Mindset Shift
Unknown: we get paralyzed by fear rightfully so and fear Keeps Us complacent and that complacency is an extremely dangerous place to be when there is so much good right on the other side of that decision
Podcast Opening + Guest Introduction
Corey: hey everyone thank you so much for joining the podcast today um today we have another financial advisor that I really really enjoyed working with um through his due diligence process that almost two years ago launched his independent practice Apple Whitetail retirement partners with LPL Financial and I just love these podcasts because there’s so many misconceptions out there in the industry especially amongst Bank financial advisors in terms of how much of their assets they’re going to be able to bring are they going to be able to generate referrals and are they going to be able to grow after they make a leap to a firm that is away from the referral source of of of the bank so super excited to have Sean Taylor on the line with us today to talk about his experience Sean thank you so much for for being on the podcast today
Unknown: yeah man I’m super excited I love your office it looks amazing
Corey: yeah well we can thank LPL for that awesome so if you don’t mind before we get started if you can just tell us you know a little bit about yourself uh and kind of how you got in the business I think that would be really helpful
Sean’s Background + How He Got Started
Unknown: yeah so I started in the business at a young age um I had been laid off from one of my employers and was sort of like in between jobs and my dad took me to see his financial advisor at Edward Jones and I showed up looking like a rag doll and the financial advisor saw something in me I don’t know what but I saw something in me and started the recruiting process so I uh I started off at Edward Jones sort of built what I call like the base of my practice there um then I transitioned to Wells Fargo advisors in the bank Channel WBS um and I was there for just shy of eight years um before starting our end of attendant practice with my business partner Tracy Applewhite um so it’s kind of like all is well that ends well and we’re so excited to be independent and kind of be where we are we feel like we’re at the right place at the right time
Corey: that’s awesome so just just out of curiosity you know what made you leave Edward Jones and what made you choose you know Wells Fargo as as your next firm
Why Sean Left Edward Jones + Why Wells Fargo WBS
Unknown: yeah so I was doing really great at Edward Jones and Jones was a really good place for me to start um but I knew sort of from the beginning that I wanted more than what Jones was going to allow me to do and I also knew from the beginning that there had to have been like a path of least resistance right and so at the time I was got approached by Wells Fargo advisors and I interviewed PCG and WBS ultimately landed at WBS but what drew me to WBS was the fact that you had the opportunity to partner with the bank and potentially get referrals um and any fa that is in the WBS Channel knows that you don’t just sit in your office all day and get referrals there’s a lot of work that goes into that um but I ended up being extremely successful in it number one in my region a lot of times for referred investment assets um and so while I was there it was good until it wasn’t and it really helped me build my business maybe more quickly than I would have done I at the time staying at Edward Jones knocking on doors um but since then you know the business there has changed drastically so again that was sort of right place right time uh for both me and my clients
What Bank Referrals Really Look Like + Why It Changed
Corey: you know I I talk with financial advisors all the time that are maybe they started off at you know an Edward Jones type of broker dealer or an insurance-based broker dealer and they’re looking to take you know that next leap I mean what do the actual referrals you know look like inside of a Wells Fargo advisor chassis like what percentage of your business is coming directly from the bank versus you developing your own referrals is that Regional is it different regionally what does that look like
Unknown: yeah um so Corey you’ve known me for a long time and you know I’m extremely forthcoming with the truth and what’s on my mind when I joined Wells Fargo advisors it was a different place than it was when I left Wells Fargo advisors um free start over it um I would say that we were sort of firing on all cylinders ultimately people care about what they’re compensated for and um when Wells Fargo removed compensation for your bank partners for respiring to FAS and when sort of like you know the goals went away the business basically stopped so I was doing the exact same activities I was probably working even more than I was and I was getting a fraction of the referrals um and the referrals that I was getting it was it was a difficult conversation it was just it it was not the type of referral I wanted to build my business off of towards the end if that makes sense sure and they were few and far between so I sort of felt like hey I’m taking a haircut on Hangout to be part of this wvs model that is supposed to be a higher volume lower payout sort of model but the volume’s not there and every year my payout goes down and so that definitely was a contributing factor to me taking a step back and saying is this economical and who’s actually winning here if it’s not the client and it’s not me who’s the common denominator and so that’s when you know I would say my search story became more real that and then covered when they sent everybody to work from home and I realized hey I’m growing faster without being in a bank branch working from a home I can do this I don’t need the bank branch anymore my clients refer to me I know how to I know how to make it rain Etc uh that’s sort of when my eyes and Trace these eyes were open and we were like Hey we’re not as dependent on Wells Fargo as they they want us to think that we are
Corey: sure yeah and that that makes sense I mean you’re getting a significant pay decrease because you know you’re supposed to get these referrals from the bank and you could have gotten a higher payout at PCG or private client group on the wire house side so I mean basically you’re getting you know WBS payout but you know acting as a PCG advisor finding all your own opportunities correct
Unknown: yeah
Push vs Pull Reasons to Leave
Corey: so I know there are some other things throughout our due diligence process that we’re kind of a you know recruiting push for you in in my industry um there’s there’s pushes pushing the financial advisor basically out the door things that are going on that make them want to leave their firm and then there’s also polls things that maybe things that they wanted to do that they can’t do at their firm that they find out that they can do at other places that really attracts them you know outside so my first question to you is on top of you know covid and you know the lack of referrals after you know some policy changes inside of Wells Fargo what were some of the other things that were pushes for you that made you want to leave
Push Factors: Defending the Firm, Entrepreneurship, Compliance Friction
Unknown: yeah that’s a really good question and it’s a really big question um the first thing that I would say is every advisor knows how much it takes of you to build a solidified relationship with a client of the kind of relationship you would want to have where it’s completely built on trust the client takes your advice the client refers you business they become a raving fan all of that stuff right you literally pour your heart and your soul into these relationships and if you’re like me these clients basically become family and you genuinely care about them and your well-being one of the biggest things that continuously pushed me out the door at Wells Fargo advisors was the fact that I spent a significant portion of my day defending the very firm that I work for and that did not sit well with me that I was putting so much of myself into a relationship with a client that I genuinely care about and something completely out of my control was ultimately affecting that relationship and I constantly felt like I would take three steps forward with my clients and then have to take two steps backwards and so I really wanted to be at a place where I was not going to consistently be embarrassed for something that I didn’t do um so that was a big one the other thing is I really wanted to be entrepreneurial and I really wanted to run my practice the way that I thought was truly best for my clients and sticking everybody into a firm managed model because that’s the path of least resistance and that’s what the firm thinks that you should do from a risk perspective also it was not was not sitting well with me and then you know just from like a compliance perspective everything was just really hard it was a five-step process Corey to send my client a thank you card after an appointment like that that should not take 30 minutes that is a a 30-second uh task right and so just looking at our practice from the outcomes we want our clients to have from the way we wanted to run our business the way we wanted to Market our business the experience that we wanted our clients to have in the relationships that we wanted to have with both current prospective clients and centers of influence there were just a lot of things that said this might not be the right place for us and it might not be the right place for our clients and so that’s when we really started you know talking to to you and and learning more about other options
Headline Risk + Hidden Growth Impact
Corey: and one other thing that we talked about Sean in terms of you know headline risk or you know headline issues with your broker dealer you know the conversations you have with your clients or had with your clients those are just the people you know that came to you when I’m working with other financial advisors the scary thing is one of your clients that is giving your name and saying you’re doing a great job and you know they said that you were at you know XYZ firm and didn’t pick up the phone and call you you know because of that headline risk so there’s a lot of unknown from a growth path of your business as well which is scary
Unknown: absolutely and I’ve I’ve seen that so I’ve only been at my new firm LPL for just shy of two years right but in that two years it’s like if I could explain it it’s like this hint of desire for my clients to want to refer me has been Unleashed since leaving my old firm and I don’t know if that’s because they were always referring me and people were calling me to your point or if that’s because they liked me they did business with me but they always had some sort of hesitation about my firm and now the hesitation is gone and they have no reason to not refer me I’m not sure which one it is um but what I can say is one of my biggest fears with leaving the bank channel was how am I going to grow it’s been ingrained in my head that I need these Bank referrals to grow and what am I going to do when I don’t have them right now that the wool is off my eyes I guess I could look back and say did I ever really have them because they were so few and far between anyway right but you always had the hope that it’s coming um but yeah we’ve had no issues growing in fact I would tell anybody that is in a bank Channel because I know how they feel that if that’s one of your number one fears Nick’s that right now because you’re gonna grow you’re gonna spend more time with your clients you’re gonna have better relationships with your clients and it’s just gonna happen if you do the right activities
Referrals After Leaving + Time Spent Chasing the Bank
Corey: that’s awesome I um I I just helped another Wells Fargo advisor transition a couple months ago on the West Coast and he said exactly what you said he said Corey I used to think that you know this referral source was kind of you know my sale but you know I’m starting to realize you know it was very much in Anger to you know getting me to where where I need to be and you know this financial advisor his business Niche was Consulting business owners on the potential exit out of their business and he kind of realized he said the exact same thing that you did about the referrals if you are you know Consulting business owners and you don’t yourself you know own your own business he he got a few questions about that which kind of made the light bulb go off and kind of realized where he needed to be but he said that his referrals have um increased four-fold since he’s made the transition and when a bank advisor asked me that sometimes I think they think I’m a little crazy when I tell them that you know clients root for a business or whatever that you know but it’s uh it’s good to hear it from someone else than me so thank you
Unknown: yeah I mean we could spend a whole podcast talking about this subject alone right because I’m just so familiar with how that feels and how that looks and and the hope that comes with it but the other thing I would say is you know I really needed to stop and think about how much time was I dedicating to pouring into the bank relationship and how much time did that take away from my clients and business development and all of that and was it being reciprocated and the answer is no I was in a customer connection meeting you know three times a week I was on conference calls and doing trainings and Banker happy hours and all these things that help Drive referrals and while I was one of the most accessible people at it it still wasn’t enough to justify the amount of time that I was putting into that that I could have spent on something else
Growth Results Post-Transition
Corey: it’s awesome I uh I pulled up one of my old texts from you um from like right after your first year and you didn’t you said I had my best year ever last year and my Revenue was up 20 in my first Philly First full year after a transition in in a down market so yeah hats off to you
Unknown: yeah I’m really proud of that and you know I I’m so humbled and thankful for that and my clients are amazing and it’s again it just right place right time right activities consistency all of that
Client Reactions: Big Brand vs Personal Trust
Corey: so when when you made the actual transition Sean so one one big thing I get from a lot of wire house advisors or advisors that are you know part of a big institution they’re worried about leaving that that big known name that has a bank that has everything all under all Under One Roof you know how did your clients react to you making a move to to a firm that you know doesn’t spend a ton of time money on Advertising
Unknown: yeah LPL is the biggest firm in the country that you’ve never heard of right and that’s strategic and it was a very simple objections overcome and I actually looking back at it during like the heat of my transition what I called my clients and told them that I had had left and and all that I think overwhelmingly the response was a sense of relief which was wild to me I mean you always have those clients that surprise you that are hesitant that buying some level of security in some large institution but overwhelmingly what I learned is that my clients do business with me and in hindsight I wish I would have spent some time thinking about in my own world who do I do business with my dentist my CPA my attorney all of this stuff right like there’s always Mega options but then if I look at my life I do business with the people that I know and the people that I trust and it really ultimately doesn’t make a difference who they are affiliated with because that person is the constant in our relationship and so I know it’s extremely hard to Fathom Breaking Free of the toxic corporate culture that you need us but the fact of the matter is the they need you and your clients do business with you and I I wish I could just like put a billboard up on the side of the interstate and tell every financial advisor in the world that because I was literally crippled if you remember by fear when I left Wells Fargo advisors because it just unbounded in my head that bank clients don’t move and you’re not going to take any of your clients with you and it’s simply just absolutely was not the case at all
What Sean Said to Clients
Corey: that’s awesome Sean it’s um I’m so I’m so glad you said that I I think a lot of financial advisors just a discount how much of an impact they make on their clients day to day and if they position the move in terms of articulating what’s in it for the client that’s the reason why the advisor the client hired that advisor in the first place so I mean I guess I’m just sure I guess I’m just curious like what specifically did you say to your clients
Unknown: yeah um I I called my clients and I said hey and you know it’s funny every advisor is going to relate to this because we all sit in appointments with clients in a bank branch and they all ask us especially like in your first or second appointment when they’re first starting to do business with you they all say what happens if you leave right and when I worked at Wells Fargo I always said look I have no intention of going anywhere um but Wells Fargo advisors participates in the broker protocol and if I were to ever make a transition it would have to be in my clients best interest and I’ll make sure that I reach out to you and but you know what your options are and so when I called my clients it I just said hey Mr client Mrs client I promised you that if something ever changed I would give you a call because it’s true I did promise them that I’ve recently moved my business to LPL Financial and it kind of gave a little you know 10 seconds feel about who LPL is and uh and then I just sort of opened it up for questions and saw where the conversation went and let the client lead that conversation and and told them what their options were um I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that on the first call said Sean you’re not there anymore send me the paperwork right now I don’t want anybody else touching anything that we’ve done and and X Y and Z so you know that was that was eighty percent of the calls and then you had the 20 of the calls where you go through your Spiel and the client says well I don’t know who LPL is can you send me some information on LPL the people that want to do more due diligence which is perfectly fine and absolutely commendable right like if you have to do that to have the confidence to make this decision that’s great and um and then those people would call me back a week later a few days later and they’d say yeah Wells Wells reassigned me to a new advisor and they called and you know they just weren’t you and I’m used to you so let’s just let’s just get this done right and so again it reaffirmed that although the clients were cautious and they wanted to think about it and they wanted to to make sure they were making an educated decision ultimately what made the decision was the relationship that we had
Client “What’s In It For Me” Messaging
Corey: awesome was there was there anything in like specifics you articulated going back to that what’s in it for me as the client statement I made before that you talked about or did you not even really need to go into that
Unknown: no I mean like I said at the beginning like I spent a lot of time defending my old firm and so it’s sort of the story almost sort of told itself a little bit and my clients felt a sense of relief when I told them that I was not affiliating with a large Bank anymore um I think that there’s some inherent perceptions and risk that bank advisors sort of turn their head to with being affiliated with a bank and you know one of the things people talk about all the time is diversification and and everything that goes into that I almost feel like my clients felt like it was a diversifier by not having their mortgage their Investments their line of credit and everything else in between Under One Roof that they really didn’t even like Anyway there was just too much effort to change it
Independence + Diversification Angle
Unknown: yeah I mean that’s a great way to put it and we’ve we’ve had multiple instances in the last couple months of you know Banks going under and financial advisors having to pick up and find a new home because of things completely out of their control with a perceived you know safe bank so there’s definitely that story as well if if you had the chance to to do this all over again and transition again um would there be anything with with the transition that you would have done differently said differently anything
What Sean Would Do Differently
Unknown: um when the biggest thing I would I would have absolutely have done differently is I I literally would not have had analysis paralysis and while I completely understand that this is the biggest one of the biggest decisions of a financial advisor is like I mean this is your Blood Sweat and Tears for a lot of us this is like your firstborn kid right and and so I understand the weight that this decision carries better than a lot of people I know I mean I have two young children I have a how you know I I understand how serious this decision is but I would say I would not have analysis paralysis I would not get caught up in the absolute smallest teeniest detail um because there is no absolutely perfect firm um but I feel like when we landed at LPL it’s 99 perfect and I only thing I wish I would have done is is done it sooner like and I mean that from the bottom of my heart it’s not it’s not a it’s not a cliche dang it’s it’s very genuine when I say I just wish that I would not have waited so long and these big firms are really good at keeping you on the hook just a little bit longer just a little bit longer deferred calm this is coming cop plan changes Etc but at some point you’ve got to just recognize what’s on the other side and how much Freedom there is how much more peace you’re going to have how much more time you’re going to spend with your clients just do it
Why Advisors Rarely Go Back
Unknown: we talked in the beginning Sean there was a lot of misconceptions out there around you know making that leap but you know one definitive stat I think we’ve talked about it before there’s thousands and thousands of financial advisors that have made the move from a wire house to Independence in my 10 plus year recruiting career I could maybe think of one person that that’s ever gone back so there’s something there you know there’s something there and I think it’s you know important to dig into and and figure out what that is and you did so
Unknown: yeah I mean Corey like my shirt right now says Apple White till retirement planners on it right it doesn’t say Wells Fargo and the The Pride that comes with that and oh by the way I didn’t have to get this approved by anybody I just ordered it and I wear it and that’s it you know and I can give one to a client nobody cares because it’s a shirt right like and so um you know I I just I just think that we get paralyzed by fear rightfully so and fear Keeps Us complacent and that complacency is an extremely dangerous place to be when there is so much good right on the other side of that decision
Biggest Surprises in the Independent Channel
Unknown: after the transition now that you’re settled you’re about to have your your two-year anniversary what what is what has blown your mind about the independent Channel whether you know benefits for you or you know benefits for your clients or like the way that you work for with them what would have been would have been the really big surprises um Okay so from a let’s start with the financial advisor perspective my firm LPL and this is so weird when I was being recruited you know they they gave me the pitch like we take care of our advisors they can take care of their clients we care about your business all of that right but when you are an independent advisor you are that firm’s client so they have a vested interest in supporting you and keeping you happy you’re not handcuffed to them in any way shape or form um and so you know when what I call lpl’s home office for something and they end every single call with thank you for your business that’s still absolutely blows my mind I’m like you’re welcome thank you for being there you know like it’s just such a culture shift last week uh Tracy my business partner and I you know we were invited to a conference for LPL out in Las Vegas and this is the second LPL conference I’ve been to where the CEO Dan Arnold is walking around at happy hour and just having a great conversation with everybody and genuinely invested in what’s on your mind I I remember at my old firm like I would send an email to my boss or my boss’s boss and I would get it maxed because I went above their head right like I’ve sent emails to Dan Arnold here and gotten a response in 24 hours and and my manager if you want to call it that like they’re like hey that’s really great I’m glad that you reached out for help what else can I do to support you so just for like a culture perspective it is completely different I felt very oppressed and very controlled and very just sort of like visible at my Warfare and here I feel extremely empowered I’m going to do what’s right for my clients so I’m gonna do what I want to do to Market my practice I don’t have to spend 30 minutes sending a thank you card if I want to do a seminar I just I do it like it’s just it’s so much more freedom and so much more of a supportive culture so that’s the that’s the biggest thing for an fa perspective for me um from a client perspective I just think Independence brings better client outcomes because the financial advisor is not Shackled to what that firm is telling them they ought to be using right I remember so many times put him on like an annuity at another firm and knowing in my heart that that was the absolute best thing for that client and compliance just absolutely just destroying it and making it mission impossible to do this annuity for the client if it wasn’t a firm managed mutual fund portfolio you got 10 hours worth of homework to do what was right for your client and that just does not exist in the independent space they don’t care if you use an SMA if you use your own uh you run your own portfolios or if you use Farm managed models ultimately what they care about is that you’re taking care of your clients and you’re doing the right things for them and I think that again that culture is something that I would want to be aligned with that was a lot of words but that’s perfect perfect
Banking “Arsenal” After Leaving
Unknown: um have you felt like short have you felt like you haven’t had the same Arsenal from like a a banking standpoint for your clients needs or or or or anything like that absolutely not so um I mean I do a a decent amount of Securities based lending when it’s probably more when rates weren’t so High um that was an easy transition and even with clients that had Securities based lending at my old firm transitioning them here that was not difficult at all um no I mean actually I feel better about that now when a client calls me and this happens a lot um and they say hey Sean I really am upset with X Y and Z Bank you can probably guess which one it is most often when they’re calling me where do you think I should go and talk to well now I have relationships at three or four different banks around town and I can give my clients options I can refer them to people that I have relationships with that I knew are going to take really good care of them we also have our own internal solutions for just about everything if you feel inclined to make that part of your practice but um if it’s a simple checking account or something like that we have people on the roster that we can send our clients to and I know they’re going to have a great experience and and the clients come back to most and they’re so thankful for for the choice and the referral awesome
Advice for Advisors Considering a Move
Unknown: what I guess my last question is what what advice would you give to someone that’s you know just starting to consider looking around yeah um the first thing I would say is I would work with an independent third party such as yourself and Corey’s not paying me to say that I’m just thinking that from the kindness of my heart and it cost me nothing you do get sort of uh uh independent third party opinion and kind of guidance and it’s kind of nice to have somebody in between you and the firms that you’re talking to just to make sure you understand things correctly or make sure you heard things the the right way uh so that’s the first thing the second thing I would say is don’t get bogged down with talking to 15 different Farms because the more you look the more firms there are um so I would find maybe like your top two ideally three if you have to and and I wouldn’t go too much further than that you start talking to 10 or 15 firms you’re going to get way overwhelmed and you’re going to be on the phone all day with recruiters and you’re going to get nothing done so um so I would I would pick maybe your your top choices and and start there and if they don’t have what you need then maybe backfill the roster
Wrap-up
Unknown: awesome Sean I I really appreciate it I’m so happy to see you uh over on the other side growing and uh kicking butt and um can’t wait to see what’s to come absolutely man I appreciate it thanks so much
Unknown: [Music]
