3) Help them establish viable business models built on proven, repeatable processes. For young advisors, building an advisory practice is often like developing a golf game: left to their own devices, they can quickly acquire bad habits, and it’s never too early to start working with a coach.
Our survey showed the best up-and-coming advisors were those who were most open to coaching. The training programs that contributed most to their growth were those that focused on repeatable processes to strengthen practice efficiency (including time management, staffing and delegation); marketing (branding, client acquisition and specific marketing techniques); advice-based business models (including pricing and team structures); and thinking like a CEO.
Firms with best-of-breed training programs that are tailored to developing these skills—and helping young advisors avoid habits that will gradually drive their careers into the figurative “rough”—will be best positioned to help next-gen advisors achieve their full potential in this industry.
4) Early training in behavioral finance. Behavioral financial training is not only about helping clients make better financial decisions by understanding the emotional factors that drive them, but also redefining the relationship between advisors and their clients to position advisors as financial life coaches.
The rising generation of clients expects and appreciates a close partnership with their advisors. Providing younger advisors with in-depth behavioral finance coaching early in their careers will help them fill the role of life coach or “choice architect,” steering clients toward sound decisions by understanding their goals, sensitivities and personal preferences—and building relationships that can last for decades.
Time To Modernize And Think Differently
To recruit the next generation of advisors and position them to achieve lasting success, firms will need to think differently about and modernize the process for finding, attracting, training, developing and mentoring advisors.
Firms that establish a thriving community of next-gen advisors will be those that effectively identify rising professionals who are most likely to succeed and provide cutting-edge training programs to help them overcome persistent challenges that could stand in the way of their success.
Janine Wertheim is president of Securities America Advisors and chief marketing officer of Securities America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services. Jeff Sietstra is practice management manager for Securities America.