[quote=Indyone] I'm not saying that LPL has no waste in their cost structure, but I feel like I have A LOT more control over wasteful spending than I did before, vs. having expenses just forced upon me. [/quote]

Nothing wrong with that, but that's not at all what I was addressing. ALL I ADDRESSED was the observation that LPL can stay in the black while only charging 10-20% of the production of 100k producers.

They don't have the business model banks/wires have, they (LPL) count on YOU picking up all the other costs of doing business, and leave to YOU questions like staffing levels, compliance, legal exposure, office level appointment, advertising, etc.. Of course you can choose to do those things at a lower cost level than banks/wires.

[quote=Bobby Hull] Mike, your harping on provisions is laughable. What do we need that is so expensive? I need a phone and an office. All other costs are variable, driven by revenues. [/quote]

You can decide those "provisions" levels. You can use Class A office space and have an assistant or not, you can have staff legal counsel or not, you can do all the required compliance work or hire someone. If all you personally need is a phone and an office (of indeterminate level and location) good for you. I’m not trying to make judgments about what YOU or anyone else “needs”. For all I care you can have the Glengarry Glen Ross

Office appointment level and location or you can have marble and oak on the town’s most prestigious corner. It’s doesn’t matter to me one bit what you select.

OTOH, I’m also not much concerned about what YOU think others in the business “need”.

Whoa, Mike! Relax!



The point being made is simply that the indy firms have a different cost

structure. For example, office space, to the traditional firm, must be paid

for whether it’s New York or Olatha, Kansas. There is no such thing as

controlling rents in any meaningful sense. To RayJay or LPL however, that’s

up to the individual and not corporate.

[quote=mikebutler222]

[quote=Bobby Hull] Mike, your harping on provisions is laughable. What do we need that is so expensive? I need a phone and an office. All other costs are variable, driven by revenues. [/quote]

You can decide those "provisions" levels. You can use Class A office space and have an assistant or not, you can have staff legal counsel or not, you can do all the required compliance work or hire someone. If all you personally need is a phone and an office (of indeterminate level and location) good for you. I’m not trying to make judgments about what YOU or anyone else “needs”. For all I care you can have the Glengarry Glen Ross

Office appointment level and location or you can have marble and oak on the town’s most prestigious corner. It’s doesn’t matter to me one bit what you select.

OTOH, I’m also not much concerned about what YOU think others in the business “need”.

[/quote]

I pay the market rate for my office space. You pay six figures for yours.

I look at this way…As a $500k producer in a wirehouse I lose $300k to my firm and in return I get…branding, 1 staff member shared by 3-4 other advisors, Class A office space, their proprietary research and product teams, and whatever else.  A lot of those things may or may not benefit or help what I am doing locally but that money is spent w/o any of my input.  As an indy, I can take that $300k and determine how best to spend it and will do so in areas that will directly impact what I am doing locally.  For me, this is what has been so great about being independent.  Reality is, I spend nothing near that $300k to get what I would receive at the wirehouse.

[quote=csmelnix]I look at this way....As a $500k producer in a wirehouse I lose $300k to my firm and in return I get...branding, 1 staff member shared by 3-4 other advisors, Class A office space, their proprietary research and product teams, and whatever else.  A lot of those things may or may not benefit or help what I am doing locally but that money is spent w/o any of my input.  As an indy, I can take that $300k and determine how best to spend it and will do so in areas that will directly impact what I am doing locally.  For me, this is what has been so great about being independent.  Reality is, I spend nothing near that $300k to get what I would receive at the wirehouse.[/quote]

You think like an entrepreneur and Mike thinks like an employee.

[quote=Bobby Hull]

You think like an entrepreneur and Mike thinks like an employee.

[/quote]

 And your evidence for that would be.....?

[quote=Starka]Whoa, Mike! Relax!

The point being made is simply that the indy firms have a different cost
structure.  [/quote]

"Whoa"?  The "point" you address above is exactly what I've been saying from jump street. <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I find it amazing how the simple issue I addressed, how LPL can stay in the black taking only 10-20% of a 100k producer's gross has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that LPL ONLY provides to the rep a small part of what’s required to run a business has been twisted as if I've passed some sort of judgment on being Indy. These are two completely different issues.

It’s as if we were talking about restaurants and there was a restaurant business channel, let’s call it “channel A” that offered the prospective chef a turn-key deal, but charged 50% of the gross and would only offer their services to chefs whose restaurants who grossed over X amount. Over in  “channel B” they only take 20% of the gross and will work with restaurants grossing far less, but the costs of rent, staffing, equipment and administration were all left to the chef.  The fact that “channel A” takes more of the gross isn’t a sign of “greed” (although I acknowledge there may be greed as well in the mix) versus Channel B, since they’re not offering the chef the same package. Could it be any simpler?

Given the leap by so many to defend the Indy business model, which I never challenged, makes me wonder if I’ve struck a nerve.

[quote=csmelnix] Reality is, I spend nothing near that $300k to get what I would receive at the wirehouse.[/quote]

If we're going to change the subject (as so many here seem to want to) about what's in it for reps in the two competeing business models, I'd say I've yet to see an Indy who spends the difference on an apples to apples equal of what he or she left behind at a wire. They've spent what they've wanted to of the difference on what they want of what they've left behind and at different levels or manners than what they had.

[quote=Bobby Hull][quote=mikebutler222]

[quote=Bobby Hull] Mike, your harping on provisions is laughable. What do we need that is so expensive? I need a phone and an office. All other costs are variable, driven by revenues. [/quote]

You can decide those "provisions" levels. You can use Class A office space and have an assistant or not, you can have staff legal counsel or not, you can do all the required compliance work or hire someone. If all you personally need is a phone and an office (of indeterminate level and location) good for you. I’m not trying to make judgments about what YOU or anyone else “needs”. For all I care you can have the Glengarry Glen Ross

Office appointment level and location or you can have marble and oak on the town’s most prestigious corner. It’s doesn’t matter to me one bit what you select.

OTOH, I’m also not much concerned about what YOU think others in the business “need”.

[/quote]

I pay the market rate for my office space. You pay six figures for yours.

[/quote]

Yeah, that's it, we have equal office space, staffing levels, etc.....

[quote=mikebutler222][quote=Bobby Hull]

You think like an entrepreneur and Mike thinks like an employee.

[/quote]

 And your evidence for that would be.....?

[/quote]

Your own words.

[quote=Bobby Hull][quote=mikebutler222][quote=Bobby Hull]

You think like an entrepreneur and Mike thinks like an employee.

[/quote]

 And your evidence for that would be.....?

[/quote]

Your own words.

[/quote]

Yeah, it was obvious from jump street you couldn't answer that....

[quote=mikebutler222][quote=Bobby Hull][quote=mikebutler222]

[quote=Bobby Hull] Mike, your harping on provisions is laughable. What do we need that is so expensive? I need a phone and an office. All other costs are variable, driven by revenues. [/quote]

You can decide those "provisions" levels. You can use Class A office space and have an assistant or not, you can have staff legal counsel or not, you can do all the required compliance work or hire someone. If all you personally need is a phone and an office (of indeterminate level and location) good for you. I’m not trying to make judgments about what YOU or anyone else “needs”. For all I care you can have the Glengarry Glen Ross

Office appointment level and location or you can have marble and oak on the town’s most prestigious corner. It’s doesn’t matter to me one bit what you select.

OTOH, I’m also not much concerned about what YOU think others in the business “need”.

[/quote]

I pay the market rate for my office space. You pay six figures for yours.

[/quote]

Yeah, that's it, we have equal office space, staffing levels, etc.....

[/quote]

No. We don't have equal office space. I have a large office and you don't. I have a contact at the clearing firm who handles any back office issue that I may have. She costs me nothing. I have a girl who comes in and bangs out paperwork for me at $15/hour. I have a cold caller who is compensated solely on a per appointment basis. No appointments, no money.

[quote=Bobby Hull][quote=mikebutler222][quote=Bobby Hull][quote=mikebutler222]

[quote=Bobby Hull] Mike, your harping on provisions is laughable. What do we need that is so expensive? I need a phone and an office. All other costs are variable, driven by revenues. [/quote]

You can decide those "provisions" levels. You can use Class A office space and have an assistant or not, you can have staff legal counsel or not, you can do all the required compliance work or hire someone. If all you personally need is a phone and an office (of indeterminate level and location) good for you. I’m not trying to make judgments about what YOU or anyone else “needs”. For all I care you can have the Glengarry Glen Ross

Office appointment level and location or you can have marble and oak on the town’s most prestigious corner. It’s doesn’t matter to me one bit what you select.

OTOH, I’m also not much concerned about what YOU think others in the business “need”.

[/quote]

I pay the market rate for my office space. You pay six figures for yours.

[/quote]

Yeah, that's it, we have equal office space, staffing levels, etc.....

[/quote]

No. We don't have equal office space. I have a large office and you don't. [/quote]

Thanks for reminding me how talking with you is so often like arguing with a pig.....

Here's a little hint for you, though, same advice I gave someone here recently who was sure that being on a different side than him on an investment management issue meant you were less ethical than he is. You make a fool of yourself when you assume so much.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

No one who “thinks like an employee” makes it in this business, period. Clearly an Indy can’t, but even someone at a wirehouse can’t. You have to look at your book (and it is your book, even if a wirehouse wants to wrestle with you for it if/when you leave them) as your business. At a wirehouse it may be more of a franchise business, but it’s a business all the same. Who you turn from prospect to client, where you fish for clients, what approach you take to managing assets, how you organize your approach to it, how much of it you do, how much time you devote to it, those are all decisions up to you, the business owner.

Whether you chose to run as a franchise or take on the additional tasks to put your own name out front is another matter all together. But one thing you shouldn’t assume is that someone who hasn’t taken the route you have hasn’t considered it, and you shouldn’t assume you know the reasons why they rejected it.

[quote=mikebutler222][quote=Bobby Hull][quote=mikebutler222][quote=Bobby Hull][quote=mikebutler222]

[quote=Bobby Hull] Mike, your harping on provisions is laughable. What do we need that is so expensive? I need a phone and an office. All other costs are variable, driven by revenues. [/quote]

You can decide those "provisions" levels. You can use Class A office space and have an assistant or not, you can have staff legal counsel or not, you can do all the required compliance work or hire someone. If all you personally need is a phone and an office (of indeterminate level and location) good for you. I’m not trying to make judgments about what YOU or anyone else “needs”. For all I care you can have the Glengarry Glen Ross

Office appointment level and location or you can have marble and oak on the town’s most prestigious corner. It’s doesn’t matter to me one bit what you select.

OTOH, I’m also not much concerned about what YOU think others in the business “need”.

[/quote]

I pay the market rate for my office space. You pay six figures for yours.

[/quote]

Yeah, that's it, we have equal office space, staffing levels, etc.....

[/quote]

No. We don't have equal office space. I have a large office and you don't. [/quote]

Thanks for reminding me how talking with you is so often like arguing with a pig.....

Here's a little hint for you, though, same advice I gave someone here recently who was sure that being on a different side than him on an investment management issue meant you were less ethical than he is. You make a fool of yourself when you assume so much.<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

No one who “thinks like an employee” makes it in this business, period. Clearly an Indy can’t, but even someone at a wirehouse can’t. You have to look at your book (and it is your book, even if a wirehouse wants to wrestle with you for it if/when you leave them) as your business. At a wirehouse it may be more of a franchise business, but it’s a business all the same. Who you turn from prospect to client, where you fish for clients, what approach you take to managing assets, how you organize your approach to it, how much of it you do, how much time you devote to it, those are all decisions up to you, the business owner.

Whether you chose to run as a franchise or take on the additional tasks to put your own name out front is another matter all together. But one thing you shouldn’t assume is that someone who hasn’t taken the route you have hasn’t considered it, and you shouldn’t assume you know the reasons why they rejected it.

[/quote]

I would discourage you from talking about your career path, given your history.

[quote=Bobby Hull]

I would discourage you from talking about your career path, given your history.

[/quote]

Oh, golly, the pixels on my monitor just tried to intimidate me. It’s as if they (that’s the pixels) know something that I’m ashamed of and fear they (again, since you’re not the sharpest knife in the drawer) might openly discuss. Oh, the howaw….<?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

I don’t know what power you think you have on this front, little fella’, but I can assure it it isn’t anything like what you think.  You really are the sort of thing people scrape off the bottom of their shoes after they walk their dog...

If you’re are grossing under 300k at BAC, and don’t have 50% in fee based, you are dead in the water. Wait till they increase the 350k requirement to 375 0r 400k next year.

Agreed, scares the sh*te out of me. at some point i thinkt they let go of sub 500 guys then put people on salary + bonus. JPM did that when they bot H&Q back in 99.

Bac is not a good place to be right now. They are the laughing stock of the wholesaler community.

disagree.

work your managed money, do some syndicate, drill into your book for other assets and you should be fine.

Its the annuity slingers that are having a hard time.