PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
Recruiting top talent for your financial professional business
Key points
Grow your company
You may need to invest in your company to help it grow. This applies to both employees and technology improvements.
Good timing
When recruiting candidates for your firm, be sure to have selling points for why they should join your company.
There never is a bad time to grow a business, especially in the financial services industry. People always need financial advice, both when markets are calm and especially when they become complicated.
The number of financial professionals providing advice remained steady in the past three years, with an anticipated 37.5% expecting to retire in the next 10 years, according to Cerulli Associates.1
The good news is there may be opportunity to recruit top talent. A high percentage of respondents to Deloitte’s 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey reported having a sense of purpose in their careers was important.
Recruiting recent college graduates
College graduates have always been a group to source and recruit as new financial professionals.
In many cases, new recruits begin before graduation as interns. Students who have an interest in the business apply to be interns to learn the basics. After graduation, they get licensed, learn the business and are able to work with an experienced, successful financial professional. It gives them the opportunity to see if they like it. At the same time, it’s like a long interview process for a firm, which allows the team to observe the interns’ ethics and attitudes toward the work.
Landing career changers
Career changers are a prime opportunity to find new professionals with backgrounds in different careers, and a Gallup poll found 51% of American workers were watching for, or actively seeking a new job in 20242. In addition to a change of career, this audience may be looking for flexible work hours as well as work from home opportunities.
When reviewing candidates coming from another career into financial advising, it’s important to find individuals with a deep knowledge of the market, business development and the industry. They also need to have a network of connections.
Selling the concept
There has never been a better time to be a financial professional. When recruiting candidates for your firm, be sure to have selling points for how you can promote joining your company.
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Strategies for successful business growth
- Maintain a growth orientation—with the right recruits. Keep a continual mindset toward growth, but don’t sacrifice any values. Before anything else, a candidate must exude trust, a high level of ethics and compatibility with the other team members.
- Purpose before profit. Define your purpose and truly believe in it. If you are offering a meaningful experience that helps people, align to that purpose. Making a positive and meaningful impact must be part of the value proposition, especially for the millennial and Gen Z generations.
- Review the return on investment for staffing. You may need to invest in your company to help it grow. This applies to both employees and technology improvements. Determine the fit. Figure out how your tasks and those of your team can be realigned to incorporate the skills of your newly hired talent and the time it will free up for you to grow the business. Keep in mind, training the new employee may be required, which should be figured out before a new person is hired.
- Be selective. Before interviewing candidates, analyze what needs you have in your firm, even if you were to adjust tasks done by current employees. That way you can target candidates able to fill specific tasks and train them on additional tasks the financial industry may require for well-rounded employees.
- Look for people from all aspects of life. A diverse team of financial professionals can help your practice expand into new areas. It’s important to have a team of people from a range of backgrounds, experiences and ages.
Once you land them, train them
Internal training programs have become increasingly important to attract and retain qualified financial professionals and integrate them into your team. As retiring financial professionals exit the business, you will need new, qualified financial professionals to fill the gaps.
While opportunities for adding new talent to your firm abound, there are challenges. While some progress is being made, the industry is struggling to recruit and retain financial professional talent that is adequately prepared to inherit the businesses. As a result, financial professional firms are ramping up recruiting efforts to bring new financial professionals into the industry and are also honing training strategies to improve success rates for transitioning the business in retirement.
It is important that firms operate successful training programs to attract and train qualified advisors, integrate these younger advisors within teams for whom they can serve as a pipeline of potential successor candidates and operate effective business succession programs for retiring advisors.
1 Cerulli Associates, “The Financial Advisor Industry Has a Headcount Problem.” 2024, (January 29, 2025)
2Gallup, “The Great Detachment: Why Employees Feel Stuck.” December 3, 2024, (January 28, 2025).
The concepts presented are intended for educational purposes only. They may not be suitable for your client’s particular situation. The suitability of any specific product or strategy will be dependent upon your clients’ particular situation. Check with your organization for any specific requirements or restrictions they have related to client-related activities.