Growing an advisory firm today requires more than just attracting more clients and managing more of their assets. Without a talented second string of junior advisors to take over for departing leaders, a firm's current clients could find they are suddenly DIY investors, without the education, experience or inclination to take on managing their wealth.
The problem for current firm leaders, who may have started their firms decades ago, is that their second string isn't game-ready. As consultant Angie Herbers notes in the cover story to this supplement, "Despite the rather massive efforts of custodians, BDs, industry organizations and boomer advisors themselves, the next generation of advisors isn't learning the business fast enough to fill the looming void."
The way younger advisors process information is fundamentally different from that of their predecessors, Herbers writes. Dumping more information on them to try to bring them up to speed won't help; the internet gives them access to an overwhelming amount of data. What they need is help finding the right information.
