21-year-old about to launch as a financial advisor. Experienced CFPs, how would you evaluate my situation?

TL;DR

This is a bit long because there are a lot of parts but I truly appreciate any insight and perspective, thanks in advance!

I'm 21, have a finance degree, Series 7/66, Life & Health licenses, and I'm finishing my CFP coursework/master certificate.

I've spent the last year at a small independent firm that sponsored my licenses and has been great about helping me get into the industry.

I only have two paths:

Option 1: Stay a W-2 licensed admin.

• No salary or benefits.
• Firm covers business expenses.
• I only get paid if I bring in clients.
• BD takes 10%, then I split the remaining revenue 50/50 with the firm (I keep about 45%).
• They generally continue running client meetings.

Option 2: Become a 1099 advisor under the exact same firm.

• About $1,000/month in business expenses.
• BD takes 10%.
• Mentor takes another 10% for supervision, compliance help, and business processing.
• I keep roughly 80% of what I bring in.
• I own my clients, have my own rep code, and can actually provide advice.
• I'm not completely on my own. The admin still helps with paperwork, my mentor is still available for guidance, and I still operate under the same firm and broker-dealer.

My parents will become my first clients and should generate roughly $10k-$12k/year before splits, which would essentially cover my business overhead if I become an advisor.

The catch is that every dollar I ever make has to come from clients I personally find. There is no salary, no book being handed to me, and no guaranteed succession. (Although is often mentioned)

I'm not asking which option pays more. I'm asking if there are things about this overall situation that experienced advisors immediately recognize as good or bad.

The Situation (Contains all the details)

I've been at this firm for a little over a year.

It's just:

• One advisor (around 80 years old)
• His wife, who runs the administrative side
• No junior advisors

The advisor has approximately:

• ~100 clients
• ~$35M AUM
• Mostly W-2 retirees

He no longer actively prospects and has talked about moving toward higher net worth clients.

To their credit, they've:

• Sponsored my licenses
• Paid for my licensing exams
• Got me affiliated with the broker-dealer
• Been genuinely kind and supportive

I'm grateful for everything they've done.

However, I also don't want gratitude to cloud my judgment when making a long-term career decision.

What gives me pause

1. Every client has to come from me.

There is:

• No salary
• No benefits
• No existing clients
• No revenue from their current book

If I don't prospect successfully, I don't make money.

The only realistic ways I would ever receive clients are:

• A future succession (nothing is in writing)
• My mentor starts focusing exclusively on UHNW clients and transitions smaller relationships to me

2. The training hasn't been very structured.

I've learned the technology and have sat in on meetings.

What I haven't really learned is a repeatable advisory process.

Most meetings are spent:

• Catching up with clients
• Discussing life updates
• Listening to stories and tangents

I haven't seen much comprehensive planning, and the client base is very different from the business owners and entrepreneurs I ultimately want to build my practice around.

3. I already lost one client because I wasn't the advisor.

I brought in a family friend.

They ended up staying with my mentor instead.

He's told me multiple times he's happy to split some of the revenue because I brought them in, but nothing has actually happened.

That experience makes me nervous about building relationships that ultimately become someone else's clients.

4. The dynamic between my mentor and his wife is difficult to read.

This is honestly one of the biggest reasons I'm making this post.

My mentor has repeatedly told me:

• He doesn't want to make money off me.
• He just wants to help me succeed.
• He paid for my licensing exams.
• He wanted to pay for me to attend another conference this year.

His wife tends to have a different perspective.

She consistently recommends that I stay in the W-2 admin role with the 50/50 split while they continue running the meetings. She always explains that she's recommending this because she wants to see me succeed and thinks it's the safest path for someone new.

I genuinely believe they both have good intentions.

The confusing part is that I feel like I'm constantly getting two different messages.

When I speak with my mentor one-on-one, it often feels like he's encouraging me to become an advisor and build my own business.

When the three of us meet together, the conversation usually shifts toward the admin role or a 50/50 split, and my mentor generally defers to his wife.

I'm curious whether this is a fairly normal dynamic in a husband-and-wife practice or whether it's something I should weigh more heavily.

5. Succession is uncertain.

Succession has been mentioned, but nothing is written down.

He also frequently talks about leaving the business to his son, who has his licenses but left the business after a couple of weeks because he didn't enjoy it.

Because of that, I'm assuming there is no succession plan until something actually exists on paper.

My goals

Long term I want to:

• Build my own independent planning practice.
• Focus on business owners and entrepreneurs.
• Build long-term client relationships.
• Eventually operate my own business.

I also have an infant at home, so flexibility is important.

My question

If you were 21 and starting over today, how would you evaluate this situation?

Not just "which option would you pick," but the entire arrangement.

• Are there green flags I'm overlooking?
• Are there red flags that immediately stand out?
• Is this a great opportunity that simply requires patience?
• Or does this sound like a difficult environment to build a modern advisory practice?

I'd especially appreciate hearing from advisors who have built books from scratch, worked in independent BD firms, experienced succession arrangements, or mentored younger advisors.

Note: I used AI to help organize my thoughts and make sure I didn't leave out important context. The situation, facts, and questions are all my own.

I'm 32, have my CFP and ChFC designations, and I have been a W-2 employee at an independent RIA since 2022. It is currently just me and one other advisor (the owner) plus support staff.

I manage about $50m on my own, plus I share a book of $70m with my boss. Current pay structure is $100k salary plus 13% of AUM revenue (half of that for the clients I share with my boss) which translates to annual income of about $250k.

My wife is completely supportive of the idea of me going solo and thinks I'm in my own head too much, but the problem is that I feel like my career was handed to me in a way that won't happen twice. I have done seminars and educational events over the years, but I hate every minute of it. My book primarily came from another coworker who quit without notice to launch his own thing, and my boss was at capacity, so that left me to do damage control. I was able to save about 80% of those relationships, and here we are.

If I were to go off on my own, I have no idea how I'd meet anybody. I lean introvert and do not naturally hang out in places where I'm building my network and meeting qualified leads.

Is it crazy for me to be content as a servicing advisor? My wife thinks I'm not at my end game yet, I think I'd be nuts to walk away from $250k/yr with a wife who's a SAHM to two young kids.

Hello all,

I am a Financial Advisor in Ontario Canada. I bought a book of business, about $47 million and it's grown to $50 million with a few new accounts and with the market.

I am MFDA certified and working on my LLQP. I have already added ETFs to my offering along with Liquid Alts.

I do not have a university degree, only college, so for now, the CFP is off the table.

I'm wondering if my next move after LLQP should be QAFP? That would allow me to call myself a Financial Planner in Canada.

Not sure how necessary that would be? The book I bought was from a retiring Financial Advisor, not a CFP or QAFP. They were successful over their career.

Thanks

I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with these and if there really is no free at all on the investment side and that the only fee would be the advisor fee

Have a client with a large concentrated employer stock position. A portion of it (overall it is millions of employer stock) is NUA. He really has no interest in ever selling this company for tax reasons but also emotional/bullish belief in the company. I am trying to get buy in from him in the value of diversifying and protecting his legacy. Exchange funds came up in conversation.

He also has other employer stock that is taxable. Since NUA does not get a step up in basis at death I explained if we were going to diversify eventually and you want to capture NUA we may want to consider diversifying from NUA portion of stock first since this will not be treated as favorably for a step up.

Another advisor was on the call and mentioned if we were to contribute the NUA to an exchange fund we get diversification, tax deferral AND in 7 years when the 50-60 diversified stocks distribute from the exchange fund those stocks are then eligible for a step up in estate.

This is such a niche situation and a quick ai search where I asked it to cite sources didn’t corroborate what the other advisor was saying about the step up.

Anyone ever experienced this and know the answer?

I wanted to add more value add services for my A & B tier clients. I liked the idea of Holistiplan, but I admittedly may not be using it correctly. The feedback I'm getting is that it's kind of interesting, but not helpful. As an advisor I'm not seeing much value either.

How are you using it? What aspects do your clients appreciate the most?

Had a large list of people I was calling working on it all month. Left the office with it in my notebook for lunch. Left my notebook in public office building lunch room. 2 hours later someone turned it in. My Assistant opened it and saw list with 50+ names I was working on. I didn’t realize I left it. Came back in, and like an idiot I called compliance to let them know what happened because felt it was right thing to do. They had me submit a case. Had names phone numbers and account numbers, true call list. Currently case is under review.

The weight of it is sinking in now and I’m feeling my 10 years at the firm are not only lost but any future chances of working in industry are as well. As I was typing in info to case i realized how bad it looked. I threw away my whole career and I’m just waiting on the axe to fall now. Had never had any issues at all with my firm and genuinely loved it. I can’t think and don’t know what to do anymore. Is it even a possibility to be hired at another firm?

Is it just me or does everyone notice nepotism increases in advisor/RIA space every year?
It seems like the typical big advisor/firm owner works until 70 or so, and then brings in their under-qualified offspring who is in their 30s.
I make our BDs annual sales conference and increasingly it is advisor’s children with 2-4 years experience who inherited these huge books.

Does this typically work out or does the child eventually flame out? With recent market growth, even with 50% attrition, I am sure they are still doing very well.

To each their own, but it seems what makes a very successful advisor and leaders of our industry will change over the next 10-15 years, and not in a good way. Just would like to hear peoples’ experiences and thoughts.

Hey all,

I’m a licensed financial advisor that worked at my previous firm for almost 10 years. It was a large bank broker-dealer. I started off as a banker, got licensed through them, and working as a financial advisor for about 7 years.

The long story short is that I provided employee feedback in 2020 thinking that I was providing valuable ideas, but the years that followed felt like they wanted me gone.

After about 5 years, they successfully pushed me out of the company by sending me a letter while I was using PTO. They essentially stated that they thought I left the company and that my termination date would begin on October 7th.

I was extremely burnt out because they were giving me nothing but LMI branches with high turnover, a book of business that comprised of house accounts that were mostly under $25k AUM, and kept reassigning frustrated clients to me from other financial advisors that didn’t want to service the clients.

9 months later now, and I’m desperately in need of a job. I’m struggling to find financial advisor positions in my area. I was working remote for 5 years, and I can’t find anything remote nor can I find much in terms of in-branch.

I don’t have a book of business that I can carry with me, and I don’t know what to do.

I applied for (company name) and things were going great, but after two months of interviewing and discussion, they’re not confident that they can get me through the panel review due to my time off from work.

I don’t know what to do. I love being a financial advisor, and don’t know how to navigate through this.

I understand the market, politics, financial planning, history, sales, and behavioral finance.

Does anyone have or know where I might be able to find a job where I can continue my career and hopefully build a book of business?

Any help, ideas, suggestions would be welcomed with the utmost appreciation and gratitude.

LinkedIn premium? Smart asset? Others?

I think I know the answer but curious to learn if anyone has had success or your overall experience.

I’ve been seeing some of these pop up and have had some recruiters reach out to me about them. They are claiming to look for CFPs, CPAs, and CFAs to do quality reviews to ensure AI bots are accurately relaying answers to financial questions. The pay range I’m seeing is around $100 per hour on contract basis.

One recruiter did reach out to me from a well known big tech company (one of the biggest) but some of the others that I’ve seen are from companies I’ve never heard of.

Is there a catch or something that I’m missing? Anyone ever worked one of these type of gigs?

Did you experience a lot of growth in early years? I would think that HNW clients would have a good amount of interest in flat fee for the discount aspect. 

I’m thinking about the new solos out there that are considering flat fee vs a blended AUM schedule who want to get profitable clients as fast as possible without having to switch from flat fee to AUM and potentially losing some of their book. 

What’s up all - happy 4th week to all of my fellow Americans, and Canada day to all of our friends up north!

Been reflecting on the 1st half of this year (being slower with the holiday coming up this week, had some free time).

Looking for some raw honest feedback on what the growth trajectory is for my business outside of me just TVM calculating it or ChatGPT. I am curious on what real lifestyle looks like as the business progresses, how the work/life balance is, and true take home compensation to serve your family.

Just turned 30, $25m AUM. Avg fee is 1.25%. Most of the book is middle America. Retirees between 500k-1.5m, or families making 200k+. Brought on $8.5m new last year (7.5m net but only a few clients in retirement taking liquidations).

Also have $2m ACH scheduled annually. I think a safe assumption is that I will continue to minimally do $7.5m net new.

Based on some math, 5 years from now it’s $80m. 10 years, it’s $160m (8% growth).

1. Anyone been on a similar path that is years ahead of me? What is your practice like? How much overhead/what % of revenue are you keeping.

2. I see 10 years, 160m. Avg 1% by then, 1.6m revenue. Is it really that simple?

3. What is life ACTUALLY like? Clown on me all you want - I’d like to be able to operate surge meetings, work 180-200 days a year, have a country club membership, be involved in my kids lives, have ability to travel, create an impacting family legacy with wealth.

(Question 3 is legit from the heart - I don’t have mentors in this circle of life outside of my BD connections - so none of them operate in the RIA mindset and quite honestly I do not want to emulate their lives)

What perspective do you have for me generally? Thanks for the feedback!

Hi everyone,

I have an interesting opportunity to acquire a book of business.

We’re very early on in discussions, and I do not know much about the book - but I was told an estimated average age….

Advisor believes the average age is 85 yrs old.

What would you think is a reasonable multiple? 1x? 2x? More?

Thanks in advance.

Insurance leads (life, Medicare, etc.) seem to run a lot cheaper than AUM leads, so I'm curious whether anyone here uses them as a top-of-funnel play — buy the cheaper lead, write the policy, then convert the relationship into AUM.

A few things I'd love input on:

• Are you buying data/form leads or inbound/live transfer calls? Which converts better for you?
• Does it actually work, or do insurance leads skew toward clients with little to invest?
• Any way to target higher-income prospects on the insurance side so the AUM conversion is worth it?
• Which lead types convert best (term life, IUL, Medicare, final expense)?
• What's your rough conversion rate from policy sold → AUM client?

Trying to figure out if this is a real strategy or a time sink. Appreciate any experience.

This piece hit the WSJ last week and I've seen it make circles around RIAs, and they both did a GREAT and HORRIBLE job explaining the key idea.

For those who don't care to read, I'm an actuary who specializes in life expectancy and I want to help educate advisors on how to set better retirement plans and goals. I summarized my thoughts on the article below:

• The 4% rule is basically something coined back in the '90s based on a worst-case backtest on US history, and it's based on a fixed 30-year horizon.
• In 2025, the study was updated and put the new % at around 4.7% on a revised 55/40/5 mix.
• The main fix it spends time on is the dynamic / actuarial method: each year spend portfolio balance ÷ remaining life expectancy, then recompute. So this ditches the flat 30-year horizon, which is great.

However, there's one major issue with this.

The WSJ used the SSA period life table (as an FYI, the RMD variant uses the IRS Uniform Lifetime table, which is different). My critique is specifically about the SSA single-life period table and how they are applying it. Sorry in advance, but I am an actuary and work in the retirement space and there are 3 issues here that stack all in the same direction:

1. First, they use a period table, which applies one calendar year's death rates across all future ages with zero future mortality improvement baked in.
2. Second, the SSA table is based on a population average, and your clients aren't average. The income/wealth–longevity gradient is real in that mass-affluent clients are above the median, so when discussing with clients, if you use the WSJ method, you will under-estimate their life expectancy and how long they will need income.
3. Finally, this ignores individual health and family history.

To try to put it simply, the real cost of all this is that it would show a systematically front-loaded, then declining, real-income path (you spend too much early and the later years drift down, exactly when you may least want them to). Basically you've mis-stated longevity risk and handed the client the wrong consumption path. And for an unhealthy client the table overstates LE and the method gets too conservative.

The best way to deal with it is to have a personalized estimate of LE and take a conservative estimate (p90). Basically, if you take a 62-year-old with well-controlled conditions and one with a clean bill of health, what age are they likely to live past in 90% of cases?

Anyways, the perfect tool is one that has considers your personal health and lifestyle factors (i.e., condition-level modeling, outputting a survival curve). I posted a tool that does exactly this a few months ago and got genuinely useful pushback I've folded in. It's still 100% free to use by any advisor or client and I'm just happy make it available for the community. Please check it out at https://www.lumislife.com/ if interested and let me know if you've been using it.

To my fellow CFPs, when you run RMD-style / dynamic decumulation in practice, what do you actually use: IRS table, flat "plan to 95," joint last-survivor, a survival percentile, or a gut add-on? And do you individualize for client health/wealth at all, or lean on the guardrails to absorb the error?

For those of you that are RIA only, how do you handle signature guarantee requirements? RIAs aren't eligible to apply for a medallion (banks, broker-dealers and trust companies only). We have a few 529 plans we want to move from American Funds that a client has over to Schwab's 529 where we custody the rest of the assets. American Funds requires a signature guarantee. Schwab Advisor Services said they can't provide one. Most banks are saying they will only provide one if assets are transferring to them or their trust company. Has anyone had any luck with a Schwab retail branch helping out? Feeling stuck on this one.

I have built my niche around being the specialist for a top 100 Fortune 500 company. I would like to provide clients with a semi annual analysis/research article.

I would anticipate paying for this but don’t know where to begin?

Do my thoughts/expectations need adjusted?
-1 page executive summary analysis
-short term and long term perspective
-sector and competitor analysis
-buy/hold/sell recommendation

Any pointers on where I could go to hire someone for this write up? Thinking to have two different analysis completed to bring two perspectives to the table.

Thanks

We are a medium size RIA (SEC Registered/based in Texas). One of our advisor's will be relocating to a country in Asia for a 3 year assignment for their spouse's employment. Has anyone dealt with this before? We have an appointment with our compliance attorney's next week, but I am trying to crowd source the potential issues so we are better prepared to ask all of the correct questions.

The advisor manages a small book of clients (10-12 relationships) of primarily friends and family, serves as a paraplanner to our larger relationships, and manages the bulk of our compliance activities. The advisor feels like they can maintain communication with this small group of clients from abroad and will return to the US periodically for in person meetings/reviews. They do plan to work "one month in US and one month in Asia" to make sure they reside for AT LEAST 180 days in the United States. They will NOT be soliciting new business outside of the US in Asia or anywhere else for that matter -- ONLY maintaining their existing relationships.

Obviously, we will have logistical concerns with working remotely (IT security for remote access, time zone considerations, and office logistics). I'm looking to see if anyone out there has managed through something like this.

NOTE: We are SEC registered only as fee based advisors...no FINRA registration.