Before making a move, the study recommends making sure you have reviewed all the options, talking to others who have moved and being prepared for paperwork and technology issues.
“The one thing people who moved said was they wished they had done is, they wished they had laid out a better plan first,” Mirchandani says.
The study also outlines what recruiters should do to attract talented people who are changing firms, including providing good marketing support and compensation, which are often two areas of dissatisfaction for advisors. The executive summary for the report is available at go.fidelity.com/independence.
Firms also should offer strategies for overcoming obstacles that might come up and provide straightforward information about the new firm and its culture. Because the family has influence, firms should meet with the spouse to lay out the plans.
For recruiting firms, the fence sitters are an attractive group with the highest average assets under management ($155 million) of the three groups. Movers had an average AUM of $149 million and the entrenched had an average $147 million in AUM.
Firm managers who want to retain their advisors need to listen to their problems and try to solve them.
“You have to realize that at any given time a group of your advisors could be fence sitters thinking about a move,” Mirchandani says.