Are you trying to grow a stable team of advisors and retain top talent? Young advisors are looking for RIA firms that offer remote work flexibility, a clear path toward advancement and role transparency.
The next generation of financial advisors also values firms that are open to adopting new technology.
Clear Career Paths, Hiring Transparency
Early career advisors will remember if a role wasn’t as advertised, or didn’t align with the career trajectory they’d hoped for, Lisa Yang, a financial advisor at Symbio Financial Partners, shared.
“When I hear of people bringing on advisors, sometimes there’s that carrot that is dangled that they will have the ability to build their own book. But it’s really a relationship manager role,” Yang says. Talent should fully understand from the start whether they will be in an operational advisory role, e.g., focused on financial planning or generating leads.
Firms should also make it clear whether advisors can obtain some ownership stake in the firm, and whether the needs of the practice align with the advisor’s career aspirations or expectations at that time, she said.
This is partially accomplished through a “very transparent and thorough interview process,” Yang said.
Additionally, firms should aim to use clear, specific titles when hiring new talent.
“The title ‘financial advisor’ is so broad — it is great to be more specific. For instance, using ‘relationship manager’ or ‘financial planner’ in their title, if it’s actually functional to the job responsibilities. It could also be a very straightforward ‘wealth advisor’ or ‘junior wealth advisor’ title,” if new hires are going to be advising clients or building a book of business, said Yang.
Open to Tech Adoption
Young advisors also want to see that the RIAs where they work are open to and accepting of newer technologies, that can help them excel in the industry.
“I think being open to suggestions, new processes, and being able to accept new technology,” are crucial to attract and retain top talent, Yang shared.
“I’ve had a few of my peers leave their firm. That's because they couldn't get the senior advisors in their firm to adapt and modernize,” she noted.
Firms should be open to adopting new customer relationship management (CRM) technology. That's because they help track sales data, meetings, log client notes, and automate more processes that appear in broker-dealer databases.
Advisors may also look at whether firms are integrating other technology, like AI, that can help with transcribing notes from client meetings and other tasks.
“It would show that they are early adopters of technology. And that they want to be part of innovation rather than being left behind,” said Yang.
Flexible Work Arrangements
Top talent is attracted to flexible working arrangements. That regardless of it includes the ability to work remotely or to have options regarding their employment and tax status.
“Maybe the firm has only ever done W-2 (tax status) for advisors, or they’ve only done 1099 forms, because they don’t want to deal with benefits,” Yang said. She noted that advisors having an option to choose is ideal.
“It’s having the ability to choose what works best for your financial situation. It's also having autonomy in your pay structure,” Yang said.
Advisors also desire options regarding remote/hybrid working arrangements, she added.
“I would say the patterns across the industry really varies. I’ve seen some [RIAs] say they went fully remote and their employees love it, and we’re not going back. And I’ve seen some go back to being fully in the office and [other] firms add incentives for coming in, like a fun yoga day,” Yang said.
“I think advisors would like the option to choose whether they come in or not,” Yang said. She added that, since the pandemic, most clients still prefer to do virtual meetings.
“We still haven’t had a lot of clients that want to come in, in person,” she continued. “The majority of clients will opt for what’s easy. Sometimes they may set a meeting for in-person, but just change it to a remote meeting later.”
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