and are frequently leveraging them in their personal lives, they appear to be more skeptical about using them to craft financial recommendations

From there, we have several articles on talent management:

How financial advisory firms can expand the pool of candidates for open positions, from leveraging employees' professional networks to recruiting firm clients with relevant professional skills
How effective leadership techniques, including inclusive vision-setting and giving employees autonomy, can help promote employee retention
A recent report identifies actions financial planning firms can take to be more attractive (and fair) to women advisors, from boosting "sponsorship" programs that can help women advance within the firm to creating a culture that rewards performance rather than time spent in the office

We also have a number of articles on long-term care insurance:

Why starting conversations about long-term care needs with a discussion of the client's care preferences rather than the products that might meet their needs could be a more effective approach for financial advisors
Why costs for long-term care facilities tend to go well beyond the monthly rent charged and how advisors can adjust financial plan assumptions to reflect these expenses
How advisors can help clients choose between traditional long-term care insurance policies and hybrid policies that combine long-term care coverage with life insurance

We wrap up with 3 final articles, all about health and wellness:

How light movement, from a walk outside to climbing a few flights of stairs, can boost creative thinking
Why sustained, moderate-intensity exercise can be particularly effective in boosting an individual's fitness and overall health
Why, at a time when individuals can access increasing amounts of biometric data, constantly monitoring one's blood sugar levels might be counterproductive

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

In The Long Run, Stocks Outperform Bonds… Or Do They?

April 10, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Investments

Financial advicers are intimately familiar with the phrase, "Past results are not indicative of future performance." Every document that considers the facts around any particular asset class will invariably include that disclaimer, but constructing a portfolio consisting of a mix of equities, fixed income, and other assets requires investors and advicers to make some fundamental assumptions around long-term expected returns and correlations between assets. 3 common assumptions that have driven asset allocation decisions for decades are that 1) equities have historically outperformed fixed income over the long-term, 2) bonds act as an effective diversifier in a portfolio since they are negatively correlated to stocks, and 3) various combinations of non-correlated assets improve a portfolio's expected return per unit of risk. However, as investors learned in 2022, when the S&P 500 and 20-year Treasury Bonds fell 18.1% and 26.1%, respectively, historical "tendencies" don't always hold over shorter timeframes, prompting the question: How reliable are our assumptions around the long-term performance of stocks and bonds?

On the one hand, in an analysis of data going back to 1802 in his seminal book, "Stocks For The Long Run", Jeremy Siegel concluded that stocks outperformed bonds over long periods. However, Edward McQuarrie, author of the 2023 study "Stocks for the Long Run? Sometimes Yes, Sometimes No," reached back even further to 1793 and expanded the data set to include 3–5X more stocks and 5–10X more bonds. Accordingly, McQuarrie found that, while stocks did indeed far outperform bonds between 1942–1981, not only did stocks and bonds produce about the same wealth accumulation during the 150-year period before 1942, but the same held true from 1982–2019 as well.

So, although the entire 227-year span of McQuarrie's analysis from 1793 to 2019 was weakly supportive of Siegel's conclusions, there were subperiods where bonds actually outperformed stocks, leading McQuarrie to conclude that there was no consistent relationship between asset outperformance and length of holding period to which values must revert. Instead, McQuarrie argued that the changes over various periods depend solely upon the 'regime' in place, where a regime is defined as "a temporary pattern of asset returns" characterized by "ceaseless variation" over time.

Meanwhile, McQuarrie also found that stock-bond correlations have also been "highly variable over 20-year intervals, ranging all the way from about −0.70 to 0.90", suggesting that, in addition to performance, correlations are also subject to regime changes and that bonds don't always effectively diversify risk. In fact, they can even magnify risk, as was the case for the 7 decades between 1926–1999, when the stock-bond correlation was a positive 0.18.

Finally, over time, regime changes have also lowered the overall risk of equity investing. For example, the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913 and the SEC in 1934 have helped to reduce economic volatility and increase corporate transparency. These changes, along with lower trading costs, have made the world a much safer (and less expensive) place for investors, who, as a result of reduced investment risks, may experience lower future returns.

There are several takeaways for advicers as they serve their clients. First is the fact that stocks (specifically because they carry a higher risk level) have not always outperformed bonds, and while stocks should carry a risk premium, advicers can turn to Monte Carlo simulations to consider a wider dispersion of outcomes, versus relying on 'expected' returns when developing investment plans. Second, the stock-bond performance-correlation relationships are regime-dependent, and those regimes are neither time-dependent nor mean-reverting.

As a result, an advicer's primary consideration when developing asset allocation plans should be the diversification of risk, while accounting for the fact that bonds won't always be an effective tool to achieve such diversification. Moreover, advicers might consider incorporating alternative investments into client portfolios, including things such as long-short factor strategies, private equity debt, reinsurance, consumer and small-business lending, among other assets. Ultimately, the key point is that there are asset classes outside the traditional stock-bond universe that can be used to create portfolios that are more diversified and that may be better suited to address a particular client's ability, willingness, and need to take risk!

#FA Success Ep 380: Expanding Capacity For $500M Of Organic AUM Growth In Just 4 Years By Increasing The Density Of Team Talent, With Andrew Leonard

April 9, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Financial Advisor Success Podcast

Welcome everyone! Welcome to the 380th episode of the Financial Advisor Success Podcast!

My guest on today's podcast is Andrew Leonard. Andrew is the Managing Partner of Geometric Wealth Advisors, an RIA based in Washington, D.C., that oversees approximately $750 million in assets under management for about 200 client households.

What's unique about Andrew, though, is how his firm has been able to triple its AUM in the past 4 years while offering a high-touch client experience by adopting the approach of the management consulting clients he specializes in, first assessing how many new staff members they can hire and then train properly in order to, as Andrew says, increase the density talent on the team, and only then deciding how many new clients to bring on in a given year based on how quickly they've determined they can grow their team.

In this episode, we talk in-depth about how lessons from Andrew's niche, partners at the "Big 3" management consulting firms, inform Geometric's deliberate hiring and training processes, why Andrew hired a Chief Operating Officer relatively early in the firm's growth cycle (before he even hit $5M in revenue) to handle the growing people-management challenges of the firm, and how Andrew's firm has been able to maintain a strong company culture despite operating in a fully virtual environment by still including ongoing in-person get-togethers with the whole team.

We also talk about the high-touch services Andrew's firm offers its high-income clients, including how Andrew and his team shop for the best mortgage rates for clients among a curated group of lenders (and the way the firm systematized its approach to finding refinance opportunities for its clients), why Andrew decided to offer in-house tax services (after initially outsourcing to a CPA they worked with closely) despite the expense of having CPAs on staff, and how Andrew's firm integrates unique private equity investment opportunities available to its clients into the firm's broader portfolio management philosophy.

And be certain to listen to the end, where Andrew shares how a growing staff count has helped his firm navigate the "Dangerous Middle" experienced by firms as they grow from $200 million of AUM to $2 billion in AUM (even if it means tighter profit margins in the short run), how Andrew's decision to serve a specific niche has led to a steady flow of prospective clients referrals (and when hiring, interest from former consulting firm employees looking for a career change into a financial planning firm like Andrew's), and how Andrew's growing boredom over the ongoing service of long-term existing clients inspired him to grow his practice into a full-fledged business to experience the fresh intellectual challenges of being an entrepreneur.

So, whether you're interested in learning about how to build "talent density" through a deliberate hiring and training process, how to maintain company culture when operating in a fully-remote environment, or how to navigate the "Dangerous Middle" experienced by growing mid-sized firms, then we hope you enjoy this episode of the Financial Advisor Success podcast, with Andrew Leonard.

What It Takes To Attract And Serve HNW Entrepreneurs As A Financial Advisor

April 8, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Practice Management

Among the many client niches financial advisors serve, successful business owners are often seen as an attractive group to work with, given the complexity of their financial situations (meaning that advisors have significant room to add value) and that many fall into the High Net Worth (HNW) category with as much as $5 million (and more) in assets, giving advisors a chance to move 'upmarket'. Nonetheless, actually working with this group poses several challenges, from the ability to find these clients to crafting a unique and appealing service offering that addresses their unique needs.

In this 'hybrid' video-based article, Michael Kitces and John Bowen, CEO and founder of CEG Worldwide and CEG Insights (formerly Spectrem Group), dive into CEG's extensive data on what HNW entrepreneurs are looking for in a financial advisor, how advisors serving this group can differentiate themselves, and what advisors can do to connect with prospective clients in this demographic.

As a starting point, while financial advisors tend to have a strong client retention rate (often well above 90%), data from CEG indicate that nearly 40% of business owners surveyed said they were at least somewhat likely to switch their primary financial advisor in the next 2 years. As while many entrepreneurs are perpetually on the lookout for the 'next big thing' when it comes to business opportunities, they are also receptive to the idea of switching financial advisors who might offer a more compelling value propositions.

Which presents an opportunity for advisors with a differentiated service offering to win new clients (while also serving as a warning for advisors with business-owner clients who might be on the lookout for 'better' alternatives!). Notably, when it comes to attracting clients, client referrals tend to be the largest source of prospective client leads for those already serving this group, according to CEG data. For advisors getting started with prospecting HNW entrepreneurs (and whose clients might not know many business owners!) professional networking organizations focusing on entrepreneurs and executives can be a good source of potential leads.

In addition to seeking out professional networking solutions, Bowen suggests that advisory firms can also attract HNW business owners by 'repackaging' the firm as a "virtual family office" that curates a vetted list of professionals (e.g., accountants and attorneys) to recommend to these clients. Working together, these professionals can conduct a "stress test" of the client's current situation to proactively identify potential areas of weakness in the client's financial, tax, and estate planning. For instance, many business owners have loosely defined succession plans (or none at all!), so offering guidance on create a purposeful succession plan can be a high-value service for this group.

Ultimately, the key point is that while their wealth can make HNW entrepreneurs an attractive client niche, their predilection for looking for new opportunities can make them a challenging group to retain. Nonetheless, by identifying an effective prospecting strategy and creating a value proposition offering a curated, unified collection of services (e.g., financial planning, tax, and legal) that helps them prepare for the "next big thing", advisors can not only potentially win new clients in this group, but also continue to work with them as their businesses (and wealth) grow!

Weekend Reading For Financial Planners (April 6-7)

April 5, 2024 02:00 pm 0 Comments CATEGORY: Weekend Reading

Enjoy the current installment of "Weekend Reading For Financial Planners" - this week's edition kicks off with the news that customer arbitration claims related to the SEC's Regulation Best Interest (Reg BI) nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023, suggesting that greater awareness among investors of the increased standards for broker-dealers and their registered representatives could lead to greater accountability for violations of the regulation. Further, data from FINRA also indicate that claims related to bond investments remain elevated, perhaps spurred by losses in the fixed income portions of customer portfolios amidst the rising rate environment, potentially serving as a warning to RIAs as well that their clients (and regulators) could take a closer look at advisor's recommendations related to bond allocations.

Also in industry news this week:

The SEC has penalized 2 firms for false and misleading claims related to their use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), signaling the regulator's interest in advisers' "AI-washing" practices
A research report suggests that fee-only RIAs with strong organic growth and enhanced service offerings for their clients are likely to be the most attractive acquisition targets in the coming year

From there, we have several articles on investments:

While buffer ETFs allow investors to participate in (a portion of) the upside of the stock market while mitigating losses (up to a limit), investing effectively in these funds can be complicated and expensive
Structured notes could be attractive for certain clients seeking investment income, but they come with a range of risks, from liquidity concerns to the potential for the issuing bank to default
Investment strategies betting on continued muted volatility are gaining in popularity, though observers worry that some of these wagers could exacerbate a future market downturn

We also have a number of articles on branding:

Why company culture is the foundation of a firm's brand and how leaders can evaluate whether their firm is on solid footing
How advisory firms can maintain their unique brand while taking advantage of generative AI tools like ChatGPT
How advisors can build their personal brand and link it to their professional identity to better attract clients

We wrap up with 3 final articles, all about burnout:

The primary factors that lead to employee burnout and what firm leaders can do to create a more sustainable work environment
Why saying 'no' to requests and opportunities more often can lead to less stress, and how individuals can overcome the psychological hurdles of doing so
Tactics for overcoming "workaholism", from conducting regular self-check-ins to getting more sleep and exercise

Enjoy the 'light' reading!

Kitces & Carl Ep 135: Do Experienced Financial Planners Have A Professional Obligation To Create Job Opportunities For The Next Generation?

April 4, 2024 07:02 am 0 Comments CATEGORY: Kitces & Carl Podcast

In its most recent report on U.S. Advisor Metrics, Cerulli Associates predicts that 37.5% (or nearly 110,000) of financial advisors will retire over the next 10 years. And given the industry's ongoing evolution away from being primarily sales-based and towards a more robust profession driven by deeper service models and long-term client/advisor relationships, many in the industry are genuinely concerned that there simply aren't enough new advisors entering the profession to meet the public's need for financial advice. Which, in turn, has prompted some to wonder if firm owners have a specific obligation to their profession to hire and train next-gen talent.

In our 135th episode of Kitces & Carl, Michael Kitces and client communication expert Carl Richards explore the question of whether experienced financial planners have a professional obligation to create job opportunities for new advisors, how other professional service industries have traditionally brought in new talent, and how smaller financial planning firms have effectively created programs to hire and train those entering the profession.

At a fundamental level, there are negative connotations around the term "obligation" that, when introduced, are often met with instant resistance by those who appreciate the autonomy to choose their own goals and priorities. Beyond that, however, obligating financial planners to hire and train new advisors could create some unintended (and detrimental) consequences. While many firms are experiencing tremendous growth and have introduced career tracks for new advisors to help with all the additional work, the imposition of being required to create new positions would be felt most by those firms who might not be interested in growing their practice and therefore wouldn't be hiring in the first place. Which would invariably result (after a considerable investment of both the firm owner's time and money) in a less-than-optimal experience for the new advisor and would likely do little to improve the industry's already dismal retention rate.

In other professional industries like accounting and law, the training and development of newly minted CPAs and attorneys are often provided by the largest firms who hire and train in bulk each year, knowing full well that many new hires will move on in just a few years. Accordingly, much of the heavy lifting to meet the demand for new advisors will likely be done by the Schwabs and Vanguards of the world, while professional organizations, like the FPA and CFP Board continue to create systems and structures that make it easier for growing firms to develop training programs and career tracks. On a smaller scale, meanwhile, several firms have implemented residency programs designed to offer meaningful work experience to young planners fresh out of school who are able to take on entry-level work, meet their experience requirements for their CFP certification, and then leave after 2 or 3 years.

Ultimately, the key point is that there are a number of ways that the financial planning industry can tackle the looming spike in demand for new advisors without imposing an artificial obligation on advisors, which, if not met, would imply a deficiency in professional duty. By leveraging professional organizations, mega-firm training resources, and residency programs, the industry can create pathways for new advisors that address the needs of the broader industry and create a win-win situation for both firm owners and rising financial planners, which offers those who want to be part of the profession an opportunity to have a meaningful impact on their clients' lives and earn a good living in the process!