You've Been Framed

CHAPTER 5 Lone Ranger to Leader™

As the advising profession has moved from a focus on sales to technical expertise to wealth management partnership, the kind of firms that the most successful advisors build is changing, too. Today, it’s no longer about running a one-person operation; now it’s all about team. In fact, according to Fidelity Investments, 84 percent of high-performing advisors work in a team configuration versus only 48 percent of other advisors.¹

Why the need for team? As the advising profession moves from offering a single product or service to providing whole wealth management, advisors can’t go it alone anymore. There are now too many pieces of wealth management for one person to have the time or expertise to manage them all: financial planning, investing, banking, taxes, home ownership, life insurance, estate planning, and more. Then, layer onto that a more sophisticated advising profession than ever before, involving the need for rainmaking, relational skills, technical skills, service skills, marketing skills, and so on . . . and you need a team to thrive.

In addition, if the client, the client’s family, and the heirs to the client’s wealth are going to be able to depend on an advisor, then advisors are going to have to build something that’s truly going to outlast them, and that begins with a team. Having a strong team in place helps advisors operate out of integrity and avoid telling the big, fat lie that they will always be there for the client when they ...