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PRACTICE MANAGEMENT

Recruiting top talent for your financial professional business

Businesswoman leading job interview

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 your selling points strategized for how you can promote them to 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 2023, with an anticipated 37.5% expecting to retire in the next 10 years, according to Cerulli Associates.1

But the good news is that there may be more opportunity today than ever before to recruit top talent, whether it’s interns, new college graduates or career changers. The pandemic gave people more time to reflect on what they are truly passionate about and to explore new career options, and the idea of helping others financially may be of great interest.

Recruiting recent college graduates

College graduates have always been a fertile area for new financial professionals, but life during the pandemic may have made the job of recruiting new college graduates even easier for financial firms.

In many cases, the new recruits begin before graduation as interns. Students who have an interest in the business apply to be interns to learn the basics, and after graduation, 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 gets the chance to watch the interns during their time in the office to observe see their ethics and attitude.

Landing career changers

The pandemic also started a new movement of career changers, creating an opportunity to find new professionals with backgrounds in different careers. This audience is often looking for flexibility in family and work hours as well as work from home opportunities.

When reviewing candidates coming from another career into the financial advising field, it’s important to find individuals who have a deep knowledge of the market, business development and the industry. They also need to be well connected. And they need to bring a network of connections with them.

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 of growth orientation, but not by sacrificing any values. Before anything else, a candidate must exude trust, a high level of ethics, and compatibility with the other members of the team.
  • 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 next generations.
  • Review the return on investment for staffing. Just like a portfolio, 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 determine the time it will free up for you to grow the business. Keep in mind, training of 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 you need, 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 areas you may not have been successful with before. 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 not only ramping up recruiting efforts to bring new financial professionals into the industry but are also honing their 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 (Feb. 8, 2024)

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.

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