The Changing Team Roster
As your wealth management practice evolves, you'll often alter the roster based on the skills you need, the level of their expertise and how they partner with you and other members of your advisory network. This is most easily accomplished in the parent company team structure, because everyone is already in the firm somewhere and there's generally no stigma in adding or subtracting experts. It's somewhat harder in the virtual team since ending a professional relationship, however informal, and establishing new ones can be difficult (if the expert wants to stay on board) and time consuming (if you have to find a replacement).
It's most challenging, however, to change the roster on the self-contained team because they're employees, or at least have a more formalized relationship with you. If you do let them go, either because they're not up to the job or because it turns out to be a field of expertise you don't need as often as you thought, be sure they've signed a noncompete contract so they won't go after your clients (such contracts should be signed when you hire them).
Team Consensus Building
No matter which team structure is right for you, you'll also have to meet with prospective team members to hammer out your shared goals and visions. Some of the issues where consensus is crucial include:
Whose client is it?
Why these specialists (and disciplines)?
How will all involved parties communicate?
How are ideas going to be presented to the client?
Under what circumstances (if any) will the specialist be before the client?
Some of these issues are especially challenging in a financial services culture built around the hand off, where clients are usually passed from one expert to another for specialized solutions, an approach that is antithetical to the idea of wealth management.
In some instances, formal team development training can be used to help a team come together. The training can involve experimental exercises in which team members come to understand the benefits of relying on others and see how a group is often able to achieve what individuals cannot, an important lesson for the solo artists in our industry.