We have spent years working with hundreds of advisory businesses and talking to thousands more. It is time to share the honest truth. The fee-only independent advisory industry is changing rapidly with consolidation and closure of firms due to a lack of sustainability. This is occurring because most advisor owners don’t have the passion, experience, or interest in being a CEO.
Fact: Advisor owners have not evolved into CEOs and most don’t want to be the CEO of their business.
To be fair, advisors were never trained to be CEOs. Most advisors never went to MBA classes or had a CEO mentor that shared the knowledge of what it takes to run and grow a business. Advisor owners were never coached on the evolution from advisor to CEO and the art of shedding responsibilities each step of the way. And most advisor-owners have not been encouraged to invest time and money into improving their CEO skills.
Fact: Many advisory business owners are burning out, departing due to serious illnesses, and not attracting new clients and staff.
The independent industy is made up of thousands of owners that only want to network with their current clients and COIs. These owners want to leave new business development and operations to fate. These firms’ operations managers and support staff dream of leaving to work for a more sustainable business but are tied to their current employers due to kids in local schools, handcuffing salaries, family guilt if they moved away, and the lackluster pay that other advisory businesses are offering...
Click here to read on about "Avoiding the collapse of independent wealth advisory businesses"