A look at the life of a financial advisor. The trends and technologies involved, who you may be interacting with and what it takes to be successful.

1. Understanding
Advisors (the people we
work for)
A guide by Alex

2. What type of person becomes a
financial advisor?

3. How does one become an advisor?
● PASS EXAMS
● JOIN AN EXISTING PRACTICE OR START BUILDING YOUR OWN
● KEEP PASSING EXAMS TO KEEP YOUR QUALIFICATIONS

4. For simplicity, we classify
advisors as either
independent or with a BD.
What does that even
mean???

5. Here are some terms we
often hear

6. Broker Dealer
Wirehouse
RIA

7. Broker Dealer
● Advisors operate independently and are self employed business owners
● Have a wide range of products they are able to offer - these products can
come from a wide variety of institutions (different insurance companies,
investment companies etc.)

8. Wirehouse
● Advisors are employed by the firm
● Advisors have little independence
● The products and services that are sold, are primarily proprietary
● Advisors work at a large office, alongside other advisors in the same wirehouse

9. RIA
● Operate independently
● Must pass courses and register with the SEC
● Can be hard to get started because they have no support from larger groups such
as a Broker Dealer or Wirehouse
By law, RIA’s have a fiduciary duty to their clients, which means
they have a fundamental obligation to provide suitable investment
advice and always act in their clients' best interests.

10. According to Forbes, the
average age of a financial
advisor in the US, is at least
50 YEARS OLD with
some reports saying the
age could be closer to 55.
Tip
Don’t wait till the end of
the presentation to give
the bottom line.
Reveal your product or
idea (in this case a
translation app) up front.

11. Titles/Designations
Title: Something an advisor calls themself. Little regulation on this.
Financial Advisor. Investment Profession. Senior Financial Advisor.
Designation: FINRA has approximately 150 different, approved
designations; CFP, CDP, CFC etc. Designations require initial exams
+ yearly education.

12. How does an
advisor grow their
business??

13. ➔ Word of mouth
Advisors have to hustle, asking friends,
family, ANYONE if they need some
financial advice.
➔ Cold calling
Just let most businesses, advisors have
to cold call to generate leads.
➔ Seminars
A lot of advisors host seminars to
generate leads. The seminar is either
free, or very low cost.
➔ Direct Mail
It seems old school, but it really works.
This is usually used with seminars.

14. What does the
technology look
like?

15. Advicent/E-Money
Think of these as Mint.com on
steroids, for advisors.

16. Redtail/Salesforce
CRM’s. A lot of advisors manually
track everything using outlook and
excel still.

17. Day in the life of an
advisor.
● Lead generation
○ Networking, events,
outbound calls
● Client Check Ins
● Appointments (new clients)
● Admin work (opening accounts,
paper work, etc)

18. Structure of a Firm
Broker
Dealer
BD Products
Third Party
Products
Advisor
Support StaffSupport Staff

19. How does an
advisor make
money????

20. Fee Only vs Commission

21. Fee Only
● Fee-only advisors work for their clients and ONLY get paid an hourly rate, a
fixed annual retainer, or a percentage of the investment assets they manage
for their clients. The advice they give is independent of the products
recommended.

22. Commission
● The advisor receives commission or a kick-back from the company whose
product she sells
Is there a problem with this?
This broker or advisor has a big incentive to recommend the option that pays him/her the most
money, not whether or not those investments are really best for the client.

23. Hybrid Models
The options I’ve outlined are the 2 polar ends of the spectrum. In reality, most
advisors use a combination of both types of payment options.

24. Where is the industry going?
ROBO!!!!
Portfolio planning, portfolio optimization, portfolio management,
automated reporting. No more excel!!!

25. Questions???