5 tips for rookie financial advisors from wealth management veterans

April 9, 2022 4:00 PM

Time in the trenches is valuable in just about any career, but that may be especially true in financial planning. Early-career professionals have to make myriad choices about the types of clients they want to serve, the type of firm where they want to work and their investing philosophies.

It’s tough to move ahead in a new career without knowing what you don’t know and when you’re facing pressure to build a book of business. That’s why we asked veteran advisors to pass their knowledge on to the up-and-coming generation.

Specifically, we asked for one thing advisors wish they’d know their first year, and for the best piece of advice they got in their own first years on the job. Scroll down to see their answers.

Look for the big picture

Daniel Yerger, president of Longmont, Colorado-based My Wealth Planners, said he didn’t know enough about the differences between the types of wealth managers and the range of experiences he might have at each of them.

“I wish someone had given me the lay of the land! Just getting a feel for what type of firm I was working with and what the different types of entry points were would have been an amazing advantage on day one,” Yerger said.

If you’re looking at the industry with the same uncertainty, Yerger said it’s a good idea to ask people at contrasting kinds of firms among the various brokerages and RIAs what they do and how they go about serving their clients.

“The problem I had as a career-changer coming into the field is that they all sounded and looked pretty much the same,” he said. “Now on the back end and years down the road, it’s much clearer to me that many of them were proprietary product sales jobs, others were independent broker-dealers, others were wirehouses and so on.”

Find your people

Having a sense of community is important, said Haley Tolitsky, a planner at Wilmington, North Carolina-based Cooke Capital. She advises new advisors to find mentors who can show newbies the ropes and/or a group of people at a similar career stage to turn to for understanding and support.

“It is crucial to have support from outside of your firm and other trusted individuals to share frustrations, challenges and ideas with,” she said. “Having a mentor has allowed me to define my goals, stay on track to achieve them and given me support and encouragement when I've needed it the most. I'd encourage others to look for mentoring programs through the organizations they are involved with or by reaching out to planners that they admire.”

Tess Zigo, an LPL Financial advisor based in Palm Harbor, Florida, said it’s also a good idea to make friends with people who can become frequent collaborators, like accountants and lawyers who have clients in need of financial planning. You’ll also likely have opportunities to send clients their way, too.

“Ideally, building relationships with others in a similar stage’— if you’re starting out, find lawyers who are also starting out,” she said. “You can’t expect someone who’s been in business 20-plus years to not have a favorite person already.”

Education is power

There’s a catch 22 in financial advising when it comes to building a client base. It’s difficult for early-career advisors to attract clients without a lot of experience under their belts. And without clients, it’s difficult to gain experience.

“Something I wish I knew very early in my career is that gray hair (age) is a tremendous asset for building credibility,” said Chris Diodato, founder of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida-based WELLth Financial Planning. “A lot of people wouldn't work with me because I was young.”

Diodato and Blaine Thiederman, a founder of Arvada, Colorado-based Progress Wealth Management, recommend spending early years gaining certifications, such as the CFA and CFP.

“Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will be your ability to be a talented financial advisor,” Thiederman said. “This training will be fundamental to your rise.”

Find your niche

Cody Garrett founded Pearland, Texas-based Measure Twice Financial as a fee-only, advice-only firm for what he calls DIY investors. The name plays off the “measure twice, cut once” saying in carpentry. It took a while for him to find out how he wanted to serve clients, but he found a segment that worked.

“When I started my first job, I wish someone had told me to be intentional about who I wanted to serve and how I wanted to provide value, even before being in a position to make those decisions,” Garrett said. “This level of deliberate vision and genuine curiosity will accelerate your path to becoming a business owner or partner.”

Addie McHale, a CFP at Denver-based Moneyfull, found her passion in cash flow management. She tells young advisors to get involved in various aspects of the industry and then follow their passions, even if no one else they know has a similar one.

“There are so many different aspects to financial planning, and thus many different routes to take within the career. You won't know which way to go until you are in it, doing the work and having different experiences,” she said. “Try to experience these different facets of financial planning as much as you can.

“For a long time, I denied that I was passionate about cash flow management because none of my peers were,” McHale added. “I was almost ashamed about it. Now I have my own business, and it is a niche. I, however, believe it is the entire foundation upon which a financial plan is built.”

Don’t try to prove how smart you are

There’s a lot of work that goes into building a financial plan and investment strategy for a client. But the client might not want to know all the nitty gritty details that you nerd out on. Plus, you run the risk of getting into jargon that could turn off the client.

Melissa Walsh, founder and president of Winter Park, Florida-based Clarity Financial Design, suggests starting with recommendations and drilling down as far as the client wants or needs.

“As a rookie financial advisor, it was so easy to get caught up in various options, calculations and details of a recommendation. I often wanted to share all of my work with my client,” Walsh said. “As an experienced financial advisor, I can say that my clients trust that I've already looked into the details, and they primarily want a recommendation and help to implement it.”

Chris Ward, managing member at Covington, Kentucky-based EntryPoint Wealth Management, said the key issue is ensuring clients understand the presentation you’re giving.

“I always went overboard with educational materials and demonstrations into how great the advice I was providing was,” he said. “Really what matters is: do your clients understand it, trust you to implement the advice and see the benefit in its implementation.”