Also, you can be young and act young. Or you can be young and exude confidence and act like a leader. 

Your choice and the clients can tell. 

^This.

When you are young and have few responsibilities (wife, kids, house, etc.), there is no reason not to swing for the fences. But the key is, you have to be willing to work your balls off to make it happen, and work SMART (in other words figure out the right way to be successful). 

I wish I had happened upon this business before I had kids. 

You have to think of it as starting your own business. Read Inc. Magazine and many of the stories about how people built businesses. Yes it's a sales business early on, but ALL businesses are pretty much sales businesses.

The one downside of this career/business, is that you are (for most advisors) constantly selling to consumers, not other businesses. So the sales cycle and psychology needed for success is much different than in B2B industries. I think this is why people that think they are great "salespeople" often fail out of this business.

no kids. no mortgage. small teacher stipend. second career. cant' imagine working a regular j....j.....ugh....job ever again. doctors, lawyers, business owners, all of them worked their balls off for at least 3-5 years before getting up on step. if that's what it takes to succeed then i'm in. just don't need to crush the jewels needlessly. the general flavor of what i'm seeing here is work like a slave for the first 3-5 and then it's possible to let off on the gas and spend more time advising and less cc'ing. if that's all it takes great, but i also see posts of smart, hard working, dedicated people failing out. so there must be more to this than simply being a workhorse. i'm sure you would say, go for it. nothing to lose. right?

Failing out can mean either 1. you don't bring in assets fast enough for the firm to be ok with you and they dump you, and you can't find another firm to take you on. 2. You work your balls off and still can;t bring in enough money to make a living, and you give up, and decide its not for you

If you don't need a lot of money to live and you can find a firm that will be patient, and allow you to grow at your own pace (forget the big dogs, i.e. Merrill, Morgan Stanley, etc,) then you can make it.

And lets say you build a business where you are making 125-150k revenues, in 6-7 years - you can then enjoy that income without working too hard for the next 10, or 15 years if you are lucky enough to stay healthy. The nice thing about this business is that you can work forever, or as long as you want to, and you dont have to work a full week if you build it right.

BLASPHEMY!

Someone with no sales experience, no industry experience can make 3k/month in the FIRST 6 months in a commission only based FA role?  Do you really feel this way?  I'm not mocking you or anything, I truly want to know what you think.  I have 5 years of experience in the finance industry and i am going an EJ route because I didn't think a commission only place would even be feasible.  How much product do you need to sell to make 3k/month? - use an average % for commission on different items.  Would a place like Waddell & Reed or AXA Equitable who only pay commission and sell mainly insurance even keep a new guy around if they were only pulling in the $ in product that you say?

This makes me happy to read.  Honestly, I make 45K at my desk job now.  EJ will give me 30k.  One, I'm sure I can make 15k of commission in my first year to "break even", right?  That can't be that hard.

I have the day in the life assessment next week, which is the final stage of their hiring process.  Does any one have anything to offer up on how to do well at this stage? It sounds like a very exciting exercise.  I'm actually really looking forward to it.

I meant after your first 6 months of work in production you should be doing enough to make 2-4k in commissions if you are going to make it.  His original ?? was concerning an indy route so if you are indy or RIA and you do 2500-4k in total production in month 7 you would be bringing in that much in income depending on your level of payout.  I would personally go somewhere that you get a salary since you can always go out on your own later and I feel having a brand name behind you helps you get clients that you will have a hard time getting otherwise.

Says the guy who started at EDJ...and to my knowledge, is not a bitch.  

2. Get a Post Office box/virtual office setup (Regus, etc) you dont need an actual office but if you live on say, elm street, or some other street that is clearly in your area, known as a residential area, my opinion is you need a different mailing address. 

3. Get a separate phone number with a virtual PBX service so you have professionally sounding voicemail.

4. Put together some kind of brochure/pitchbook, as a leave behind when you meet with people. 

5. Start networking, join your local chamber, get active in it, call CPAs and Estate Planning Attorneys, and ask them for a meeting, tell your story to as many people as possible.

6. Fill in down time by cold calling.

This all of course, assumes that you have some knowledge of financial planning, investing, and generally what you do for people and how you intend to do it, AND that you can verbalize it to people you meet in the form of a value statement. 

You started at an RIA at age 28.  If you were 28 again starting at Edward Jones this time around, how do you think you would do?

I'm very close to making the jump on to EJ, and I'm turning 30 in 2 months, so you could see my fear about this statement you made.  lol.  so, seriously...am I putting my family at jeopardy even if I work my ass off?

The wirehouses (Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo Advisors, Bank of America / Merrill Lynch) are always looking to hire mature business people with business and life experience, and especially with a network of contacts.

Today, you need to go online, look for their ads on careerbuilder, Monster.com, etc, and apply online.

But if i were you, i would contact every branch you can find in your area. Ask to speak with the Branch Manager. If you can't get to him, get the name of the Assistant Branch Manager, and ask for some time. Send your resume, then follow with a phone call. If that doesn't work, go there. They will like your persistence. 

The wirehouse training program has very difficult hurdles, and you have a very high possibility of failing out, which at the wirehouses means getting fired for not hitting your hurdles. But you will get licensed, get good training and experience at most branches, and be ready to find a firm that will take you in without much of a book and let you build it your way.

A word of advice - dont do what i did. Dont spend 5 years looking for answers on the internet and overthinking this thing to death (which with all due respect you seem to be doing). If you think you want to explore this, then just do it. Make the calls, get the interviews and get a job. Ask a lot of questions, find a branch manager who will be proactive in helping/ coaching you (they are few and far between), and latch onto that guy. Think about getting on a team. 

But for Gods sake, just do it

^This.

And you probably don't realize the amount of strain it puts on a family. You are, one way or the other, making your wife an unwitting partner in this effort ... and when the crap hits the fan, you might be forced to make some unwelcome decisions.

Next is Raymond James & Associates then EJ.

 

Apply and get an interview and sell yourself.

1. if you are willing to take the risk, which is clearly high (with potential high reward)

2. assuming you are willing, whats the best fit for you personally.

For now, we can only help you in terms of what to look for

Once you start, we can help with ideas.

But we don't know you, you know yourself.

This is what I would probably do if i were you...

Step 1:  Try my best to get hired at UBS if they have a training class this year.  If not, I'd go to ML or MS.  I'd take my salary, get licensed, and get trained.  Once in production, I would ONLY do annuitized business, and I would ONLY take households over $250K.  I would assume I'm going to be fired for missing a hurdle.  Once fired, I would go to step 2...

Step 2:  I would go to WFA.  In my opinion, the best wirehouse, and the only one (maybe UBS too) worth staying at long term.  I would go to another wire, because they would probably give you a salary as a trainee again, and you could bring your small number of households with you from your first employer.  You will probably make it WFA at this piont, as their hurdles are more reasonable, plus you get paid on everything.  Continue building your annuitized book.  

Step 3 if you succeed at WFA:  Make a career at the wirehouse side if you like it, or wait 5 years and go indy via their FINET channel with absolutely no pressure.  

Step 3 if you fail at WFA or just plain hate them for some reason:  Try to find an open office at EDJ where you can bring your small book, and/or inherit some assets, or go to a bank.  Knowing that if you failed twice on your own, inheriting assets or getting warm leads at a bank is really your only chance of success.

Step 4:  If you want someday, whether you stay at a wire, EDJ, or a bank, go indy.

 

How close together would you rank these 3 places?  Relatively close together or way far away from eachother?

Indigio - I hope you cheese it down a little on the phones and in your emails...as i love your enthusiasm, some of your posts are kinda over the top...just being honest. it's good to get feedback in a non pressure 'forum' if you will 

Guys - my wife is on board.  she thinks i can do it no problem and i've told her time and time again what a huge risk it is.  she still is almost pushing me.  i like it.  i've always wanted to do this and i just feel that the time is right.  my market area is good.  REAL good.  i think if i get offered the job i'm going to take it.  i'm pretty pumped about it no matter how many times i ask on here to how many different people and they say, don't do it, i'm still looking forward to it.  weird.

i've also come to thinking that some people on here are recruiters and if they aren't going to have you, then why not talk them out of the industry to cut down on competition any way possible.  makes sense to me.  i would do it.  i recently had a face to face interview with a guy at W&R, he was telling me i can go take my series 7 without being sponsored. just using that as an example to display his intelligence.  he was about 80 years old and basically talked me out of the industry.  it was a really weird feeling.  so, i'm thinking some people on here do it to.

The only person who is very active on here who currently doesn some recruiting that I know of is NewMgr.  She posted that she is a mgr with W&R and recruits in that capacity as well as running her book.  I used to be in mgt with WFA so I used to recruit.

I like this forum!  You guys(and gals) have been great.  informative. entertaining.  thought provoking.

Thank you all very much.  I'm going to stop hijacking this guys thread..he seems upset about it.

Just so we're clear, we don't have any active recruiters on this board right now, and haven't for many, many months.  We have had a handful of independent recruiters (aguilartx was the last one, and he's been MIA for months and months), and we have a handful of guys/gals in management roles that recruiting is a portion of their job.

That being said, to my knowledge, there has NEVER been a non-licensed person recruiter to a firm from Advisorheads.  Plenty of people seeking intel, but the advice you get on this board is pretty honest with no selfish motives at play.  Some members have an axe to grind with their old firm, and some members really drink the kool aid at their current firm, but commentary is never/rarely motivated by self interest for recruiting purposes.

Not sure where you got that idea (not mad about the allegation either, just wanted to set the record straight).  We do welcome recruiters by the way, but their recruiting activites must be kept strictly to the Vendor section.  

Thanks for the input.  I live in a very wealthy county, surrounded by other, even more wealthy counties here on the east coast.  i live in a small town and am surrounded by small towns full of wealthy people.  Is this what you mean by if marketing to mass affluent?  because i think i would be doing precisely that.  i know that has it's hurdles too, like they already have advisors...well, people are retiring these days so they will have to let some clients go, right?  I personally know a good amount of millionaires and some famous people.  I'm trying to paint a picture of where I live without telling you.    Is this what you mean by depends on what pool i swim in?  If i was in the middle of a city trying to do this, I would NEVER want to work for EJ, it sounds dangerous and awful to go knocking on row homes.  yuck...at least i'll be knocking on nice sized homes - mini mansions.  and the towns that i live near are flooded with small businesses.

could you explain a little more what you mean by it will be harder to be a million dollar guy due to the amount of relationships required, please?  i think you mean that since i have to make all these quality contacts per day i have to take everything coming my way instead of focusing just on high net worth people?  and how does that make it harder to be a million dollar guy?  and what exactly do you mean by a 1 million dollar guy?  I make 1 million per year or have 1 million in AUM?  Honestly, I would be happy if i took home 80k/year in my 2nd year or even 3rd year.  by year 4 or 5 i would hope to be in the 6 figs tho...but i def. don't need 500k/year or 300k/year...i'm cool with 150 or 100...

man, two glasses of wine and i'm on here ramblingb

#1:  I don't think EDJ is 20 years behind in Advisory.  10 years, perhaps.  20 years, definitely not.  Everything else he said about EDJ is true.

#2:  At EDJ, you don't HAVE to doorknock.  You can build your business however you want for the most part, but like mentioned before, you'll have some limitations on investments that could handicap you in dealing with HNW clients at times.  Doesn't sound like you're in a market where EDJ would thrive though to be honest.

#3:  The common wisdom is that you need to have a small number of households with a lot of money to grow to a big producer.  Meaning, you'd be better off working with one hundred $1 million clients, rather than one thousand $100K clients.  Both are at $100 million AUM, but the guy with 1,000 clients doesn't have good relationships (how could you), and is running ragged trying to service them.  I don't necessarily agree with this, but that's what they are referencing.  I know lots of $750K+ producers that have hundreds of households.  It's all about how scalable you make your practice (get a good assistant to handle all service and train clients to talk to him/her for service, and you only for investment advice, put everyone in model driven investmentsso you have 400 clients in one model, 200 in another, etc.).  Up to you how you want to do it.  

#4:  "A million dollar guy" means a million dollar PRODUCER.  You'll usually keep about 50 - 70% of what you PRODUCE, depending on what firm you're with and what type of practice you run.  So a "$1 million guy" probably makes about $500 - $700K.  You can usually ballpark your PRODUCTION by taking .70 - 1.00% of your assets under management.  So a good idea would be at $100 million in ASSETS, you would PRODUCE about $700K - $1MM, of which you would keep 50 - 70% of (before taxes).

Hope that helps.

I worked with a guy that worked harder, smarter, and had more designations than me, but ccouldn't make it. The sole reason was because he couldn't sell a freaking life jacket to someone on the titanic.

 

Most of the ones that make it are like a perfect storm.

I'm assuming MS is probably the hardest place to "make it" at out of those three in regards to the hurdles they set?

Stay away from Morgan.  They are a disaster.

Take the offer from WFA IMO as long as you think you can work with the manager there.  If not take the EJ offer.