Introduction
Corey: hi everyone corey whalen managing director of bridge mark strategies a firm that’s helped over a thousand financial advisors objectively explore the broker dealer and ria marketplace and help them find the right combination of feel fit and financials for them in their business
Who This Video Is For
Corey: this video today is for financial advisors that have identified that they want to start the due diligence process that maybe their firm that they’re currently at isn’t the right fit for them but really just don’t know how to get started
The 5 Ps
Corey: i think everybody’s heard the the the expression the five ps proper preparation prevents poor performance and i really think financial advisors that don’t properly prepare in the beginning are are doomed to have a really efficient due diligence process
Define Your End Game + Vision
Corey: so some of the things that you really want to start thinking through in the process is number one just understanding what you want to accomplish you know what is your end game as a business and a team that will really help you develop the right questions to ask and what your absolute must-haves and things that you want to avoid and your next broker-dealer or riaa partner are
Corey: you know a consultant sees the broker dealer in our a space every single day so they can really start helping you identify that vision through education before you even start having conversations with firms
Write Down Your Questions
Corey: once you identify that you know actually writing down all of the questions that you have for the firms you’re going to speak to i think is really really important i can’t tell you how many financial advisors that we prepare before a meeting and they won’t write down the questions and they kind of just blank and forget you know 75 of the questions that they want to ask writing them down in a clear way when that you could bring to meetings is not only just going to help keep you organized and make sure you ask everything you want to but also make sure you’re asking the same questions to all the different firms out there
Firm Analyzer
Corey: we actually have a firm analyzer tool that has 50 different criteria that you can compare side by side with the broker dealers or rias that you have conversations with it’s a really really good way to stay organized throughout the due diligence process and also just help you think of questions that you may not have thought of asking
New Email Address
Corey: another way to stay organized is opening up a personal email address a new one just for your broker dealer due diligence search i can’t tell you how many emails you’re gonna get speaking for four or four or five different firms in terms of tech demos follow-ups meeting invites if that gets all messed up with the other spam in your personal email box it’s really really hard to stay organized
Corey: the last piece of advice that i would give to financial advisors exploring other firms is you know don’t disclose too much information to the firms that you’re speaking with too early obviously you want to be fo you want to be fully open in terms of telling a broker dealer you know your pain points at your current firm you know your must-haves and must-have knots um in a new firm and what you want to accomplish but i always recommend that my clients not disclose in the very beginning who else that they’re considering having conversations with you want that firm to be focusing about what they believe their true strengths are and why they believe that you should join their firm and not them speaking about why you shouldn’t join another firm that just leads to a really large amount of inefficiency in the due diligence process
Wrap-up
Corey: i really hope you enjoyed this if you have any questions please feel free to reach out
