Maybe some of us are just lucky and end up in the right career. I know I’ve been passionate about my career over the last three decades, and I hope I enjoy the next three decades as much. But I also believe there are actions that help us maximize our talents and emit joy for the sheer experience of using them while we’re here on earth. Ideally, we also get to make a contribution to others along the way. As Mom to two 20-somethings, I’ve been considering the subject a lot recently.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Like it or not, the first wave of an anticipated 76 million baby boomers nearing retirement is headed your way. Are you and your financial planning practice ready for it? We’re not just talking about having sufficient staff or a large enough coffee pot. No, we’re asking you to consider whether you and your partners and employees are up to speed on issues specifically related to the aging investor population.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

…we are on the brink of a revolution in the financial planning industry. This sea change is being led by a successful financial planner who happens to be a Buddhist teacher, and a former president of the ICFP who has taken a hankering to a mythical Islamic folk hero. If they have their way, financial planning in the future will not only foster a client’s economic well-being, but also will help that client to be more fulfilled, happier, and a better citizen in the world of tomorrow.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Together with Moss Adams, Pershing Advisor Solutions—the advisor custody arm of The Bank of New York Mellon—has released a new study called Fast Forward: The Advisor of the Future, which argues that ” the advisor of the future will be evaluated on “three C’s”—change, capacity, and culture.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

For some years now, firm owners have been underpaying young professionals, as evidenced by the high turnover rate among NextGen planners, and by the much higher comp that young professionals can command in other professions such as accounting and securities sales. Hopefully, the tide of rising wages will help stop the brain drain of smart young planners leaving the professionals. I believe the next big thing for larger advisory practices—and those firms who want to be large—will be a boom in effective training for these young professionals.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

My last blog about dressing professionally seems to have struck a chord with many young professionals. Not only have I received a flood of emails confirming what took me six years to figure out (that dressing the way your clients or boss or audience expects you to dress will make your job and your life much easier), I also got a number inquiries about other aspects of professional deportment which directly affect the careers of young advisors. The most frequent question I got involved drinking in business settings, especially around clients and coworkers.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Laserfiche, the electronic document management technology company, and CRM Software, the maker of the Junxure CRM software, announced Oct. 25 they have integrated their two applications, providing a means of improved efficiency to advisors by giving users of Junxure one-click access to Laserfiche documents.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

With employee advisor compensation on the rise—lead advisor pay is up 41% in the past two years—it looks like the industry is finally correcting an old inequity. For some time, I’ve suspected that the extraordinarily high profitability of some ensemble firms resulted from underpaying non-owner advisors.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

In the financial advisory business, and in a lot of small businesses for that matter, compensation has more to do with company growth than is does with the value or experience of your employees. Don’t get me wrong, you should pay a reasonable compensation for the position in which is being hired. But if your firm is not growing or is not growing as fast as you anticipated, then increasing salaries is not always an option from a cash flow perspective. Therefore, your employees need to know this.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

From what I’ve seen, junior advisors leaving their firms with a handful of clients has been and will continue to be the norm in the planning profession until clear career tracks become widespread. So perhaps what the profession needs is an accepted process for handing over clients that will ensure client security and the continuity of sound advice.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, employees are looking for a purpose in their careers. But they also want to feel valued in their positions. Problem is, if they get the perception that they are not valued by the company, the only thing they can really grasp onto is asking for more compensation. Disappointment in their compensation is only part of the problem—the rest is a lack of feedback on their performance and praise for the good they have done for the company as it grows.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

To retain high-quality professionals, you need to give them a purpose they can take to heart. Helping you grow your business is just such a purpose that motivates people outside of compensation.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

My goal is for the Fast Track to become a place where advisors of all generations can come together, to share their dreams of building the financial planning practices of the future; and the roadblocks and frustrations they meet along the way.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

It is becoming increasingly more important for investment advisory firms to consider succession planning issues, whether via prospective internal succession or an external acquisition or sale.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

A special time is approaching when Americans sit down together to give heartfelt thanks for the many good things in our lives. It’s a day we call. . . Turkey Day.

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

A major failingof the industry has been the reluctance of advisors with established practices to extend ownership to junior professionals

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com

What distinguishes a great coach or boss from an average one?On a beautiful Saturday this past May I sat at a baseball field in Raleigh, North Carolina, watching 40 or so youngsters participate in a baseball camp. I have a connection to the Broughton High School field going back over 30 years. As I sat on the bleachers watching the boys, I shared with the father of another camper my fondness for the place, and my connection to it. I explained that Wiley Warren, for whom the field is named, was a former coach of mine. “You know,” he said, “I remember a number of old coaches fondly, but I can’t say the same about any old bosses.”

Sponsored By:

DWS Scudder, the U.S. retail brand name of Deutsche Asset Management, provides financial advisors with a comprehensive selection of innovative investment strategies.
www.dws-scudder.com