Assets / Growth Perspective
Unknown: you know kind of how the transition went in terms of you know financially and um I I know everybody wants to know that so I’ll give you a few a few comments on that we we we look at everything in terms of of Revenue we don’t worry as much about the a we’re going to hit about we’re going to hit a billion dollars here in the next couple of months which is great you know AUM is awesome but but revenue is what really matters you know based on where what you know what we’re going to do for this year we’re going to be about 70% Revenue wise of where we were you know pre-transition but every adviser is going to be positive on their Net versus where where we were when we left and that’s only a year in we’re getting more introductions more opportunities in the last couple of months than we did in the last couple of years before we left if I’m giving advice to someone thinking about a transition is don’t even worry about trying to transfer 100% of your book don’t even think about it right it doesn’t it doesn’t really matter what matters is at the end of the day are you better off financially than you were before you before you left and I think that math is relatively easy when I talk to recruits and we’re talking to people I’m like basically if you can get to 65% of your Revenue you’re better off than where you are today and most people look at that as a pretty easy hurdle to get over
Podcast Opening + Introductions
Corey: hey everyone thank you so much for joining the firm transitions podcast today uh we have a really great one for you U when a billion dollar plus team made up a three Wells Fargo lifers makes a move to the independent Channel it causes a lot of ripples in the local market and that’s exactly what happened when Jordan rosinski Angela Austin darp and Mary wear from Charlotte North Carolina uh made the move from Wells Fargo to open up their own independent practice Carnegie wealth with LPL Financial fantastic story around why they started to consider the independent Channel why they chose the firm they did and why they didn’t press the easy button and go to finet and choose to go to LPL Financial instead um and also just since they’ve made the move now that it’s close to right after their one year anniversary how their business is morphed and how they’ve taken advantage of the additional flexibility and better ability to communicate with their clients that they have on the independent channel on the podcast today we have uh Angela and Jordan uh to tell their story Angela Jordan thank you so much for coming on today
Angela: thank you for having us excited to be here
Corey: yeah absolutely if you don’t mind just telling us a little bit about yourself and and how long you’ve you’ve been in the industry and and what got you to this point um it would be super helpful
Background
Angela: sure Corey I’m gonna start with that um I started with wacovia um right out of college so um as a personal banker in the branches and got exposed to a lot of different areas and then had the opportunity when wov decided to license individuals in the branches that I raised my hand I like the asset management side a lot better than the lending side so did that in 1994 so about 5 years after I started in the branches um fascinating because it was a startup um at wovi at the time and you know got to just call list of CD clients and um you know ask them if they wanted to do something different um so it was really it was fascinating and fun at the time cuz the actual company was growing and learning how to offer you know Investments inside of a bank branch um it didn’t take me long I in terms of wanting to kind of go up market so I raised my hand again and said I’d like to go into the private bank as the financial advisor so I did that after a couple years I like the team concept I love the Specialties um so that we can present as a team and um that has been fabulous so I moved out of Branch pretty quickly but overall I’ve been with Wells wacovia Wells Fargo for 34 years um before making this jump um into the independence and Jordan and I have been together as partners for a number of years prior to that
Corey: awesome
Jordan: yeah then um my background is a little bit different coming from a little bit different angle so I actually started in public accounting so I had a um accounting degree started at deoe uh was in their private client High net worth group uh doing tax prep tax planning estate planning things like that passed CPA exam decided I wanted to be a little bit more comprehensive in um what I was doing and I had an opportunity to move to wacovia in 2004 into their Financial Planning Group and it was it was kind of a neat opportunity especially at that age I think I was 25 years old uh to work with a lot of clients in a short period of time and get get in front of people but then also have the opportunity to build a business because they were trying to go out and sell executive financial planning services to big companies and so I had the chance to kind of be a part of that process which is really really cool um I decided ultimately that I wanted to have more control over my client relationships and over building my own book of business and so an opportunity came up in in ‘ 07 to move into the brokerage world where you know I’ve been ever since and Angie and I partnered up in ‘ 08 uh just just about a year after that and have been you know growing building ever since so my stin at Wells Fargo was 19 years total the first three were in financial planning in the private bank and then the last 16 were in uh Wells Fargo advisors
Building the Business Inside Wells Fargo
Corey: awes awesome that’s super helpful and and and and how did you how did you build your business in in in inside of Wells Fargo what were your what are your were your main types of clients did you know the majority of it come from referrals from the bank or was it self- sourced can you just give us a little bit of a an overview of that
Angela: yeah and I’m happy to do that I mean inside the private bank it’s a little bit of it we go out as a team so the referral could come from anywhere as one of the few female advisers in the private bank at that time I had the luxury of being always any type of women’s event in Charlotte I’ve spoken at the convention center for a women’s event I’ve gone out to nursing homes so some of it was more team oriented um and I found too just working within the enterprise we could work within the investment bank or other Executives within Wells Faro wobe at the time so it was kind of a team approach I would say some going outside more proactive but more you know I kind of focus more on the Enterprise of getting referrals as opposed to all the seminars and things like that cuz I felt like I could get exposure quicker um and then if you actually are working with an executive within Wells Fargo well guess what they’re going to refer other ones or friends of theirs so kind of found that that Niche within the the private bank
Jordan: yeah I’d say we you we kind of flexed our business development muscles inside the organization that was really kind of how we built our business was networking internally with different partners and and being on good terms and good teammates with all those folks and you know I think that you know this is probably where you’re going with with this I what changed about that over time was that worked great for such a long time and we and it was it was fantastic for for us and uh and our and our partners but as the organization kind of the landscape shifted the organization changed ultimately the the model that we were all used to broke down and and and it wasn’t a team oriented environment anymore and it wasn’t really what we had kind of all grown up doing and you know so when we we kind of had this take a step back at that point and say okay well if we basically have to rebuild this team ourselves which is essentially what we’re going to have to do build these resources around ourselves if we’re going to have to do that then we want to start with a blank canvas and we want to do it our own way and we want to have resources that help us to do that um and that you know really is kind of what got us going on this whole journey in the first place was the whole whole you know business environment that Angie described didn’t exist anymore and so it was it was sort of like the you know the firm or the environment left us versus the other way around and that that’s around 2021 we were looking back at some of our teammates we hired four individuals in 2021 um a financial planner that was getting you know potentially getting displaced as well as Fargo that’s very talented and came with us we have someone from our Trading Group uh that hired a couple years prior that can do a lot of our discretionary training for us so like Jordan said we were starting you know we we brought a team of 10 so we were getting to the point we were pretty big on our own to service our clients so why why do it there if we’re not getting any help
Limitations and Pain Points
Corey: sure makes sense what other limitations were there um you know I I I understand not being able to you know leverage people inside of Wells Fargo to continue to grow your business your self- sustained kind of organization inside Wells Fargo at this point what other limitations were there that you know started to you know make you want to consider uh the independent Channel a little bit more was there anything else in specific
Jordan: yeah I mean I think as we I think as and and some of this is probably you know looking looking back a little bit but I think some of the things that started to you know bristle a little bit were um our inability to Market ourselves that was that was really you know really build our own brand really get out there Market on social media uh you know use video use you know the different tools that are available out there now um it was it was almost impossible for us to do those things with the you know with the compliance environment and things like that and so we we just had gotten to a point where we you know we wanted to grow we wanted to Market ourselves we wanted to be able to be out there doing all those things but it just made it really difficult you know to do um and then the other was the technology part of it was a big one for us um you know the technology that that you know it’s a one size fits all right and a lot of the big firms operate that way where um you know the same technology that is being used by the adviser and the branch that’s just starting out is the same technology that we’re using when we’re serving clients that have $50 million and so you know it’s it’s it was we and we didn’t have any ability to to to vary that even if we wanted to pay for something and add it we didn’t have that ability and so I think those are probably two of the big ones that that really kind of just kept you know we kept running up against and I think as time went on and we kept growing we kind of kept running up against these constraints of you know we wanted to be able to do more and we couldn’t another thing that I that we ran into when I said something about H was hiring people we wanted to grow and we did hire this financial planner he has his NBA he’d been in the Financial Planning Group for 10 years unlicensed so he had to interview twice within the HR world at Wells Fargo knowing he was going to get the job the job was done and that I mean it just it didn’t make sense um we needed to cultivate younger talent and to bring in another say a young advisor or to have some of RCA grow into that you get into weird split rep codes you get into you know giving them a book it just it it’s very rigid because that’s their rules versus it’s and and then we just look and even going toine it we’re like we’re not none of this is going to get solved all the stuff that we’re running into I don’t I didn’t see it as an easy button yeah at all actually the more we learned about it is when we went whoa whoa whoa let’s go see what else is out there um I’m a 910 I don’t want to supervise everybody’s trades we didn’t want to be a real estate broker we don’t want to be a marketing person building our website um so we were like going whoa this is just that’s way too much to bite off to go to findet and it wasn’t solving any of our what we were bristling about at the moment
Corey: sure makes sense by the way with the marketing I was in a restaurant in Charlotte um about a week ago and uh I saw two uh Carnegie wealth uh hats at different tables so the the the marketing is the marketing is working and we’ll dig into that you know a little bit more later I need a Yeti we have some but uh what firms did you explore when you started saying okay you know the wirehouse might not be the right fit for us was it was it just employee firms were you considering you know some some some other Regional broker dealers out there as well
Firms Explored
Jordan: so so I mean really where the exploration started was with finet um you know and and you know we we started there we we looked at that for a little bit it didn’t feel like the right fit we can certainly talk more about that but um but but when we started to then kind of expand our scope and look around the industry a little bit we had never looked around I mean that’s the funny thing about this whole thing is we we’ve been the same place for a very long time we really didn’t look around the industry at all during those many years um at Wells and so it was kind of eye openening to when we kind of went out there and looked and saw what was available and it was really neat we saw a lot of different things some you could pretty quickly say hey that’s not a great fit for us for what we’re looking for uh but we you know we had some great conversations with Sanctuary uh we had great conversations with Commonwealth um but very impressed with both of them but at the end of the day we just kept coming back to LPL it just felt like with their scale and what you know their growth mindset and where they wanted to go and the offering that they had with Strategic Wealth it just felt like that was what was calling to us for what we what we wanted to build
Corey: sure that makes that makes a ton of sense Jordan we talked about this last time that you know we met together just you know why didn’t you go to finet I speak with so many Wells Fargo advisers all the time and they just say Corey I could go independent you know I don’t need to repaper and you know I don’t need to you know ask my clients to move with me to another firm my my assets aren’t going to get broken up amongst the advisers in the office and you know have them try to retain the business um Angela I heard you say don’t want to be a 910 to totally understandable but what were some of the other things going through your mind you know when you were made that decision to to go outside of
Why Not Finet
Jordan: yeah I mean um you Andie hit on a couple of the things um you know one one for for big one for me back to like some of our our pain points even you know at Wells was you still can’t build your own Tech stack in finet so for us when we started looking around the industry and seeing the cool stuff that was out there again our eyes were you know were got big and we were like well we want that we want to have those tools we want to be able to go and build our own thing and and you can’t you can’t do that and so that was one thing uh the other thing is recruiting I mean we had a vision and we can talk about kind of longer term what our vision is but we had a vision for for what we wanted Carnegie to be and you know and and recruiting is a big part of that and our Network naturally is a lot of people inside of Wells Fargo and so you know for us to move over to find it and then essentially be restricted from recruiting folks from inside to join us felt like it was you know making one maybe one step in a positive direction and two steps backwards because we didn’t really we were we were going to be hamstrung from building what we wanted to build and so I think between you know the compliance environment being you know what it was and not really being any different than what we were used to the you know the principaling trades some of the operational things not having the support to you know really for any of the business functions so we would have to go out and find our own real estate and then you know get it built out and then build you know engage with a marketing firm and build out a brand and like all those different things that we’ve done now here sitting a year in we would have had to do all those ourselves and pay people to to help us and and quarterback all of it and just felt like in addition to moving our clients and learning how to be business owners that felt like way too much for us with with some of the headwinds um that I already talked about um working against us
Corey: sure
Supported Independence + LPL Strategic Wealth Services
Corey: so um inside of all of these independent broker dealers there are you know so many different ways that you can affiliate whether it’s with you know an raia or a smaller Enterprise or a supported independence model or whatever it may be I I think it’s important to cover kind of the way that you both decided to to make the move to independence with you know LPL Strategic Wealth Services model C can you talk about the turnkey nature of that and some of the things that they took off of your plate and especially in the beginning
Angela: yeah me we can talk about I mean that that a thing was what’s so attractive we did look at ra you know we did look at you got fin You’ got something like Commonwealth I think supporting us in the marketing the real estate the bookkeeping we have these Services it still allows us to make all the decisions but we have people helping us sure um so that we can focus on our clients um and building the business I mean that was what was really important to us because that’s what we are at the end of the day um we we both have that entrepreneur Spirit the business side to it um but we also knew we couldn’t spend 70% of our time doing those those things and we were a team of 10 we were not a team of one or two I mean it was a lot of people that we had to make sure their benefits were still in tght you know just all of those little decisions we made but we needed help and the supported independence just continue to jump out at us um and we love and everybody we met and they have done what they told us that we’re going to do we can say that a year they’ve exceeded all of our expectations in terms of of support and partnership
Jordan: and you know a couple of things just to add to that um because I agree with with all that you know one is again going back to what we said before we’re comfortable operating in a team environment we always have been and it feels like we’re part of a big team within Strategic Wealth we have all these people around us that are experts in these different areas that we can tap into and leverage their experience and and knowledge that is far beyond ours in certain areas and so we’re good at leveraging those resources um so that was one part of it that once that we saw the model presented to us it made sense and we felt like we could really take advantage of it and and you know leverage it to the best of our abilities the second part is just LPL in general um it’s it’s a it’s a it’s a growth-minded culture it’s a it’s a company that’s on offense and they’re they’re out there trying to grow and you can see that in the newspapers pretty much every week that they’re that they’re on that mission and it aligned really well with us you know an organization that wants to go out there and evolve and compete and win and be the best it was very much in alignment with our values and what we wanted and so when you combine that culture with all the resources and everything that Strategic Wealth was bringing to the table for us it just felt like a natural fit ac across the board
Misconceptions + Supported Model Awareness
Corey: yeah I mean it’s it’s it’s really interesting I speak with um wirehouse financial advisers all the time it’s probably the majority of who I speak with and maybe still only 20% of wirehouse advisers I speak to know a supported model like this exists I think a lot of re reasons financial advisers are still at the wirehouse is because they get to go to the office in the morning take care of their clients and then they get to go home to their family and they don’t need to be in the you know the trenches in terms of dealing with the office space and doing the payroll and the marketing and all of those different different things that are really alien to a wirehouse advisor you know all of these things there’s a lot of supported independent models out there where literally day one you know you’re cutting the ribbon to your your new independent office that’s been custom built for you um and I don’t think a lot of wirehouse advisers know that all of that heavy lifting could be outsourced and done so you could just have a laser focus on bringing over your clients and then once they’re over you know taking care of them um taking care of them as as as you’re ongoing and building your business
Angela: I also think a lot of yeah I can tell you we didn’t know we didn’t know what was out there we didn’t know that this existed and who knows if we had known that maybe we would have done something sooner but I mean the reality is um you know I think you’re exactly right there’s so many advisers that want to be able to come in take care of their clients and go home and not have to worry about all of those things um and I think that for for those types of uh advisers I think you know supported Independence model is is a fantastic fit right
Corey: yeah
Independence Without Isolation + Flexibility
Angela: and I also don’t think there’s a lot of financial advisers out there that know that there’s you know potentially opportunities like yours as well there’s people that have went out there and they’ve done the heavy lifting in terms of the office space and the brand and the website where you know they could plug in and basically get you know some of the conveniences of the employee Channel you know with all the flexibility and autonomy of the independent channel that they’re looking for
Corey: so once again exactly and that is something we’re we’re still continuing to do to do and I would say I I’m older than Jordan um when this process started and we were looking at find it I mean what I’m looking for too is how how does this business evolve for me personally how can I control that next chapter in my life and retirement and I want flexibility to that and the independent Channel really gives us that in terms of mentoring young advisers to come in um you you know do I peel off 20% at a time can I stay on Consulting I don’t want to just say at a certain age I’m done and I only have one or two people to turn that over to financially that’s an ordinary income versus this is capital gain but that wasn’t what drove me in terms of I just I couldn’t see where that could be done where we were um if I I’m a planner I look out longterm I couldn’t see in 10 years that that my team and my partner and my clients would still be in a good spot that was another thing with finet I mean you know I I didn’t we didn’t want it someone said go to finat in seven years then go independent that doesn’t make sense to me I mean I don’t think like that um I was like if we’re going to do this let’s do it right today um and you know we did bring over two advisors with us that are the approximately same age that we’ve maybe got that 10year time Horizon I want to control what that trans position looks like because I want my clients and the partners and the team in a great spot and this you know I think this is going to be it
Jordan: and I think that at the end of the day that’s what every advisor wants is they want control and and they want to be able to determine how they run their practice they want to determine how they exit the business they want to determine you know the the the you different way they spend their day right and so I think that what we saw in this model and what we are trying to create and provide for other advisers too is that freedom and flexibility to do your business the way that you want to and and have more control and and so that’s what to me makes the independent space so attractive
Client Reactions + Transition Day
Corey: for sure so let’s let’s let’s fast forward you know office offices built websites built um you know you’re you’re you’re you’re ready to go and it’s it’s it’s time to resign and and and start calling clients you know how did you feel on that day you know how did client conversations go um walk us through that a little bit and we’ll start that
Angela: it was scary to say the least I mean we’d all been there for a very long time um but we literally walked into our office our computers were set up with our names we’re ready to go certainly had to wait till licensing got the licenses got changed over you know it went a lot like a lot of people told us I mean you start making those phone calls um you know maybe a third of the clients are right off the bat yes where are you we’re coming you know great you know there’s another third that says okay explain this to me a little bit more and we’ve got to go you know a little bit more in depth there’s some clients we did not call um because whether they weren’t a fit for us at that point or we just thought you know they probably wouldn’t move because maybe they are too tied up um in the institution um you know so I mean we got a lot of yeses early but it’s it’s it’s hard work I won’t you I cannot take that away from anything it’s scary um but it’s also I mean it was refreshing to see some of our clients just got bad an eye and say absolutely some of them didn’t even ask where we were or I they’re just like okay um you know we it was a little unfortunate the banking crisis kind of happened um in our move so I think there were a lot more questions about the safety of the firm and that sort of thing so you know we had to talk a little bit more about who LPL was I mean it lpl’s bigger than Wells Fargo assetwise and number of advisors so um some of those discussions you know we weren’t as prepared for at the time we looking back tell advisor make sure you know that or promote it um we still have clients calling us today um you know saying can I come um that maybe you know got stuck in their ways and thought they just stay there um so I mean it’s hard but it it actually is very affirming to what we’ve done in the last 20 years 30 years um and we right now we do not have clients that we don’t fit with at all
Jordan: yeah I mean I think that you know you’d be lying if you didn’t say that it was scary um and and you know you’re you’re leaving behind a lot of you know a lot of the Safety and Security that you’ve always known and and that’s that’s hard anytime you do that that’s hard I think that you have to have a real conviction that what’s on the other side is better and we had that and so you know as you go through the conversations with the clients you get a little bit better every time you know what I mean and you start hearing the same questions over and over and you can sort of reframe you know reframe it in a in a really positive way and um I think that as the first you know week or two went went along and we got you know all those conversations under our belt then you know it just started to you started to settle down a little bit and relax and you get plenty of yeses like Angie said early on and you get a lot of you know honestly really heartwarming comments from clients that make you you know kind of re-energizes you and make you feel good about you know what you’re doing and stuff like that and you know there’s disappointments and discouragements along the way too I think there is for every advisor every adviser that we talk to before before that had made a transition said the same exact thing you’re going to be disappointed you’re gonna you know people are going to hurt your feelings that you didn’t expect and that’s absolutely true and but you know what at the end of the day it didn’t matter and and we got got to where we needed to be and and so you know there’s clients that surprise us on the positive side that I didn’t didn’t expect that were that would come and and and ended up coming so it’s a mixed bag in the end it’s all you know it’s a lot of hard work but it’s it’s you know you get through it and it’s and it’s so much better on the other side
New Platform + Communication + Technology
Corey: that’s that’s that’s awesome I I appreciate you giving the the good and the and the bad feedback yeah so you so you’re at close to your right after your one year anniversary now right y yep so you what’s what’s changed in your business in the way that you’re communicating with clients in the way that you’re serving clients with the additional flexibility that you have now
Angela: I talk a little bitan can talk to I mean just what we’re able to I mean we’re do every week is a Tuesday Market minute on you know video that’s put out to our clients never would have been able to do that um you know we we are communicating with clients um so much more frequently than we were allowed to do LinkedIn I mean just there’s just so many things that again while Fargo’s compliance had to manage to the least common denominator and there wasn’t that flexibility so that’s just the Outreach because we want to communicate to our clients if we’re making portfolio changes we want to tell them what we’re doing and how we’re doing it and we can’t take a month to get that through compliance um you know we have to say the right things and our compliance looks at it it’s usually 24 hours that they’ll look at something Jordan might write up or something like that we have a guaranteed 24-hour turnaround on compliance and they are not marked up as long as we’re not guaranteeing something it’s pretty easy so I think you know that’s just communication and that was one thing we told clients on the phone we want to communicate with you more a lot of times we weren’t allowed to I mean we weren’t allowed to like something on LinkedIn I mean you know we couldn’t like something our clients posted about their own firm I mean just some of those little things like that um is is is different now
Angela: I mean but we’ve got tons on the technology side we’ve got tax planning that’s just fabulous we couldn’t even talk about taxes before we’re not trying to prep their taxes but we do have tax plan we have technology that we chose to fit our clients um
Angela: one of the big ones where Jordan came from is more of the fee based planning so I kind of let him talk were real exciting that was one of the things that was uh was really um something we wanted to be able to implement was there’s a lot of clients out there that don’t fit a typical AUM model they get you know whether they’re business owners that put all their assets back in their business could be a corporate executive that has all their stuff tied up in company plans or whatever there’s lots of situations you can kind of think of that these are great clients right these are great great long-term clients and the way to work with them is on a fee based planning engagement financial planning engagement and so we have the ability to do that now lpl’s very very supportive in that space they’ve been a great partner in US building out our model and we’ve since we’ve been here just just we launched it in September I think was our first launch of it we’ve got over $100,000 in fees planning fees booked uh just in that period of time with clients that we wouldn’t have probably been able to access any other way and so you know being able to build out you know creative build out different things access these great tools think about how we want to go to market with when whether it’s marketing social media video you know all these different things there’s all there’s so many different ways that we can attack the business that we couldn’t before and so um I think that’s probably been the most fun part of the whole thing is actually like I said starting with a blank canvas and thinking about what do we want the business to look like how do we want to go out there and and be in the marketplace and that was what was really neet and what we’ve been able to kind of you know build over the last 12 months
Corey: that’s amazing it’s it’s it’s hard to believe when you’re you know in the wirehouse that there could be that much flexibility out there you know we didn’t realize it but it it is amazing
Angela: um some of like the technology it’s I mean like I said we were just fascinated with everything that’s out there I mean it still blows our mind um we chose a CRM early on and we’ve already changed 6 months in we went and got exposed to a newer one that’s out there that’s easier to use it was easy to switch over I I think technolog is going to continue to evolve so you’re not stuck I mean if you find a better deliverable that fits your client base or your practice that’s your decision to to change that no one’s telling you you you can’t um or you know we have one that we are really trying to implement and it’s amazing it’s not all it’s not used by LPL today so we’re asking them something different than they’ve done before and they got legal on the phone or on Zoom they got compliance on Zoom they’ve got business partners with myself and Matt to talk about why we wanted this technology I mean it was not a no it wasn’t we don’t know what that it was like help us understand help us understand why you want to implement this technology and let’s find a way that it fits that we’re all comfortable and we’re close to actually implementing that um which is again it’s it’s a it’s a let’s work together another attitude a yes attitude how do we make it work not no we don’t do that and that’s not going to work and that was the plug I was going to put in a plug for the Strategic Wealth uh technology team on that too that just they’ve been so helpful as we’ve gone out there we’ve thought about different things and we’re a very fast moving group like we’re we’re we’re on to the next idea and we’re thinking about things and they’ve been right there with a step by step you know hey yeah look hey look at this like take a look at this piece of technology what do you think about this you know could you see a use for this you know I think here’s some pros cons the different tools and things like that they’ve just been fantastic Partners in in that uh Journey for us we’ve pushed them
Corey: yeah good yeah I mean you know you’re the client now and sometimes when I’m doing due diligence with um a wirehouse advisor they have you know a hard time kind of you know getting that or or just understanding that I was working with another financial adviser in North Carolina a year ago and he’s like Cory everyone is being so nice like why are they being so nice and this person I’m like you know you’re you’re you’re the client now I mean if they’re if they’re not providing you you know what you need you can pick up and you could bring your clients with you and all your data and you’re not competing for your clients ever again and it’s the same reason why a financial adviser you know over serves their clients they want them to be happy they want them to stay they know they have a lot of options and it’s just it’s just a completely different mindset
Culture Shift + Being the Client
Jordan: it is and I 100% we feel that every day from from the LPL team Strategic Wealth team is that they we are the clients they absolutely are there to help us to to you know be more productive to grow our business to you know to get what we want in terms of how we serve our clients they’re they’re great partners and we definitely feel you know feel that they and they ask our opinion which is which is fascinating we went to a conference in August of last year so kind of right in the middle uh Mary and Jordan and I and they actually lined up lead of almost every group and they came to us and said what’s not what what’s not working what’s different what did you like before what can we do and we’re we’re all kind of like whoa I mean this is fascinating that they want our opinion yeah we had conversations with Dan Arnold we had conversation with rich rich steinm the head of growth you know we we were in a room you know with all the kind of top leaders in a small group getting to ask questions around you know the topics that were on our minds and they wanted to hear they were asking questions to us they wanted to hear what what do you guys think about you know X Y or Z and so it’s just it’s a cultural thing it really is it is it is ingrained in the culture and that is so refreshing um to be part of a culture that really wants to know what the advisers think and builds things to you know what the advisers want
Vision + Recruiting + Culture
Corey: that’s awesome I I I appreciate uh all of the honest feedback and and you share in your story I think there’s so many financial advisers that want answers to these questions and they just don’t don’t know where to go to get the answers without a bunch of people finding out that they’re looking around so thank you for taking the time you know to do this um I know you’re trying to build something really special at Carnegie wealth you know locally in the Carolinas and and and potentially Beyond um you you want to talk about that a little bit
Jordan: sure yeah um you know I mean I think at the end of to day we’re trying to build a home for great advisers where they have all the tools and resources that they need the support that they need and the freedom and flexibility that they want to be able to grow their business I mean that in a nutshell that’s what we’re trying to build and so everything that we’ve done along the way we’re not just building this for us we’re building this for all the people that hopefully will come after us to create that type of experience for them too and so everything that we’re doing is done with scale in mind with how do we you know add the next one two five advisors to take advantage of these tools and these things that we’re building we’re not a fit for everybody uh I’ll just say that right off the off the bat but for advisers that are planning oriented that want to grow and that are feeling you know confined Tapped Out you know whatever you want to call it and and are looking for that freedom and flexibility and a great model to be able to just plug into and say hey I’m I’m ready to grow I think we’re a great fit I also think we’re a great fit for advisers are kind of in that last phase of their career and are thinking about their you know their endgame right and we’ve got a great young team here uh that that you know can help to facilitate you know a transition and and on on the advisor’s own terms and and how how they want that to look and so you know I think that you know when we you know look back over the last 12 months we’ve built a lot of what we wanted you we wanted to build there’s a lot more to go to be honest with you what we want to be able to to to bring to our advisers and and to create so I’m excited about where we kind of are on that curve right now because I think we’ve been through through kind of the hard part um we’ve been through a lot of the heavy you know foundational work and all that kind of stuff and now we’re starting to really uh see it you know see it uh come to fruition so it’s it’s exciting to be kind of at that at that part of it we’ve got two million dooll producers that are that are on the docket to come over over the next year uh that that’ll be you know joining the practice we’re excited to add more beyond that and we’re having great conversations out there with people right now about about that and and what you know what Carnegie could could do for them as they’re thinking about the next phases of their career so so it’s cool I mean you know I think all that is great but the coolest thing about it is is the culture here um every advisor here they run their own book they do their own thing but they like being part of a team they want they want to learn from each other they want to you know to go and win together and be part of something special we have we actually have fun together and we do all kinds of fun things uh we played pickle ball a couple of weeks ago we we do it’s a fun culture culture and I think if you’re the type of person that wants to be a part of that I think we’re a great fit you know for for that too so so it’s exciting where we are uh you know here you know a year end
Corey: that’s awesome I think you built a fantastic model your office in South Park is is gorgeous and I think a lot of financial advisers think potentially plugging into something like this they’re giving away autonomy and ownership which in my opinion couldn’t be you know further from the truth there could be you know independence without isolation and still be part of an awesome team where you know you can you can still do what you want to do and uh absolutely true
Angela: yeah I’ve been in your office uh it’s fantastic and uh you’re also really fun people to work with as well which which is almost more just as important
Jordan: so we think so too we are having a team office Olympics at the end of the month so hopefully no one gets hurt and we we have a good time so we do enjoy one another and that’s part of the fit um when we you know that anyone that is joining us they’re going through that process with us to make sure they they fit with us and we fit with them but we also if you haven’t figured out we’ like to learn I mean we really do enjoy learning and we’re still learning what else is out there and I think that’s also something we offer to maybe a solo advisor that’s coming in they’re going to get to learn too from all of the things we’ve done over the years and we’ll learn something from them I mean so I think just having that growth mind the learning mindset of what’s out there that we didn’t know before um and is is hungry for that I think it’s someone that could be a good fit for us
Wrap-Up + Financials + Quality of Life
Corey: I love it I I really really appreciate the time I think this was super valuable is there anything else either of you want to add that you think listeners should be should be thinking about or or should we call it a rrap
Jordan: no the only thing only thing I would maybe add is you know kind of how the transition went in terms of you know financially and um I I know everybody wants to know that so so I I I’ll I’ll I’ll give you a few a few comments on that yeah um we we we look at everything in terms of of Revenue we don’t worry as much about the a we’re gonna hit about we’re going to hit a billion dollars here in the next couple of months which is great you know AUM is awesome but but revenue is what really matters and you know based on where what you know what we’re going to do for this year we’re going to be about 70% Revenue wise of where we were you know pre-transition um but every adviser is going to be positive on their Net versus where where we were when we left and that’s only a year in we’re getting more introductions more opportunities in the last couple of months than we did in the last couple of years before we left and so you know what we always looked at when we um were were thinking through the transition was if we can get to critical MTH where every adviser is better off than where they where they were you before they left then you you’ve got this whole big blue ocean in front of you of all the growth opportunities and everything that’s part of being an independent business and you know we we we’re having friends introduce people to us and and new things come about that never that wasn’t happening before and so you know I would just look at it for you know if I’m giving advice to someone thinking about a transition is don’t even worry about trying to transfer 100% of your book don’t even think about it right it doesn’t it doesn’t really matter what matters is at the end of the day are you better off financially than you were before you before you left and I think that math is relatively easy when I talk to recruits and we’re talking to people I’m like basically if you can get to 65% of your Revenue you’re better off than where you are today and most people look at that as a pretty easy hurdle to get over and I think that that is a re you know especially over a longer period of time that is a very realistic hurdle to get over versus saying well if you you got to get 90% well gosh 90% is hard to get to you know you may you’ll eventually get there with growth but but if but you don’t have to you know that bar that’s not where the bar is and so I really encourage advisers to really get like get into the numbers and really think about it and and think about okay like by the time we left Cory because of the resources and the team we had to build we were taking home about 37% of our of our revenue of our Top Line because we had to pay overrides and we had to pay you know you know people on the team you adding people to to create these resources and so you know that’s that’s a huge difference so now every new dollar that comes in is 60% right that’s a big difference you know and so even if you don’t you know maybe maybe the the the revenue is not you know exactly where you want it to be right out of the gate it’s it’s the long term that is is the you know is the game and that and long term could be your transition out like Angie was saying you know you’re selling at a market rate into you know at at a capital gain that’s three to four times your your trailing 12 versus one to one and a half times if you transfer it inside of a wirehouse and you’re transferring that at ordinary income versus capital gain or you’re talking about a younger adviser with years ahead of them of growing and building assets where they’re getting a 60% payout you know and and that’s you know versus 40 you know so it’s it’s you got to really think through the numbers both in the short term and the long term as you’re thinking through these these things because if you really lay it out that way the long term is so much better and I’ve done lots and lots of projections for people with with that and I can and I can you know talk them through the numbers because it you know I think a lot of people get scared off by that part of it right they’re like oh gosh like I don’t know that all my clients are going to follow me well you don’t need all your clients to follow you you need to get to critical mass and then you can grow from there and Jordan’s gonna talk numbers I’m gonna talk quality of life okay quality of life is tremendous and we had we had a a a good career at wov and Wells Fargo up until a point but the quality of life and the people we’re working with and our clients and our decisions that we’re allowed to make and the flexibility is um beyond what I ever could have dreamed I mean to be quite honest with you and I say that as a very loyal human being otherwise I wouldn’t have probably been there 34 years um but it it’s it’s exceeded everything I could have ever thought about and I think that’ll continue y one other thing too just on that quality of life component you talked about it before we got on the on the zoom uh is um no one’s ever going to walk in until you’re fired here right so you know there’s there’s things about being at Big firms that that happen they they’re unfortunate they’re they’re they’re rare they’re hopefully it doesn’t happen to you but it things happen you know and um you know at a at a place like this where you have more control it it’s it’s it’s just different and so I think that there’s a relaxation that comes with that and I think clients and Prospects and business you know cois they feel that right they feel your excitement about the business they feel your relaxation hey this is the last place I’m ever going to be right you can you can look somebody in the eye you can tell them that and that’s just really I think refreshing um you know for for advisers I love it and I’ve shared all of the same feelings when I’ve you know launched my own business it’s just so great to be able to be left alone to do with what you feel is right for your clients every day you know without all the restrictions and and red tape there’s there there’s nothing better you got it absolutely I appreciate yall coming on so much um it’s it’s great to see your growth I’m hearing a lot of Buzz locally in Charlotte and uh I live 20 minutes away so I I I get to see your growth firsthand I I really really appreciate the time thank thank youy appreciate it absolutely have a great day take care
