Intro Hook

Seth: The reason that people don’t switch firms is because of fear, you know. For three months before I resigned, I was waking up at 5 30 every morning just scared.

Podcast Opening + Introductions

Corey: Hey everyone, Corey Whalen here, managing partner with bring to bark strategies. Thanks for attending my podcast today. I’ve published a lot of videos and podcasts on my YouTube and podcast channels to help advisors that approach me make the best decision possible when leaving Edward Jones. And I’ve covered multiple topics such as, you know, speaking with an attorney that’s represented hundreds of Edward Jones advisors in their transition to share best practices, just educate them on some of the independent misconceptions that may be out there through my experience, and just help them kind of understand what a financial advisor gains by making a move to Independence or another employee firm. But through my experience, by far the most valuable part of the due diligence process for an advisor is when they speak with a here who’s done the same move as that as they’re considering and can through the same language just help them understand what that move took and what they gained through the transition. And that’s why I brought on my guest and friend, uh, Seth Whiskey on the podcast today. He was a level 10 financial advisor at Edward Jones when he made the leap to Independence three years ago and really has a great story and has truly thrived on the independent Channel. Seth, I really appreciate you coming on today. How are you doing today?

Seth: Oh, it’s a good day. It’s Friday. It’s one my team is working hard. Uh, we just finished tax season, so it’s good.

Corey: That’s beautiful, it’s beautiful. Seth, if you don’t mind, just just tell us a little bit, you know, about about yourself and how you even got to Edward Jones in the first place.

Background

Seth: Yeah, so I grew up on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, a notice to five kids. My dad has an agribusiness and my mom was a special ed teacher. I went to the University of Virginia where I did engineering, and from there I spent a year working on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. I did not like it, and the day after my 23rd birthday I started with I started with Edward Jones. You know, I was looking to move back to the valley. I wanted to do something in the valley, and I like the concept of being in business for yourself but not by yourself. That was something that was really promoted at the beginning of my career at Edward Jones. And my dad was a small business owner. I always wanted to be a small business owner. My mom was a teacher and helped people, and I wanted to help people, and that was kind of the natural fit.

Success at Edward Jones

Corey: Awesome, awesome. I mean, and you had some immense success at Edward Jones. You went from basically, you know, zero to what was your production when you when you left Edward Jones?

Seth: So I started new new in 2005 and, um, well, I hit the million dollar Mark in my 10th year.

Corey: Awesome.

Seth: Uh, I think it was around one one two or one two five three years ago when I left at about a hundred and there’s 175 million under management and 112 in fee based assets when I left.

Corey: So where did you kind of hit your stride inside of, you know, Edward Jones? What do you think helped you, you know, grow so quickly?

Seth: Oh, hard work. It was a lot of hard work. I mean, I was in a small town with a lot of not ideal clients, and I look 16 years old. Um, so I it was really just a lot of hard work. But I realized from a very early age that, you know, everybody in the industry was kind of doing the same thing, and I really really focused on planning, and I tried to specialize in, you know, Financial Planning, and that kind of led to helping small business owners. And, you know, the irony is is the people that need the most estate planning, tax planning, and financial planning are people with the most assets. And so I was just very fortunate that what I was interested in was also with people with assets needed.

Corey: Perfect. Um, when did you get your cfp?

Seth: That’s a great question. I think I’ve had it for six or eight years now. I probably got it, I don’t know, around year 10, somewhere around there in my career.

Corey: Awesome.

Pushes From Edward Jones

Corey: So, so Seth, you know, obviously Edward Jones is is a great firm, and they’ve had, you know, tremendous success, you know, throughout the years. But I tell financial advisors all the time: just because a firm is a good is a great firm, it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily, you know, the best fit for everybody. And I’ve talked about this many times before, but, you know, in the recruiting World we tell recruits, you know, there’s pushes that, you know, make a financial advisor potentially, you know, want to leave a firm, and then there’s also pulls from the outside, you know, industry where financial advisors find things that are potentially really attractive, specifically in this example, you know, about about the independent side. So, you know, what were some of the things that were going on at Edward Jones that were kind of a misalignment with your business and where you wanted to take it?

Seth: Yeah, so Edward Jones is really really great at a lot of things, and I like their culture, but at the end of the day when you’re a W-2 employee, um, you are not the you are not the client, um, of of of of whatever firm you’re clearing through. You know, when you’re an independent advisor you are the client, and they have to focus on, you know, what’s in everybody’s best interests. I just think that there’s some of these misalignments, um, so, you know, I I bought my first rental property when I was 23 and I bought another one when I was 28. Um, and I realized early on in a low interest rate environment that through leverage, you know, I could create some lessly correlated assets and, you know, use financial leverage to help build net worth because I didn’t know there was going to be a level 10 advisor when I was 23 years old. I was just out, you know, pounding the pavement knocking on doors, and they were really really against kind of those outside business activities. So that was one thing that was kind of a hard situation for me is that outside real estate, even though I was a quick, you know, whether quickly growing advisors and I had absolutely no compliance issues ever, um, you know, just the outside business activities really really they gave me a hard time about.

Seth: And then, you know, those other little things, like I was the first commercial historic building in the entire Valley to put solar on top of my building. I got myself in the newspaper. I got myself on TV. You know, uh, I mean I I really kind of put it out there, and, uh, I wanted my clients to do it because just, you know, financially it made a lot of sense, and I came to loggerheads with Edward Jones, you know, about that. I mean, that that was a big argument between us.

Seth: And then it got all the way down to even cfp. Um, I have no idea what their stance is on it now, but when I was a cfp and they got to the point where they were, you know, there was this whole fiduciary, uh, argument going on in our industry, and I was raising my hand. I’m a cfp. I want to be a fiduciary. I want to be held to that standard. Um, the Edward Jones did not want to be held to that standard, so they had paid for me to get my cfp, so they let me put comma see if people have my name, but I was not allowed to use the word planner or planning in an email because they said that that implied a fiduciary standard, and they didn’t want to be held to that standard. And all every email you send is scrubbed for all these words. So because I was, you know, I had this real estate and they were always on me about that, they were scanning all my emails, and every time I used the word planner or planning I had a, you know, an internal finding. Uh, and I was like, guys, this this is ridiculous. Like, the word planning is just a natural term that you use in the course of speech. I cannot believe that y’all are getting on me about this.

Seth: So those were some of the pushes, and I really, you know, from the harassment I received from that I really should have left at least four or five years before. I I regret not leaving sooner. Um, but, you know, I I I’ve held almost every leadership position there. I’ve been the new fa leader, you know, my brother works there, my second cousin works there. I encourage them to work there. It’s really a great firm for a lot of people, but, um, if you are a W-2 employee you don’t really control your own destiny, and you’re always going to have some of these issues of things that really shouldn’t be issues at all.

Seth: Did I answer your question on the pushes, Corey?

Corey: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

Pulls Toward Independence

Corey: Um, you know, and and what about what about some of the some of the polls, right? You know, Edward Jones advisors and all other employee financial advisors every day that you’re constantly getting calls with people trying to sell the value proposition, you know, of of Independence. When you started just kind of opening up your eyes a little bit and learning what was outside of Edward Jones, what were some of the things that you were like, wow, I I really want to do that?

Seth: Yes. So the thing I told my clients is nobody ever leaves for one reason, nobody leaves for two reasons, people leave for 10 reasons. Um, but there’s normally a few big ones. Um, and people had always told me that you could make more on the independent space, that there was a higher margin. I really didn’t believe them. Um, I was like, oh no, I don’t believe it. And I was like, you know, for two or three or four percent am I really want to uproot everything? I’m going to leave for two or three or four percent? Absolutely not. You should never go anywhere for a few basis points. That’s absolutely not a good reason. Um, but there is a basis point spread and potentially a really big basis point spread.

Seth: Um, but also when you’re independent you have a lot more of what I would call, you know, arrows in your quiver. I mean, you have the ability to do a lot more, um, things. And Edward Jones is kind of always slow to react, um, because they’re this big ship, and there’s there’s a lot of stuff out there in the market that’s, you know, totally normal, and you know, not we don’t do anything fancy in our office. We focus on financial planning, uh, kind of the Nexus where it meets Estate Planning and tax planning. Um, and, you know, we we don’t pitch return, we don’t pitch exotic Investments. Um, but there’s there’s just a lot more options out there in the independent world that you can plug your clients into, especially as they get wealthier and wealthier. You know, it could be investment banking services, it could be more SMA style investing. Um, and I don’t know how deep into the weeds we want to get, but some of these model based investing and SMA style investing has allowed my business to be much more repeatable and to grow it in a more systematic fashion.

Seth: And then and then just the ability to structure my office the way that I want. I have an office manager now. I have a junior advisor, and I now have two and a half administrative staff. I’ve become a workaholic. I got married two years ago, and the first two months of this year I’ve worked the least I’ve ever worked in my life. I mean, I’m back to just a really for the first time in my career this is a really amazing work-life balance. And at Jones I could always do that via, you know, a good night giving away assets, but, you know, what if you don’t want to give away those assets? I’d already done three good nights in my career for almost 40 million dollars, and I was down to just, you know, relation ships that I really enjoyed, and I didn’t want to just give those to some new advisor that didn’t have that much experience. You know, I I wanted to be able to manage it in-house and grow in a way that I thought was best for everybody, best for my clients, but also best for my staff and best for me. So there are a lot more pulls, but those are the first ones that came to mind. I probably should have written some reasons down before we spoke today.

Corey: Um, that’s that’s that that’s perfect. And something, you know, that I I really heard from you is, you know, the other day we were talking and you just told me about, you know, all this amazing growth that you’re having just kind of being left alone to do what you feel is right for your clients. So, you know, more assets, you know, Less hours. Can you dig into that a little bit more in terms of, you know, why that is?

More Assets, Less Work

Seth: Yeah, so the first year was just kind of moving clients over that wanted to come with us and just kind of letting the dust settle. And then the second year I was like, wow, I have the ability to hire some people. I need a junior advisor. Like, I’m getting married, I’m about to have a 10 year old, like, I want to spend time with my family. Um, and so I just was looking for ways to create that bandwidth. And and Jones were never taught to think that way. We’re we’re never taught to think about organizational structures. We’re never taught to think about, like, what is your business worth on the back end. Um, and I started thinking through those, and, um, you know, like last year we brought in 40 million dollars, over 40 million dollars of net new assets. Um, and, you know, we’re up to about 200 million dollars in fee-based assets now, and it allows a lot of growth for my team.

Seth: Um, you know, I went to my two key people, my junior advisor and office manager, and I I just said, tell me what you like to do on an everyday basis. Tell me what the ideal career is for you five years from now. I thought I knew, but what they told me I was right with half of it, but I was wrong with half of it. And I said, you know, I think this is kind of a choose your own career organization. I said, let’s go out and hire the personality types that enjoy doing all the stuff you don’t like doing. And I said, here’s what I want to do every day. And we all three wrote down what we wanted to do every day and everything that needed to be done, and then we went out and found people to do those other things, and, uh, we just didn’t have that ability. Um, you know, as a W-2 advisor and Cory I don’t even remember the question you asked at this point. Is that’s a question?

Corey: No, it’s it’s okay. It’s, uh, it’s it’s it’s definitely a lot. So, so that government asked me a question: more and more more assets, you know, less work, you know, how are you doing that inside of, you know, the the independent ecosystem?

Tech Stack + Models + Flexibility

Seth: So, you know, I know a lot of people that pitch performance and they run their own models, and with the future of the regulatory environment I’ve just from the get-go I never thought that that was a smart way to run a business for the last 18 years. I know a lot of people do it, and that’s how they try to express value. Uh, one of my professors in college, uh, had us read a book called a random walk down Wall Street, and it basically said the monkey that charges you the least amount of money to throw darts against the dartboard is going to make you the most money over time. So if I’m sitting down with a sophisticated investor or, uh, or an engineer or something like that, they’ll say, well, how are you going to beat the market? And I say, I don’t. Um, I don’t think I will. If I match it or I beat it, great, but that that’s not my value proposition.

Seth: And so as an independent advisor you can be advisory as portfolio manager if that’s the value proposition you want to make, but you also have the ability to plug into all sorts of models, um, and so I have, uh, you know, I have access to, you know, I can plug into any CRM that I want. Um, I’m about to have offices and three different cities, so, you know, we can kind of manage it across multiple places. I can plug in any financial planning that I want, any risk tolerance that I want, um, and then I can access any model that I want. And I have, uh, access to, uh, you know, I have three clients this year doing private Equity deals for eight figures, um, so hopefully the next 12 months will also be a good new asset next year, um, but you just you just have access to all of these, you know, these firms used to always try to do the software in-house and they’re coming coming to the realization that that’s not the case, and you need to kind of use the best of the best. And I feel the same way about assets.

Seth: So one of the ways I’ve been able to bring in assets is just trying to trying to figure out what the best technology is and to integrate it. Like, during covet I had friends that I was talking to and they would say, Seth, are you shut down because of covet? And I said, what the heck are you talking about? And they said, well, we can’t have clients coming to the office. I was like, well, clients could come into our office, you know. Uh, you know, we tell them, you know, and we say, do you want us to wear a mask? We ask them ahead of time. Um, but you just have the ability to shape it how you want now.

Seth: Did I did I answer your question in that time?

Corey: No, you did perfectly, perfectly.

Mix and Match Tools Without Switching Firms

Corey: So, and I talk with, uh, potential clients that are considering options not just like Edward Jones but a lot of employee firms. You’re kind of at the mercy of your broker dealer at an employee firm with their Tech stack. If you want to make changes with any of the technology you either need to move broker dealers or you have to way for them to do, you know, a whole company upload. We’re on the independent side, you have the ability to mix and match a little bit and control your client experience without, you know, having to change broker dealers, which I think is which I think is fantastic. Um, so that’s that’s really good to know.

Marketing + Financial Planning Depth

Corey: Um, what about other aspects of your business, Steph. So, um, you know, your website’s really sharp. I saw some awesome videos on there, um, so kind of curious what to see, you know, what you’ve been doing from a marketing standpoint differently. And also, um, I know financial planning is really big for you. Would love to learn, you know, what you’re doing differently or how you’re going deeper with clients with a little bit more flexibility from that standpoint.

Seth: Yeah, so from a marketing perspective, since we’re getting ready to be in three cities and it’s not just the set brand anymore, like, I I think it’s a bad idea to name your business after yourself. Um, so we hired a marketing company and we decided on Middlebrook wealth. Um, and a lot of people just throw, you know, websites out there, but but they’re not effective. And a website doesn’t drive business. Like, nobody’s going to look for business for you.

Seth: So, um, we were fortunate enough to find a marketing company that actually uses Advanced analytics to create a feedlet pack Loop, and they integrate, um, you know, Instagram, Facebook, maybe Twitter, uh, and the website, and and it’s kind of two things. It’s like, how do you get your name out there in front of potential ideal clients, but then also how do you get information to your current clients, um, for them to get to know you as a person but also still provide education. And very very few marketing companies actually do this in a way to where they actually have an analytics to show and drive what’s working. And that’s something that we have been working on for six months. Just last month is when we started our branding, and we’re going to start pushing for that.

Seth: So, so we really do no marketing, but now that I’m going to be in those three cities, um, we’re going to be able to use some of those analytics and the ability to do these videos. I mean, our we’re getting such good feedback from our clients because the videos really are, you know, done professional. And as a W-2 employee I can’t imagine that you could ever get that, you know, done reasonably. And we put out a quarterly newsletter, and it’s all personal. Just, you know, this person went on vacation, this is this person’s favorite recipe, and the response that we’ve had to that is is very very good because clients want to get to know you, you know, individually, especially if they retire and change States or, you know, just post covered, you know, a lot of our clients just don’t want to come into the office as much. So that’s what we’ve done on one marketing, um, and then so your your other question was from a financial planning perspective.

Seth: Um, and so, you know, I tell all my clients, I don’t do mortgages, I don’t do Medicare insurance, I don’t do wills, but you can think of me as the financial quarterback. So if somebody’s trying to retire early, we have a local Medicare resource where we help them, um, talk through how much that’s going to cost and, uh, sorry, not just Medicare, but if they retire early, ACA. Um, if they retire, you know, ACA subsidies are based on income, and you as the advisor have a huge area of opportunity to shape your clients income through withdrawals from Roth IRAs or hsas or non-qualified assets to change what their income is so that they can get very affordable health care.

Seth: We’re also extremely proactive with high rate or Roth conversions, um, you know, we are at historic low tax rates. Our country’s broke, um, is politically unpopular to raise taxes, but they’re the lowest they’ve ever been, and we’re broke. So it seems to me that somewhere along the way taxes are probably going to be higher than they are today, and they’re automatically going higher in like 2026 or 2027. And what makes this tax code very unique is that a married couple can make up to almost 400 000 and only being a 24 tax bracket. I mean, people like to complain about taxes, but 24 historically for somebody with a decent net worth and income is very very cheap.

Seth: Um, so I run a lot of those calculations and try to see if it makes sense, and then I proactively call up their CPA and try to talk through with them, you know, some of those items. Um, so I hope those are just two examples that we start to look at, but you know when I was a W-2 employee I was getting a lot of resistance, um, you know, of what constitutes tax advice, right? Like, I do these reports, I know exactly how the math Works, um, I’m reaching out to the CPA to get the CPA to drive the conversation, but it was very very just restrictive and the way in the manner with which I could interact, talk to, and email these CPAs to get all this work done. And it’s not just that situation, it’s many many situations like that that we do. So is that, um, yeah that’s atmosphere.

Corey: That’s perfect, thank you.

Acquiring Practices + Multi-Custody Assets

Corey: Um, one other benefit I wanted to talk about before maybe we kind of go into some of the downsides. You know, you’ve told me about some of the success you’ve been having with financial advisors approaching you and in the marketplace, you know, being able to, you know, acquire practices not just inside of your broker dealer now but, you know, all over the community. Can you kind of just talk about that a little bit?

Seth: Yes. So it’s interesting. Advisors are getting older and older and older, and there’s probably recessions coming, and in the next recession we probably will see a lot of these advisors say, you know, um, you know, it’s probably time for me to retire. Um, and I think the way the industry is going is what I would call multi-custody Assets Now. I’m not saying that what is right for everybody is a multi-custed era, um, but when you’re independent you have the ability to buy to buy other businesses. Um, I mean, we are quickly growing. I’m not saying buying businesses is for everybody, but I’m currently in the process of buying two businesses with about a hundred million dollars under management.

Seth: And I am, you know, they asked Wayne Gretzky, there’s a famous quote that said, Wayne, how are you so good at hockey? It’s like, it’s easy, I just skate to where the Puck’s going to be. And I think the way that the industry is moving is a multi-customed assets. So, um, I’m currently looking at kind of redoing outward position as a firm so that I can clear through, you know, I mean, as an example I might be able to clear through Fidelity, Schwab, Raymond James, TD Ameritrade, Goldman Sachs. So if I find somebody retiring at any of these places, you don’t have to a cat all the assets, you can just become the advisor, and it and it makes the transition a lot more popular.

Seth: And we were talking a little bit about technology earlier, like there is software that can see through into all these different places that you’re holding the assets, and it’ll come to you, um, like they’re all in the same place. And so if one of your goals is to buy books, um, being at a multi-custody manager, I mean, that is the future, um, because an advisor that’s trying to retire, uh, the the Eternal thing is like, if you want to buy them, they’re like, you transfer firms to me, I don’t want to transfer to you. And somebody that’s trying to retire and they’re probably at a stage of their career where they’re not working 40 hours a week, how the heck are you going to get them to do all the work to come to you? Um, you have to go to them. But if you’re multi-custody it takes that entire problem out of the situation.

Seth: And and then, you know, if you’re an independent advisor and you can multi-custody everywhere, well, if if Raymond James raises their fees or you don’t like what Raymond James is doing or Charles Schwab raises their fees or whatever, you have the your business is Nimble. You’re I I think you’re more of a true fiduciary. You have the ability to go wherever you think is best for your clients.

Corey: That’s that’s great Insight, Seth. I appreciate it. So, you know, we talk about, you know, some great benefits of Independence. Is there is there anything that you that you miss at Edward Jones?

What He Misses

Seth: So the trips were the trips were okay. Um, I’m a little bit more of an introvert, you know. If you’re an extreme extrovert and you or or if you have, uh, an inability to be self-motivated, yeah, you know that you know. So if you need somebody to hold you accountable to structure, you know, you need to just know yourself. If you’re extreme, you know, extrovert, maybe you want to go towards a team, um, but, you know, I we have a lot of good friends there. You know, when you leave you’ll find out who your true friends were because they’ll still be your friends, yeah. Uh, some of them might not be, yeah, but I mean it’s it’s a great firm, but it, you know, it’s just not right for everybody.

Corey: For sure. I appreciate I appreciate the the honesty. How did your clients react when when when when when you decided to leave?

Client Reactions + Transition Outcomes

Seth: So you have to be very very careful. You can’t take anything with you. I did not, um, you know. Every firm you go to is going to hook you up with an attorney to make sure that you do everything right. I did everything the attorney told me. Um, you know, I just reached out to my clients and announced that I was leaving, um, and it went exactly the way they said. You know, a third of them said, what do I got to do to come with you? A third ask, well, why did you leave? And at the end of the day what they really want to know is are they better off. They care about you as a person. They want to know that you’re better off, but it’s important that they’re better off. And then, you know, and then maybe the last third just has a lot of questions.

Seth: And we were extremely successful. Um, I think we probably transitioned something like 97 of our assets.

Corey: Wow.

Seth: Um, I mean, it was it was good. You know, I had a lot of really really good relationships, but I think that’s because, you know, my we had CES scores back in the day, you know. You know, where are you doing ACH, did did you do this, were you doing Financial Planning? And I think it was just because of how deep that I’ve gone with my clients and because I’ve done so many good nights I had a lot of really really great relationships, um, but the average advisor takes I I think I’ll I I don’t know. I guess I can say this on this podcast. I think they take a lot more assets than what you’re led to believe, um, you know. I think I always heard that it well, you know, in a lot of branches, you know, 50 of your households or 80 or 90 percent of your assets, and you know, so if you only take 50 of your households and you take 80 or 90 of your assets, some people joke around the going Independence the best good night you’ll ever do because the people that come with you are the people that trust you, appreciate you, and value you. And those are the people that are going to give you referrals. So people don’t come with you, it means they didn’t either trust, appreciate, or value, and those aren’t the people giving you referrals.

Seth: So it really leans your book out to having the right kind of people to work with, you know, for the future.

Choosing Raymond James

Corey: So you’re currently with Wayne and James. I I I know you probably did research with, you know, a lot of other firms. You can, you know, disclose if you want to or not, but, you know, what what was that dirty and kind of what made you choose Raymond James at the end of the day?

Seth: So I I should have switched a lot sooner, um, but I spent four years slowly trying to figure out how the sausage was made in the industry. I wanted to know each firm, how they made their margins, and what their, you know, what their value proposition was. So I talked to I talked to LPL, Americas, Commonwealth, I talked to them all, um, and a lot of them will promise you these really big payouts, but then they don’t quite show you maybe some of the internal fees or, you know, some of those sort of things, or they gloss over them. Um, I don’t know if I want to disparage anybody on this podcast, but you know somebody calls me individually I’ll I’ll say which ones, you know, hit a lot of fees from me.

Seth: Um, but I like dreaming James because it felt a lot like Edward Jones. It felt like Edward Jones but independent. And I knew that if I went through the independent side at Raymond James that I could easily switch over to a multi-custody model in the future without a lot of hassle. You know, I see a lot of my friends that talk about leaving Edward Jones and they either leave because they want a big check. Well, I encourage most people to not be lured in by the big check, um, but if it’s right for you it’s right for you. And then I see a lot of people that say, oh well I’ll switch here, and then when my business grows I’ll look at switching again. You do not want to switch twice. That that that is that, it’s just not a position you want to put yourself or your clients in, um, but I knew that Raymond James had the ability for me to go into the independent Channel and then I could go multi-custody, um, extremely easily. So, um, yeah.

Seth: Did that answer your question, Corey?

Corey: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, um.

Brand Comfort + Fear

Corey: Steph, I mean, is there is is there anything else? I guess I guess one more question I have before before we we close this out. There’s a lot of independent firms out there that have no brand. They’re kind of behind the scenes and allow your brand to kind of, you know, shine through, um. Randy James allows you to do that as well, but a lot of Edward Jones advisors find comfort in having the Raymond James Brand. Do you think you would have brought over less assets if you went to a firm that didn’t have a brand versus the strong brand of Raymond James?

Seth: I’m not sure. One of the reasons I also went to Raymond James is because it was a name that I knew my clients would recognize, and that they allowed me to Brand myself when I was ready. Um, and now that we’re three years in we’re rebranding ourselves. I really don’t think that it matters that much because clients do business with you because of you. You know, the reason that people don’t switch firms is because of fear, you know. For three months before I resigned I was waking up at 5 30 every morning just scared, um, and the morning that I went to resign I woke up at 5 30 again, which is earlier than I normally wake up, and I just had this calm over me. I was like, it is game on. I know who I am. I know the value I provide, and I am ready to go. And I was just riddled with fear for those months. And when I got on that phone, I mean, it was game time. Like, this is what I do, and this is what I’m great at.

Seth: So I, you know, I think most everything we worry about is just it’s just fear, and it doesn’t actually really it doesn’t really matter, um. You just need to be able to articulate why you switched, what’s in it for the client, why they’re better off, why your staff is better off, and why you’re better off. And if you can articulate those, um, concisely and in a honest way, I don’t think it’s going to matter.

Advice to Current Edward Jones Advisors

Corey: That’s amazing inside staff. I I I really appreciate your time. Is there anything else that you think a current Edward Jones advisor that’s, you know, considering other things out there in the landscape should should know or should be asking themselves right now?

Seth: I I held about every single position at Edward Jones except Regional leader, um, in the 14 years that I was there. They are trying to actively fix things because they are losing a lot of big advisors, and my opinion is that they’re going to fix it just enough to slow the tide of exits because at the end of the day you are not the, you know, you are not the client. You are a W-2 employee, even if you’re on that other channel, you know, you’re you’re still a W-2 employee. So I think they’re going to I think just the nature of the dynamic of the relationship is they’re always going to fix it just enough to where it’s just annoying to where you you just won’t leave.

Seth: Um, and I do think they’re going to slowly get better, but it’s just what do you want out of your future? You know, one of the things we didn’t even talk about was what your practice is worth when you’re an independent advisor. You know, you can do it like I did and hire Juniors and free up your time, but your practice is worth phenomenally more, um. I am now, you know, my payout’s higher, my tax rate is lower, um. I mean, you can build it any way you want it, and there are a pile there’s there’s so many advantages.

Seth: And my a lot of my friends that are scared of leaving Edward Jones is like, well, how do I run a piece of real estate, you know? Like, the idea of opening a business is just so overwhelming. Like, like, I’ve got to sign a lease for internet, I’ve got to sign a lease for a phone, I’ve got to do this. But anywhere you go, if you need those things, they have an onboarding checklist and they’re going to help you with that, um. And it’s just amazing me. Like, I have a friend that doesn’t want to leave Edward Jones and he has an Airbnb and he thinks going independent is all this work, but he has an Airbnb. And I’m like, bro, I’ve got three airbnbs. One Airbnb is way more extra work than being an independent advisor is. And so people just get their head wrapped around the axle with this all these things that aren’t aren’t aren’t true, um.

Seth: And so you do own your own business. There’s a couple extra things that you have to do, but it’s phenomenally less work than what you think it is. And you just have the ability to shape your own future in so many ways that just those few extra things are are dwarfed by you know, but by by your optionality on the other side.

Wrap-up

Corey: That’s amazing, Seth. I really appreciate the time. I’ve always been, uh, immensely, uh, and impressed by you, and I really can’t wait to see what comes in the next five or ten years. I really appreciate the time.

Seth: Thanks, Cory. Let’s do it again.

Corey: Absolutely. Have a good one.