Like others, Biddick said they initially grappled with the hiring and onboarding process. “The interview process of hiring folks without ever meeting them was interesting,” he said.
Brittingham said one of the biggest talking points during the crisis was succession planning. “I think a lot of people were kind of caught off guard and have made life changes,” she said. The question, she said, is how do you get that next person in to take over your business? “We are really working with advisors to understand what their long-term goals are,” she said.
Stiles said advisors need to develop management skills and make the transition to leaders. “They are coming out of a time of Covid, their businesses are doing well, they are patting themselves on the back and then they go, ‘Now what, what’s next for our firm?'
"At this point, their leadership skills and the vision of what they are trying to build is so important, so getting them to really focus their time, effort and energy on that to lead the rest of their people is going to be critical,” she said.
Also, in terms of business development, Stiles said advisors will have to find ways to uniquely serve clients because technology means the competition is high. “At this point, how does your service offering uniquely target a specific group of people that are like-minded, and how do you refine your marketing business development strategies to go after these people?” Stiles asked.
“The motivation was very high, obviously, and there was a lot of risks that we were trying to mitigate, but if we ever try to do any other sort of internal change again, I think referencing back to this and what we are capable of is an important point to make from a leadership perspective,” Biddick said.